Agenda item
Impact of the budget on future service delivery including schools budget
This report provides detailed information regarding the 2011/12 revenue budget for the Children and Families Department (C&F) including the impact of savings necessary to reach the agreed cash limit for the Department.
Minutes:
Rik Boxer presented a report to the committee outlining the Children and Families revenue budget for 2011/12 and the considerable financial pressures affecting the department. The committee heard that the grant funding from central government on which the local authority was heavily dependent, had been cut by an average of 11.3% for 2011/12 and 7.4 for 2012/13. These cuts had taken place in the context of rising costs due to inflation and a range of growing service pressures. In addition, the department had to contend with spending pressures from the 2010/11 financial year, including an overspend of just under £400k. Rik Boxer drew the Committees attention to the table at paragraph 5.1, noting that the Children and Families department had also experienced a significant reduction in other specific grants and that overall there had been a 17.1% reduction of the department's budget from 2010/11 to 2011/12.
The level of budget reductions meant that the Children and Families department had been required to fundamentally review how services to children and young people should be delivered. Referring to Appendix A, Rik Boxer detailed several areas where savings had been made for 2011/12, including those which had received significant media coverage. Amongst others, reductions in spending had been made via children's centres, the school improvement service and the youth and connexions service. Turning to Appendix B, Rik Boxer advised that some grants which had previously been distributed via the local authority were now allocated direct to schools. Via the Schools Forum, the local authority had discussed the amounts to be retained by the local authority to continue to fund centrally provided services to schools. Following these discussions, the Schools Forum had determined that the amount of central holdback by the local authority should be reduced, with a greater proportion of the grants going direct to schools.
During Members’ discussion, the Chair sought further details regarding the relationship between the Schools Forum and the local authority. Rik Boxer advised that the Schools Forum was constituted under government regulations and comprised representatives for Head teachers and governing bodies as well as representatives for private and voluntary organisations related to the early education sector. It principally operated in an advisory capacity, however did have some direct powers such as deciding whether various grants should go direct to schools or should be partially retained by the local authority. Rik Boxer emphasised that the nature of the relationship between the Council and Brent’s schools was very good and was reflected in the Schools Forum.
The Chair noted that the Youth Offending Task Group had recognised the importance of early intervention services for children and families and had made a series of related recommendations including that Brent develop a comprehensive Prevention Strategy. Given the financial position of the department, the Chair queried whether the implementation of these recommendations would be possible. Rik Boxer advised that the local authority did have to prioritise the delivery of statutory services.
With reference to Appendix A, the Chair noted that several posts within the schools improvement service had been or would be deleted and sought further details regarding the service and its ability to adequately support Brent’s schools. Rik Boxer informed the committee that the schools improvement service was viable and was valued by Brent’s schools. However, the continuation of the service in future financial years would be dependent upon the support of Brent’s schools. The committee further heard that there were some services that could be traded to schools rather than centrally funded. Following a query by the Chair regarding cost recovery for discretionary services, Rik Boxer advised that nationally there was a move towards ensuring that there was full cost recovery for such services. In explanation, the committee heard that currently, where the department charged for services, the council was effectively subsidising the overhead costs accrued during service delivery. Consequently, given the current financial constraints of the department, in order to remain viable in the long term, these services needed to achieve full cost recovery. A phased approach would be applied in achieving this.
The Chair sought further information with respect to the number of Looked After Children (LAC) accommodated by the authority. Graham Genoni advised that there were currently 390 LAC within Brent and that the rising numbers of LAC was mirrored in both a National and London-wide trend. The rise in referrals by individuals and organisations was thought to have been largely prompted by the greater awareness of such issues following the death of Peter Connelly. This rise was also reflected in the number of court proceedings relating to child protection cases with which the local authority was engaged; these had risen over an eighteen month period from 170 to 270.
The Chair sought further information on the intention to move more LAC aged 16 years old and above to semi-independent accommodation to reduce the costs of and to free up foster placements. In response to the Chair’s concern that such action could result in a greater degree of placement breakdowns, Graham Genoni confirmed that the plan was subject to the needs of the children in question. Each child would be assessed and officers were aware that some children would not be ready to move to semi-independent accommodation. The Chair asserted that the numbers of LAC who ended up homeless or in prison was far out of proportion and, referring to the plan to reduce non LAC costs such as payments to adopters queried whether this could be considered a ‘null’ policy in terms of its future implications and associated costs. The committee was advised that the department had to prioritise needs and this policy involved providing financial assistance only to those adopters who qualified via means testing and for family members caring for a LAC via a residents order or SGO, asserting that the financial responsibility for that child lay with the family.
In noting the decision of the Schools Forum to reduce the monies held back by the authority to fund the early years intervention teams, Councillor Harrison queried whether the local authority was able to monitor whether the proportion of this grant which went direct to schools was spent as it should be, on early years intervention. Graham Genoni advised that the grants going direct to schools were not specifically ringfenced and therefore the early years intervention teams now represented a lost resource. Rik Boxer advised that Brent Schools had previously supported the early years intervention team to ensure that work around CAFs was picked up. As the size of the team had now been reduced, the schools would absorb more aspects of this work and would set their own priorities.
Councillor Harrison commented that the with reductions to the Youth Service, youth provision in the borough would further diminish and queried how organisations which contributed to youth provision could be signposted to available grants and funding. Rik Boxer advised that there was a range of youth provision which the council would continue to maintain including the new Roundwood development for which the authority had submitted a successful bid to establish state of the art provision. However, there would be a significant reduction in the role of the local authority as a service provider and the department would instead aim to support and signpost other providers from the voluntary sector and other services within the council to funding opportunities.
The Chair thanked the officers for the report.
RESOLVED: -
that the report be noted
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