Issue - meetings

Purpose of report: To provide details of the budget for scrutiny prior to Cabinet and Council meetings.

Witnesses:

Wil House, Strategic Finance Business Partner for Adult Social Care and Public Health

Ruth Hutchinson, Director of Public Health

Nick Markwick, Co-Chair, Surrey Coalition of Disabled People

Sinead Mooney, Cabinet Member for Adults and Public Health

Kate Scribbins, Chief Executive, Healthwatch Surrey

Simon White, Executive Director of Adult Social Care

Rachel Wigley, Director of Financial Insight

Key points raised during the discussion:

1. With the Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) having been distributed to Members only the day before the formal Select Committee meeting, the Chairman emphasised that lateness could hinder the Committee’s ability to scrutinise. The Director of Financial Insight responded that the Finance department would have liked to have distributed the budget earlier, but this was delayed by the general election in December 2019, coupled with late public funding announcements.
2. The Cabinet Member for Adults and Public Health introduced the item by stating that the budget gave cause for positivity with a note of caution. This budget aimed to ensure financial sustainability and investment for residents. The 2020/21 period constituted the first year for some time that the Council had received additional funding from central government; this was a recognition of the funding pressures that Local Authorities (LAs) had faced. The transformation project had been very significant, and Adult Social Care (ASC) and Public Health (PH) had played an important part in it. Due to increased financial stability, the Council was looking forward to delivering an ambitious capital programme, including investment in supported housing.
3. The Director of Financial Insight informed the Committee that:
   1. significant progress had been made in moving from financial recovery to stability;
   2. the budget proposed significant investment in Surrey;
   3. the transformation would continue to deliver efficiencies;
   4. and investment in areas such as extra care accommodation were aligned with the Council’s 2030 vision.
4. The Executive Director of Adult Social Care noted that when creating a budget envelope for ASC, the vast majority of spending was on provision of care. Surrey County Council was trying to change the model of care in order to contain spending within the budget envelope. This could be summarised with the phrase ‘strength-based approach’, which was a focus on how the Council could facilitate residents living how they wished, and assessing people at their best. The performance information of the department indicated that the strength-based approach had been successful: the number of contacts turning into assessments was falling, 5,000 people had been taken off the caseload and the percentage of people going into residential nursing care had been reduced. This approach was not focused on saving money, but it did so as a by-product, and the average cost of care in Surrey had fallen. The 2020/21 budget was more realistic than the previous year’s, although this still presented a challenge. In 2019/20 there had been a slight increase in spending for the first few months, until the last three months, when there had been reductions month-on-month. Finally, the Executive Director wished to commend the absence of closures of care services in the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5