Saturday
27
April
Children's services overspend won't be as bad
23/07/2020 @ 07:09
Children’s services in the area won’t be £4million overspent at the end of this financial year, a senior officer of Powys Council has predicted.
Director of Powys County Council’s Social Services, Alison Bulman, made the prediction at a meeting of the Health and Care scrutiny committee yesterday.
Councillors were looking at the financial position for Social Services at the end of March 2019/20 which saw Children’s Services overspent by £4.65million while Adult Services were £18,000 under budget.
Concerns have been expressed by councillors about the overspend in Children’s Services, which has seen millions of pounds pumped in to help overcome difficulties magnified by the critical Care Inspectorate Wales report of October 2017.
Councillor Jackie Charlton said: “You can’t keep on going over budget, there must be a time when you recognise what those pressures are or going to be and set a budget accordingly.
“How confident are we that the budget that was set this year is actually the correct one, or will there be a massive overspend as there has been every other year?”
Ms Bulman, replied that the service had been very clear in the 2019/20 budget setting process that there were risks of overspending.
She said that this year’s budget setting process was different as the pressures and challenges had been recognised.
Ms Bulman added that investment and increasing the care and support needed for children is “crucial” in improving the service.
Ms Bulman said: “The budget that was set is much more realistic than previous years.
“I’m not saying we will deliver within our cash envelope but I’m pretty confident you won’t be seeing an overspend of £4 million.”
Councillor Amanda Jenner remembered other meetings and wondered whether the word overspend should be changed.
“Jan (Coles, Head of Children’s Service) wanted to call it ‘under allocation’ as we had not funded a lot of the edge of care, preventative and post-16 stuff,” said Cllr Jenner.
Cllr Jenner added that not funding the care and support needed had caused the problems in the first place.
Councillor Gareth Morgan, said: “To a large extent it’s a demand led, and how do you predict what it’s likely to be in the future?”
The final financial position for the whole of PCC including Social Services was noted and approved by the cabinet at their meeting on 16 June.
Director of Powys County Council’s Social Services, Alison Bulman, made the prediction at a meeting of the Health and Care scrutiny committee yesterday.
Councillors were looking at the financial position for Social Services at the end of March 2019/20 which saw Children’s Services overspent by £4.65million while Adult Services were £18,000 under budget.Concerns have been expressed by councillors about the overspend in Children’s Services, which has seen millions of pounds pumped in to help overcome difficulties magnified by the critical Care Inspectorate Wales report of October 2017.
Councillor Jackie Charlton said: “You can’t keep on going over budget, there must be a time when you recognise what those pressures are or going to be and set a budget accordingly.
“How confident are we that the budget that was set this year is actually the correct one, or will there be a massive overspend as there has been every other year?”
Ms Bulman, replied that the service had been very clear in the 2019/20 budget setting process that there were risks of overspending.
She said that this year’s budget setting process was different as the pressures and challenges had been recognised.
Ms Bulman added that investment and increasing the care and support needed for children is “crucial” in improving the service.
Ms Bulman said: “The budget that was set is much more realistic than previous years.
“I’m not saying we will deliver within our cash envelope but I’m pretty confident you won’t be seeing an overspend of £4 million.”
Councillor Amanda Jenner remembered other meetings and wondered whether the word overspend should be changed.
“Jan (Coles, Head of Children’s Service) wanted to call it ‘under allocation’ as we had not funded a lot of the edge of care, preventative and post-16 stuff,” said Cllr Jenner.
Cllr Jenner added that not funding the care and support needed had caused the problems in the first place.
Councillor Gareth Morgan, said: “To a large extent it’s a demand led, and how do you predict what it’s likely to be in the future?”
The final financial position for the whole of PCC including Social Services was noted and approved by the cabinet at their meeting on 16 June.
By Elgan Hearn, Local Democracy Reporting Service
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|