Agenda item

Report CEF23087

The report presented the provisional outturn position for the Children, Education and Families Portfolio for the 2023/24 financial year. 

The provisional outturn for the ‘controllable’ element of the Children, Education and Families budget for the 2023/24 financial year showed an overspend of £6,907,000 in the Revenue Support Grant compared to the last reported figure of £7,721,000 which was based on activity at the end of December 2023.  The overspend was due to several factors including an increase in costs and activity in Children’s Social Care, high placement costs and additional staffing costs.  The Chairman asked about the reduction in the deficit and the Head of Children, Education and Families Finance outlined a range of work that was undertaken to scrutinise and challenge the expenditure position including regular reviews of high costs placements, increasing the proportion of permanent Children’s Social Work staff and the Transformation Programme.  The Local Authority also continued to lobby Government for additional funding in light of continued high demand across various service areas. 

A Member queried a reference to the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Reserve within the Portfolio’s budget and the Head of Children, Education and Families Finance clarified that this budget line accounted for the deficit to be met from the Local Authority’s General Reserves if the financial disregard agreed by the Government could no longer be applied.  Officers would be meeting with representatives of the Department for Education to discuss the Local Authority’s DSG Deficit Recovery Plan in the coming weeks and an update on this meeting would be provided to Members at the next meeting of the Committee on 17 September 2024.  A Member asked about areas of staffing underspend during the 2023/24 financial year and Director of Education explained that while there remained recruitment challenges in some specialist areas, the staffing underspend was largely in relation to a major restructure of Education Services which had required a short-term recruitment freeze but had now been successfully completed with the right staff in the right roles.

A Member asked about the possibility of delivering an in-house SEND Transport service to realise cost savings and was advised that the business case would be considered as part of the Transformation Programme but that in-house services tended to be more expensive than commissioned services due to the costs associated with employing staff directly.  The Member asked about work being undertaken to establish an in-Borough children’s home for children with more complex needs.  The Head of Children, Education and Families Finance confirmed that the feasibility of this proposal was being explored as part of the Transformation Programme.  Additionally, the Embrace Programme would shortly be introduced to provide more in-Borough care placements for children who were currently in high-cost residential or Independent Foster Care placements out-of-borough by providing the additional support needed to sustain a foster placement via two foster carer hubs.  The Chairman observed that in-house foster care was far more cost effective than Independent Fostering Agencies and emphasised the importance of making best use of Bromley’s approved Foster Carers who should not just be used for occasional respite care.

RESOLVED: That the recommendations in the report be supported.