Agenda item

On 24 May 2010 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced £6.2 billion worth of Government savings from previously announced expenditure for the current financial year 2010/11.  The Secretary of State for Education announced on 16 June how the Department for Education would make its contribution to these savings through reductions to Area Based Grant and funding devolved from the Department to Local Authorities and other National agencies; the in?year reduction of Area Based Grants to Bromley Children and Young People Services is £1.42m.

The Portfolio Holder introduced a report making recommendations to Members on how to meet the £1.42m in?year budget reduction of CYP Area Based Grant and requesting authority to consult with staff as appropriate.

The Head of CYP Finance explained to the Committee that further update reports would be taken to Members as further information emerged.

Councillor Nicholas Bennett questioned whether the Department would be able to meet the required £1.4 million cuts as well as other costs associated with the cuts and reductions in staffing, such as redundancy costs.  The Member suggested that the Department should look to make saving of around £2 million in order to ensure that the required savings were made.  The Director CYP confirmed that only six weeks had elapsed since the DfE announcement of the cuts, officers were working to identify options for service reductions to achieve the necessary savings.  However, in addition to the cuts required by the Government the Department was also facing significant budget pressures in areas such as the recruitment and retention of social workers, children’s placement and SEN.   Every area of the Department’s work was being reviewed to see where savings could be made.  The Director stressed that Officers were doing their utmost to protect front line services but that it was inevitable that some service areas would be affected.  The Director also reported that she had been in consultation with the Chief Officers to see if there were grants available in any other areas that could be used to off-set aspects of the in-year grant cuts to support services to young people.

The Chairman asked how the cuts outlined in Appendix 2 of the report relating to school improvement would affect service delivery.  The Assistant Director (Learning and Achievement) reported that in the short term an impact assessment had not been undertaken but that the in-year affects of the DfE grant cuts would be staff reductions.  The Assistant Director (Learning and Achievement) provided assurances that retaining services for vulnerable schools and pupil groups would be the first priority.

Another Member asked if any savings could be realised through the abolition of the Comprehensive Area Assessment and this meant that previous levels of statistical analysis required by the last Government were no longer needed.

A Co-opted Member, supported by the Committee, congratulated Officers in the progress that had been made in progressing and managing the in-year grant cuts announced by the Government in such a short space of time.

RESOLVED that (1) the Children and Young People Portfolio Holder be recommended to approve the proposed strategy for delivering the £1.42m reduction in expenditure within CYP as a consequence of the Government’s announcement of in?year reduction in Area Based Grants for 2010/11; (2) the Children and Young People Portfolio Holder be recommended to note that consultation with any affected staff and the trade unions will be undertaken.  This is on the basis that if staff cannot be redeployed into other employment opportunities then the Council’s policy on the payment of redundancy payments will apply.