Adult Social Care Budget
To receive a verbal brief from the Director of Adults, Community, Health and Wellbeing.
Minutes:
Phil Lloyd attended to provide a verbal brief on the Adult Social Care Budget. It was explained that since Local Government Reorganisation, the service had been learning about the profile of the budget. It was reported that the service was currently at a point where they had an understanding of the drivers behind demand, the cost of this and what was needed in order to manage it.
This could be demonstrated by the fact that although the 2010/11 budget had resulted in a £8.7m overspend, the budget for 2011/12 was expected to balance. Having said this, Phil Lloyd continued to explain that Cheshire East could not afford to be complacent as it was fully expected that growth in demand would continue. It was reported that this was why the personalisation and prevention agenda was key as this would help Cheshire East to absorb growth rather than to just keep funding it.
Attention was also drawn to a range of ‘invest to save’ strategies which Cheshire East funded in order to attempt to absorb growth in demand. An example was given of the policy of providing six weeks free support in order to facilitate re-ablement. It was suggested that the Committee might wish to assess the efficacy of this policy in order to ensure that it was still fulfilling the ‘invest to save’ criteria.
It was also suggested that the Committee have a regular item on the work programme to consider ‘invest to save’ policies. It was also proposed that the outcomes of the discussions could be fed to the Budget Task and Finish Group for consideration.
It was queried how much of the budget was taken up with discretionary and statutory services. Phil Lloyd reported that the large majority of the budget was for statutory services, leaving little room for manoeuvre. The point was reaffirmed therefore regarding the need for managing demand.
As a final point, in light of Phil Lloyd leaving Cheshire East, the Committee wished to thank and commend him for the excellent and innovative work performed in his role as Director of Adults, Community, Health and Wellbeing.
RESOLVED -
a) That the Committee review the efficacy of the six week free support policy at a future meeting.
b) That the Committee consider an item on ‘invest to save’ policies at every formal meeting, the results of which to be potentially fed into the Budget Task and Finish Group.