Agenda item

Report CEF20043

The report considered the Portfolio Holder’s Draft 2021/22 Budget which incorporated future cost pressures and initial draft budget saving options which had previously been reported to Executive on 13^th January 2021. Members were requested to consider the initial draft budget being proposed and also identify any further action that might be taken to reduce cost pressures facing the Council over the next four years.

The views of each PDS Committee would be reported back to the next meeting of the Executive, prior to the Executive making recommendations to Council on 2021/22 Council Tax levels.  There were still outstanding issues and areas of uncertainty remaining. Any further updates would be included in the 2021/22 Council Tax report to the next meeting of the Executive.

The Head of Children’s Services Finance provided an overview of the report explaining that the overall Council budget was balanced for 2021/22 but that there was a deficit increasing into future years.  The report set out the growth and mitigation that would be put in place.  Transformation savings that were being undertaken by the Children, Education and Families Portfolio were also outlined in the report.  The Sub-Committee noted that there was a challenging financial backdrop and as a Local Authority Bromley was as economical and efficient as possible.

The Sub-Committee noted that prior to the meeting benchmarking data for Children’s Social Care Services across London had been circulated to Members of the Sub-Committee.  It was also noted that the Budget Task and Finish Group had carefully reviewed the benchmarking data.

A Member highlighted that the benchmarking data had been discussed at length at the Task and Finish Group.  Having considered the additional benchmarking data that had been provided, and the transformational savings identified by the Department, and the historic overspends on the Portfolio budget, the Task and Finish Group had felt that it would be appropriate to make a recommendation that there was a case to be made for a specific contingency for the Children, Education and Families Portfolio budget.  The purpose of the contingency would be to recognise that there could be unforeseen cases that could cost a lot of money and significantly impact on the budget.

The Chairman highlighted that the report needed to be considered in the context of the services being provided to children and families.  A budget report did not and could not reflect many of the additional services provided by Bromley that may not be provided by other boroughs, such as Staying Put and the support put in place for Care Leavers.  Not all Boroughs provided the services being provided by Bromley which enabled children and young people to have better lives and come out of the care system self-motivated.  In Bromley it was not simply a matter of looking at the bottom line, there was always a balance of quality against cost and this was something Bromley did very well.  Members discussed the benefits of the Caseload Promise which had delivered stability within the Children’s Social Care workforce and reduce the Local Authority’s dependence on costly agency staff.

The Head of Children’s Services Finance explained that there was sufficient money in the 2021/22 budget to fund the predicted demands that would be placed on the Service in 2021/22.  The key issue was that it was a volatile budget and there could be unplanned costly demands that would result of overspends.  Central contingencies were available that could be drawn down, but this would require an Executive decision.  Evidence as to why a draw down from the central contingency was required would have to be provided and the Department would have to demonstrate that the drawn down was the result of unforeseen circumstances rather than not achieving savings.

The Director of Children’s Services highlighted that there had been a number of invest to save initiatives around early intervention and prevention.  The Sub-Committee noted that there had been a great deal of work around demand management and there was a good understanding of the future demands that could be placed on the Service.  However, there would always be costly cases that would significantly impact the budget and it was likely that the Covid pandemic would worsen the situation in the future.

The Sub-Committee stressed the importance of all Members of the Council understanding the demand-led nature of the Service and the volatility of the budget.  The Chairman suggested that it would be helpful to highlight the considerable savings that had been made from the move away from agency staff.  The result of this was that more money was spent on children and young people rather than recruitment and had delivered significant savings for the Local Authority.

Members noted that as a result of its improvement journey, Bromley had a flat staffing structure which provided line of sight for managers but might offer limited opportunities for promotion.  However, in terms of staff recruitment and retention Bromley offered excellent training and an attractive recruitment package.  Issues could arise when Local Authorities in improvement offered increased fees and agencies contacted workers direct. As an example  one local authority outside London offered a  significant financial “golden hello” to staff and this made it almost impossible to compete.  There was a Memorandum of Understanding across London of which Bromley was part and there was currently work underway across London to ensure a level playing field in terms of recruitment.  A question was asked that a neighbouring authority was losing staff and could we pick up staff The Director of Children’s Services stressed the importance of having the right people in place to maintain the high standards that had now been achieved.  Members of the Sub-Committee also recognised the importance of open dialogue with staff, ensuring that staff felt valued and had a positive working environment.

The Sub-Committee agreed that it would be helpful for the benchmarking data to be shared with Members across the Council.  This data demonstrated that Bromley’s costs in relation to Children’s Social Care were in line with the London average.  Members recognised however that the benchmarking data did not provide the Bromley context whereby a number of excellent value additional services were provided for the benefit of children and young people, services which ultimately reduced the costs to the Council.  It was therefore suggested that a covering report should be provided.  This report would need to highlight the volatility of the Children, Education and Families Portfolio budget and that fact that there were a number of costs that were not controllable.  This could then be the start of developing the evidence base that would be needed in the event that a drawdown from the central contingency was required.

RESOLVED: That the Chairman of the PDS Committee may submit a report outlining the volatility of the Children, Education and Families Portfolio Budget and the transformation savings to PDS and the option of a further Children Families and Education Sub-Committee for 2021/22.