Issue - meetings

There were four questions received from the public. The questions and responses are attached as Appendix 2.

There were four questions received from the public. The questions and responses are attached as Appendix 2.

Karin Barratt and Andrea Collings were invited to give their supplementary questions and they would be responded to together.

Karin Barratt made the following points:

·         Budget options models for Beeches was drawn up with service users

·         When comparing costs of 1b with model 5 this was not far off from the preferred option of parents.

·         Was the £150k for spot purchasing on top of, or contained within, costs given?

·         The Disability Team seemed to be unaware of what was available for spot purchasing and she was having difficulty finding the right person to speak to about this.

Andrea Collings made the following points:

·         The number of hours was not judged on need but on number of hours accessed.  There was a need to identify barriers to getting through the assessment process.

·         Short breaks were not advertised through the Council and it was mainly through word of mouth that parents got to hear of it.  She was concerned that Cabinet could not be confident of making a value for money decision.

·         Travel costs to venues outside of the county would need to be added on.

·         Many families would be happy to keep their children under children’s services until the age of 19 years when they finished school, rather than they transfer to adult services at 18 which was an additional cost.

 The Leader thanked Karin Barritt and Andrea Collings for the details statements and explained that the concerns raised would be picked up in the debate under item 6.