Agenda item

The Committee considered a report of the Director of Children and Family Services which detailed the planned programme of departmental savings across Children and Family Services forming part of the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy 2013/14 – 2017/18 and information about the Council’s Transformation Programme including where the Service’s required MTFS savings would fit within that. A copy of the report, marked ‘agenda item 10’, is filed with these minutes.

Arising from discussion, the following principal points were noted:-

     i)        A number of the separate savings areas for the Children and Families Service had been brought together to create four transformation projects, within the wider context of the County Council’s 24 projects, which would remodel:

a.    children’s social care;

b.    early help services;

c.    special educational needs and disability services; and

d.    education services.

    ii)        The context of the programme would be set within a stable vision and mission, with the Service continuing to meet its statutory obligations whilst promoting independence and collaboration through partnerships and local integration of services through a planned and effective commissioning approach, in order to provide service users with the right help at the right time,

   iii)        With an increasing difficulty in achieving further efficiency or savings within statutory areas, the 30% of departmental budget currently spent on non statutory early help  services would need to be the focus of future savings in order to meet MTFS targets;

   iv)        Engagement of partners and providers such as Health, the Police, District Councils, Schools and other learning providers likely to be affected in those service areas had already begun, as had engagement with parents, young people and families, which would continue as the Service, having already saved £4m in the current MTFS, formulated its remaining £9.84m savings required between 2015 and 18;

    v)        Members noted that it was clear that further savings would be required for at least 2018/19 as well, with the Government continuing its austerity programme in the public sector;

   vi)        In respect of the transformation project to remodel children’s social care, the Director reassured members that First Response measures to deal with specialist intervention and safeguarding would continue to be delivered at the right time and by the right provider in line with statutory requirements. It was hoped that by improving the way in which early help was delivered, such as through the Supporting Leicestershire Families (SLF) programme, that demand for high cost intervention services would be reduced;

 vii)        In noting the ongoing SLF programme was not funded in the current MTFS, the programme needed to be aligned better with other services in order to provide for management level savings. A cost benefit analysis would also be undertaken with all partners to ensure that those funding the programme were properly recompensed by partners achieving a return on that investment  through either reduced actual demand or reduced levels of future demand that would have arisen;

viii)        Children’s Centres remained a statutory responsibility and whilst there were no current plans to close any of the Centres, innovative ways would need to be explored to ensure full and thriving participation within available budgets;

   ix)        The Service was engaging with schools to see where the co-commissioning of staff may be appropriate in order to use budgets more effectively and to work together in other areas through the LEEP;

    x)        The Scrutiny Committee would receive further reports on progress in respect of each of the four transformation projects at regular intervals as they progressed.

RESOLVED:

That the implications of the planned programme of departmental savings across Children and Family Services, required as part of the County Council’s MTFS and Transformation Programme, be noted.