Agenda item

Attending for this Item were:

Adrian Hardman, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Adult Social Care

Elaine Carolan, Interim Director of People

Steph Simcox, Head of Finance

The Head of Finance alerted Members to the fact that the Agenda pack referenced the 13 December 2019 Cabinet Report, whereas revised figures were now available as part of the January 2020 Cabinet papers.

The position in respect of the Council’s overall financial position was set out.  Specifically, in relation to Adult Services, budget proposals included a commitment to invest £13.2m to meet the demand led Adult Social Care pressures.  This would be funded by various streams including the social care 2% precept, the new social care grant and £3.3m worth of efficiencies and savings.

These revenue efficiencies and savings would come from areas such as reviews of internal processes whilst transferring to a new People Directorate, demand management opportunities including effective commissioning of services and access to assistive technology and maximising and reviewing current care packages.

Members were alerted to Period 8, 2019/20, where a £2.7m overspend was forecast.  The most significant variance was £2.1m overspend in respect of Older People Residential and Nursing care costs due to cost of care and complexity of care.  However, the £8.8m savings programme was mostly on target at this point.

In the ensuing discussion, the following points were made:

·         The Government settlement for 2020/21 was welcome, in particular the additional £0.9m social care grant.  However, it was unclear whether this was for one year only

·         In 2019/20, £1.5m in reserves had been earmarked should the demand for adult social care exceed the amount budgeted for.  This had already been exhausted

·         The current projections do not assume any further growth in adult social care

·         Each year, based on current demand, there is £10m in additional costs to cover inflation and pay increases.  The additional funding had allowed services to be maintained at the same level, but had not factored in any growth

·         A Member asked about the affect of the UK leaving the European Union, to be informed that there had been a workforce concern when the decision was made, but now the concern was around access to equipment and medication

·         In response to a query as to why there was no Capital spend forecast for 2021/22/23, it was reported that the Directorate had reflected on this and schemes had been reprofiled in the January Cabinet report    

·         When asked whether there was a way of managing the overspend, it was suggested that Council wide, there were areas which were underspending, however, some of the pressures were outside of Council control, such as hospital acquired functional decline which had an impact on social care services

·         A Member asked whether fluctuations in the weather had an impact on services.  It was suggested that although this used to be the case, there was no longer any seasonal fluctuation

·         The average age of an adult in Worcestershire requiring adult social care was 82

·         The risk based approach to reserves, which the Council had adopted, was commended by the Panel.

The Panel agreed that a summary of its discussion would be forwarded to the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Board.