Issue - meetings

Report FSD22012

The Committee considered a report setting out the draft Adult Care and Health Portfolio Budget for 2022/23, which incorporated future cost pressures, planned mitigation measures and savings from transformation and other budget options which were reported to the Council’s Executive on 12^th January 2022. Members were requested to provide their comments on the proposed savings and identify any further action to be taken to reduce cost pressures facing the Local Authority over the next four years.

It was noted that the text in variation note 7 in Appendix 1 of the Adult Care and Health Portfolio Draft Budget 2022/23 report (Item 9b, agenda page 53) should read as follows:

7. Increase uptake of the Shared Lives service (Cr £310k) – Shared Lives is a cost effective service and the further expansion of the scheme will both help to mitigate cost pressures and care for service users in a supportive setting where a high level of independence is maintained.

The Chairman highlighted that the current Adult Care and Health Portfolio budget included Phase 1 and Phase 2 Transformation Savings, totalling £1.2m per annum, however significant cost pressures remained. With regards to a query on mitigation, the Head of Finance for Adults, Health and Housing noted that there were increases, including £3.3m of inflationary increases, within the draft budget and a total of £7.1m of growth for the service budget. This totalled £10.4m, which was an increase of 13% on the 2021/22 budget. A summary of mitigations was provided in the table on page 52 of the agenda pack. This totalled £3.5m, however it was noted that the top two items (‘Use of iBCF from previous years to mitigate growth’ and ‘Allocation of unringfenced Covid funding from Reserves’) did not require any action as grant funding had already been received. The Test and Trace Public Health grant was also included, and with the savings listed under the ‘Real Changes’ section there was just under £1m of savings to be delivered. Most of this had been identified, and work was ongoing to ensure that mitigations within Public Health were identified as soon as possible.

A Member questioned how a savings target of £200k within Public Health could be justified. It was highlighted that the Public Health team had done an incredible job throughout the pandemic, and it was considered that more money should be spent within this area, rather than targets for savings being set. The Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Health advised that some of the Public Health savings identified related to efficiencies within the commissioning of sexual health programmes. Members were reassured that the mandatory responsibilities within Public Health were being maintained and future priorities would be identified through the Health and Wellbeing Board and Joint Strategic Needs Assessments (JSNA).

In response to questions, the Director of Adult Social Care said that a piece of work was being undertaken looking at how the transition between young people and adult placements could be best managed, and a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58