Agenda item

The draft Children’s Services Medium Term Service & Resource Plan (MTSRP) is presented for consideration by the Panel:

(1) To ensure all members of the Panel are aware of the context for Service Action Planning and budget setting

(2) To enable comment on the choices inherent in the medium term plan

(3) To enable issues to be referred to the relevant Portfolio at an early stage in the service planning and budget process.

Councillor Nathan Hartley addressed the Panel. He spoke of his passion for the Youth Service and said that he was pleased that it would be retained as it provided a valuable support to young people. He added that the Council had one of the best services in the country.

He questioned whether £200,000 should be saved by way of management restructure in 2013 / 14 as the directorate requires a support mechanism.

Councillor Liz Hardman commented that she was concerned as she had interpreted the plan to read that the Youth Service would be reduced to a mainly targeted one.

The People & Communities Strategic Director introduced the Medium Term Service & Resource Plan to the Panel. He explained that the plan was set over three years to give a sense of clarity.

He informed them that the directorate was required to make savings of £4.345m and would only see a re-investment of £1.2m and that this would particularly be in Children’s Social Care. He advised that the savings would be split across Children’s Services (84%), Voluntary Sector (4.7%) and Connexions (11%).

The savings proposals totalling £4.345m set out in Appendix 3 can be summarised as follows:

• Management and service re-structure to remove a range of posts as some service areas reduce in size and scope.

• Discontinue the current Connexions Service contract and create an integrated, mainly targeted Youth/Young People Service combining Youth and Connexions Services.

• Reduced commissioning of additional services for certain groups of children, young people and families. This aligns with Government announcements in further reductions in the Early Intervention Grant.

• Reduced Children’s Centre and Early Years Services leading to a whole-service re-structuring and consideration of new models of service delivery to be fully implemented from April 2015.

He then highlighted the areas within the plan where savings would be made.

£100,000 - School Improvement & Achievement Services: Further re-structuring of our support to schools and consequential restructuring of administrative support.

£60,000 - Children Missing Education Service: In 2013 / 14 cease remaining activity to secondary schools. In 2014 / 15 a £26k reduction is planned, plus income target of £4k.

£13,000 - Post 16 Education Training and NEET: Reduce staff FTE working on raising participation.

£480,000 - Connexions – Discontinuation of current form of service

£178,000 - Reductions in commissioned services. (i) 2013-14 Remove additional funds to commission extra CAMHS type services and cuts. £148,000 of this figure is accounted with no impact upon the 3rd sector.

£100,000 - Reduce Youth Service to a mainly targeted service.

£141,000 - Safeguarding, Social Care and Family Support Services. Review the 117 Service and redesign overall provision of Family Support Services with reducing staffing capacity.

Growth

£234,000 - Increases in allowance paid to B&NES foster carers.

Councillor Ian Gilchrist asked why a lot of the planned savings were back loaded within the plan.

The People & Communities Strategic Director replied that following a debate with the Cabinet it was recognised that the directorate had taken a large reduction in previous years. He added that a profound redesign was required to secure the integrity of the services and therefore the savings were planned for the later years.

Councillor Liz Hardman commented that she felt that frontline services were not protected in this budget and that the most needy and vulnerable would be affected by it. She added that she had noticed from another plan that no cuts were to be made within the Major Projects department.

Kelvin Thomas asked when consultation would take place with Young People and Children on these proposals.

The People & Communities Strategic Director replied that consultation would take place with the Children’s Trust Board and other groups.

Councillor Liz Hardman asked if there was a possibility to generate any income from commissioning support to schools.

The People & Communities Strategic Director replied that the department had developed a brochure of services and that it was now with the schools to decide which services they would like to purchase. He added that the service would need to be cost effective.

Mike Fidanoglu asked if the Youth Service was to become more targeted would that mean that access to it would be by referral only.

The Divisional Director for Learning and Inclusion Services replied that greater emphasis would be put on schools to aid in this area. He added that it was recognised that some young people attend centres and receive support on an ad hoc basis. He explained that more Youth Workers would be working with an allocated workload.

Councillor Liz Hardman commented that if the Children’s Centres and Early Years Services were not universal they would be very restrictive.

Sanjeev Chaddha asked why a high impact of risk was set against the area of Safeguarding, Social Care and Family Support Services.

The People & Communities Strategic Director replied that the risk was set as high because officers were working with children on the cusp of going into care and therefore there was a risk to budget levels in that area.

Sanjeev Chaddha commented that if the cost of a placement was between £20,000 - £40,000 it wouldn’t take many placements to outweigh the planned savings.

The People & Communities Strategic Director replied that a number of scenarios had been analysed and that they were trying to protect the core of the service.

Chris Batten added that he was concerned about this proposal and highlighted that early intervention would be the key.

The Panel wished to show strong support for retaining services which have a high impact on budget implications. They added their intention to identify in years 2014 / 15 / 16 where this loss could be mitigated across other service areas.