To receive Report No. 01/2022 from Saverio Della Rocca, Strategic Director for Resources (s.151 Officer) regarding the draft Revenue and Capital Budget for 2022/23. 

The Special Joint Scrutiny Committee is asked to provide comments and views on the draft budget before the final budget report is recommended by Cabinet to Council in February 2022.

Report No. 01/2022 was received from Councillor K Payne, Portfolio Holder for Finance, Governance and Performance, Change and Transformation.       During the discussion, the following points were noted:

·       The Special Joint Scrutiny Committee was asked to provide comments and views on the draft budget before the final budget report was recommended by Cabinet to Council in February 2022.

·       Members had previously submitted questions regarding the budget to the Strategic Director for Resources and it was agreed that the questions and responses would be published with the minutes.

·       Councillor Waller reminded attendees that as the Adults and Health and Children and Young People Scrutiny Committees discussions should relate to Appendix 4 – People Directorate Budget for 2022/23.

·       Appendices 5 and 6 for the Places and Resources Directorates respectively would be discussed at the GIR Scrutiny Committee meeting to be held on the 27^th January 2022.

·       Councillor Powell queried the vacant posts that had been removed from the budget. It was clarified following discussion that only vacant posts no longer required were removed from the budget.   The Strategic Director of Resources stated that the number of posts change from year-to-year, so the current year shows the difference between the last year and the current year e.g. Children’s Services had 5 vacancies last year but 5 trainee social workers.  The trainees were now qualified and had moved into the vacant positions so this year there was a reduction in the number of vacancies by 5.  This has saved £126k which was the cost last year to employ interim staff to fill the 5 vacancies until the trainee social workers were qualified.

·       Councillor Ainsley queried the £1 million deficit in the High Needs Block.  The Strategic Director of Children and Families stated that the SEND Recovery Plan was in place.  The plan provided support at a much earlier stage so that a child did not need to move into the expensive high needs service.  The recovery plan was proving effective and would reduce costs moving forward. 

·       It was confirmed that additional support would be required to undertake the Market Sustainability Assessment within Adult Social Care. The implementation of the Adult social care charging reforms was a massive piece of work involving all Adult Services, in particular the Commissioning Team and Revenue and Benefits Team. 

·       John Morley also reported that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) would begin inspections of Adult Social Care Services as from April 2023.  Deprivation of Liberty (DoLs) forms would be replaced by Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) as from October 2022.  This would be a very specialist service requiring specialist staff and admin staff to support this service as it would be covering Children’s Services as well as Adult Services.

·       Councillor Waller requested that updates regarding forthcoming legislation changes be given by Directors at Member’s Briefings e.g. CQC inspections, LPS, Integrated Care Systems (ICS) and Primary Care Networks (PCN) etc.

·       John Morley confirmed that the current staffing structure for Adult Services was correct due to a low staff turnover rate.  The service had adapted successfully during the pandemic and would continue to be flexible and adaptable to ensure the service remained dynamic.

·       The Strategic Director of Children and Families confirmed that the staffing structure for Children’s Services had been adapted over the past two years within the budget envelope and would continue to be adapted as the need arises.

·       The Committee thanked both Directors for the excellent work being undertaken by their staff and service areas.

RESOLVED:

1.     That the Committee’s comments and views on the Draft Revenue and Capital Budget 2022/23 be taken into consideration by Cabinet when recommending the final Revenue and Capital Budget 2022/23 to Council