Agenda item

That:

1)        the quarter two position of the revenue budget and the level of balances in respect of the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account, Schools’ Block and the Authority’s investment portfolio be noted;

2)        it be noted that there are no Carry Forward estimates to the General Fund identified at this stage;

3)        the updates on the Adult Social Care Action Plan and the Children’s Services’ Action Plan (previously High Needs Block Action Plan) be noted.

The Executive considered a report setting out the current position of the revenue budget and the level of balances in respect of the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account, Schools Block and the Council’s investment portfolio.

In relation to the Adult Services’ budget the Executive Member for Adult Social Care advised that although the adverse variance was showing as £800k significant progress was being made to reduce that further.  Exactly how much the variance would be reduced was as yet unknown as it was difficult to predict what future pressures/demands might come forward.   Officers were however working very hard to reduce the figure without making any cuts in services.  Councillor Dolinski confirmed that one area that was being looked at was the provision of services that would enable people to remain in their own home rather than going into a care home.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services reported that the service was facing a massive challenge relating to increased demand as there were more children requiring support.  Councillor Helliar-Symons highlighted some of the pressures facing the service which included: an increase of a third since this time last year in the number of looked after children in the Borough which resulted in the need for more foster carers; there were more children whose needs were being catered for outside of the Borough which resulted in more home to school transport costs; more children with complex needs who were living longer;  Government legislation meant that young people in the Council’s care now had to be looked after until they were 25; and in addition there were increased costs of residential care.

With regard to the ongoing pressure in the High Needs Block Councillor Helliar-Symons informed Members that the number of pupils with special educational needs had risen by almost 15% in the last 2-3 years.  The proportion of those with social, emotional and mental health or autistic spectrum disorder was increasing in the Borough beyond the numbers seen nationally and indeed across the whole of the South East.  In addition there were insufficient suitable placements within the Borough which resulted in an increased reliance on expensive, independent, out of Borough provision.

In order to address some of these pressures the Council was looking to build more placements within the Borough but this would not benefit those whose needs were currently catered for outside the Borough as they were settled and could not be moved.  It would therefore be 2-3 years before any return on investment would be seen. 

The Leader of Council stated that matters had moved on quite substantially since the report was published and the current position was actually more favourable than was set out in the report.   

RESOLVED that:

1)        the quarter two position of the revenue budget and the level of balances in respect of the General Fund, Housing Revenue Account, Schools’ Block and the Authority’s investment portfolio be noted;

2)        it be noted that there are no Carry Forward estimates to the General Fund identified at this stage;

3)        the updates on the Adult Social Care Action Plan and the Children’s Services’ Action Plan (previously High Needs Block Action Plan) be noted.