Agenda item

Adult Care - Budget Update

Minutes:

The Strategic Director of Adult Care, Housing and Public Health and the Head of Finance Adults, Housing and Public Health attended the meeting to present a report that provided an update on the report on the forecast budget position for Adult Care, the Housing General Fund and Public Health that had been submitted at the September 2020 meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board.

 

In introducing the report, the Strategic Director noted that day care services had now reopened which was enabling an aspect of normality to return to service users’ lives and was also allowing the process of re-assessments to recommence.

 

The Head of Finance Adults, Housing and Public Health noted that overall the Directorate was forecast to have an overspend of £6.4m on general fund services after taking account of the additional one-off budget support of £4.65m for 2020/21. This was an improved position to that reported in September where the forecast overspend had been £8.4m. It was noted that the Covid-19 pandemic had created a negative cost impact of £8m on the Adult Care budget, with £5.9m of the overspend being caused by the need for additional expenditure in areas such as new packages of care; financial support for the independent care sector and the provision of personal protective equipment. 

 

The Head of Finance further advised that the pandemic had delayed the work required to deliver £2.1m of identified savings in the Directorate as due to the pandemic staff resources had been diverted to support work related to the pandemic and away from planned transformational activity. It was also noted that anticipated additional income had also reduced as the implementation of social distancing measures had prevented some of the tasks required from taking place.

 

The Strategic Director advised that the delay in the delivery of savings beyond 2020/21 was currently being assessed along with potential mitigating actions and noted that any change to the expected saving profile would be addressed in the Council’s Budget reports. The Strategic Director also noted that challenges were appearing in the staffing budget due to reduced staff turnover in teams across the directorate that the

 

The report noted that the Neighbourhood Services’ (Housing) budget was forecast to be delivered on target and that Public Health budget was projected to have an overspend of £100,000 due to increased staff resources required to manage the response to the pandemic. The report included tables that provided financial information on the Revenue Monitoring 2020/21 position as at July 2020, a summary of budget variances and the savings delivery forecast.

 

Members sought assurances regarding the resourcing of and support for the Public Health team. The Strategic Director advised that the team was adequately resourced and that she was providing active support for the team and was speaking to the team daily. It was noted that the new Director of Public Health would be taking up the post in January 2021.

 

The Chair asked for further information on how the reduced staff turnover was impacting the staffing budget. The Strategic Director advised that the budget contained allowances for periods when a post would be vacant between one person leaving and their replacement starting, but that due to the pandemic staff turnover had reduced so the amount of time when posts were vacant had reduced, and that this had in turn put pressure on the staffing budget. The Strategic Director also noted that increased use overtime and of agency staff had increased pressure in this budget area.

 

Members asked for further information on the progress of re-assessments of service users with learning disabilities. The Strategic Director advised that these had been delayed by the pandemic and due their complex nature would take a significant amount of time to complete.

 

The Chair thanked the Strategic Director of Adult Care, Housing and Public Health and the Head of Finance Adults, Housing and Public Health for attending the meeting and answering members’ questions.

 

Resolved:  -

 

1)    That the report be noted.

 

2)    That the Chair be given the discretion to request a further update to be brought to the January 2021 meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board, subject to the budget situation at that time.

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