Issue - meetings

(Report by Mrs Rosalind Turner, Managing Director, Children, Families and Education Directorate, Mrs Sarah Hohler, Cabinet Member for Children, Families & Education)

(1)    The Committee received a report that identified the proposed strategy for determining next year’s budget and the financial plans for the following two years.  This included the latest indications of likely pressures facing the Children, Families and Education portfolio, suggested areas for service improvements and the savings that may be needed in order to set a realistic three year budget plan.

(2)         The Chairman reminded Members that an Informal Member Group (IMG) to discuss the Medium Term Plan had been commissioned at the meeting held on 18 September with a Membership of 6, (2 Members from each of the 3 Children, Families and Education Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committees (POSCs)).  Chaired by Mr K Smith, the IMG met on Tuesday, 17 November to discuss suggested savings and priorities to inform this Committee. 

(3)         The Chairman asked Mr Abbott to introduce the report.  Mr Abbott advised that the report set out the latest information on the known pressures for the portfolio and highlighted areas of possible service improvements, which were needed to set a realistic budget for the next three years.   The format of the papers was in the standard form for all the POSCs. 

(4)         Mr Abbott explained that it was already in the public domain that KCC had to reduce its spending by £200m over the next 3 years and as part of that all Directorates were set targets for efficiency savings in respect of staffing and procurement activity.  The CFE Directorate’s target was £9.4m and savings totalling that had been identified and included in the report. 

(5)         Delivery of those efficiency savings and a robust stance on pay and prices in light of the current inflation still left savings of £130m needed across the County Council.  Each of the POSCs had been tasked to find 10% savings of £130m. 

(6)         The issues for the CFE Directorate included; the Directorate was in a unique position as 85% of its spending, £1.36b on revenue came from central government grants and 15% equal to £210m was funded directly by KCC.  The set of challenges were to identify savings of 2/3rds part funded by KCC related to Home to School Transport and Children Social Care and included a number of risks of a high level of dependency on government specific grants given the financial climate.

(7)         At recent staff and school briefings the key principles were advised in setting the Medium Term Plan, which were primarily; to protect the front line services, reduce overheads and administration, increase efficiency and maximise income. The priorities for CFE were set out in the Young Person’s Plan, (summarised in appendix 4 of the report). Mr Abbott advised that the financial climate was going to be difficult over the next 3 years especially with the rise in expectation on the services. 

(8)         The County Council had identified as part of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17