Agenda item

Cabinet will present their revenue budget and council tax proposals to Budget Council on 26 February 2014. As part of the budget process savings targets have been set for departments and transformation programmes.

This report provides an update on how the targets will be met for the services covered by this Select Committee. An update is also provided on budget growth proposals and proposed changes in fees and charges.

The Council’s revenue budget for 2014/15 was presented by Jane West and the department budgets by Rachel Wigley (Adult Social Care) and Kathleen Corbett (Housing and Regeneration). 

Mrs West outlined the Central Government grant process, whereby funding was expected to fall by £14 million (10% in cash terms and 12.5% in real terms) in 2014/2015.

There were major concerns in respect of the  business rates retention scheme, whereby the Council continued to lose out by £4 million per annum, arising from the appeals against rateable values set by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and, in particular those relating to Westfield Shopping Centre. In addition. a £3 million tariff was payable to the Government.

A Council Tax reduction of 3% was proposed for 2014/2015.

Mrs West responded to members’ queries that it was believed that the baseline business rates would not be reset until 2018/2020. The Leader had made representation in respect of the late information and the Council had also contributed to the submissions by London Councils and the Society of London Treasurers.

Mrs  West  outlined the budget assumptions in respect of pay and price inflation and levels of fees and charges, the identified growth proposals and savings, the budget risks and the increase in earmarked reserves.

Mrs West responded to Councillor Carlebach that there were no savings or growth items for the Public Health budget and the ring fenced allocation had been rolled over.

Members queried the growth proposals of £1.4 million in Centrally Managed Budgets. Mrs West responded that this item related to overheads which could not be posted across other departments and primarily the Housing Revenue Account, where, for example,  there had been a significant reduction in staff and a corresponding reduction in Human Resources costs which could be re-charged.  There had been significant shrinkage in Centrally Managed Budgets but there was a time lag.

Councillor Andrew Brown queried whether the expansion of Westfield Shopping Centre would bring business rates into balance across the site. Mrs West responded that it was hoped that this would be the case and the VOA would not make the same mistake again.

Councillor Cowan queried the growth proposals for Regeneration and Housing. Ms Corbett responded that the £1.5 million related primarily to an additional allowance for bad debt for direct payments and additional bad debt in terms of the overall benefits cap.

Mrs West responded to Councillor Carlebach that the identified savings were in proportion to the departments’ overall budgets. However, by the end of the process, the percentages might differ as various savings applied only to certain departments, for example adjustments in respect of pay  for staff who had opted for flexible working.

The percentage savings across departments would be confirmed in writing.

Action: Jane West

Mrs Wigley presented the Adult Social Care (ASC) Department Budget for 2014/2015.

The presentation set out the Service Vision for the ASC Tri-borough to support integrated partnership working and to gain an overview of outcomes across the whole health and social care economy. To achieve this a common set of eight outcomes had been developed.

Mrs Wigley outlined:  the 2014/2015  budget headlines for ASC; the cumulative savings for the Council and for ASC alone; the Better for Less strategy; a classification of savings; delivery of the savings and risks. The ASC Gross Spend Plan demonstrated that 77% was spend directly on services to customers. It was not proposed to increase either Home Care or Meals Service charges.

Councillor Vaughan queried the budget proposals in respect of: reduced admissions into residential and nursing homes through better support in the community; review of high cost placements, supported at home packages and direct payments; and procurement of learning disabilities supported living contract.

Mrs Wigley responded that the savings of £475,000 in respect of reduced admissions into residential and nursing homes had been achieved by helping people to remain at home for as long as possible and therefore reducing the number of placements. Ms Bruce added that the overall strategy was to enable people to stay in their own homes for as long as possible through advice and information, prevention initiatives, intensive re-ablement and a new home care offer focusing on flexible support and outcomes. Better support in the community would defer and manage demand away from institutionalised care.

Mr Daryanani stated that there had been a 17% reduction in placements (from 285 to 244 in nursing homes and from 319 to 311 in residential homes) between April 2011 and December 2013. Councillor Ginn added that historically, the Council had been an outlier, with a high number of nursing and residential placements.

Councillor Cowan queried how people were genuinely supported in the community. Ms Bruce responded that there were a range of measures to monitor satisfaction and good practice and suggested that this should be a future agenda items.

Mr McVeigh referred to the review of non-statutory advocacy support services and highlighted an individual case which had resulted in higher overall costs for both health and social care.

Mr Naylor commented that savings could also increase the burden for family carers. Mrs Wigley responded that carers were an important part of the customer journey work. In addition, the Care Bill would introduce statutory duties.

Mrs Wigley responded to the query in respect of the review of high cost placements, supported at home packages and direct payments that there had been a rigorous review of every package to achieve efficient costs and changes to direct payments services to an outcome based operating model to facilitate people staying at home for as long as possible. In respect of the Learning Disabilities supported living contract, this had been re-tendered and the savings achieved.

Mr Daryanani responded to Mr McVeigh’s query that there had been a full Equalities Impact Assessment and that the savings did not have a specific impact on any of the protected characteristics.

Ms Corbett presented the Housing and Regeneration General Fund department budget and outlined the growth and savings proposals.

The Housing and Regeneration Department provides services funded by both the General Fund and HRA and discussion of this item was taken with the following item in respect of the HRA.

RESOLVED THAT:

The Revenue Budget 2014/2015 be noted.