Issue - meetings

Purpose of the item: Scrutiny of the Draft Budget and Medium-Term Financial Strategy.

Witnesses:

Mark Nuti – Cabinet Member for Adults and Health

Anna D’Alessandro – Director of Finance, Corporate and Commercial

Rachel Wigley – Director of Finance, Insight and Performance

Nicola Kilvington – Director of Corporate Strategy and Policy Wil House – Strategic Finance Business Partner for Adult Social Care and Public Service Reform

Jonathan Lillistone – Director of Integrated Commissioning

Rachel Crossley – Joint Executive Director for Public Service Reform

Ruth Hutchinson – Director of Public Health

Maria Millwood – Board Director, Healthwatch Surrey

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Cabinet Member provided some opening remarks, noting the added investment into Adult Social Care (ASC) nationally and that the Council were embracing new forms of technology, as well as partnership working to mitigate the impact of increased demand and pressures on the directorate.

2.    The Director of Finance (Corporate and Commercial) presented summary slides (Annex 1) on the corporate financial position. The draft budget had assumed an additional £15 million funding for ASC; however, the exact amount would not be known until the Local Government Finance Settlement which was expected on 21 December 2022. The Director explained four key options that could be utilised to close the budgetary gap and if alternative measures were utilised, there would be an alternative scrutiny process in January 2023.

3.    In reference to slides on the capital programme, the Chairman asked whether there was any indication of what could be shifted. The Director (Corporate and Commercial) explained that the full capital programme was affordable, but they asked directorates to look at whether programmes were deliverable as well. The Chairman asked whether the programmes were RAG-rated. The Director explained that the programmes were monitored in-year and there was an assumption that they were all deliverable when set.

4.    A Member asked how the plans for extra care housing were impacted by inflation rates. The Director of Integrated

Commissioning explained that the current model of delivery was a design build finance operate model secured through a competitive tender process. Therefore, the risk of managing inflation was passed over to the delivery partner in the contract. 

5.    A Member queried how confident the witnesses were that residents understood the true cost of ASC and how that message was being communicated to residents. The Cabinet Member explained that he did not think that residents fully understand the role of ASC and as Cabinet Member, this was something that he wanted to change. As it was the largest area of spend in the budget, it was important to educate residents. There had been positive feedback from public engagement in past years towards spend on ASC. The Director of Integrated Commissioning shared that the consultation on the budget last year illustrated strong support for prioritisation spend on ASC and the pandemic had brought that into sharper focus. The Chairman noted that the economic climate had changed significantly since the consultation in 2021. The Director of Finance (Insight and Performance) explained that the Council conducted a cost-of-living survey in August  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49