Invitees

Cllr PJ White, Cabinet Member - Social Services and Early Help;

Susan Cooper, Corporate Director - Social Services and Wellbeing;

Darren Mepham, Chief Executive;

Gill Lewis, Interim Head of Finance

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing submitted a report, that shared with Committee the Social Services and Wellbeing Future Service Delivery Plan.

She explained that over the last 4 years, the Council has reduced the budget by over £12m in social care and wellbeing. This had been achieved by doing things differently, ie remodelling, reconfiguring, restructuring and developing new ways of working together with new service delivery models. The strategy for the next few years was to manage demand and introduce new ways of working, in order to lessen dependency and enable people to maximise their independence. This required to be achieved within existing budget and after taking account of the current overspend of £2.2m.

Attached at Appendix 1 to the report, was the Future Service Delivery Plan (“the Plan”), however, it was be noted that the Plan was an evolving document, and the planned actions and targets within it may potentially be subject to change.

The Plan was made up of two sections, namely Section A – highlighting work completed and MTFS savings achieved to date and MTFS shortfalls, while Section B – Delivery Plan, set out the planned actions to be undertaken in order to make the required MTFS savings and maximise income opportunities by March 2019.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing added that under the Plan, MTFS savings of over £400k had been achieved in 2017/18 through reviewing and implementing new models of delivery for partnership contracts. There remained a shortfall of £237k for which additional planned actions were being developed, as identified in the Plan.

She added that a Corporate Governance Board had been established to monitor and review the Directorate’s Plan. The Board was to be chaired  by the Chief Executive and was made up of Officers as shown in paragraph 4.6 of the report.

Attached at Appendix 2 to the report, was a table that detailed governance arrangements in the Directorate.

The report went on to advise that the projected overspend in the quarter 3 Cabinet Budget Monitoring report, was £200k against older people’s services. However, at period 10, the projected overspend had reduced to £70k. This together with Welsh Government also having recently allocated winter pressure grant funding to local authorities, would mean older persons services will at least break even by year end.

In respect of Looked After Children, the projected overspend in the quarter 3 Cabinet budget monitoring report was £1.049m. This was mainly due to children being placed in Out of County placements, with such placements costing up to £460k per annum per placement.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing reminded Members however, that the Directorate were presently in a more improved financial  position this year than the previous year, which reflected the Service’s Strategy to place more children into more cost effective placements.

Similarly, high cost independent fostering placements had also actually reduced from an average of 90 in 2016/17 to an average of 75 in 2017/18. As a consequence, the average number of these in-house placements had increased from an average of 208 in 2016/17 to 217 this year (2017/18) at a much reduced average annual cost per placement of £18k. This change also evidenced the services Strategy, to place children in more cost effective places.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing confirmed that under the Service Delivery Plan there sat a Financial Monitoring Plan, established to assist in securing the outstanding shortfall, which would be not only be reviewed quarterly but monthly also.

The Chairperson asked what quartile BCBC were in when it came to an average spend per head for Adult Services and Childrens Services.

The Interim Head of Finance advised that we were in the same position as most other welsh authorities when it came to spend per head, though the cost to support adults was obviously lower than for children, due to the high expense associated with LAC costs.

A Member referred to paragraph 4.11 of the report, and the ongoing and high costs associated with LAC. He asked if there was any scope to collaborate with neighbouring authorities to provide support facilities within localised regions, as opposed to expensive Out of County arrangements as part of an Invest to Save type initiative. This could possibly be co-ordinated through Welsh Government.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing advised that some regional work had been completed in respect of the above, through a Regional Adoption Service. Some work had also taken place with certain providers with a view to reducing some elements of costs for LAC and expensive placements. She added that there was a piece of work being looked at which may possibly see the conversion of the Glan-yr-Afon site for the purpose of considering a commercial approach, of not only a care provision suitable for young people in Bridgend, but also as a facility where places could be sold elsewhere outside the area, which would then also potentially bring in a source of much needed income.

The Cabinet Member – Social Services and Early Help advised that numbers of LAC were difficult to adequately control, and were costly for the Authority, and therefore certain initiatives were being looked at by CMB, such as that above, which would be shared with Cabinet in due course accordingly. 

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing added that there was some assistance for the support of children entering various care environments through avenues of grant funding from Welsh Government, such as ‘Reflex’ for care arrangements in respect of post pregnancy and a similar initiative known as ‘Baby Mind’.

A Member referred to Appendix 1, Section B, of the Delivery Plan and the RAG (Red, Amber, Green) status of the various saving targets shown therein and with the commencement of the new financial year just days away, he asked when all the savings earmarked would be fully realised.

The Interim Head of Finance advised that this was currently work in progress, and that payback of the Directorate shortfall in terms of savings, would be closely monitored for progress as the Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing had advised earlier in debate, ie monthly, quarterly and finally on an annual basis, with a view to fully achieving all the over spend.

Finally, in response to a further question from the Chairperson regarding the Council charging other local authorities for the use of certain services provided to the Authority as referenced on page 260 of the report, the Interim Head of Finance confirmed that this would be investigated further as was confirmed in this section of the report, and possibly discussed at a future meeting of the Budget Research and Evaluation Panel (BREP), as part of future delivery of savings.

Conclusions:

·         The Committee asked that in future meetings the RAG status be completed in the financial plan.

·         The Committee proposed charging for things as Discovery days as a method of income generation.

·         The Committee agreed to receive an information report on the Social Services Financial Plan at each Corporate Overview and Scrutiny meeting so that they can continue to monitor the plan and pick up on any concerns as necessary.

Additional Information:

The Committee requested that they receive detail of the average spend per head for adults and children separately and where we sit as an Authority in comparison to other LA’s.