Issue - meetings

This report provides an update on the current position of funding for Supporting People, advises of the cost pressures arising from new, complex cases in adult social services and seeks approval to release funding from contingency for additional complex cases in 2006/07.

Members considered a report which provided an update on the current funding position of the Supporting People (SP) Programme, advised of cost pressures arising from new, complex cases in adult social services and sought approval to call off funding from contingency for these cases in 2006/7.

RESOLVED: (i)         That the funding position relating to Supporting People, and the fact that growth will need to be provided as part of the budget process for 2007/8 to deal with the additional cost pressure to the Council, be noted.

REASON:      So that the Executive is briefed on the context of budget pressures before considering the budget requirements for 2007/8.

                        (ii)        That a call off of £400k from contingency be approved, for additional complex cases in adult social services in 2006/7.

REASON:      To enable Housing and Adult Social Services to meet the additional costs arising from the increase in complex cases.

Members considered a report which provided an update on the current funding position of the Supporting People (SP) Programme, advised of cost pressures arising from new, complex cases in adult social services and sought approval to call off funding from contingency for these cases in 2006/7.

SP was a grant programme enabling the provision of housing related support services to help vulnerable people to live independently.  Due to a change in the distribution of grant funding, York would receive 2% less SP funding in 2007/8 than in the current year, equating to a cut of 4.3% in real terms.  Furthermore, a review of SP services to ensure they complied with revised government guidance had indicated that some services were no longer eligible for SP grant funding.  The most significant impact of this would be on services for people with learning or physical disabilities living in ‘care and support’ schemes.  The full financial implications of these changes would be set out in the budget proposals for 2007/8.

The potential need to seek funding from contingency for additional complex cases had already been flagged up as part of the budget process for 2006/7.  So far this year there had been 23 such cases, resulting in a net increase of £411k.  Examples to illustrate the complexity of these cases were set out in Annex 1 to the report.  The following options were presented:

Option 1 – not to approve the call off from contingency, leaving the £411k as a cost pressure on Adult Social Services;

Option 2 – to approve a call off from contingency of £400k for these cases, thus reducing the projected overspend on the department in the current year.

In commenting on the proposals, Members discussed whether it would be helpful for the Council to write to the Department of Health to highlight the issues faced by the City of York in this area.

RESOLVED: (i)         That the funding position relating to Supporting People, and the fact that growth will need to be provided as part of the budget process for 2007/8 to deal with the additional cost pressure to the Council, be noted.

REASON:      So that the Executive is briefed on the context of budget pressures before considering the budget requirements for 2007/8.

                        (ii)        That a call off of £400k from contingency be approved, for additional complex cases in adult social services in 2006/7.

REASON:      To enable Housing and Adult Social Services to meet the additional costs arising from the increase in complex cases.