Agenda and minutes

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 35.

The Chief Executive reported that no questions had been received under Standing Order 7(3) and 7(5).

There were no urgent items for consideration.

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to declare any interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

No such declarations were made.

There were no declarations of the party whip.

The Committee considered a joint report of the Director of Adults and Communities and Director of Corporate Resources which provided information on the proposed 2015/16 to 2018/19 Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) as it related to the Adults and Communities Department. A copy of the report marked ‘Agenda Item 7’ is filed with these minutes. 

The Chairman welcomed Mr D W Houseman MBE CC, Cabinet Lead Member for Adult Social Care and Mr R Blunt CC, Cabinet Lead Member for Heritage, Leisure and Arts to the meeting for this item.

In introducing the report the Director of Adults and Communities and Cabinet Lead Members advised that the Department was facing unprecedented budget pressures as well as demand pressures. In response to the challenge the Department was focused on:-

·    Reducing demand by investing in early intervention and prevention;

·    Ensuring care was provided in the most cost effective way which would mean some restriction on choice;

·    Closer working and commissioning of services with partners, particularly the NHS.

There were some key risks facing the Department particularly in relation to resources required to implement the Care Act and the level of fees payable to care providers. In addition, the Committee was advised that monies from the Better Care Fund coming into the County Council were subject to the achievement of challenging targets for reducing hospital admissions.

General

In response to comments from members the Director undertook to provide:-

• Figures for departmental income over the last three years (copy attached as an appendix to this minute);
• Figures for the overall spend on learning disabilities, mental health and physical disabilities to enable members to see the proposed growth outlined at G6, G7 and G8 in context (work on this is being undertaken and details will be provided to members shortly);
• An analysis of the transformation savings outlined in paragraph 29 to 34 of the report and the impact of these programmes on service users to a future meeting of the Committee.

Arising from discussion the following points were raised:-

Communities and Wellbeing Savings

(i)    In relation to the departmental saving D28 – Reduction in funding for Community Museums, members noted the proposals to develop community partnerships to operate community museums. Whilst this was generally welcomed, concern was raised regarding community capacity given that there were already proposals for communities to operate local libraries. Officers noted concerns expressed and advised that the County Council would work to build capacity in local areas which would include working with parish councils, schools and community groups. The County Council would provide some professional museum support as well as access to museum collections;

(ii)   With regard to the reduction of the overall Communities and Wellbeing budget which would reduce to approximately £3 million by 2017/18, the Director advised that work was underway to consider the future shape of the service with a view to understanding how to achieve best value for that level of investment. This work would cover both libraries and museum services, explore options for future delivery and consider how to maximise income;

(iii)  Members were advised that savings targets for Communities and Wellbeing services for 2015/16 totalled £710,000, of this a total of £180,000 had been identified. The balance of £530,000 remained unallocated pending further consideration of business cases and outcomes of consultations currently underway;

(iv) In relation to the savings requirements for libraries members were advised that £180,000 was to be achieved by a reduction in the opening hours at the 16 main libraries;

Adult Social Care Savings

(v)  Members welcomed the work undertaken in developing the Shared Lives service which had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

The next meeting of the Committee is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, 3 March at 2.00pm.  

It was noted that the next meeting of the Committee would be held on Tuesday, 3 March at 2.00pm.