Councillor Aspinall (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) and Helen Slater (Lead Accountancy Manager) delivered the Quarterly Finance Report for Adult Social Care, and discussed:

a)    Frequent variations in care budget performance across quarterly reports, which often fluctuated between underspend and pressures;

b)    The ability for underspends in some budget areas to counteract pressures in others;

c)    Month eight budget reporting demonstrated pressures of £759,000 for Package Budgets with pressures of £204,000 for Domiciliary Care, and £266,000 for Supported Living. Pressures on Nursing Long Stay budgets were offset by savings to Direct Payments, Extra Care Housing and Residential Long Stay budgets of £602,000. Pressures to reducing client income had been investigated, and mitigations had been identified;

d)    It remained the ambition to achieve a balanced budget for 2024/25;

e)    The budget forecast for 2025/26 included a growth of £12 million to mitigate for volume and inflationary pressures, including the national living wage increase to £12.21 per hour;

f)     The final Local Government Settlement had been received, which did not contain compensation for the national living wage increase for social care.

In response to questions, the Panel discussed:

g)    While there were three budget headings for Adult Social Care reporting underspend, the package budgets held a total pressure of £759,000 at Month eight. This would be funded by savings in other areas and any underspend in the remainder of the year;

h)    Changes to National Insurance rates would take effect in the next financial year;

i)     The cause of additional budget pressures was primarily attributed to volume and cost increases, with services receiving a higher complexity of need and increased demand;

j)     Client Income pressures were primarily attributed to an overestimation of expected income in the previous financial year, and did not relate to failure to recover monies. It was a complex challenge to correctly estimate demand and eligibility for client income.

Stephen Beet (Head of ASC Retained Functions) delivered the Quarterly Performance Report for Adult Social Care, and discussed:

k)    A Local Government Peer Review had recently been conducted of Plymouth’s Adult Social Care services, proving advice, support and recommendations;

l)     Overall, feedback was positive. Areas for improvement action included reducing waiting times and increasing co-production of care with clients. A detailed report was expected to be received next month and an action plan had been put in place to address these recommendations;

m)  Plymouth City Council had received formal notification from the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of the intention to visit to conduct a review of services within the next six months;

n)    It was normal for service demand to increase over the winter period, and these numbers had begun to fall again. Ongoing work was being undertaken to prevent unnecessary placements;

o)    Domiciliary care demand increases were seen as positive, with an intention to increase the number of people receiving care in the community. This was in line with budget allocations and performance targets;

p)    The number of people receiving re-ablement care had increased, but the hours of care delivered had temporarily declined due to capacity challenges in December 2024. The service remained on target for enabling people to remain at home;

q)    There had been a reduction in the number of people receiving direct payments for their care. This was largely attributed to an increased number of care act reviews conducted in 2024/25, ensuring people received the appropriate care. It remained the ambition to increase Direct Payments, with the target raised to 635.

(The Panel agreed to move to item five, ‘Livewell Southwest Performance Report’, before considering questions and recommendations jointly with this item)