Agenda item

Report of the Statutory Scrutiny Officer

Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Education, Catherine Underwood, Corporate Director for People Services, Ailsa Barr, Director for Children’s Integrated Services and Nick Lee, Director of Education presented a report on the development context of the Council’s 2024/25 budget proposals and their anticipated impacts on the services delivered by the Children’s integrated Services and Education. The following points were highlighted:

a)  The 2024/25 budget proposals have been developed in the context of very challenging circumstances both locally and nationally. There are significant pressures in a number of service areas, by December 2023, growing inflationary and demand pressures indicated a requirement to make savings of £53.7 million to achieve a balanced budget for 2024/25. As a result, a strict ‘Duties and Powers’ approach has had to be taken to the development of the new budget, identifying potential savings of £20.5 million.

b)  The ‘Duties and Powers’ methodology assesses where the Council has a legal obligation to deliver a function and where it can exercise functions on a discretionary basis. It is a recognised approach in the Local Authority sector and is used to create a focus on the Council’s core statutory activity and identify work areas where savings can be made. As a result, the current budget proposals have been developed on the basis of establishing all service options in the context of delivering the legal minimum as the base position. Although the current proposals have been discussed between senior officers and Executive Councillors, and been subject to a formal public consultation process where required, a number have not been agreed by the Council’s Executive.

c)  It is proposed that around £5.4 million in savings will be made from within the Children’s Integrated Services and Education Budget over the next two years, with the majority to be delivered within 2024/25. The identification of these savings has been an extremely challenging piece of work. In making the proposals, full regard has been given to the written guidance on the required standards of statutory services. Equality Impact Assessments (EIA) have been produced for all relevant proposals and work is taking place to mitigate service impacts wherever possible.

During the discussion the Committee asked a series of questions. The following points were highlighted:

d)  Members were concerned that information around risk was not included within the report, and that Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) were also not included. Papers were produced in liaison with the Chair and papers have contained slightly different information for all the Scrutiny committees. The EIAs are available on the Council’s website.

e)  Members of the Committee raised a number of concerns about the proposed closure of the Ridge Adventure Centre. Members were concerned about the impact that this would have on antisocial behaviour in the area, and the lack of consultation with Ward Councillors around the proposals. Discussions are still ongoing about this proposal with additional work being done to establish the best proposal. Liaison with Ward Members would take place as part of these additional discussions.

f)  Members raised concerns around the potential for the Schools Board not accepting the proposed budget cuts. This is a risk, the Schools Forum had agreed one paper in principal and another two are due before the next meeting. One of those papers is around changes to Transport and requires approval from the Secretary of State as well as from the Schools Forum. The proposal increases the number of placements in local special and support for SEND pupils in mainstream schools, reducing costs of transport, and higher cost out of areas placements in the longer term. Much of the Education budget is ringfenced, surplus within these budgets can be used to support the additional support proposed. There are risks with this strategy, but those are being thoroughly considered.

g)  Committee members raised concerns about the impact that a reduction in the Household Support Fund may have on young people’s access to school uniforms and the implications this may have for them in a wider setting. This fund is for those families where children attend a maintained school, and the continuation of the fund has not yet been announced in the Spring Statement. The impact that this fund has had must be recognised, and work with the Nottingham Schools Trust is underway to see how support for the cost of living can continue so as to reduce the impact of this proposal.

h)  Committee members were particularly concerned about the proposals stopping the Area Based Grant, highlighting that this is likely to impact a high number of services across different directorates. Work is taking place to better understand the cumulative impact of this proposal and what mitigations can be found to limit the impact.

i)  Committee members expressed concerns about the reduction in preventative and early intervention services highlighting that this work reduced pressure on statutory services in the long term. As many of the preventative and early intervention services are not statutory services, the Duties and Powers methodology requires officers to consider those services for reduction to produce a balanced budget. Work continues to take place to assess risk and potential mitigation measures.

j)  Committee members asked for more detail around the proposed changes to the Youth Service structure and what work was being done to ensure that the proposed changes would not disadvantage one group over another.  The restructuring work had been identified as part of the transformation work and has been developed to achieve the same aims and goals, but at a reduced cost. Work continues to take place on fully developing the EIA for the proposal. Work is also underway with partners looking at how the wider system works together and identify additional cost saving measures. Fragmented services will be consolidated and there will be more specific targeting of work and interventions. The management structure of the service has been considered as part of the transformation work.

k)  Committee members raised concerns about the possible closure of the Bulwell Riverside Centre and the impact that that would have on services provided from the building, in particular that NHS sexual health services would cease to exist. Although services will cease to be delivered from the Riverside Centre work is taking place with partners to find alternative venues for the existing services to be delivered from so that the services can continue to be offered going forward. The building itself will be considered for alternative uses.

The Chair thanked the Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Education, the Corporate Director for People Services, the Director for Children’s Integrated Services, and the Director of Education for attending the meeting.

Resolved to:

1)  Request that ward Councillors are consulted on budget proposals that impact directly on their ward

2)  Request that the Director of Education shares the outcomes of discussions that will take place with schools in the City on the budget proposals.

3)  Request that Officers provide the Committee with a breakdown of the risks associated with the budget proposals and relevant Equality Impact Assessment.