To advise members of the financial position for the Adult Social Care budget within the Join Commissioning Directorate, and the Strategic Housing budget within the Regeneration Directorate for the period to 31^st July 2009.  The report provides the variations against budget and a projected outturn for the year

The Committee received a report on the financial position for Adult Social Care and Strategic Housing revenue budgets for the period to 31^st July 2009. The Management Accountancy Manager reported that the Adult Social Care budget had a forecast outturn position of an overspend of £2.6 million. The forecast was based on existing commitments which had been carried forward from 2008-09 together with the additional commitments identified in 2009-10 which had been projected forward.

The final outturn position for 2008-09 for Adult Social Care was £713k overspent. The true value of on-going commitments brought forward was approximately £930k. Inflation on contracts at an average increase of 1.7% had added £700k across service costs for 2009-10.  One of the main area of overspend was Learning Disabilities where an overspend of £1.344m was projected. This was mainly as a result of 21 new clients coming from Children’s Services in 2009-10.  These transition cases would be re-assessed, and it was likely that the costs would go down as a result.  One of the other areas of overspend was Older People, which was forecast to overspend by £945k. This was due both to the cost of existing commitments and an additional 11 residential placements and 2 nursing packages which had been agreed in 2009-10. 

He went on to say that budget savings arising from the implementation of Framework I system were due to be transferred from Adult Social Care towards the overall corporate savings target for Herefordshire Connects. Additional area based grant of £200k had been allocated by the Herefordshire Partnership and budgets would reflect this.  Supporting People, on the other hand, was projected to remain within budget. The underspend on previous year funding was £4.83m. The 2009-10 grant to be received was £5.88m. The forecast assumed that the remaining underspend would be carried forward.

In the ensuing discussion, the following points were made:

• That the Supporting People budget was tightly regulated, and had to be spent for the purposes that it was allocated for.  The underspend would be utilised within the next three to four years

• That Children’s Services and Adult Social Care should work more closely together in the future in order to ensure that a smooth transition was in place for those with learning disabilities.

• In reply to a question from a Member, the Associate Director of Integrated Commissioning reported that savings had been made as a result of the transfer form the old Clix system to Frameworki.  A post had been lost from the Performance and Information team, as well as others that were no longer required.  Combined with vacancy controls, this had resulted in savings of £200k. 

• Additional budget of £200k had been allocated from the Area Based Grant (ABG) by the Herefordshire Partnership and would be used to support carers’ in the County.

• That Homelessness continued to be the main pressure on the Strategic Housing Service.  There were 125 households in the system, of which fourteen were in temporary accommodation.  The need to reduce the numbers of households in temporary accommodation was a Local Area Agreement target.

• Out of County placements for young people with learning disabilities and other problems were being reviewed.  There were two main issues that needed to be considered.  The first was that there were six out of County placements for young people with learning disabilities, and resources were being sought to place these people.  They would be in residential homes, and the Council would have to undertake urgent assessments of their needs, as the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) money that had previously funded their placements would not be renewed when the LSC was wound up in March 2010.  The second was the provision of supported living and half way homes for people with mental health issues.

• That Workmatch, the charity that provided training and support for disadvantaged people had gone into receivership on the 1 October 2009.  A briefing note would be circulated to Members as soon as the full facts were known.

RESOLVED: That

a)      That the report be noted;

and;

b)     That a report on the Supporting People budget be provided to the meeting on 14 December 2009.