(a)

in the Finance and Capital Monitoring Report month 6, it set out the gross budget, the forecast and the net variance for month 6 to the end of the year which was £2.217m; the slide in the pack detailed what the pressures in month 6 were, the areas of concern and the drivers including SEND, transport, placements. There were already plans in place for mitigation, therefore it was now to consider how those plans were progressing;

(b)

the sum of £500k identified in the report as ‘partner income’ was put down as a mitigation and conversations had started with partners. Officers were talking to the ICB regarding their overall agreement with the Council and had discussed that rather than the current process which included a child hitting a trigger point and the ICB agreeing to support a specific percentage of the cost, it was hoped that changes were made to the overall agreement in that an average was taken over a set period of time and the sum of money provided to the Council allowing officers to work within a set budget target and agreed envelope of funding. Officers had written to the ICB and they had released £829k;

(c)

negotiations with the ICB had started and help was welcomed from any forum in order to expedite conversations and change the way in the process was currently working;

(d)

the Council had 12 social workers due to start in February 2023 – it was considered that agency cost and bespoke placements made up a significant amount of the cost in the department and caused the most budgetary pressures. The introduction of the 12 social workers would encourage a greater saving;

(e)

the numbers for looked after children were starting to fall overall – there had been a recent slight increase however the numbers were starting to decrease. Bespoke placements had also started to reduce and were currently at one down from three. These placements held the greatest costs for the Council;

(f)

the SEND budget was set at £3.1m with a deficit of £0.284; it was considered that the pressure on this part of the budget was due to short breaks. It was highlighted that the Council aimed to continue to offer these services and wanted to prioritise looked after children;

(g)

the number of children with SEND had not increased; Councillor Carlyle had been provided with updated figures and agreed to provide a written response to Members outlining the updated information on the figures and budget;

(h)

the Council had recently created a new interim post to specifically focus upon:

the cohort of young people that were in unregulated bespoke care arrangements, the high complexity children in care in residential settings, and

to manage the children in avoidable care admission numbers in the older age group;

(i)

the Cabinet Member apologised that her announcement of the creation of the 12 new social workers was not included in the paperwork provided to Members and it was highlighted that this might be because it wasn’t due to take place until February 2023. Under this item the Interim Section 151 Officer confirmed that work was being done on next years’ budget and invest to save initiatives to drive out savings;

(j)

bespoke arrangements were care arrangements and were emergency, interim and unplanned where children and young people should be in registered settings but largely through a combination of their exceptional complexity and high needs and the availability and high demand in the system, were brought into the care of the Council; they were high cost as special care was needed to have a high level of support. They may need several staff to mitigate the risk for caring of these children outside of a residential setting;

(k)

the Council had started putting in place plans to stop using bespoke arrangements and also worked to make the foster carers allowance and package more attractive in order to realise savings; it was considered that an additional 30 foster carers would have huge benefits and should be achievable in the future;

(l)

the housing crisis was affecting care leavers and the supported living placements; a meeting had recently taken place with the Cabinet Member and some children and young people to talk about their concerns. An approach was to be made to the Planning Committee by the Cabinet Member to establish  if when people apply for planning permission there was something that could be done for care leavers;

(m)

part of the mitigation around supported living placements was to work with officers in housing to work towards solutions; housing pressures were a strong driver in increases in supported living. Conversations were ongoing and this was an issue that required support and input from several sections of the Council;

(n)

the number of young people in care that had been housed through independent housing in the past two months was not known but would be provided to Members;

(o)

officers agreed to submit a mitigations sheet (working document) to all future scrutiny meetings detailing an update on children’s services and progress made on the budget and pressures;

(p)

home to school transport was a budgetary issue; money had been saved in this area as a result of a review on children that required transport however because of extra fuel costs, the cost of living crisis and the need for additional taxi drivers, this was still an area of concern.

1.

to provide Members with a written response outlining the updated information on the figures and budget associated with children and young people with SEND;

2.

to provide Members with a written response on the number of young people in care that had been housed through independent housing in the past two months;

3.

that a mitigations sheet (working document) would be provided to all future Performance, Finance and Customer Focus scrutiny meetings detailing an update on children’s services and progress made on the budget and pressures;

4.

to refer the following items to the Education and Children’s Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Panel for further scrutiny: mitigation and weaknesses surrounding partner income (£500k identified), action plan to reduce agency spend, housing pressures and what being done to ensure housing is provided, bespoke arrangements, home to school transport and the action plan for the red rag performance rating associated with children with multiple child protection plans;

5.

recommend that the Cabinet Member for Children and Young People actively intervenes in the conversations with partners around the processes in place for partner income, in a timely manner, to ensure a good outcome is achieved for the Council and children and young people affected;

6.

to note the Finance and Capital Monitoring Report – Month 6 and childrens budget update.