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The Director of Corporate Services introduced the report stating that each of the departments were given ratings to protect the more vulnerable areas. Current savings have been agreed and banked unless departments find there will be a difficulty in achieving these. There is a small capital programme within the remit of this panel most of which is grant funded by the Department of Health; there are no changes to the Panel’s capital programme at present. The budget gap for the next four years is £32 million. The budget for 2015-16 is set but there are significant gaps for 2016-17 and 2017-18.

Councillor McCabe asked to what extent government grants had been reduced over the next few years?

The Director of Corporate Services said the Revenue Support Grant has been estimated to reduce from £31 million to £12 million. These are based on our assumptions, which were fairly accurate last time.

Councillor Grocott expressed concern that we are making budget decisions for 2016-17 and beyond yet we are not yet clear what the funding settlement will be.

Councillor McCabe said we expect officers to make projections for prudent planning.

The Director of Community and Housing said the consequences would be catastrophic if we don’t plan ahead. We can improve our engagement with the public if we are looking ahead. We should plan ahead on reasonable assumptions then be prepared to review them if circumstances change.

There is a national concern about adult social care and it is often in the news especially in relation to care homes and home care. Merton has tried to protect the adult social care budget, it has had an increased share of the council budget over the last four years.

While we support the principles of the Care Act it will introduce new pressures and risks into the system.

There are also national concerns around quality of care and the cost model, e.g; the fifteen minute visits and national people are questioning if we have a system that is based on quality care.  The Local Government Association and the Association of the Directors of Adult Social Services are currently in discussions with central government about this. Any government will have a deficit and look to local government to make savings. Merton has been resilient but looking ahead we have harder things we need to do. All spend is statutory there is no room for manoeuvre and savings will have a higher level of impact.

Some of the replacement savings are not achievable in full. Providers have been squeezed to the limit; if we go any further we will encounter difficulties in commissioning care.

There are currently seven ways that people can get in touch with adult social care and we are looking for ways to rationalise this. The voluntary sector is confident that it can undertake this role competently as in fact it already does.

Reviewing care packages reflects existing practice and is simply looking for greater savings on balance from this.

In relation to Day  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.