Issue - meetings

This report will present the draft revenue budgets together with proposals for increases in Council Tax and the Adult Social Care Precept for 2025/26.

The Executive Director for Operations introduced the report. She explained that they were the first Panel to discuss the proposals for 2025/26 and that a public consultation was also ongoing.

Councillor Alison Born, Cabinet Member for Adult Services commented that public finances remain tight and will be challenging across the coming year. She added savings were still expected to be made whilst meeting their statutory obligations.

Councillor Paul May, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services stated that the increase in care needs had also made the budget for the service very challenging. He said that there was a black hole with regard to SEND funding.

Councillor Liz Hardman referred to the proposed saving of £750,000 through maximizing the use of the Better Care Fund and Improved Better Care Fund to protect social care expenditure and asked how successful this similar proposal had been last year.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that there is a Cabinet agreement in place to provide an additional £5.9m into the budget for Adult Social Care to allow for growth and inflation. She asked for members to bear with them over the coming year in terms of new proposals as they had recently brought staff back in-house and undergone an inspection from the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

She added that they had delivered their savings within the current financial year whilst ensuring quality of care.

The Executive Director for Operations added that the funding agreed by the Cabinet would be from core funding, not reserves.

Councillor Hardman asked how the proposed saving of £900,000 through a Review of Adult Care Packages will be achieved.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that this would be a big challenge due to the growth in Mental Health needs, Respite and Leaning Difficulties whilst remaining Care Act compliant.

Councillor Hardman asked how will the £1.4m savings be delivered with regard to family reunifications.

Councillor Paul May replied that they have worked on this issue in great detail into how we can reduce costs and enable young people to be reunited with their families.

The Director of Children’s Services & Education added that she welcomed the growth in the budget for Children’s Services. She added that progress is being made regarding reunification and is a subject that is raised with young people shortly after they come into care. She said that they were confident in achieving this target over the coming year and have identified the young people / families that they hope to reunite.

Councillor Hardman asked if there will be enough available drivers to achieve the proposed saving of £600,000 in relation to Home to School Transport.

Councillor Paul May replied that due to the increase in taxi prices they have begun a process to establish more in-house drivers in order to achieve these savings.

The Executive Director for Operations added that driver recruitment has been identified as one of the best ways in which the Council can manage this area better. She added that they were currently  ...  view the full minutes text for item 78