Agenda item

Question Time

Meeting of Cabinet, Tuesday, 16th February, 2021 10.00 am (Item 5.)

The following questions have been received and will either be responded to during the meeting or a written response will be included in the minutes:

1. Question from Councillor Robin Stuchbury to Councillor Angela Macpherson, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care

Following my previous questions with regard to adult community care on whether care providers are resourced and financially resilient and stable enough to deliver care within the Covid-19 pandemic, what is the current position with regard to the responsibilities the council has in relation to whether all care homes are in a financially stable position where they are able to deliver services to look after our vulnerable adults during the pandemic. If this isn’t the case, what provision financially or decisions will need to be taken to ensure these care homes can continue to look after elderly residents in a safe stable environment . I note that in Appendix 1 of the draft budget report that there were indicated predicted savings of £2,300,000 to adult & social care services and whether this was realistic if the Council was called upon to help support care home providers, noting that we are setting the budget on 24 February 2021.

2. Question from Councillor Robin Stuchbury to Councillor Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

In light of the fact the Academy group took forward the 11+ exams during the Covid pandemic I would be most grateful to have an understanding of the pass rate within the schools in Buckinghamshire in comparison to previous years. I would also seek to have a better understanding of any information which is available on the impact of the inability to access face to face education during the period prior to the test on the percentage of children in Buckinghamshire passing the 11+ exam.

What information will be made available or is available to the education authority for oversight of the Academy Group actions in progressing the 11+exams this academic year, particularly to ensure lower & modest income families have not been adversely affected by the exam results. This could adversely and negatively prevent their access to the chosen school of their choice within the grammar school education system run by the educational trusts and academies in Buckinghamshire.

In addition, have we got any information and statistics available for this academic year on the percentage of out of county children who will be entering the grammar school system after this year’s challenging round of 11+ exams.

3. Question from Councillor Mark Bateman to the Leader

The impact of the COVID 19 Pandemic has decimated this year’s Council Budget. The full implications are yet to be realised. So why is the Cabinet presenting a single year Budget for 2021/2022 which they must know is unrealistic and will result in yet another year of over expenditure? Do the residents of Buckinghamshire not deserve some inkling of what future Budget plans might look like? Why and how is the Council claiming that savings can be made next year across a number of portfolios?

Minutes:

Question from Councillor Robin Stuchbury to the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

The reply given by Councillor Anita Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills was not read out at the meeting but was provided to the Cabinet and to Councillor Stuchbury.

Buckinghamshire Council’s role is to support all our children across our schools. Covid-19 has created incredible challenges for all schools and families and the Council is working with school leaders to minimise the impact of the pandemic and resultant lockdown on our pupils, including the outcomes of the selection test. All of the professional views we heard advocated a delay in the scheduled test dates as a result of the extended lockdown and limited access to schools for the Y5 cohort in 2020. The outcomes of the test (as far as they are available at the moment) would support the strategy adopted.

In coming to decisions for the process for 2021 entry, the LA engaged with the Department for Education, the grammar schools (The Buckinghamshire Grammar Schools) who are the test commissioner and GL Assessment (the test provider). We did this for two reasons; firstly because we were contracted to enable children to sit the tests on a revised schedule and secondly, from our role to support all children and schools, particularly with reference to supporting schools in ensuring children were provided with, and were able to access, remote learning. All children will have been impacted in both obvious and hidden ways during the lockdown. Their experiences will have varied, some will have been detrimental to either their academic progress or their emotional wellbeing and other experiences will have been positive. Any individual child’s access to the learning available depends on whether they were one of the groups still physically attending school and, if not, on the arrangements made by their school to support them remotely. Finally, it also depended on their own and their parent’s desire to access the education that was provided whether that was online or on paper.

In 2020 entry testing, at the completion of the main round of testing, 25% of the Buckinghamshire resident cohort (1431 of 5673 children who sat the test) had achieved the automatic qualification standard and a further 250 were qualified by the Selection Review Panels.

In 2021 entry testing at the same point in the process, 28% of the cohort (1614 of 5804 children who sat the test) achieved the automatic qualification standard. The selection review process is ongoing but has created in excess of 220 additional qualified resident pupils to date. We can see therefore that more resident pupils qualified for a place in a grammar school this year than last.

At this point in the annual cycle for school admissions there has not been an allocation to schools, the first iteration of this will be complete for national allocation day on March 1^st. We have not yet received the preference files for all of our neighbouring authorities, and as such it would be premature to identify a percentage of out of county pupils planning to attend secondary schools in Buckinghamshire. This information will be available after Easter, although it should be noted that final figures will not be available until September when pupils walk through the doors of their new schools.

We understand children’s experiences during lockdown may have impacted on their education going forward. However, at this point there is no consistent, coherent or complete dataset that we can use to evaluate the impact that differing on-line educational opportunity has had on this group of children.

We will continue to work collaboratively with schools to mitigate the impacts of the pandemic for all children and especially for those who are some of our most vulnerable and disadvantaged pupils. The best way that we can address the gap in educational attainment is through continual engagement with our schools – sharing the best practice and focussing on practical actions that will have an impact on learning and teaching. We have been delivering conferences and workshops to school leaders across this academic year, working with high quality speakers from nationally recognised institutions as well as showcasing amazing work carried out by our schools and others nationally. Our February conference, which was focussed on engaging with families to support learning had attendees from over two thirds of Buckinghamshire schools.

Question from Councillor Robin Stuchbury to the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care

I asked this question noting that appendix 1 of the draft budget report on 5 January 2021 (p4) indicated predicted savings of £2,300,000 to adult & social care services. This would have formed part of the budget scrutiny , leaving the question open whether the council has the financial resources to deal with this challenging situation and why they did not forecast such expenditure in the support of care provision, in case private providers decided to walk away from their contracts or close their homes.

I recognise the difficulties of managing the service in these testing times but at the same time having to balance this matter against the financial necessity of meeting the statutory responsibility of Buckinghamshire Council both presently and through the 2021/22 predicted/planned financial envelope agreed at the last Cabinet meeting on the 5th of January.

Verbal reply given by Councillor Angela Macpherson, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Council has ensured that care providers have had prompt access to additional funding made available by the Government. A total of £19m has been distributed to date to support a range of care providers. Identifying, understanding and managing supplier risk and the ongoing monitoring of the financial viability of providers is a key activity in the commissioning of social care services. The Council seeks to mitigate the financial risks as far as possible by working with providers and providing appropriate support. However, the Council has limited control over these risks as many providers have a high number of self-funders and have businesses which are independent of the Council.

The Council has developed a provider support tool to assess approaches from providers who are experiencing financial difficulties. However, there are limits to the level of intervention the Council can provide to a business which finds it is no longer financially viable. In this event the Council has a duty to safeguard and support the affected clients and ensure continuity of their care. The form this will take is dependent on the specific circumstances.

To achieve a balanced budget it is necessary for all services across the Council to deliver efficiencies. Savings of £2.3m have been allocated through the Medium Term Financial Planning process and these will be achieved through an ongoing programme of improvements, including in part through the transformation programme which is delivering the Council’s Better Lives Strategy. Detailed modelling was undertaken as part of the budget process which included growth and inflationary pressures. As a result, £9.6m has been added to the budget (see Appendix 1 of the draft Budget Report, 5 January 2021 (p4)) to help address the known pressures within the market. In addition it is proposed that the Adult Social Care contingency increased to £6m – in part to deal with risks such as those relating to the financial position of care providers.The Council will continue to monitor the market and work with providers to mitigate any significant risks as appropriate.

Question from Councillor Mark Bateman to the Leader of the Council

Verbal reply given by Councillor Martin Tett, Leader of the Council

The response to the Covid-19 pandemic has figured heavily in all aspects of the Council’s operations this year. However, the Council has still been able to deliver Business As Usual activities as well as bringing the teams together from the five legacy authorities. The government has provided funding support to cover the additional duties placed on authorities in order to deliver the local response for the benefit of residents and businesses and has also introduced a lost income compensation scheme whereby the local authority bears the first 5% of losses but is then able to recover 75% of further losses. At the end of quarter 3 the authority is forecasting a slight overspend although expects to be able to bring this down to a breakeven position by the end of the financial year.

By law we are required to set a balanced budget each year. Although it was our intention to set a multi-year spending plan there is currently so much uncertainty due to the length, depth and nature of the ongoing impact of the pandemic that it was decided to revert to a 1-year revenue budget so that concentration could be given to tackling the pandemic whilst ensuring that the 2021/22 budget is as robust as possible. Furthermore, the government’s planned Spending Review changed from a 3-year settlement to a 1-year settlement meaning that there was no certainty of funding beyond the next financial year.

In setting the budget to be presented to Cabinet and Council we have been continually checking our assumptions and estimates against the best information available. Whilst it is difficult to predict what the ‘new normal’ may look like we have used our collective experience from this year, along with indicators from Government and other national institutions, to propose a budget which represents our best estimate for next year. This includes assumptions around lost income together with corporate contingency budgets to help mitigate the financial risks caused by the uncertainty around Covid.

Our savings plans are focussed on those areas of the budget where we are confident that we can deliver changes in operation without reducing the quality or flexibility of our services, and these plans have been tested by members and officers alike. These include further unitary savings from integrating teams and systems and from harmonising contracts.

Whilst the proposed budget reflects our best estimates we recognise the financial risks associated with this budget. The draft budget included some corporate contingencies to reflect this uncertainty and risk. Since the draft budget was agreed we have entered a third lockdown and much of the consideration by my colleagues on the Budget Scrutiny Committee was to test the assumptions made. Following their recommendations, the revised budget being considered by Cabinet today recommends an increase in these corporate contingencies to reflect the heightened risks that exist. It is my belief that with the additional contingencies contained in the proposed budget then we will be able to live within our available resources in 2021/22.