Agenda item

2021/22 Q3 Adults and Health Services Budget Outturn

Minutes:

The Committee received a report of the Corporate Director of Resources which provided details of the forecast outturn budget position for the Adult and Health Services (AHS) service grouping, highlighting major variances in comparison with the budget for the year, based on the position to the end of December 2021 (for copy see file of minutes).

 

With regards to paragraph 15 of the report, Councillor Gunn asked what was meant by the reference to a £550k saving due to effective management of vacancies.  P Dowkes, Principal Accountant, Resourcesadvised that this was an under budget spend with related to the recruitment and retention of staff.

 

Councillor Gunn was concerned that this would be having an impact upon staff who were delivering those services, in addition to additional work pressures, this could impact the wellbeing of the workforce who were had also been carrying more responsibilities during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The Chair confirmed that this social worker workload in adult care had been discussed previously and Head of Adult Care had reassured Members that there was not a funding issue and staff were being recruited, but this was a lengthy process which would take some time to address.

 

The Director of Integrated Community Services confirmed that there was not a vacancy freeze, which would traditionally be a way of making savings, however there were regional and national issues surrounding social work recruitment and similarly in other areas of social work such as learning disability and mental health.  There were additional qualifications needed so TEWV were also finding that they had similar recruitment issues.  The Council were aware of the pressures on staff, who had been consulted and were assisting people with stress management and offering a therapeutic response.  Admittedly the situation would not get easier in short term, but there was hope that in longer term it would.  He agreed that the Committee may wish to keep a close eye on this in future.

 

Councillor Gunn advised that several years ago services had set up recruitment programmes as the competition was great, but since this was a national issue, she asked what was happening to address it and whether there had been any lobbying of the government as this seemed to be a national crisis which this Council had been trying to address for some time.

 

The Director of Integrated Community Services confirmed that during a national call with the Chief Executing of NHS England, the issued of social work retention and recruitment had been raised by N Scanlon, Director of Nursing.

 

In response to a comment from Councillor Stubbs with regards to the increase in bad debt provision for individuals who had been in receipt of care, the Principal Accountant, Resources, confirmed that the outstanding debt had grown substantially as a direct result of covid, but debt collecting provision had now been restarted and this would hopefully improve.

 

Resolved

 

That the report be noted.

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