Agenda item

The Principal Accountant for Finance and  Administration attended the meeting and informed Members that the report set out the main financial issues which faced the Group’s services and the work being undertaken to respond to them.

Members were informed that the budget report to Council in February 2014 had identified the savings requirements for 2015/16 of £20.3m and the Committee was informed that work was underway to refresh this figure. The finance settlement for the Council would be announced towards the end of the year.

The Committee was informed that the Group was given a savings target for 2014/15 of £1.5m and had already delivered £1.4m of these.

Members asked what was the percentage of savings made in relation to the overall Council savings and to overall costs.

Subsequent to the meeting, Members were informed that Administration & Finance savings equated to 12% of the Council's overall savings and that the savings for the Group equated to 6.74% of the net budget for the Group.

In relation to the impact of the Better Care Fund (BCF), Members asked how the Council's funding of £17,991k was calculated. Subsequent to the meeting, Members were provided with background to the BCF.

The Disabled Facilities Capital and Social Care Capital figures were currently received directly by LBH. Section 256 of the National Health Act allowed Primary Care Trusts and their successor Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCG) to enter into arrangements with local authorities, for local authorities to carry out social care activities with health benefits. This is what the Section 256 funding listed above related to.

The further NHS funding transfer included funding for carers and intermediate care/ Rapid Response, currently received by the CCG.

The total BCF funding was not new money into the local economy; it was either committed to existing ongoing spend within LBH or the CCG; or, alternatively it was expected to be released from commissioning for hospital services.

The BCF was also linked to new duties that come into being from April 2015 as a result of the Care Act, resulting from new entitlements for carers and the introduction of a national minimum eligibility threshold as well as better information and advice, advocacy, safeguarding and other measures in the Care Act.  

Members asked about emerging pressures within the Group and were informed that there were two key areas which required closely monitoring. There was the management of the vacancy factor given the significant staffing budgets and the number of restructures that were at various stages across the Group. The second key area related to the ongoing achievement of income targets, particularly those that had been increased for 2014/15 through the MTFF process.

A general point was made regarding whether the savings targets had been challenging and subsequent to the meeting, it was reported that the Group was continuously seeking to identify efficiencies and savings and these were put in place as quickly as possible. This strategy had assisted in an early delivery of savings for 2014/15, some of which had been based on efficiencies put in to place during 2013/14. The majority of the budget of the Group related to staffing and most of the savings had been the result of restructures.

RESOLVED –

1.    That the development of the financial planning process undertaken to date be noted, together with the subsequent responses given to the issues raised.