Agenda item

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 an outlier of single taxi journeys and were confident in the data they have to inform the decisions that are proposed.

Councillor May added that the savings relating to Early Help were previously documented in the Medium-Term Plan and said that the review was ongoing. He said that the Cabinet Member for Resources was committed to supporting this work.

Councillor Joanna Wright asked if it were known what the increase in National Insurance costs were for the Council.

The Executive Director for Operations replied that this was to be £2.6m per annum.

Councillor Wright asked how many reunifications were hoped for in the coming year.

The Director of Children’s Services & Education replied that the projection is to reunify 12 young people.

Councillor Wright asked how the proposed savings will be measured against those young people / adults in receipt of those services.

The Director of Children’s Services & Education replied that they work hard across Children’s Services in order to attempt to make sure that a young person will only come into care as a final resort. She added that a lot of work has also been done recently regarding our Care Leavers and that a positive report on this work area was due to be published.

Councillor Wright asked how we know that the proposals made will not impact the public more.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that she felt that there would be more opportunities to achieve the proposed savings with the numbers of staff returning in-house. She added that jointly with Children’s Services they were looking at the packages of care required for when young people transition from Children’s to Adult Services.

Kevin Burnett referred to Provider Services Income Opportunities and asked if there was a danger of them being priced out of this market.

The Assistant Director for Operations & Safeguarding replied that some of the in-house care provision costs were of a lower price level and that these were due to be increased, but not in such a way that would generate a profit being made.

Kevin Burnett asked if any savings relating to technology enabled care were net of any investment already established in AI.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that they recently began a trial of Magic Notes which would help streamline their work and improve the quality of the records. She added that some officers within the Council have also started to use Copilot to aid with report writing and it has been positive.

Kevin Burnett asked if any discussions have been held with the Multi-Academy Trusts regarding any duplication of work with the SEND / AP Advice Service and possible savings of DSG funding.

Councillor May commented that he had recently spoken with the DfE Regional Lead and that she had agreed to attend a future meeting of the Panel.

The Director of Children’s Services & Education replied that they work closely with the Chief Executives of the Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) through the meetings of the Schools Standards Board and have discussed topics such as the Safety Valve Plans and the SEND / AP Advice Service. She added that funding is allocated through the Schools Forum and that a conversation had started as to whether the DfE and local MATs could put some funding into support the Schools Standards Board in place of the Local Authority.

Kevin Burnett asked if the proposed savings were tied in with the Safety Valve work or separate.

The Director of Children’s Services & Education replied that the savings proposed in the report were separate from the work of Safety Valve.

Councillor Lesley Mansell asked why an Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) had not been included with this report and what consultation was being undertaken prior to any decisions regarding the budget.

The Executive Director for Operations replied that each individual proposal has been subject to an EIA by the Council’s Equalities Officer and that a public consultation was ongoing until 20^th January. She said that she expected any issues surrounding equalities to be included in the final report to Council on the overall budget.

Councillor Mansell said that her concerns remain and would raise the matter further as any form of disability discrimination would not be defensible.

Councillor May said that he welcomed the comments from Councillor Mansell and was seeking to develop an appropriate system with officers in Human Resources and would welcome her involvement in that.

The Chair asked for an assurance that any introduction of AI would be compatible with the similar products of our partners.

The Director of Adult Social Care replied that as far as she was aware this was an issue that was being factored in when choosing the products that the Council will be using.

The Panel RESOLVED to note the proposals of the Council’s 2025/26 revenue budget.