Agenda item

To consider and comment on the Council’s 2020/21 Draft Budget/5-year Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) 2020/21 – 2024/25 proposals relating to the Scrutiny Panels’ remit.

Paul Durrant, Head of Finance, reported that there was a budgetary gap of £5.5 million and the proposals within the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) represented the contribution of services for children and young people to reducing this.  The Panel noted the following proposals:

·         A new integrated public health commissioned service delivery model for 0-19 year olds that would save £125k in each of the forthcoming two years;

·         Reducing placement costs through effective management of the market;

·         Insourcing accommodation for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeker Children;

·         Reducing operational costs in Schools and Learning and Commissioning; and

·         Reviewing spending on transport and taxis.

Panel Members queried the presentation of a budget reduction in the Public Health Service as having a positive impact.  Ms Edward reported that health visiting had previously been very targeted, with parents only receiving a small number of visits.  However, the service had now been transformed and, in particular, increased its reach against the five health visiting mandated  areas. Parents were now receiving a greatly increased number of visits.  The proposed savings were to be achieved through merging the health visiting and school nursing services.   This would lead to natural efficiencies through less duplication and back office savings.  The Panel noted that public health grant funding was ring fenced and the savings achieved would need to be deployed elsewhere within Public Health. 

Ms Edward reported that the provider for health visiting was Whittington Health.  92% of parents were currently receiving a new birth visit between 10 and 14 days of the birth.  78% of parents were receiving a 6 to 8 week visit.  Although this represented an improvement, further progress still needed to be made.

John O’Keefe, Interim Capital Accountant, reported that the proposal relating to School Streets was currently included within those for children’s services but was to be moved to those within the “Place” priority. The main capital investment that was planned was in respect of schools estate maintenance.  A number of surveys of the schools estate had taken place during the last 18 months and these had revealed its condition.  An additional amount of £10 million per year for five years had been put into the capital budget to fund the work that was required.  It was noted that the government only provided a grant of £3m per annum.  However, the amounts that had been allocated were still not enough to cover all of the work that was required.  The Council was currently developing an asset management plan which will assist in the setting of priorities.  It was agreed that a report be submitted to a future meeting of the Panel on the challenges that schools estates were facing.

The Panel noted that the additional funding would cover all of the Children’s Services estate and not just schools.  It was accepted that the amount that had been allocated was indicative but the need for investment needed to be balanced against the pressure on the Council’s revenue budget, which was under pressure and would be affected by additional borrowing costs. The Asset Management Plan and the Capital Strategy would contain additional detail on the proposals including scheduling and priorities.   In respect of deliverability, current performance showed an improvement so that was an increased level of confidence. 

Ms Graham commented that a lot of preparatory work had been undertaken in the past year on the schools estate due to its maintenance being given a higher priority. Specific criteria was being used to prioritise work that was based on the degree of urgency.  In addition, consideration was also given to the priorities of individual schools.  Further detail could be provided in a report  to a future meeting. 

The Cabinet Member stated that there was a massive need for repairs in schools and as much as possible had been allocated for this work.  However, there were longer term issues that needed to be considered, such as the future school population.  The Panel noted that there would be a regular cycle of reports to inform and guide the work that was undertaken, including the pupil place planning reports.  The environmental impact of work would be considered as part of the process.

AGREED:

That a report be submitted to a future meeting of the Panel regarding school estates and action being taken to address maintenance issues.