Agenda item

The Panel will receive a presentation which will focus on the Council’s current priorities and provide examples of how some savings have already been met, including successful community initiatives. The slides are attached.

Councillor Charles Gerrish - Cabinet Member for Finance and Efficiency and David Trethewey - Director of Partnership and Corporate Services, gave a presentation to the Panel on ‘Working Together on our budget, our plans and our communities’ which covered the following points (A copy of the presentation slides are attached to the agenda papers for this item):

·  Overview

·  Feedback from last year (Key feedback from last year’s sessions)

·  This year’s finances 2018/19

·  Where each £1 raised from your Council Tax goes in 2018/19

·  Where the money comes from to pay for all the services in 2018/19 - £332m

·  What we have achieved

·  A special thank you: together, we:

·  The year ahead – 2019/20

·  The national context

·  Our budget 2019/20

·  Our Plan

·  Looking further ahead – prioritising

·  More of this please – protecting and caring for our most vulnerable

·  More of this please – Nurturing residents’ health, safety and wellbeing

·  More of this please – Providing ways for everyone in the community to reach their potential

·  We need to be clearer about…

·  Protecting and caring for our most vulnerable – Key messages

·  Nurturing residents’ health and wellbeing – Key messages

·  Providing ways for everyone in the community to reach their potential – Key message

·  Questions – What would a Bath & North East Somerset deal look like?

·  Next steps and looking ahead.

David Trethewey - Director of Partnership and Corporate Services explained that the aim is to be realistic in the aims of the organisational plan about what can be achieved with the community.

Panel members asked the following questions and made the following points:

Councillor Furse asked if it was more common for children to get taken into care now (since some high profile cases) and did this account for the higher numbers. The Cabinet Member explained that service officers could give a response on this but that he understood that the authority works hard to keep children with their families and sometimes where a care order is sought, the courts turn it down. He added that the increase may be partly explained by population growth. Councillor Sally Davis explained that this issue had been fully explored by the Early Years PDS Panel.

There was some discussion around children who are fostered or put in a specialist care placement outside of BANES. It was noted that sometimes it was in the child’s interest to be placed further away from the family home. Councillor Sally Davis referred Panel members to the Corporate Parenting meeting which covered these issues.

Councillor Rayment referred to the ‘Wigan Deal’ idea and stated his concerns that residents may resent their part of the deal if they perceive the Council to be spending money on major plans that are then abandoned. The Cabinet Member stated that there is a difference between capital and revenue costs but he acknowledged that residents may not have this information. The Cabinet Member stated that all members have the responsibility not to blur the distinction between capital and revenue and to be clear with residents about the challenges faced in light of the reduction of grants and cost of adult care and children’s services.