Agenda item

Report FSD23047

The Committee considered a report providing the budget monitoring position

for 2023/24 for the Adult Care and Health Portfolio, based on activity up to the

end of July 2023.

The Head of Finance for Adults, Health and Housing advised that there were significant pressures, particularly across packages and placements budgets, including hospital discharge. It was noted that this could be mitigated by monies received from the Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund and discharge funding. At this early stage in the financial year an overspend of £450k was currently projected.

In response to questions regarding the Learning Disabilities (LD) underspend, the Head of Finance for Adults, Health and Housing said that this figure was based upon the current level of client numbers and costs. It was anticipated that the underspend would reduce as clients came into the service throughout the year. The Director of Adult Social Care advised that further growth was expected as young people transitioned into adulthood, however robust figures were not yet available. It was noted that this was an area of the budget where some growth had been built in. With regards to the LD/Autism Funding from the South East London ICB, the Director of Adult Social Care advised that a report would be presented later in the meeting – this referred to new money that had just been drawn down, but not yet spent.

In response to questions in relation to areas of overspend, the Director of Adult Social Care said that the budget was built based on the target number of residential placements. As discussed at previous Committee meetings, the Local Authority was looking to reduce the reliance on residential care – the figures provided were below what had been expected which demonstrated success in not placing people into residential care. However, this came at a cost as those who were going into residential care had more complex needs and care homes were charging the Local Authority a higher rate. At the last meeting it had been highlighted that, following the Fair Cost of Care work, there was the expectation from providers that the Council would meet this, which was building pressure into the budget. With regards to domiciliary care, the overspend was related to both costs and activity. More people were being supported at home, specifically people discharged from hospital, which created a significant pressure on the social care budget as people had more complex needs. It was noted that the Local Authority had been looking to increase the number of people in receipt of direct payments over a number of years and the budget just needed to be realigned to reflect current activity.

RESOLVED that the Portfolio Holder for Adult Care and Health be recommended to:

i.)  Note the projected overspend of £450k on controllable expenditure based on information as at July 2023;

ii.)  Agree the release of amounts carried forward from 2022/23 as set out in section 3.5 of the report; and,

iii.)  Recommend that Executive agree the release of funds from the Central Contingency as set out in section 3.6 of the report.