Agenda item

1.       The item was present by Cabinet Member for Finance, Mr Peter Oakford. He commented that an individual report had been completed for each Cabinet Committee this financial year, meaning the respective Cabinet Member would deal with the responsibilities for own directorate. Mr Oakford discussed the high level budget and how it impacted the Council. The particular points to note included the following:

a)    The Local Government Finance settlement would be provided late December 2024.

b)    It was a draft budget put together using the current knowledge available and on the assumption that levels such as Council Tax would remain the same. The inheritance of the spending plans from the previous Government and the unknown intentions of the current Government in relation to these had also been factored in.

c)    There were a number of challenges to the budget, which sat within the Adult Social Care budget. These were principally due to the pressures seen on adult social care, with £50 million of saving contained in the plan for adult social care this financial year. The current in year budget over spend was currently at £16 million.

d)    It was confirmed that additional funds would be allocated to Adult Social Care, however the distribution was known. If the allocation was based on previously used methodology, it was possible the directorate would receive around £13 million. Taking into consideration the over spend of the current financial year and the required savings for the next year, it likely that this will be used to off set the budget pressures, rather than incremental spending.

2.     The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health explained the following:

a)    In relation to demand, the current growth was approximately £66 million in spending for Adult Social Care, compared to £100 million of the previous year. Mr Watkins confirm that this reflected more people coming into the service and an increased complexity of need.  Inflation was also a component, with payments of 3% uplift being paid to providers.

b)    The Employer’s Bill of Rights was due for enactment in 2025 which would add an estimated £600 of cost per employee.

c)    The target saving for the next financial year is proposed to be £38 Million, compared to £54 million of saving for this year. Despite this, Mr Watkins indicated that Adult Social Care, although off track for their budgetary targets, were on track to create the largest saving ever achieve by any directorate at Kent County Council.

d)    The largest share of the £38 million in savings came from Transformation Programme (focused on how the services operated) at £28 million.

e)    Some smaller savings involved a sum of £4 million which came from client contributions, which were essentially the uplift of benefits and other payments receive through inflation. The Preventative savings through the Community Wellbeing consultation being launched, was budgeted to save around £2.5 million in 2025.

f)      Mr Watkins confirmed there was an unresolved item of £8.5 million of savings which were not achieved this financial year, not would they likely be achieved the following year.

3.     Mr Smith commented that the ADASS (Association of Directors of Adult Social Services) Autum Budget statement summary provide that 81% of Councils in the country are forecasting an overspend in Adult Social Care.  A long term solution was required and therefore items like the Transformation Program were an important part of maintaining service whilst trying to make savings.

4.     In answer to questions and comments made by Members it was said that:

a)    It was not a statutory duty to support the independent sector however, it was stated that the Council and the private sector are partners and so working together was important.  The 10% increase cost of care in Care Homes was driven by central government; at present the Council can only provide 3% which left a clear difference.

b)    It was stated that care providers are not able to absorb the costs as readily as other sectors and so going forwards, partnership working would be important and the relationship with providers needed to open, honest and transparent. There was a current risk matrix of providers and given the high levels of complex care packages, the provider industry was changing which mean that for some providers, they would find this difficult to operate which meant that they needed to support.

c)    It was stated that this was not just an Adult Social Care issue, rather the sustainability of Kent County Council as a whole; given the current overspend on the budget, the margin for error was narrow. The draft budget for Adult Social Care represented an improvement picture for the next financial year. It was highlighted that by doing the basic things in Adult Social Care and by moving resources around, would have a positive impact and better outcome.

d)    Recent paperwork suggested that Adult Social Care were over performing in Enablement Services (for example: Kent Enablement at Home Service) currently had £2 million of cost diversion by people who had access to enablement.

e)    Assurance was provided to the Committee that by employing preventative measures and keeping people in their homes for longer through using a variety of methods, meant meeting needs earlier but at a lower cost.

f)       It was explained to the Committee that due to the funding restrictions, the decision making capability was constrained with very little discretion and so meeting the statutory need took precedent.

g)    Care workers were getting an above inflation minimum wage page rise; this year it was approximately 7% for most minimum wage workers however people of 18, 19 or 20 years of age,  it calculated to around a 16% increase. Care homes with a work force predominantly made up of this age range of employees, were predicted to find employment costs very high.

h)    It was confirmed that Adult Social Care comprised of 35% of the Council’s net budget and this money supported 8.5% of the residents of Kent.

i)      A Member expressed gratitude for the work conducted by those in Adult Social who developed strategies to save money and balance the budget.

5.       In answer to a question from a Member, Mr Dave Shipton commented that behind the budget papers, an interactive Member dashboard was published  which provided information and highlighted all the impacts, risks and sensitivities that Members could view. In previous years, officers tried to produce a ‘chilli rating’ on all savings but this proved to be a subjective judgement. Members indicated that a red, yellow or green indication would visually be helpful to which Mr Shipton confirmed that he would take this away as a suggestion.

6.       Mr Watkins suggested that if Members had any suggestions or comments/proposals in relation to the budget for Adult Social Care to provide them to him or bring them to the January 2025 as Full Council meetings were not the best place to debate complex issues with the Adults Social Care budget.

7.     RESOLVED to NOTE the administration’s draft revenue budgets including responses to consultation.

8.     RESOLVED to SUGGEST any changes which should be made to the administration’s draft budget proposals related to the Cabinet Committee’s portfolio area before the draft is considered by Cabinet on 30 January 2025 and presented to Full County Council on 13 February 2025.