Council and councillors

Apologies were received from Cllrs Burrows, Cross and Webb.

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

The Chair declared an interest in respect of item 5, Appendix B, CHI-015 as she was the Treasurer for the Rutland Conquerors basketball team. Councillor Harvey confirmed that when it came to that item she would facilitate the debate but not take part in any discussion on it.

To receive any petitions, deputations and questions received from Members of the Public in accordance with the Virtual Meetings Regulations (s1 2020 392) and the subsequent RCC Procedure Rules agreed at Council on 20 May 2020 and revised by Council on 14 September 2020. (Please see link: Revision to Virtual Meetings Protocol.)

No petitions, deputations or questions had been received.

To consider any questions with notice from Members received in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule No.218 and No.218A.

No questions with notice had been received from Members.

To receive Report No.61/2021 from the Strategic Director for Resources.

Report No.61/2021 was received from the Strategic Director for Resources.

Mr Della Rocca, the Strategic Director for Resources introduced the report the purpose of which was to present some short term savings options for Members to consider and the direction of travel on some long term options for Members to endorse.

During the discussion the following points were noted:

·         A budget had been approved at February Council which had a £2.4m gap. This gap would be propped up by use of general funds and earmarked reserves but this was not good practice and could not be done indefinitely. Officers had therefore started a process and had identified potential savings that could initially reduce the gap by £1m, and in the longer term by £2.4m.

·         The gap would continue to grow with likely further pressures on the budget and Mr Della Rocca stated that he wanted every bit of spare capacity that officers had to be used to look at ways of further reducing costs.

·         Cabinet and Council would be asked for extra resource to bring in external support but only if there was enough officer capacity to lead and manage that extra support. The Senior Management Team (SMT) would continue to consider how projects could be accelerated.

·         Short-term cost saving proposals identified by Officers were detailed in Appendix B

·         CHI-007 Children’s Social Care Professional Fees: Mrs Godfrey, Director for Children’s Services, confirmed that by getting better at demand forecasting, savings could be made in this area as when services were bought in bulk there was a risk that they wouldn’t be used.

·         CHI-010 Early Intervention Services: The costs and savings outlined here related to the fact that Jules House remained closed. There would still be a budget for the offer.

·         Cllr Waller suggested, and Cllr Ainsley was in agreement, that in light of the potential savings and the current arrangements that were in place to support young people that a full closure of Jules House be expedited. Mrs Godfrey stated that there were no current plans to re-open Jules House and that work on a review, which would look at delivery of youth services in a different way and the way that had been embraced during the pandemic, had already started.

·         CHI-015 Early Intervention Aiming High Positive Activities Programme: The Council had a statutory obligation to provide short breaks for children and carers but there was no prescribed offer. The savings did not relate to overnight respite breaks but instead to the residential stays included as part of positive experiences and activities. These were very expensive and so would be reduced from 3 a year to 1 a year.

·         ADU-010: HSC Protocol Training. The costs in this category gave immediate savings as this was now defunct and had been transformed into different training.

·         Mr Morley, Director for Adult Services, spoke of the new model of Integrated Care Services (ICS). RCC, in conjunction with health partners, had already been working preventatively and had become one of the most cost effective services  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.