Agenda item

Tony Burton (Head of Finance, Children's Services) presented the report that set out the budget proposals for the Children's Services and provided an update on proposed changes in fees and charges.

Steve Miley (Director for Children's Services) noted that the department’s approach to identifying potential savings had been consistent with the vision for Children’s Services which was:

‘To improve the lives and life chances of our children and young people; intervene early to give the best start in life and promote wellbeing; ensure children and young people are protected from harm; and that all children have access to an excellent education and achieve their potential. All of this will be done whilst reducing costs and improving service effectiveness.’

Tony Burton gave a presentation on the budget and highlighted the following points:

·       Children's Services net expenditure was £33m.

·       The total budget was £126.7m including £92m of income (mainly from the Dedicated Schools Grant) and other grants of £33.9m.

·       The Family Services budget was £30m and this included significant growth in the areas of placement spend on looked after children and care leavers and to enable the social care team to respond to Increased demand pressures.

·       There was still a lot of uncertainty for schools around education funding and they had seen significant pressures on their budgets in recent years.

·       The high needs block deficit was the single most concerning financial pressure for Children's Services. To tackle it the department was looking to deliver services that meet children's needs at lower levels and keep more children in mainstream schools.

Nandini Ganesh commented that many schools didn't understand how to support children with SEND issues. Officers said they were working closely with schools to improve the support on offer. Inclusion was a key priority for the service going forward. The Council had to reshape its services to help mainstream schools with inclusion. Denise Fox (Headteacher of Fulham College Girls) said Alternate Provision used to be what happened in mainstream schools. There used to be ways of managing children within the school but now it was all external and provided at greater cost. Schools and the Council needed to find ways of providing Alternate Provision in different ways.

Matt Jenkins asked if there was any additional support the Council could offer to schools. Steve Miley said the Council recognised that the increase in funding from the Government didn't cover the cost pressures schools faced and they were in a really challenging financial situation. He had asked schools how they were managing and they all said they were looking at ways of reducing staffing - which had a real impact on them. As the Council was also facing significant cost pressures it couldn't give schools additional funding - but officers were looking at ways to work together and share costs, share support, look at ways to increase the income for schools, and fill school places where rolls were low.

Officers were also working on a proposal to rebuild some schools in the borough - improving the educational environment for children and bring in funding to help the education system. Councillor Mark Loveday asked which sites had been identified for redevelopment. Kevin Gordon (Head of Assets Operations Programmes) said the sites were listed in a Cabinet report that was due to be released in the next few weeks. Denis Charman asked if this programme only raised money for the school that was being developed or the wider community of schools. Steve Miley assured the Committee that the programme was designed to manage the overall financial situation of the wider education system.

Tony Burton continued his presentation, highlighting some of the key savings proposal in the budget including better procurement of housing for care leavers and developing more experienced foster carers to help children 'step down' from residential care. He then noted some of the key areas of growth - including placements costs for looked after children and care leavers - and money to support Dubs children who were ageing over 18 (as Home Office grant funding reduced significantly at that age).

Hitesh Jolapara (Strategic Director for Finance and Governance) gave a short presentation outlining the wider financial context for local government and the ongoing financial challenges that Council's face. He noted that for 2019/20 the forecast budget gap, before savings, was £10.3m, rising to £48.6m by 2022/23.

Councillor Mark Loveday, noting the significant funding shortfall in the high needs block of £4m a year, asked what the deficit recovery plan was. Steve Miley said the high needs block deficit was the biggest financial challenge in Children's Services and it couldn't be managed through the normal savings processes. To address this issue the Council was undertaking a school rebuilding programme - using the opportunity to improve school buildings and make better use of valuable land in the borough. To reduce the overspend the department was in discussions about changing the way it meets children’s needs.

Councillor Loveday asked what this would actually mean for schools and the SEND services provided. Officers explained that it would mean more children supported in mainstream schools and escalating fewer children up to alternative and specialist provision. Special schools could also help mainstream schools - using their resources better across the borough. He noted that he didn't expect this to change quickly - it would be a long term iterative process.

At the moment parents think the only way of getting the support their children need is through an Education Health and Care Plan (EHCP). For example, currently the only way to get speech and language therapy was through an EHCP.

The Council's ambition was to put services in place that were accessible without going through the expensive bureaucracy of the EHCP process. This would also free up SENCOs to work more directly with children rather than doing endless paperwork.

Councillor Loveday asked when the Committee would be presented with this new strategy. Steve Miley said it was in the formal planning stages - officers were having a series of meetings with schools and Headteachers to develop a programme together. The Chair noted that this was an important area for the Committee to scrutinise in more detail in future.

ACTION: Item to be added to the work programme

Councillor Lucy Richardson asked if the Council was doing anything to promote inclusion in special schools - i.e. encouraging students, where appropriate, to move into mainstream schools. Steve Miley responded that Headteachers have said the current system was too binary. We needed to support a spectrum of need from mainstream schools, to specialist units, to special school. There needed to be more choice and greater flexibility in the system.

Councillor Lucy Richardson asked what the savings for travel care and support would mean for the service. Mandy Lawson said the savings covered a range of efficiencies. For example, when taxis were used they automatically provided an escort, but it wasn't always necessary. The team were working to move people to be more independent. Officers were also looking at rationalising the routes and were renegotiating contracts with providers.

Councillor Lucy Richardson asked what educational psychology key working was. Mandy Lawson said that was part of the new integrated key working service. There was a gap around the first point of identification and diagnosis - parents didn’t have anywhere to go. Now there was a single point of contact to coordinate and arrange potential pathways for their children.

Councillor Asif Siddique asked if officers expected the deficit to increase because of Britain leaving the EU in March 2019. Hitesh Jolapara said it was very hard to predict - inflation going up was a big risk. There were also major risks around the staffing impacts of EU nationals leaving - and risk to the local economy.

Matt Jenkins asked if the plans to support more students with SEND in mainstream schools meant schools would have to take on additional costs. Steve Miley said the Council was not expecting schools to absorb additional costs - instead we wanted to fund what children really need. The high needs block doesn’t have to just fund children with EHCPs.

Merhawit Ghebre (resident) asked if young people were part of the planning process for the schools building programme. Kevin Gordon said it was very important to get the model right and the Council wanted to be collaborative. There were some consultation groups in place and it was important to have the voice of young people represented throughout all of our planning.

The Chair noted that he would like this to be an item at a future meeting and the Committee should invite young people and parents to give their views on the proposals.

ACTION: Add item to the work programme

Councillor Mark Loveday asked if the £2.2m of growth for Family Services was based on increases seen over the last couple of years projected forward. Steve Miley said that figure was based on the steady state of the current cohort and their costs going forward.

Councillor Mark Loveday asked if it would make a significant difference if the caseload reduced by 10. Tony Burton responded that it was not just the number of cases but also their increasing complexity. Greater complexity leads to higher placement costs.

Councillor Mark Loveday noted the proposed savings of £600k for enhanced fostering and asked if, given what the Committee has heard about the pressures and increase in complexity, that was a realistic figure. Kevin Gordon said officers had carefully modelled the savings. H&F had a premiere fostering service and it gets many inquiries from out of the borough. There was a good supply of foster carers and the principle fostering manager was becoming a nationally recognised expert in dealing with challenging behaviours. The savings were modelled on five placements with an average saving of over £100k per placement.

Denis Charman (School Governor and NUE representative) wanted to note that as a Governor he appreciated what the Council was doing to support schools. He added that in the last national consultation on the fair funding formula for schools funding Hammersmith & Fulham contributed 10 percent of the total responses and that had a real impact on the proposals. He asked if there would be further lobbying by the Council to see if there was anything more that could be done to protect schools’ budgets. The Chair agreed that the Council's lobbying had contributed to the Government rethinking their proposals and said the Council would do all it could in future to fight for schools in the borough.

RESOLVED

That the Committee considered and commented on the budget proposals.