Agenda item - Budget

James Hengeveld - Head of Finance - Integrated Financial Management & Planning (IFMP)

 

Brian Doughty - Head of Adults Assessment

58.1         James Hengeveld (Head of Finance) informed that these were challenging times due to the increase in costs and the reduction in funding. There was a £20-£25m shortfall for 2015/16 and similar budget gaps for future years.  It was unlikely that this would change under a new government.

 

58.2         For 2015/16 the Green administration are proposing a 5.9% Council Tax increase. This would require a referendum. Labour’s proposals are for a 2% increase. Conservatives for a freeze which would attract government freeze grant equivalent to 1% council tax.

 

 

58.3         James outlined changes to the budget position since the council met in December: -

a.         The council tax base would be set on the 22/1/2015 at Policy and Resources and this showed an increase in revenue of £425,000 compared to what had been assumed which will help reduce the budget gap.

 

b.         The Local Council Tax Reduction scheme  (formerly Council Tax Benefit )was agreed in December which increased the minimum contribution from 8.5% to 15% for working age claimants. The changes did not affect pensioners.

 

c.         An indicative Local Government Finance Settlement for 2015/16 had been announced a year ago. The government confirmed the settlement before Christmas and there was no new funding for local authorities.

 

d.         Government announced Business Rates were being capped for 2015/16 at 25 increase. The latest estimate of Business Rates the council will receive for 2015/16 has increased by £220k since December and helps reduce the budget gap..

 

58.4         Budget Council would vote on the Green administration’s proposals on the 26 February 2015. Labour and Conservatives can put forward financially sound amendments to the administration’s budget proposals.

 

58.5         The Council were saying that there is an increase in costs of £40-50m over the next 5 years for example from inflation and supporting people with complex needs. This coupled with grant reductions totals £100m over the 5 years. Depending on what was approved at Budget Council with the council tax increase (5.9%, 2% or Freeze)  there would be a savings required of £20-25 m.

 

58.6         The cost of the referendum vote is £150k with additional costs  if the referendum  says no to a 5.9% increase .

 

Questions:

58.7         A further clarification on the re-billing of Council Tax after a referendum had been accepted?  The law states that if a referendum was agreed then the council tax bills would be issued at the higher rate of 5.9% until the referendum vote. This method was deemed more suitable as it would be a bigger problem for the Council if they had to recoup the backlog of debt if the billing was delayed or at a lower rate.

 

58.8         How many more people would be affected by a change in the Council Tax Reduction as residents were already confused about having to pay Council Tax when they didn’t have to before? The same people would be affected whichever council tax increase was agreed.

 

58.9         Are there any other council’s voting for a referendum? Surrey Police were planning to hold a referendum based on a 24% increase in their element of Council Tax.

 

58.10      Where is the greatest impact on budget? Brian Doughty (Head of Adults Assessment) said that Community Care Services had the largest budget in the Council. Changes were being made in partnership with the NHS. Adult Social Care had helped the NHS with trying to elevate the crisis in hospitals and had negotiated funds to be transferred to the Council for the work.

 

58.11      The Strategy was to avoid people entering into costly residential care. Also residents had said that they wanted to be cared for in their own homes.

 

58.12      The OPC had been told that their elections could not legally be held on the same day as the local elections. Previous costs for OPC elections were £10-£12k last time 2 seats were contested. It was felt by OPC members that this cost was minimal compared to the referendum costs discussed earlier. Officers could not comment on this as the topic of elections did not fall under their remit.

 

58.13      Was £381m in the General Fund available for the Council to spend? Only part of this fund could be used for discretionary spend as some of it was statutory.

 

58.14      Does the Council carry out cost comparisons with other similar council’s? Yes they did and this information was in the public domain. Cost comparisons showed that the costs of children’s placements were high compared to other local authorities. The Council had a statutory obligation to be responsible for Looked After Children (LAC), (children under local authority care) and also the safeguarding of children.

 

58.15      Had there been a 30% grant reduction since the Coalition came into power? It was confirmed that a comparison could not be made as the figures were not like for like due to various grant changes. For example business rates previously were collected by councils’ and kept by government, since the changes council’s now keep 49% of the revenue.

 

58.16      Brian Doughty – Head of Assessment Services said that Adult Social Care had £111m spending budget and was the largest budget in the Council. Without savings the Council would not exist. Comparisons made with similar demographic local authorities showed that Brighton and Hove’s Learning Disabilities service spent £4m more than their comparators. Learning Disabilities covers ages from 18-65 years and did not include people with dementia. There was a history that the in-house service is expensive and had increasing complexity of service users of all age groups with health needs. The level of need had increased from 3 years ago and so have hospital and residential home costs.

 

58.17      The Care Act – Phase 1 will commence in April 2015 and Phase 2 in 2016. The changes will mean approximately 2.5k people may need an assessment of their needs and the development of a care account. The Strategy focuses on re-enabling people back into the community with intensive care and reducing residential care through the use of technology. The budget is a huge challenge. Councils have a statutory need to carry out assessments; however there is discretion as to how these are met.

 

58.18      How can the Council maintain this level of care? The care offer needed to be changed so that the council were a last resort, rather than first resort. People needed to look at their own communities and be able to identify high risks to Council services.

 

58.19      The last budget showed an overspend, how are the service going to recoup this amount? The service had assisted the NHS with hospital discharges and the NHS had paid the service accordingly. This had offset the budget overspend.

 

58.20      Would there be a greater use of the private sector in the future? There would need to be change of criteria. 90% of services was provided by the private sector. There were no residential homes for older people owned by the council. Quality is variable in the Independent Sector. The Council had a statutory duty to safeguard adults.

 

58.21      The Care Act had a national eligibility criteria, previously it was written locally. The changes are about the way the Act is defined.

 

58.22      Due to the cuts in services how many jobs were going from the Council? There were 250-300 posts being deleted. Staff could apply for posts in redeployment and take voluntary severance.

 

58.23      The changing of the service from first to last resort could make services go into crisis, like A&E where people are going there as a first resort, causing further cost implications. The Service needed to get the balance right with good partnership work with health and the third sector.

 

Concerns were raised that older people could be trapped in their homes if the budget for residential care was being reduced and they could end up in A&E.

 

58.24      At any one time ASC provides services to 2,500 people and this will increase as a consequence of the Care Act. How would services be delivered for all these adults? It was recognised that this was very challenging. With future savings Adult Social Care would probably only be able to provide statutory services in the future and no discretionary services.

 

58.25      Every patient that was discharged from hospital should have a Care Plan and this should be publicised to make patients aware of the hospital’s duties. A recent newspaper article reported a case whereby a patient didn’t have Care Plan after an amputation. This meant that the patient did not have any statutory arrangements in place when he went home. The Social Work team at the hospital were responsible for completing a Care Plan with each patient before discharge. The team did their best to try and make sure this was achieved. Occasionally mistakes were made.

 

Healthwatch should promote the publicity of the Care Plans.

 

A patients complaint relating to not having a Care Plan was recently not acknowledge by the NHS.

 

The Council had a duty to advise people and were revamping their website.

 

58.26      The Council would be starting an information campaign about the Care Act and there would be a leaflet drop in Woodingdean. The Service would need to upscale Access Point and have face to face discussions to provide information.

 

58.27      There was a discussion over the low rate of pay for care workers and how they had to pay for their own travel costs. It was confirmed that the Council cannot legally bind the independent sector to pay the Living Wage. This also meant that there was a churn of staff for people. The Council monitored the churn of staff through their electronic tracking system; as each member of staff had to log into the system.

 

58.28      What is the set up for outpatients from hospitals? There was no dedicated team to set up patients for discharge. The Social Work team completed a Care Plan with the patient for discharge.

 

58.29      Did the Council monitor people who were over 70-80 years old that maybe socially isolated? There was no active monitoring scheme. Information was sourced from the voluntary sector and Age UK.

 

58.30      Members thanked the James Hengeveld and Brian Doughty for their time.

 

58.31      The OPC were surprised to read in  the Argus  about the proposal to dissolve them. Their replies to the article have not been printed. The paper called “The Older people’s Council – Brighton & Hove City Council Budget Proposals – The Impact on Older People” was circulated. (Attached)

 

58.32      The council had claimed that the cost of the OPC elections is £40k. Members agreed the most pragmatic action would be not to have an election and change their constitution so that they could continue to operate without an election. There may be talks to fit in with the Council’s Communities team.

 

58.33      The OPC budget is £9k, most of this was staffing costs to administer their 12 meetings which was support for 2 days a month. The £9k was not a budget pressure. Other costs included £600 for printing and production of the annual report, room hire £110 for each public meetings (which the council receive at a discounted rate).

 

58.34      Since the beginning the OPC have worked over 9 zones that cover the city.

 

58.35      The Council’s Leader at their recent meeting suggested that the OPC would be replaced with a consultative committee. Concerns were raised over this and the lack of democratic accountability.

 

58.36      The toilets budget proposals felt unfair as it said that only toilets in areas with high visitor numbers would remain open. This would mean that £160,000 would be cut from the toilets budget would close or have reduced opening times and there would be less choice for residents.

 

58.37      The 20 January was Democracy Day. The OPC are democratically elected and have been representing the over 60’s age group since 2003. It’s unique in that it is the only one in the UK.

 

58.38      There has always been a struggle to engage with the electorate. The OPC have an extensive website, telephone enquiry line and also the Grey Matters radio programme. The Chair suggested that the public could contact their local Councillor  to ask them to actively oppose the dissolution of the OPC.

 

58.39      The Pensioner magazine was in danger due to lack of funding support.

 

58.40      The budget proposals included reducing maintenance of graveyards, charging entrance fees to tourists at Museums and charging children who attended the toddler group at the Library.

 

58.41      It was felt that the budget proposal to cut the OPC goes against the Age Friendly City work.  These proposals would be heard at the Policy & Resources Committee on the 12 February and Budget Council on the 27 February.

 

58.42      The OPC had been discussing their concerns with the Brighton & Independent paper.

 

58.43      It was felt by a member of the public that the OPC paper needed to clarify that the budget proposals were also supported by both Labour and the Conservatives. The Chair reminded everyone that the OPC was non-party political.

 

58.44      A member of the public suggested starting a petition.

 

58.45      It was confirmed that the budget proposals also included savings to the Youth Council. 

 

58.46      Members were informed how the Community Safety Forum from the EB4U project continued to play an active role.

 

58.47      It was clarified that the OPC were independent and had links with Age UK for information sharing and work programming.

 

58.48      The National Pension Convention were against the closure of the OPC including MP Caroline Lucas.

 

58.49      The OPC would like assistance with the hire of meeting rooms in the  future.

 

58.50      Members thanked the members of public for their support and reiterated that they were expecting to continue.