To receive a presentation from the Director of Children’s Services on service budgets for 2020-2021.

A link to the report that was considered by Cabinet in December 2019 is below.

http://shropshire.gov.uk/committee-services/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=130&MId=4053&Ver=4

49.1    The Executive Director of Children’s Services informed the meeting that there was currently a predicted overspend of £5,362,961 in the 2019/20 budget made up of a £3,759,660 overspend in Children’s Social Care and £1,601,301 in Learning and Skills.  She advised Members that there was a total budget of £53,32,070 for the 2020/21 financial year.

49.2    The Executive Director of Children’s Services commented that it had been a challenge to produce a balanced budget, given the changing demographic and the growth in demand and costs. 

49.3    A Member expressed concern regarding how the savings in children’s social care would be achieved.  The Executive Director of Children’s Services stated that it was not sustainable just to react to demand and that it was clear that in order to reduce high costs it was important to reduce demand and that in order to do this it was necessary to redirect expenditure to support families to ensure that children did not need to enter care/children’s social care interventions. The Executive Director confirmed new preventative approaches need to be undertaken.

49.3    A Member asked for an update on progress with the proposed new children’s homes.  The interim Assistant Director, Children’s Social Care and Safeguarding advised the meeting that the first home would hopefully open by the end of February and was just awaiting the final Ofsted inspection. She informed Members that a second property had been purchased and was currently undergoing work to bring it up to the required standard, and that a third property had been identified and work was ongoing to purchase the property.  The Executive Director of Children’s Services commented that the development of the new homes would reduce the reliance on expensive out of county care, and that this along with the other preventative work being carried out should impact positively on the expenditure in children’s social care.

49.4    A Member commented that the main crux of the problem was that there was not enough funding received from central government.  The Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services assured the meeting that the administration was continually lobbying for more funding and that regular conversations were had with the county’s MPs regarding this.

49.5    A Member asked what role adoption played.  The interim Assistant Director, Children’s Social Care and Safeguarding advised the meeting that adoption provided good permanent outcomes for some children but that it was only a small part of the picture.

49.6    A Member asked what impact the Digital Transformation Programme had had, especially the move to using Liquidlogic. The Executive Director of Children’s Services commented that whilst there were only very limited cashable savings in the business case, the real advantage of Liquidlogic is the efficiency of the work and recording.

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49.7    A Member commented that the costs of school transport were high and asked whether there was opportunity to look at different ways of providing transport to school.  The Service Manager Business Support advised the meeting that officers were working with the passenger Transport team to look at this.  The Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services commented that the costs of transporting SEND pupils was high but that the introduction of SEND Hubs should reduce the costs as well as reducing the distances students had to travel.

49.8    The Chair thanked officers for attending the meeting.