The Director of Corporate Services gave an overview of the current budget position.

Councillor Taylor queried in the increase in cost for taxi’s cars and concessionary fares.

The Director of Corporate Services reported that expenses for these services are increasing and London Councils who administer the scheme are conducting a review.

Councillor Holmes asked what strategies are in place to source different funding streams such as European funding, especially as parts of the borough will meet the eligibility criteria. And should this be a future skill set for council officers?

Paul Ballat reported that this issue is going to be the focus of a meeting taking place later this month between the Cabinet Member, council officers and CVS providers in connection with the proposed commissioning savings where the commissioning team will look at how to provide practical assistance to voluntary sector organisations for grant funding. People do need to think about how to grasp future opportunities and this is something for the council to consider.

Councillor Neep asked what we are doing to support families who will lose services under the Transforming Families Programme and will undergo serious change, and what can we learn from the Transforming Families Programme?

Paul Ballat reported that the families who are receiving support will have an exit strategy and will be re-directed to other services if necessary.

Yvette Stanley reported that there is a department overspend of £3 million partly to ensure we maintain safe caseloads in the children’s social care team. Special Educational Needs Transport is a demand led service although there are stringent criteria. Placements for looked after children is also a high spend area. This provides us with additional challenges in delivering the savings which are having to be made from areas which are not overspending.

This means we cannot take on more families with need at the lower levels of our Wellbeing model. We can signpost to the voluntary sector but their resources are diminishing as well. Some families need six months intensive input, working with a high level of need very intensively, if people trickle up we will not be able to absorb them. We will need to use increasingly focussed interventions in the future, using only tried and tested evidenced based interventions.

The Chair thanked officers for their reports and confirmed with the Panel that there was a reluctant acceptance of the need to make the savings.

Youth Service (CSF2014-06)

Yvette Stanley said we spend a third of our budget on youth commissioning in each of the three localities. In 2015/16 we had reviewed one service which provides housing advice, mainly to the over 19s and 74% of the users are not Merton residents. We are exploring if that service could be funded by others. We are trying to create a youth service that is not dependent on local authority funding. A third of the savings for 2015/16 will be achieved through cutting a development fund. 

Councillor Holmes said the volunteering task group sought to develop a Merton volunteer core, the offer to volunteers included reduced swimming costs and assistance with C.V’s and references, can we develop long term volunteers for the youth service?  This would provide cost savings for the council rewarding those who need to get back into work.

Paul Ballat said the Children Schools and Families Department and Schools already use  volunteers in a number of functions. We recognise the opportunities and value that volunteers can bring, however it is not a free route to provision as they require significant council capacity in terms of recruitment, retention, and support.

Yvette Stanley also pointed out that people would come and volunteer in the youth service as a step to employment however given the changes in service provision, these opportunities do not exist anymore so we need to ensure that volunteering opportunities lead to sustainable employment.

Councillor Kenny said young people need support at this time in their lives. If they have time on their hands some may get into mischief leading to crime and imprisonment. Are we tapping into every grant available to support young people?

Yvette Stanley said we are keeping the detached element of the youth provision; this is a specialist service that supports young people who are a visible presence on the streets. It also targets those who are in trouble or at risk, such as young people with poor school attendance. However we cannot have open access as there will be no provision within the youth service. We will still have youth partnership membership with the voluntary sector which we can signpost people to.

Councillor Chirico asked how we will meet our duty to provide positive activity services?

Paul Ballat said we will need to signpost people to services including non commissioned youth activities, leisure centres and libraries.

Councillor Chung said he is concerned that a vulnerable sector is being cut drastically. Is there a way to spread it across the system as every aspect of the service is being affected?

Yvette Stanley said the council has protected the Children, Schools and Families Department as other areas had higher targets. As a volunteer youth worker she had seen lives change and the impact that the service has had. However with the level of savings to be found, we have used the Children and Young People’s model and looked at the hierarchy of need to prioritise spend. We need to balance risk and vulnerability with the budget.

The Director of Corporate Services said we look at minimising risk to the area. We have to look at different working and different solutions such as increasing commercialisation. We constantly ask people if there is funding available, if there is,  it has an impact and we can delay savings.

With regards to the Public Health savings Yvette Stanley said it is appropriate for Public Health to invest in early years as evidence shows that support at this time leads to better outcomes later in life.

The Director of Corporate Services said some of the underspend came about during the transition from the CCG. We have inherited a number of contracts from the CCG and some of this money can be utilised in Children’s Services.

The Chair confirmed with the Panel that it is with great regret that the Panel reluctantly accept the savings.

Education savings (CSF2014-08)

Yvette Stanley said there has been increasing monies for schools from government grant, at a time when budgets for other services have been reducing. Merton schools are expected to receive further increases in overall budget in 2015-16. Our approach is going to need to be that the local authority provides the statutory minimum support services with schools paying for additional services they wish to receive from the local authority. There is a risk that schools will not buy our services in which case we will need to cease these functions, but this is not anticipated.

The Chair Confirmed with the Panel that the proposed saving was accepted.

Savings for Early Years (CSF2014-09)

Yvette Stanley described the implications of these savings proposals which are to maintain our statutory functions; continue the locality based model; target early years services to the most vulnerable; maintain a limited quality assurance role with early years providers and rationalise back office functions.  

Councillor Taylor said she is concerned that we are making savings in services for the most vulnerable residents when we have an expensive pilot for wheelie bins this should be put on hold and monies put into services for the most vulnerable.

Councillor Hanna said this is a pilot scheme which is being met from a specific grant for waste purposes, with no assumptions that wheelie bins could be provided across the borough.

Capital Programme/Department Estimates/Service Plans

The Panel noted the Capital programme given that there are no changes.

The Panel noted the Department estimates and service plans.

The Panel recognise the overall financial position and reluctantly accept the proposed savings, as above.

RESOLVED

The Panel agreed to note the report and expressed thanks to officers for their work in this area.