Agenda item

To receive a report from the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement, the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health, and the Corporate Directors of Finance and Procurement and Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, to note the draft budget and medium term financial plan and make recommendations to the Cabinet Members on other issues which should be reflected in them, prior to the budget being considered by the Cabinet and County Council.

Mr D Shipton, Head of Financial Strategy, was in attendance for this item.

1.            Mr Shipton introduced the report and explained that the draft budget proposals for each of the Cabinet Committees had been published in time for those committees to consider them.  However, the Government’s provisional settlement and information on the tax base had been published very late before Christmas, and to accommodate this it would be necessary to make some small changes to the draft budget before it was considered by the Cabinet on 28 January. The Government’s provisional settlement had been largely as expected, except for the element of funding for welfare reform.  The increase to tax base had been estimated at 0.5%, but provisional notification from districts showed a higher increase (1.7%), giving the Council more available funding.  As a result, the savings proposals in the final draft budget would be reduced and some additional spending could also be funded.  Mr Shipton responded to comments and questions from Members, as follows:-

a)    the ‘pay and reward’ line in the Directorate’s budget plan listed no figure, and Mr Shipton explained that pay awards made to staff no longer had a separate cost of living element but consisted just of a performance award.  The Personnel Committee would meet at the end of January to identify the level of award to be made, and until that deliberation had taken place, it would not be possible to allocate a figure to this line.  The estimated level of reward for achieving was expected to be similar to the current year, ie 2%;

b)    the ‘removal of grants’ line in the draft plan referred to the annual £3.4m grant that local authorities had received from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) for the last two years, which had now ended.  The provisional settlement had identified funding for welfare provision within the Revenue Support Grant, but this was not ring-fenced.  This funding had been taken from elsewhere in the Revenue Support Grant and thus authorities had not received any additional funding to replace the lost DWP grant.  The County Council would comment on this as part of its response to the provisional settlement. This area of the budget might require a late change as the Council had been surprised by the Government’s approach to this issue.  Mr Lobban added that planned future work on welfare provision, reported recently to the committee, would still go ahead;

c)    the context and detail of the drop in funding listed against services for older people and those with physical disabilities in the A-Z service analysis would be explained in a variation statement which would be issued before the detailed budget was considered by the County Council on 12 February. Mr Ireland added that the Council needed to achieve a balance between reducing the level of affordable activity and the number of people needing services such as long term domiciliary care, eg due to an increase in enablement activity;

d)    concern was expressed that, while the Council could plan to deliver regular services within the available funding, any crisis situation, such a period of unexpectedly harsh winter weather, could place a strain on resources. The Council would need to have some level of flexibility to respond to crises.  Mr Ireland agreed that targets were challenging and relied on being able to minimise periods of crisis;

e)    Mr Shipton explained that, in compiling the A-Z service analysis document, it had simply not been possible to list details of funding for all social care and health services individually. The rule of thumb was that only services with spending over £1m would be listed individually and, as a result, smaller areas of spending were listed as ‘other adult services’.  He offered to send the speaker a detailed list of such services if this were required;

f)     one speaker said he had been sceptical about the feasibility of delivering the predicted transformation savings but was pleased that the planned savings were being realised, and he sought assurance that delivery of savings would continue, to achieve the optimum savings projected.  Mr Ireland responded that the transformation programme had changed the overall profile of the Council’s services and the way in which those services were provided, eg by minimising the demand and need for long-term care placements by using enablement services such as telecare. He emphasised that this would not impact upon current service recipients; and

g)    figures listed in the draft budget did not include the £10m of Government funding attached to the implementation of the 2014 Care Act. The allocation of this would be listed separately in the medium term financial plan. This level of funding was expected to be sufficient to cover current activity.

2.            In response to a question about his ability to draw on reserve funds, the Cabinet Member, Mr Gibbens, reiterated his commitment to the continuation of the Kent Support and Assistance Service and the planned activity which had been reported to the previous meeting of the committee.  He emphasised that, in bad weather, action would always be taken to protect and support the most vulnerable people. It was important to make funding available to protect and support these people in their own homes to avoid their needs escalating to more acute services at greater cost later.  This view found general support from the committee.

3.            RESOLVED that:-

a)    the draft budget and medium term financial plan, including responses to consultation and Government announcements, be noted; and

b)    Members’ comments on the draft budget and medium term financial plan, set out above, be noted by the Cabinet Members for Finance and Procurement and Adult Social Care and Public Health when they are considered by the Cabinet on 28 January 2015 and County Council on 12 February 2015.