Minutes:
Mr Doug Patterson, the Chief Executive, attended the meeting to update the Committee on his work and answer questions. He summarised the current position on a number of issues, including the budget, integration of health and social care and local terms and conditions for staff.
Mr Patterson indicated that he was confident that the projected overspends in the current year would be dealt with, and offered to comment further on this when the Committee considered the Executive’s Budget Monitoring report (minute 373 below). The budget gap for 2014/15 was projected to be between £4m and £8m, with a further £20m to be found in 2015/16 leading to an eventual reduction in budget in the region of £60m (from about £190m to about £130m.) Work was continuing on the twin strands of baseline reviews and commissioning, where a number of services were under active consideration.
The integration of health and social care services was a key issue and undoubtedly the correct way to go, building on the joint commissioning that had already taken place. Mr Patterson confirmed that recent announcements of funding for integration did not involve any new or additional money and the Department of Health would still need to approve the Council’s health spending plans. Any movement towards more integration or community budgets would have opportunities for efficiencies, but there would also be some very difficult issues to overcome and a common vision across local public sector agencies would be needed.
The move towards local terms and conditions was now largely completed, with only 27 staff not having signed the new contract, and 14 staff going to Employment Tribunal. The final deadline was 15th September 2013.
The Chairman stated that progress on commissioning needed to be faster; Mr Patterson accepted this but responded that five major services were now being considered – Customer Services, HR Transactional Services, Adult Social Care, Regulatory Services and Facilities and Property Management. Around £30m had already been taken out of the Council’s budget in the previous two or three years. Councillor Nicholas Bennett suggested that as budgets declined the burden on Councils was actually being increased through new legislation and “activist” judges – Mr Patterson confirmed that local MPs were being briefed and agreed that issues such as people with no recourse to public funds, changes to youth remand funding, and homelessness and welfare reforms were causing budget pressures in Care Services.
Councillor Pauline Tunnicliffe reported that Care Services PDS Committee had received reports of wastage in the community equipment budget, where expensive equipment had not always been retrieved and re-used and health partners were projected to overspend by a considerable margin. Mr Patterson commented that the Council’s greater financial rigour and democratic influence would help to prevent these issues as integration between health and social care progressed.
Councillor Neil Reddin raised the issue of inflationary pressures building up in the economy, and the effect of this on contracts. Members were informed that RPIX had been used for Council contracts in the past, but CPI was normally used now.
Councillor Will Harmer asked whether the proposed outsourcing of Customer Services to Liberata would mean that the contract would restrict the Council’s opportunities to reduce services. It was confirmed that it would be possible to vary the contract if necessary.
Councillor Russell Mellor asked whether mergers with other boroughs were likely. In response, Mr Patterson referred to the tri-borough arrangements in London, and to questions about the size of district councils.
Councillor William Huntington-Thresher asked whether the Council could expect Government funding to address the pressure for secondary school places in the future, and where the additional land required could be found. The Council did have the demographic information available to carry out the planning required, and Councillor Bennett reported that the Primary Places Working Group had met earlier that week and made a series of recommendations, and, renamed as the School Places Working Group, would continue to address these issues.
The Committee emphasised that to tackle the budget reductions it was necessary to have a strategic plan, to face the difficult decisions about services that might need to be withdrawn and to take prompt action. Officers responded that although it might appear that progress was slow, considerable work had been done to understand the Council’s activity.