Agenda item

Mark Scarrott, Finance Manager (Adult Services) presented a report relating to the Revenue Outturn position for Adult Services Department within the Neighbourhood and Adult Services Directorate for the financial year 2011/12.

It was reported that the 2011/12 revised cash limited budget was £76,530,053, and the net Outturn for the Service for 2011/12 was an underspend of £2,542,580 (variation of -3.32%).

It was an increase in the underspend compared with the last budget monitoring report largely due to the impact of the Council-wide moratorium on non-essential spend, controlled vacancy management and additional income from the NHS.

A summary revenue outturn position for Adult Social Services was given in the table within the submitted report.

The appendix to the submitted report detailed the revenue outturn 2011/12 and the reasons for variance from approved budgets.  The following key variations were highlighted:-

Adults General (-£326,000)

-        Slippage from additional funding from the NHS for the further development of Services for Carers

-        Moratorium on printing, postages and stationery

Older People’s Services (-£901,000)

-        Additional income from the NHS in the last quarter in respect of support for the Winter period and additional funding for Carers

-        Vacant Social Work posts

-        Intermediate Care pooled budget – employee costs

-        Independent sector residential and nursing care – few placements

-        Additional income from transport fees and charges

-        Overspend on Home Care provision

-        Increase in Direct Payment

-        Shortfall in income from In-House residential care fees

-        Overspend on employee costs

Learning Disabilities (-£552,000)

-        Slippage on developing new Supported Living Schemes

-        Contract efficiency savings

-        Additional income from NHS

-        Vacancies

-        Overspends on Residential and Nursing Care budgets due to additional demand for placements and a reduction in Continuing Health Care income

Mental Health Services (-£1,000)

-        Continued increase in uptake on Direct Payments

-        Savings on Community Support budgets

-        Overspends on Out-of-Hours Service and the use of agency staff

-        Additional income from NHS towards the funding of residential care placements

-        Efficiency savings negotiated with Service provider for Supported Living

Physical and Sensory Disabilities (-£340,000)

-        Continued increase in number of clients in receipt of Independent Sector Home Care

-        Slippage on new investments to provide alternatives to residential care

-        Efficiency savings on voluntary sector contracts

-        Underspends on Assistive Technology

-        Employee costs

Adult Safeguarding (-£149,000)

-        Vacant posts

Supporting People (-£274,000)

-        Efficiency savings on contracts to enable achievement of 2012-13 agreed budget savings

Members present raised a number of issues that were clarified as follows:-

-        The increase in the number of Direct Payments was a combination of new clients and clients opting to remain with their existing provider rather than the provider through the new Framework Agreement

-        Savings in management costs had been achieved through the restructure

-        Rotherham had a positive track record in recruitment to social work posts but there are usually vacancies due to retirement or leavers

-        The late receipt of additional funding from the NHS accounted for a large proportion of the underspend

Resolved:- (1)  That staff be thanked for their endeavours in maintaining services as far as possible in light of the savings that had had to be made.

(2)  That the unaudited 2011/12 Revenue Outturn report for Adult Services be received and noted.

(3)  That a performance monitoring report be submitted to a future meeting.