Minutes:
Doug Patterson, Chief Executive, attended the meeting to update the Committee and answer questions. He began by outlining progress on three major issues –
(i) Integration of Health and Social Care – Budgets were being transferred to the Council and there were likely to be more joint commissioning posts at senior levels. In the short term, the CCG faced challenges overcoming the problems at the Princess Royal University Hospital (a CQL announcement was expected the next day), while other partners such as the Police were also undergoing major change.
(ii) Local terms and conditions – the Employment Tribunal for the remaining staff who had rejected local terms was in June. Staffing numbers (excluding schools) had reduced from around 3,000 to 2,000.
(iii) Budget Monitoring – The overspends predicted in September when the Chief Executive had last appeared before the Committee had been addressed and a small underspend was predicted for 2013/14.
Mr Patterson reported that officers were still working on the information Cllr Nicholas Bennett had requested on the cost of new burdens – Councillor Bennett urged that this information be made available quickly so that it could be used to lobby government.
A note was tabled setting out the staffing and budget positions overall and for each of the three Council departments. This formed the basis of the 2014/15 draft budget. The figures were –
Chief Executive’s Department: £44m/359 staff(318 fte)
Environment & Community Services £42m/443 staff/364 fte)
Education, Health & Care Services: £109m/1277 staff (1,027 fte)
TOTAL £195m/2,069 staff (1,710fte)
Performance was still good, despite the reduction in performance data collection and formal monitoring (CAA/CPA) and both money and staff were focussed on delivering Building a Better Bromley. A further £50m in budget reductions had to be found by 2017/18, but there was less and less scope for savings and there was a long list of variables. Officers were working to provide a framework of information, including baseline reviews and the commissioning programme, to allow Members take vital decisions.
The Chairman urged the Chief Executive to provide a timetable for addressing the long term budget issues facing the Council, and to have the Council ready to proceed immediately after the election. Mr Patterson stated that some savings were already being achieved through the commissioning programme (such as with the Customer Service Centre) and decisions were being lined up on other services. Considerable background research and soft market testing had been carried out, and intelligence built up for the crucial decisions ahead, but he emphasised again that services needed to be commissioned appropriately rather than just outsourced. It was suggested that the new Members needed to be given an overview of progress soon after the election.
On the future of the Education Service, the Chief Executive confirmed that the Interim Assistant Director was examining what sort of service and staff would be needed in future, and there would be a clearer direction soon. It was also confirmed that the Tackling Troubled Families initiative was being monitored by the Care Services PDS Committee. With a programme such as this it was unclear which partners would see the cash benefits, and these might not be apparent for many years.
Councillor Nicholas Bennett commented that the present PDS system was not effective enough at monitoring contracts and the delivery of Council objectives by third parties. Councillor Peter Fookes commented that local partnership working appeared to have come to a halt, other than with the health service. Mr Patterson stated that there were monthly meetings with senior representatives of local partner organisations to ensure that all were aligned to complementary objectives.
The Chairman thanked the Chief Executive for his update.