Agenda item

Report CSD16156

 

The Committee scrutinised the following reports on the Part 1 agenda for the Executive’s meeting on 30^th November 2016.

 

(5)  Budget Monitoring 2016/17

Report FSD16069

 

The Committee considered the second Budget Monitoring report for 2016/17, which was based on expenditure and activity levels up to the end of September 2016. The report highlighted significant variations which would impact on future years and early warnings that would have an impact on the final year end position. A net overspend on services of £7,377k was forecast.

 

The Committee discussed the need for better modelling of future demand. The Council’s approach was based on a four year financial forecast, converting projections of demand into expected levels of activity and taking measures to mitigate the anticipated pressures. Growth proposals were only considered once all mitigation measures had been investigated by the service, and provision was made for risk and uncertainty.

 

The Committee commented on the following issues –

 

(a) SEN Transport

 

The main cost pressure in the Education Portfolio was SEN Transport services with a projected overspend of £1.2m; the Committee noted that there was also a report on the Executive’s agenda on the procurement of an additional Framework SEN Transport contract. Modelling of future demand was becoming much more critical, and specific work was being carried out by the Director of Commissioning with senior managers to understand what was driving the pressures and how services needed to be adapted and markets developed. One factor was that the cost of transport exceeded the cost of the placements in around half of cases, so greater account needed to be taken of this. However, there was a difficult balance to be found between minimising costs and maintaining the Council’s statutory duties by meeting the needs of specific children for very specialist provision. Some Councillors argued for better utilisation of vehicles (including buses used for adult clients) and better coordination of routes, including increased cooperation with other authorities.  It was suggested that removing the branding of vehicles might help with this, and that contractors should have a role in proposing innovation. 

 

The introduction of a National Funding Formula for education would have an impact by reducing flexibility and funding for high needs would go down by about £2m, requiring SEN placements to be funded through Council Tax for the first time. A Member commented that many schools were not able to recover the full cost of 1:1 provision and that in future academies might not be able to continue with this. 

 

Members asked for an update on progress in completing the new Education Health and Care Plans for each child. This was a major task and the Council had three years to complete the programme; it was understood that this was on target. These comprehensive plans would make it easier to discuss the overall needs of children with parents.  It was confirmed that where substantial compensation payments had been made to families to provide for the needs of individual children this could not be taken into account in providing services and transport.

 

Due to the capacity and cost issues identified with the current SEN transport framework an additional framework was proposed to procure additional providers. There was some concern that lower cost providers were turning down routes, leading to a reliance on more expensive providers – it was difficult to predict whether this would continue with the new framework. Continued effort through commissioning was required, and the Chairman indicated that if additional investment would provide savings members would support this.

 

(b) Adult Social Care

 

An overspend of £1.8m was projected in the report for Adult Social Care, but officers anticipated that the final figure would be reduced to £1.3m by the end of the financial year. The background to this was that £8m had been removed from this budget for 2016/17; this was a major challenge, and most of this was being achieved, but some savings were taking longer to implement. This was being done without having a significant adverse impact on service users, and contingencies were available. Members commented that budgets had to be realistic and emphasised that contingencies were intended to be for unforeseen issues and it was noted that earmarking reserves against specific budgets might lead to complacency. The Chairman commented that the previous budget monitoring report had not indicated that there was a problem, and that Members needed assurance that issues would be identified early and that there would be greater predictability in budgeting. 

 

(c) Housing

 

The number of new Homelessness clients had increased, and there was an increased usage of non-self-contained accommodation outside London. Housing outside London was usually cheaper, but benefits were also lower. A Member asked about the implications for the Mears scheme – this was affected by the benefits cap but this had been taken into account within the financial model. 

 

Members noted that there was a projected overspend of £75k at one of the Traveller sites due to high usage of utilities; a project to install meters would address this, but there had been some difficulties and this had been delayed. 

 

(d) Children’s Social Care

 

An overspend of £3,915k was projected in children’s social care. The main issues were –

 

(i) Placement costs - Demand was increasing, but work was being carried out on better commissioning, thresholds and improved recovery of money due from the Clinical Commissioning Group.

 

(ii) Leaving Care – Ofsted had criticised the practice of placing young people leaving care into bed and breakfast accommodation; this was being addressed, but there were increased costs.

 

(iii) Staffing costs across the Division - Officers were trying to balance recruitment to key posts whilst holding some posts vacant. Locums were more expensive but did not necessarily provide better quality. Great efforts were being made to encourage locums to take up permanent posts. 

 

(iv) Court ordered Care Proceedings – Residential assessment placements ordered by the courts had increased substantially. The budget assumed an average of 1.8 placements per week, but actual levels were around 8.6 per week.  This was largely beyond the Council’s control, but efforts were being made to improve relationships with the courts. The general view was that these placements were rarely successful in avoiding the need for children to be placed in care. 

 

It was also noted that Legal Services had experienced a substantial increase in child care cases, and the money set aside for instructing counsel was almost all used up. 

 

(e) Parking Enforcement

 

A Member asked whether the deficit on parking enforcement income would result in a penalty on the contractor. While default notices could be issued, the contractor had some flexibility over the year to recover the money.

 

(f) Autumn Budget Statement

 

The Director of Finance reported that a rise in the national Living Wage from £7.20 to £7.50 per hour had been announced in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement. This could have an effect on Direct Payments, although there was also a decrease in corporation tax which could absorb costs. Otherwise, there was little in the Statement that would assist local authority budgets – the Government’s budget deficit was now expected to continue beyond 2021/22 and austerity would have to continue. Further details were anticipated over the next few weeks. One possible effect of the increase in business rates was that as well as businesses moving further out from outer London to reduce costs, boroughs such as Bromley might benefit from businesses being displaced from central London.   

 

RESOLVED that the recommendations to the Executive be supported, with the additional comment that the Committee expects the incoming Executive Director of Education, Care and Health Services to bring predictability and stability to social care budgets.

 

 

 

 

(6) Capital Programme Monitoring – 2^nd Quarter 2016/17

Report FSD16080

 

The Committee scrutinised the current position on capital expenditure and receipts following the second quarter of 2016/17 and the proposed revised Capital programme. The report included a recommendation for Council to agree the inclusion of a scheme for acquiring land at Cornwall Drive (the former Waste4fuel site) in the Capital Programme with a budget of £2,709m. This was the total cost of the scheme, which was largely funded by the Environment Agency; the Council’s contribution was £300k.

 

Councillors David Livett and Judi Ellis commented on the Wate4Fuel site as ward councillors.  Councillor Livett, while pleased that the site was now being cleared, considered that the problem had arisen due to the Environment Agency’s failures and it was unreasonable for the Council to have to pay anything. Councillor Ellis stated that the proposal represented a good solution to ensure that the existing problems were addressed and the site was protected for the future. 

 

RESOLVED that the recommendations to the Executive be supported.

 

(7) Council Tax Support/Reduction Scheme 2017/18

Report FSD16070

 

The report set out the results of the public consultation exercise on the proposed Council Tax Support Scheme for 2017/18. As well as alerts sent through the Council’s online portal, 2,000 people had been written to – 500 people of working age in receipt of the reduction, 500 of pensionable age receiving the reduction, and 1,000 people who were not in receipt of the reduction. 960 responses had been received, including from Age Concern, Chislehurst Debt Advice Service and Penge Church Housing.

 

Members raised concerns about the difficulty of collecting the 25% payment given cuts to welfare benefits, and the viability of trying to collect small amounts from the least well-off residents. It was confirmed that despite the 3.99% rise in Council Tax, the collection rate for 2017/18 was only very slightly down on 2015/16, and the actual amount collected was higher than at this point a year ago. The Council did make every effort to ensure that people stayed in their tenancies, including using discretionary payments.

 

A Member recommended that the Council should now reconsider applying the 50% premium to empty properties. Another Member commented that some boroughs assumed that self-employed people were working full-time, and that the Council should consider specifying that full-time meant at least 35 hours per week at the Living Wage. 

 

RESOLVED that the recommendations to the Executive be supported.

 

 

 

(8) Report on Progress in Implementing the Children’s Service Improvement Plan 

 

It was noted that this report was “to follow” and had not yet been published. The Chairman commented that as there had been no opportunity for scrutiny the report should not be considered by the Executive. 

 

(13) Drawdown of Section 75 funding for the Development and Implementation of the Bromley Out of Hospital Strategy

Report CS17072

 

The report recommended that Council approve the release of £7m from earmarked reserves over 2016/17 and 2017/18 to provide funding requested by Bromley Clinical Commissioning Group to provide non-recurrent investment into the development of the Bromley out of hospital programme. 

 

RESOLVED that the recommendations to the Executive be supported.

 

(14) Special Educational Needs Transport: Authorisation to Proceed to Procurement for Framework Transport Contract

Report ED17022

 

Issues relating to this report were considered under the Budget Monitoring report.

 

RESOLVED that the recommendations to the Executive be supported.