Agenda item

This report analyses the latest performance for 2020/21 and forecasts the financial outturn position by reference to the service plans and budgets for all of the services falling under the responsibility of this committee.

Members considered a report that analysed the latest performance for 2020/21 and forecast the financial outturn position by reference to the service plans and budgets for all of the services falling under the responsibility of the committee.

The Head of Finance (Adults, Children & Education) and Corporate Director of People were in attendance to present the report. The Head of Finance (Adults, Children & Education) advised Members that the projected overspend of £1million was nearly entirely due to children’s social care partly as a result of the reduction in agency staff not coming to fruition. He further advised that there was an expected overspend in the Designated Schools Grant (DSG) and the deficit for this was expected to be over £1million.  The Head of Finance (Adults, Children & Education) and Corporate Director of People were asked and clarified:

·        The position with Danesgate. It was suggested that Headteacher be invited to a future committee meeting to meet the committee.

·        The inclusion review had looked at provision for children with additional needs.  

·        There was a national review of placement provision

·        There was 10 new foster carers in York

·        Regarding out of town placements, there had been success in moving a number of children back to York. However, there are children whose needs are such that they need speciality support which may be outside the city.

·        The review of vacancies was ongoing across the directorate. There was a tracker to look at the needs of children and plan appropriate placements for them

·        Transport costs were not covered by the Designated Schools Grant (DSG) and came from the general fund. Generally the costs overall were less if children were placed in York

·        Early intervention and assessment were more likely to prevent children from coming into care. Recalibration tended to see a rise in children with child protection plans and in the care of the local authority as their corporate parent

·        In terms of budget planning for preventative work, budget planning for the following year had not begun but the preventative aspect would be part of the rationale for the budget going forward.

·        If a child needed to come into the care of the authority then they would. There was a need to ensure that all parts of the system were based around preventative work, with the establishment of the MASH in York. The external review of MASH was very positive.

·        The numbers of children coming into the system were reducing and the authority was much better at care planning and it would take time to bring numbers down to circa 230 in line with statistical neighbours

·        It was not known what the long term impact of the pandemic would be and what the impact would be on the numbers of referrals

·        An update on court proceedings was given,

·        Cllr Smalley (Executive Member for Culture, Leisure and Communities) confirmed there had been a one off payment to Make it York (MiY) for a culture officer and this would be included in the Service Level Agreement (SLA) with MiY. (He declared an interest as a Director of MiY).

·        Regarding 38 week placements, the council was trying to recruit different people as foster carers and some children may need to live in residential care and with foster carers looking after them during the school holidays

·        Following a question about the overspend of £72,000 on educational psychologists, the Head of Finance undertook to check what the reason for this was.

·        The restrictions on all discretionary spend referred to budget managers’ discretionary spending

Following questions Members then;

Resolved: That the update on the latest financial position for 2020/21 be noted.

Reason:     To be updated on the latest financial position for 2020/21.