Agenda and minutes

Please note that this meeting may be filmed or recorded by the Council for live or subsequent broadcast via the Council’s internet site or by anyone attending the meeting using any communication method. Although we ask members of the public recording, filming or reporting on the meeting not to include the public seating areas, members of the public attending the meeting should be aware that we cannot guarantee that they will not be filmed or recorded by others attending the meeting. Members of the public participating in the meeting (e.g. making deputations, asking questions, making oral protests) should be aware that they are likely to be filmed, recorded or reported on. 

By entering the meeting room and using the public seating area, you are consenting to being filmed and to the possible use of those images and sound recordings.

The chair of the meeting has the discretion to terminate or suspend filming or recording, if in his or her opinion continuation of the filming, recording or reporting would disrupt or prejudice the proceedings, infringe the rights of any individual or may lead to the breach of a legal obligation by the Council.

The Chair referred Members present to agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein’.

Apologies for absence were received from Cllr Mahir Demir.

Apologies for lateness were received from Cllr Mark Blake who joined the meeting at 6:45pm.

The Chair will consider the admission of any late items of urgent business (late items will be considered under the agenda item where they appear. New items will be dealt with as noted below).

None.

A Member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest

becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Members’ Register of Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interest are

defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct.

Cllr Pippa Connor declared an interest by virtue of her membership of the Royal College of Nursing.

Cllr Pippa Connor declared an interest by virtue of her sister working as a GP in Tottenham.

Cllr Gideon Bull declared that he was currently employed by NHS England.

To consider any requests received in accordance with Part 4, Section B, Paragraph 29 of the Council’s Constitution.

None.

To approve the minutes of the previous meeting.

The minutes of the previous meeting were approved as an accurate record.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 15^th November 2021 be approved as an accurate record.

To scrutinise the revenue and capital proposals relating to the 2022/23 Draft Budget and the Medium Term Financial Strategy for 2022/23 to 2026/27.

Josephine Lyseight, Head of Finance (People), introduced the reports focusing initially on Appendix B which covered the 2022/23 Budget and the 2022-2027 Medium Term Financial Strategy. She explained that the draft budget for next year included a budget growth proposal of £11.85m across the whole organisation, of which £2.41m was growth in the Adults part of the budget. To balance the budget there would be a short-term use of reserves totalling £5.8m. This assumed additional income from a Council Tax increase of 1.99% and a further Adults Social Care Precept of 1%.

Josephine Lyseight reported that no new savings were being proposed for Adults & Health, however there were previously agreed savings in the 2022/23 to 2025/26 period with an overall savings target of £4.7m. The total revenue budget for Adults for 2022/23 was just over £82m.

Cllr Bull said that he understood additional funding for local authorities to have been recently announced for adult social care by the NHS to help discharge patients from hospital to free up space for Covid patients. Asked by Cllr Bull how this would be factored into next year’s Adults budget, Josephine Lyseight said that she didn’t have any specific details about additional funding but that any new money would fund additional expenditure and so would not change the funding allocation in the rest of the budget.

Josephine Lyseight then addressed the capital budget noting that there were no new capital proposals for Adults. The capital allocation for previously agreed projects from 2022/23 to 2026/27 was just under £73m.

Asked by Cllr Connor whether the £12m figure quoted in paragraph 1.4 of Appendix B represented the total savings that the Council needed to make in 2022/23, Josephine Lyseight confirmed that this was correct and that £4.7m of this related to the Adults budget, as set out in Table 7.2 on page 40 of the agenda pack. Asked by Cllr Connor how this related to the figures set out in the Savings Tracker on pages 71 & 72 of the agenda pack, Beverley Tarka, Director of Adults & Health, clarified that the figures in Table 7.2 comprised of previously agreed savings for the 2022/23 to 2025/26 period and that no new savings for this period were being proposed this year. The previously agreed savings were therefore already ‘baked into’ the budget. The Savings Tracker illustrated progress against agreed savings in the 2021/22 financial year. Josephine Lyseight clarified that the savings target for 2021/22 was just under £3.2m, followed by £3.98m in 2022/23 and £0.535m in 2023/24 with no savings required in the following two years, resulting in total savings of just over £7.6m.

Asked by Cllr Peacock what services would be cut as a result of this, Beverley Tarka said that their budget management strategy had three strands. The first strand was managing the market which related to how much was paid for care to providers by stabilising prices in line with comparable boroughs. The second strand was demand management with early interventions, such as through reablement  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

To consider any additions or amendments to the Panel’s current work plan for 2021/22.

The updated Work Programme was noted. A planned visit on December 13^th to Lowry House to support the scrutiny review on sheltered housing had been cancelled following public health advice on Covid. It was hoped that this could be rescheduled but, due to the current Covid situation, this was unlikely to be possible until February at the earliest.

·         3^rd March 2022

·         3^rd March 2022