Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors H.I. Jones, D.J.R. Llewellyn, E.G. Thomas and J. Williams, as well as Councillor J. Tremlett (Executive Board Member for Social Care & Health).

There were no declarations of personal interest.

There were no declarations of prohibited party whips.

No public questions were received.

The Committee RESOLVED that the list of forthcoming items to be considered at its next meeting scheduled for the 20th January 2016, be endorsed. 

The Committee considered the Revenue Budget Strategy 2016/17 to 2018/19 (Appendix A) which had been endorsed by the Executive Board for consultation purposes at its meeting on 16th November 2015. It was advised that Welsh Government had announced the provisional settlement earlier that week (9th December) and that Carmarthenshire would see a 1% cut in budget rather than the 3.3% on which the Strategy was based. The Welsh Government was also protecting schools budgets although the extent of the protection was as yet unclear. The Strategy had been based on there being no protection of school budgets. In summary, the shortfall in efficiency savings identified for 2016/17 might not be needed however, delivery of the £13.6m identified savings was essential. Council tax was set to increase by 5% in the Strategy and a 1% movement equated to £760,000. The Director of Community Services also gave a brief overview of the Social Care Service area.

The following issues were discussed during consideration of the report:

It was asked how the Authority addressed schools with budget deficits. The Interim Head of Financial Services informed the Committee that in such circumstances, a school would be required to produce a plan to show how it was intending to address its budget deficit. The Director of Community Services noted that very often, schools budgets were affected by falling pupil ratios and it was essential that schools had effective and appropriate financial arrangements in place. The Authority did have powers to intervene in certain situations. In response to an additional question regarding the uncertainty around protecting school budgets, the Interim Head of Financial Services noted that the Welsh Government was usually quite explicit about how it wished budgets to be protected and so forth. However, following the recent announcement, there was no further guidance on this matter. A meeting of senior local authority officers and the Welsh Government had been held and further discussions were planned in order to come to an agreement and gain clarity on the matter.

An explanation for the reduction in grants to voluntary organisations in relation to Older People & Physical Disabilities and Learning Disabilities Services was sought. The Director of Community Services informed the Committee that the reduction was in relation to the way in which the Authority was now buying provision from these organisations. The Authority was now moving to spot contracts where it paid for the services it used rather than via block contracts and was a far more efficient method of procuring services. In response to a suggestion that these reductions could be spread over three years, the Interim Head of Mental Health & Learning Disabilities Services noted that this could be considered but informed the Committee that some of the reductions had been planned for some time, one example being the Llanelli & District Gateway Club which was due to close in the near future. Other reductions such as the £65,000 for Mencap had been built-in to recently agreed grant funding. The Director of Community Services reassured the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Committee received, for consideration, the Half-Yearly Performance Management Reports relating to Social Care & Health Services for the period 1st April to 30th September 2014. The Chair reminded members that this report had been deferred from the previous meeting in November. The report included:

·         Heads of Service Overview of Performance

·         The Approach to Measuring Performance – Older Persons and Physically Disabled

·         Services and Learning Disabilities and Mental Health Services

·         Improvement Plan Monitoring – Actions and Performance Measures

The following issues were discussed during consideration of the report:

In response to a question regarding the use of the GP cluster funding, the Head of Integrated Services stated that in line with the Welsh Government’s Primary Care Plan for Wales, each Cluster (Locality) in Carmarthenshire had utilised available funding to support service development in specified areas. However, whilst there was a danger that GPs could see this as an opportunity to fund the work of their practices, the Welsh Government’s Health Minister was clear that the funding was to support primary care and the whole of the locality cluster. 

Reference was made to the re-design of the Careline service and it was asked whether this would require more staff? The Head of Integrated Services informed the Committee that when the service had been brought into Social Care Services, officers were aware that it needed to be re-developed but the introduction of the Social Services & Well-Being (Wales) Act, to be implemented in April 2016, now placed additional requirements on the service, namely, that those taking calls be working to a higher job specification than they did at present. She acknowledged that this might impact on staff numbers and that the re-design needed to be carried out within the ever tighter budget constraints. Options under consideration included utilising staff with the relevant skills from other service areas. 

It was asked whether part of the Third Sector Brokers’ roles was to identify duplication of services in the voluntary sector as well as identifying gaps in existing service provision. The Head of Integrated Services informed the Committee that following the continuation of the brokers’ roles within the Community Resource Teams, they would now be known as ‘Community Resilience Workers. She added that these officers should be monitoring services for on any duplication and that work was still on-going at a corporate level to identify voluntary sector spend. She also informed the Committee of a new Public Health Wales grant which was part of a Community Resilience Action Programme and used this as an example of how it was essential that any new grant money was being spent on new projects rather than duplicating existing schemes and activities.

Clarification was sought as to the population figures associated with planning services at a community level, in line with the Welsh Government’s Primary Care Plan for Wales. The Head of Integrated Services informed the Committee that when planning services at a community level and amongst diverse populations, this was best done for numbers in the region of between 25,000  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that the reason for the non-submission of the Capital Programme Budget Setting 2016/17 – 2020/21 report, be noted.