Issue details

Proposed Decision: to implement a revised operating model for the Community Warden service.

Reason for the decision

On 9 February 2023, KCC Members approved the Council’s budget for 2023/24 and up to 2026, and this included some difficult decisions to address the challenging financial circumstances it was facing.  As a result, the Kent Community Warden Service (KCWS) was required  to reduce its base budget by £1m over the next two years and by 2024/25. This is almost half the service budget (primarily staffing costs) with staffing having to be reduced by almost half. A new service model is required, which has been informed by a public consultation, held 12 July to 3 October 2023. 

Background

The KCWS is currently structured with 70 uniformed posts (including six Team Leaders), two Area Managers, one Volunteer and Apprenticeship Manager and one Business Coordinator.  The six teams cover two districts each and most wardens are based within a particular community. The wardens proactively identify needs as well as taking referrals from other agencies including Adult Social Care and Health (ASCH). They provide 1:1 support to residents as well as working with partner organisations to address community safety concerns (eg doorstep scammers, rogue traders and anti-social behaviour), reduce isolation and loneliness and create opportunities for residents to participate in groups or activities that improves health and wellbeing and builds community cohesion.

Options (other options considered but discarded)

i.        Do nothing – there was strong objection to any reduction to the service in the public consultation responses.  However, this would not achieve the required savings and does not support Securing Kent’s Future’s priority for balancing the budget and reviewing all discretionary services and minimum statutory requirements.

ii.        Non-staffing related savings (majority of budget is staffing costs).

iii.        Securing external funding, in part or full (ongoing work, to date nothing viable has been identified).

iv.        Narrowing the service’s remit (not supported by public consultation).

v.        Becoming a reactive service (not supported by public consultation).

vi.        Reducing the size of the service and then having the same number of wardens in each district (does not recognise differing levels of need – public consultation responses confirmed different levels of community need should be considered).

vii.        Reducing the size of the service and then allocating wardens based on need only, with no minimum commitment to each district. (public consultation responses showed low agreement from all 12 districts to service reductions, i.e. all districts value and wish to retain the service.).

viii.        Cessation of the service – Although not considered as part of the consultation, the subsequent publication and adoption by the County Council of Securing Kent’s Future requires cessation of the service to be considered as an option of the Review. Work building on Universities of Essex and Kent's impact analysis is to continue, supporting understanding and evidence of KCWS's contribution to SKF's New Models of Care. A further public consultation would also be required which would result in not meeting the savings target in 24/25 due to the timescales involved.

How the proposed decision supports ‘Securing Kent’s Future’ the new Strategic Plan:

The prioritisation of New Models of Care and Support is also aligned to as Community Wardens will continue to take referrals from ASCH in the designated wards and where capacity and time allow, beyond those areas.  The GAP also aligns with the new prioritisations as it utilises indicators of relevance to the significant budget pressure in ASCH care and support spend for older persons, learning disability, mental health and physical disability.  Objective 2 of the Securing Kent’s Future strategy includes opportunity areas to reduce future costs which are relevant to KCWS work; ASCH social care prevention and hospital discharge pathway.  Due to the preventative nature of the service, attaching a monetary value of KCWS for various partners including ASCH is not a simple task but has been rigorously explored over recent years.  The Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) discuss prevention in social care, recognising the challenges in providing evidence^[1].  With the Securing Kent’s Future focus on adult social care prevention cost savings, strengthening the understanding of the link between KCWS prevention work and savings in care costs will be a priority. 

Financial Implications

-       The KCWS budget is currently a total of £2.08m (2023/24). The £1m saving was originally agreed as part of the 2023-24 budget in February 2023 and saw the base budget reduced by £500k in 2023/24 and with a further £500k required in 2024-25. The reduced and updated base budget for 2024-25 has been calculated to be £1.58m.  The decision being implemented now will result in a service redesign with reduced staffing capacity, within this budget. Given the Council’s financial position, the priority in Securing Kent’s Future is to ensure the Council’s budget is sustainable going forward.

-       There will be £1.06m gross saving from 24/25 which will be offset, in the short term, by both redundancy costs and pension obligations. These are not known at this current time as the staff consultation process, has not yet been undertaken.  Due to the age/length of service profile of this staffing cohort, these costs could result in a shortfall of the savings target for 24/25.  Such a shortfall would be managed within the division.

Legal Implications  

-       A decision is required on the recommended option which enables KCC to fulfil its responsibilities in achieving a balanced budget.  The development of the recommended option was informed by external legal advice.

-       The service contributes to KCC’s duties under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (to tackle local crime and disorder) and the Care Act 2014.  The service undertakes referrals from Adults Social Care Services, self identifies needs in the community and works with Trading Standards in relation to potential or actual scam victims supporting KCC’s duties under Section 42 - Enquiry by local authority (inc. financial abuse),   KCWS’s broader role in communities also contributes to delivering KCC’s duties under Section 1 Promoting individual well-being (which places the general duty on a local authority to promote individual well-being), and Section 2 Preventing needs for care and support.  External legal advice was for the reduced KCWS to achieve all that can be reasonably expected in relation to these duties.  The impact of this decision upon these duties will be outlined in more detail in the decision paper.            

Equalities implications

-       A full Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) has been carried out to assess the impacts of the proposals put forward.

-       Four groups: the elderly; females; people with a disability or long-term impairment; and those with carer’s responsibilities were identified as being more significantly impacted by these changes as they represent the majority of the wardens’ current service users* (confirmed by the results of the public consultation).

-       Mitigations:  The recommended service model aims to target resources in areas of highest need, and where a warden can no longer continue supporting an existing community /existing service user, procedures will be developed with relevant KCC commissioned services and other local partners (such as parish and district councils, police, community, voluntary and health services) to ensure a handover is provided with contact details of remaining local services given to residents.   Full details of mitigation actions can be found in the EqIA.  Whilst the service will seek to minimise the adverse impacts of the changes, they cannot be eliminated.

Data Protection implications

-       Due to staffing reductions, where a warden can no longer provide support, handover procedures will take data protection into account, with the service seeking resident’s approval for sharing personal data with other agencies to allow engagement with alternative sources of support (as per current practice).