Agenda item

WITNESSES

• Clare Curran, Cabinet Member for Children and Families and Lifelong Learning
• Maureen Attewell, Deputy Cabinet Member for Children and Families and Lifelong Learning
• David Lewis, Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources
• Rachael Wardell, Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning
• Patricia Denney, Director for Quality and Performance
• Nicola Kilvington, Director for Corporate Strategy & Policy
• Rachel Wigley, Director for Finance Insights & Performance
• Kay Goodacre, CFLL Strategic Finance Business Partner
• Nikki O’Connor, Strategic Finance Business Partner – Corporate

KEY POINTS MADE IN THE DISCUSSION

1. A Member asked what the CFLL Directorate’s target for additional efficiencies was and what might be sacrificed within CFLL if the Council’s overall gap of £17.4m were unable to be closed. The Cabinet Member for Children and Families and Lifelong Learning said it would be a challenge to achieve the £11m efficiencies currently planned. The Cabinet Member for Finance said the gap would be closed, either by additional government grants, increased council tax or use of reserves. The Council’s available reserves had been built up in the last six years and were now 12% of the net revenue budget.   Additional efficiencies were being looked for across the organisation, but there were no specific targets related to the CFLL Directorate.  The Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning added that should any further efficiencies be required, they would look to protect statutory duties first. 

2. The Chair asked where anticipated job losses (a net decrease of 71 FTEs) in CFLL were expected to occur. The Executive Director said the number was notional and not tied to specific roles and reflected efforts to manage vacancies, redeploy staff and adjust work. She assured the Committee that the focus was not on cutting front-line jobs and roles working directly with families in social care and SEND would be protected.

3. A Member asked whether an increase of 135 special educational needs and disability (SEND) staff proposed by the end-to-end review had been included in the 2025/26 budget. No assurance was given, though the Cabinet Member said current SEND staffing was funded until the end of the 2026/27 financial year, by the £15m recovery funding approved by Cabinet last year. Asked whether the use of artificial intelligence would be in addition to, rather than replace, the aforementioned staffing increase, the Cabinet Member responded that AI should have no impact on staffing in the 2025/26 budget. 

4. The CFLL Strategic Finance Business Partner told the Committee that social worker salaries were above national living wage thresholds, so recruitment would not be impacted by the rise there. Central Government had announced there would be compensation for the national rise to employer National Insurance contributions, though the amount was not known ahead of the Local Government Finance Settlement. The Chair feared the impact of the rises on voluntary sector organisations doing work for the Council. A Member added that future strategies relied on leaning more on the third sector, which already had to deal with short-term contracts and reduced donations. The Executive Director said they would work with charities on a case-by-case basis to ensure sustainability of contracts, and commissioning would take into account inflationary pressures.

5. A Member raised concerns about the risks of delivering £11.1 million efficiencies, particularly considering a £10.7 million pressure for home to school travel assistance demand. At the suggestion of bringing some vehicles back in-house, the Executive Director explained this had been explored under the Freedom to Travel programme but was found to be impractical. They had not yet been able to identify a better way than external commissioning of transporting 10,000 children at one time. She gave a reasonable assurance of delivering the efficiencies, explaining lessons had been learned from past under-achievements.

6. A Member asked how SCC would ensure early help was prioritised given the need to focus on increased demand for statutory services. The Executive Director explained they were not able to prioritise early help over statutory services but were focusing on targeted intervention. Early help funding was a shared responsibility among safeguarding partners, not just the Council. Despite the ongoing demand, fewer children were in care or under a protection plan due to both partnership work and the Council’s family safeguarding model. The family support programme funding for districts and boroughs was ending, though the Government had announced a national £250m Children’s Social Care Prevention Grant.

7. A Member asked whereabouts in early help and family support the £2.1 million efficiencies across the next two years were planned. The Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning said they would look to deliver early help more efficiently when it came to contract renewal. This would involve focusing spend on what has been shown to deliver outcomes. Efficiencies also related to community services covered by early help and adolescent work.

8. A Member asked whether there was any flexibility in the budget to support highly valued short breaks to reduce families’ stress. The Cabinet Member for Children and Families and Lifelong Learning said efficiencies would be made after 2025/26 and the Council had been reviewing short breaks with Family Voice Surrey to understand need. Eligibility criteria for play and leisure would likely be introduced. The offer would in the future be redesigned to maximise inclusive provision like holiday clubs where siblings without additional needs could also access them. Plans, when developed, would be brought to Committee for scrutiny.

9. The CFLL budget for 2025/26 was expected to increase by 6.3% compared with the current year’s budget – more than double the anticipated increase to the Council’s overall budget. A Member asked if, notwithstanding the growth, service users would be negatively affected. The Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning said that residents may be upset by changes in service delivery, such as altered access points or longer waiting times, however statutory services had been prioritised to ensure vulnerable individuals still received the necessary support. These had consistently improved, while acknowledging there had been shrinkage in discretionary services. The Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning added that difficult changes in home school travel assistance, and in the future Surrey adult learning and potentially short breaks, would sadly be felt.