To advise the Committee of the financial position for the Adult Social Care and Strategic Housing revenue budgets for the period to 31^st January 2011. The report lists the variations against budget at this stage in the year and a projected outturn for the year.

The Committee noted a report on the financial position for the Adult Social Care and Strategic Housing revenue budgets for the period to 31st January 2011.

The Principal Accountant reported that the Agresso finance system would come on stream on the 1 April 2011.  The Primary Care Trust (PCT) and Hereford NHS Hospital Trust (HHT) had decided to delay implementation of the system.  A great deal of work had been undertaken in creating new cost centres ensuring that authorised signatories were in place.  The first payments would be made by the system on 11 April.  It was expected that the PCT would implement the system by July, whilst the HHT would have it in place by October 2011.  Some of the cost centres would be accommodated on the Council’s ledgers until the system was operational. 

She went on to say that the January forecast was for a net overspend of £3.81m, and against the target of £2m savings that had been budgeted, £1,543k had been delivered.  The remaining £474k would be delivered from a variety of different areas.    There would be an additional one off payment of Supporting People Grant income as a result of the underperformance of contracts, and funds would be transferred from the PCT.

She went on to say that there was an underspend of £50k in the Strategic Housing budget.  This was as a result both of vacant posts being held by private sector housing, and income from the Supporting People programme.

During the ensuing discussion, the following points were made:

• In reply to a question, the Principal Accountant said that the Council was looking at reducing the need for discretionary top-up payments to providers.  Discussions were ongoing with providers to achieve value for money and the

• In reply to a further question, the Interim Director of Adult Social Services said that the issue of patient discharge from the County Hospital was a complex matter, and all partners would need to work together to resolve any concerns.  The establishment of the Integrated Care Organisation would make a great deal of difference, as once there was one organisation responsible for care in the County, many of the existing barriers to change should change.  The emphasis on reablement care would also allow patients to have a greater choice as to where they want to live following discharge from the hospital.

• In reply to a question as to whether she felt that the budget situation going forward to the next financial year was fair, equitable and sustainable, the Interim Director said that there would be a great many difficulties to be overcome.  The demographic projection was for an ageing population growth for the County, with an increase of 2.5k people  with dementia by 2018. 

The Cabinet Member (Adult Social Care, Health and Wellbeing) thanked the Interim Director for her work within the Directorate.  She said that continuity within Adult Social Care in the Council after the elections on May 4 was important, and an integrated approach to the Service would be required in the future, with a cultural change throughout the PCT and Hereford Hospital NHS Trust services. She added that it was clear that there would also be a need for more people in the community to undertake to become volunteers.

RESOLVED:

THAT:

                  (a)           the report be noted;

(b)                     the delivery of the recovery plan to mitigate the level of overspend would take place; and;

(c)                     The Committee commended the efforts that had been made to reduce the budget deficit, but also noted that the demands on the Service would not diminish, and this should be noted by the Council when future budgets were set.