Agenda item

(Report of the Director of the Children and Young People’s Service): To implement the final funding decisions in relation to the budget reductions in the Children and Young People’s Service.

(Report of the Director of the Children and Young Peoples’ Service – Agenda Item 4):

The Appendix to the interleaved report was the subject of a motion to exclude the press and public from the meeting as it contained exempt information relating to the business or financial affairs of any particular person (including the Authority holding that information).

It was noted that overarching funding criteria for the Council, based on work from the Audit Commission had been approved by the Cabinet on 8 February. The Children and Young Peoples’ Directorate specific criteria measured services against a three stage assessment. Services were first assessed regarding the extent to which they met at least one of the first two strategic priorities of the Children and Young Peoples’ Services Strategic Plan 2009-2020. The second stage assessment involved prioritising services where the predominant numbers of service users were vulnerable children and young people with acute or highly complex need, being level four on the Haringey Continuum of Need. Under provisional assessment, services which did not meet level four would receive no further funding save for circumstances where a withdrawal of service would put the Council at serious risk of failing to meet its statutory duties. In such cases, funding would be reviewed, and this represented the third stage of the assessment.

These criteria had been applied and the provisional decisions were notified to providers and users to enable consultation to be undertaken. The final recommendations for services, having considered the responses to consultation and conducted an Equalities Impact Assessment were set out at Appendix H Annex 1. The recommendations meant that services and organisations would be subject to one of three outcomes which were that, in 2011/12, they would receive: the same level of funding; a reduced level of funding; or no funding.

It was also noted that the criteria reasonably utilised the ‘Continuum of Need’ as a basis for a risk assessment, as this was the tool used as part of the Common Assessment Framework and was developed by the London Safeguarding Children Board (a multi-agency board) following the statutory guidance as laid out in “Working Together to Safeguard Children” (September 2010). The further criteria stages were developed in response to consultation to include a third stage to ensure that the Authority complied with its Equality Act 2010 duties and the Aiming High government project. The range of services that might be affected by both the design of the criteria and the decision to implement the decisions on applying the criteria was broad. For the purposes of the Equality Impact Assessment, the services provided had been grouped into 8 themes,  Early Years Education and Childcare; Activities for Young People 13-19 Years; Disabilities and Special Educational Needs; Family Support; 14 to 19 Education; 6. Children in Care; Youth Offending; and Teenage Pregnancy.

It was reported that in commenting on the application of application of criteria and proposed decisions, the following main themes emerged from consultation responses:

• Feedback to the consultation process – The consultation period was considerably less then recommended in the local Compact guidance. Decisions about funding were part of an overall strategy to save £41 million at very short notice.  The consultation started as soon as possible given those constraints.

• Childcare Sufficiency – The criteria and judgements did not allow a full range of services and organisations and services felt that this would effectively make childcare unaffordable.  The introduction of the Council’s Early Years Single Funding Formula (EYSFF) was anticipated to increase funding for the majority of settings. For those organisations where sustainability was anticipated to be a problem with     the introduction of the new system a reduced rate of time limited funding had been recommended.

• Ensure services for individual children at and young people at Level   4 – The Council was dedicated to ensuring that all children in the borough who were judged to be at level 4 on the continuum of need had access to an appropriate level of service.  This would be ensured through the appropriate assessments processes.

• Services that work predominantly with service users at Level 3 and below – Some organisations expressed concern about differentiating between level 3 and 4 on the continuum of need as they felt that this might lead to more children moving from level 3 to 4. The Children and Young Peoples’ Service would support schools, other extended school providers and third sector organisations by providing advice on access arrangements and training to enable them to continue to provide for children and young people at level 3.  This, it was hoped, would mitigate against the possibility of these children rising into the level 4 category.

• Nurseries & playgroups –Some service providers expressed difficulty in estimating the effect of these proposals because they had not received definitive information about their EYSFF allocation.  The EYSFF was a significant change in the way the Council funded private, voluntary and independent organisations (PVI), which had been delayed due to the need to gather extensive data collection from schools and PVI’s, which was needed to arrive at the final indicative allocation of each service providers

• Sustainability of Nursery and playgroup settings – Organisations expressed concern that the proposed reduction in the sustainability grant was not phased.  The financial viability of early years childcare providers had been assessed and of those organisations where there was a serious risk that to withdraw funding would threaten the Council’s ability to meet its statutory duties a reduced level of the sustainability grant was recommended to mitigate against this risk.

It was also reported that the themes and the Council’s analysis was set out in more detail at Appendices F and G but that, overall, it was generally acknowledged that there was a need to prioritise services for the most vulnerable children and young people given the budgetary challenges faced by the Council.  Organisations had requested assurances that those children on the autistic spectrum that did not necessarily have level 4 needs would continue to receive support to stay healthy and safe. Children on the autistic spectrum might range within the levels on the triangle. The Children and Young Peoples’ Service considered that it had a duty to children on the autistic spectrum by virtue of the Aiming High strategy and also because of its Equality Act 2010 duty, and would prioritise resources accordingly so that it effectively discharged its statutory duty to meet the needs of this group.

It was also noted that the detailed breakdown of the proposed reduction in budget was set out in the exempt Appendix 1 to the report and that the following table summarised the overall outcome -

The projected 2011/12 spend also included a provision for accessing supported housing and domiciliary services where required for children with Level 4 needs. This had not been identified as a proposed cut, as it did not relate to a contract with a specified provider and was very much case-specific to the individual and their particular needs. Consequently, it was impossible to predict exactly the budget required. Failure to have this resource in place might result in the Authority being unable to meet its statutory duty to the most vulnerable people in some circumstances.

The Director of the Children and Young Peoples’ Service further reported that the following amendment was required in relation to paragraphs 4.2 (B), (D), (F) and (H). The contract start date should read 1 April 2011 and not 1 June 2011. The funding allocations in the spreadsheet set out in the exempt Appendix 1 – schedule recommend decisions represented the total funding for the financial year 2011/12.

RESOLVED

1.      That approval be granted to the Children and Young Peoples’ Service Directorate specific criteria as set out at Appendix B to the interleaved report for the future funding of services in the Children and Young Peoples’ Service in order to enable final decisions on funding of individual services to be made.

2.      That subject to the amendment outlined above approval be granted to the recommendations as set out in the exempt Appendix 1 to the interleaved report to implement the funding changes to individual services resulting from the application of these criteria; such approval must take into account the outcome of consultation with the organisations and service users and, further, due regard must be given to the authority’s public sector equality duty, taking into account the attached equality impact assessments.