Agenda item

To receive an update on financial performance in quarter one relating to Corporate Plan Priority 1.

Paul Durrant, Senior Business Partner, introduced the report on the budget position for Priority 1 of the Corporate Plan for Quarter 1 of 2018/19. On the Revenue Budget there was a projected overspend of just under £4.9m. The largest cause of this was on Safeguarding and Social Care where there was a projected overspend of £3.6m. Of this:

• £2.3m was attributed to Local After Children (LAC) External Placements. Although the overall number of children in care had not risen, the number of high cost placements had gone up. Pressures on the budget to make savings had also been a contributory factor.
• £0.8m was attributed to The Young Adult Service, mainly due to the new duty on local authorities to support care leavers up to the age of 25 rather than 21.
• £0.6m was due to the use of agency staff which are generally more expensive than permanent employees.
• £0.4m was due to costs associated with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) cases.
• There was one area of underspend, forecast to be £0.4m, due to lower than expected numbers of in-house foster carers.

The next most significant cause was on Prevention and Early Intervention where there was a projected overspend of £1.2m. Of this:

·         £0.2m was attributed to Children Centres as the service has been unable to achieve the income generation through fees that had been expected.

·         £0.6m was attributed to the Special Education Needs Service, mainly due to the statutory duty to provide transport for those over 19 years old.

·         £0.3m was attributed to the Family Support service, mainly due to an increase in demand for respite.

·         £0.2m was attributed to the Inclusion Service, mainly due to an unachievable savings target.

In response to questions from the Panel, Cllr Weston, Sarah Alexander, Ann Graham and Paul Durrant said:

• While the agency staff rate was higher than was desirable, Haringey was not unique in this respect as it is a national issue and some boroughs have higher rates. A lot of work had been done with Haringey’s recruitment partners, Hays, to try and improve recruitment and retention. However, some people are choosing to use agencies as a method of working. Also, some positions are hard to recruit to and are particularly affected by caseload levels. Officers are doing what they can to make Haringey an attractive place to work and to persuade agency staff to become permanent members of staff, including through golden handshakes, but there was more that could be done such as raising the quality of practice.
• On the External Placements budget, there were a total of 40 young people in residential care at present with a range of placements used across the country, sometimes because specialist support is required which is only available in certain areas and sometimes because of safety concerns. However, the Council tries to keep children within the M25 area where possible. The average weekly cost of residential care placements for children was currently estimated to be £3,500.
• In relation to the overall overspend in Children’s Services, Haringey is not an outlier as there are similar, if not larger, overspends elsewhere as there are national factors at play. The LGA had predicted a national deficit of £2bn from what Children’s Services need and what was being provided by the government and a recent BBC report had indicated that demands on Children’s Services had increased by 78% over the past 10 years.
• Asked about the current number of NRPF cases and the precise budget figures on this, further details would be provided to the panel in writing (ACTION: Sarah Alexander and Paul Durrant). Cllr Carlin said that she understood that there was no longer a Home Office member of staff within the NRPF which she welcomed.
• That there is a Memorandum of Understand (MoU) with other local authorities that Haringey is a signatory to which agrees not to pay agency staff over a certain rate.
• On the application for funding to the Young Londoners Fund no announcement had yet been made.
• The cost of transport (for the Special Educational Needs service) was complex as costs vary according to where placements are and the length of routes that were therefore commissioned. Other factors included the recently expanded age range and that a local transport provider had recently gone bust. Efforts were being made to keep expenditure in this area down but the overall cost had increased.

AGREED: That the report be noted.