Agenda and minutes

Joint Meeting of the Scrutiny Committees and Commissions - Monday 30th January, 2012 7.00 pm

Venue: Council Chamber - Town Hall. View directions

Contact: Paulina Ford Senior Governance Officer, Scrutiny - Tel 01733 452508

Items

No.

Item

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Councillors Harrington, Sharp, Jamil, North and Over. Councillor Martin attended as substitute for Councillor Jamil. Apologies for absence were also received from the following Cabinet Members: Councillor Cereste, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Growth, Strategic Planning, Economic Development and Business Engagement. Councillor Lee, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Culture, Recreation and Strategic Commissioning, Councillor Hiller, Cabinet Member for Housing, Neighbourhoods and Planning and Councillor Walsh, Cabinet Member for Community Cohesion and Safety.

Declarations of Interest and Whipping Declarations

At this point Members must declare whether they have an interest, whether personal or prejudicial, in any of the items on the agenda. Members must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

Minutes:

Councillor Murphy declared a personal interest in that he worked for a Regeneration Partnership in Peterborough. Councillor Sandford declared a personal interest in that he was a board member of the Peterborough Environment City Trust.

Budget 2012/13 and Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) to 2021/22 PDF 54 KB

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed everyone present and explained that the purpose of the meeting was to provide an opportunity for all Members of each Scrutiny Committee and Commission to scrutinise the 2012/13 Budget and Medium Term Financial Plan to 2012/22 as part of the formal consultation process before being presented to Cabinet for approval on 10 February 2012. Prior to the formal meeting the Director for Strategic Resources had given members a briefing on the budget book in the form of a power point presentation.

Members were given an overview of the Medium Term Financial Plan and Budget by the Cabinet Member for Resources. He informed Members that in order to meet the financial challenges the Council was making £28m worth of savings. There were significant pressures in Adult Social Care and additional savings had been delivered to mitigate those pressures but it had not been enough. Reserves would have to be used to cover the current issues. Future challenges included a grant reduction of £5.6M equating to a £15M reduction over two financial years and would increase to £25M in four years time.

Questions and observations were made around the following areas:

Budget Section	Question / Comment	Response
Adult Social Care	How do our figures compare to other Authorities?	Peterborough had experienced around a 10% increase in costs associated with providing care for older people. The strategy that was being adopted was around reablement which aims to ensure that as many of those older people requiring care have short bursts of care to reable them to allow them to return home to live independently. There had been an increase in the over 85 population in Peterborough and this would therefore put pressure on the social care budget going forward.
Adult Social Care	The budget mentions that there are plans to close the two remaining residential care homes owned by the Council. Will this increase the pressure to spend more money at places like Southern Cross homes?	Adult Social Care had featured heavily in the press nationally and there had been a lot of discussions on looking at new ways to fund Adult Social Care. A review was being conducted into the remaining council run care homes to work out the best way forward. It would be a balance of making savings and investment. There was a need to reprovision the remaining facilities. There would be an investment in the service which might mean closing the existing facilities and opening a new one but this decision would not be taken until the review had taken place and recommendations had been put forward.
Adult Social Care	Are there any increases in fees and charges for Adult Social Care in this year’s budget?	There were no new increases in fees and charges in this budget paper. Any increases that had been implemented this year were from last years budget and only apply to those who could afford to pay.
Adult Social Care	What credibility can be given to the current figures being put ... view the full minutes text for item 3.