Agenda item

Leader of the Conservative Party, Mr Harry Rayner, was in attendance for this item.

1.       The item was introduced by the Deputy Leader, Mr Brian Collins, who delivered a written briefing. The following key points were highlighted:

a)       The Council had set a balanced revenue budget through £179.5m of core?funded spending and offsets including reserve movements, new savings, and income generation. The net increase in spending had been funded through government grant, retained business rates, and council tax.

b)       The capital programme showed a significant increase but remained fully funded through external sources or previously planned borrowing, with no new borrowing to avoid adding pressure to the revenue budget.

c)       Most spending growth arose in Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, and Growth, Environment and Transport. This reflected pay awards, contractual uplifts, increased demand, and costs of new placements. As these pressures continued to exceed available funding, the budget relied on savings, income, and some one?off measures. Planned changes to reserves resulted in a net increase intended to strengthen financial resilience.

d)       Despite improvements to funding distribution, the overall government settlement remained insufficient, necessitating increases in council tax despite efforts to minimise them. It was highlighted substantial future financial challenges without further government support.

e)       Significant risks in Adult Social Care and SEND. Mitigation in adult services included measures to contain provider fee growth, manage demand, and reduce placement costs through new contracting arrangements. SEND pressures required both local management and national legislative reform.

f)        The budget proposals represented an important step toward restoring the Council’s financial sustainability while protecting frontline services.

2.       In answer to Member questions and comments, the following was said:

a)       The number of residents who required services and care had reached a plateau, with the number of older residents reducing.  On this basis, the directorate was confident that a peak had been reached and following further analysis it was evident that, in some cases, other alternative community resources would have been more appropriate. Whilst certain aspects of the cost drivers were not in the control of the service certain aspects were, such as what services would be paid for and the amount, as well encouraging people to be part of a preferred provider and/or framework.  Behavioural and practice changes had starting to materialise and it was hoped that these would continue to accelerate.

b)       Several aspects of the budget were based on forecasts and in year predictions and demand levels was one aspect.  It was explained that it was for this reason a general reverse was held in the budget and the recommendation amount for this was within 5% and 10% of the net revenue spending to mitigate risk that the forecast was understated.

c)       It was confirmed that the planned changes in spending were reflected in the published report.  Base Budget Changes was the full year effect of variances which occurred in the current financial year and the remaining were forecasts for changes in the forthcoming financial year.

d)       Members were encouraged to view the financial dashboard as this contained greater detail than a published document.

3.       RESOLVED Members noted the draft budget for both Adult Social Care and Public Health.