To request the drawdown from the Financial Resilience Reserve, a total of £11.49m to support the ongoing delivery of the Children’s Services Improvement Plan.

This further investment will build on and maintain the pace of improvements already delivered in 2021/22 and provide the foundations for a more secure and resilient service for the future. This funding is recommended to be allocated in two tranches, with £5m in tranche one from April 2022 and a further £6.49m from July 2022 when detailed progress against plans will also be reported.

The staffing resource asked for equates to an additional 122.75 FTE (2022/23) reducing then to 82 (2023/24) followed by further monitoring and review, against a currently approved base budget of 429 FTE (2021/2022).

This decision approves the drawdown from the Financial Resilience Reserve, a total of £11.49m to support the ongoing delivery of the Children’s Services Improvement Plan.

This further investment will build on and maintain the pace of improvements already delivered in 2021/22 and provide the foundations for a more secure and resilient service for the future. This funding will be allocated in two tranches, with £5m in tranche one from April 2022 and a further £6.49m from July 2022 when detailed progress against plans will also be reported.

It was resolved that:

a)  The drawdown of up to £11.49m from the Financial Resilience Reserve, in two tranches as laid out above, is approved to support resourcing the transformation stage of children’s services; and

b)  Cabinet note the increased base budget requirement for 2023/24 onwards.

1.     Cabinet could decide not approve the drawdown from the Financial Resilience Reserve. This option is not recommended as the increased capacity put in place during 2021/22 and improvement made in this period could not be sustained and the ability to deliver services would be seriously compromised.