Strategic Director for Children’s and Education Services

The Council is forecasting an estimated budget shortfall of £44m in 2023/24, £85m in 2024/25, and £112m by 2025/26. After the use of c£16m smoothing reserves in each of the three years, this reduces to £28m in 2023/24, £69m in 2024/25 and £96m by 2025/26. Officers have identified potential savings options to reduce the budget gap totalling £42.3m over three years.

This report sets out the priorities for the services in the remit of this committee and details the initial revenue budget changes proposed by officers.

Even after these proposals there remains a budget gap of £7m to close to get to a balanced budget in 2023/24 and further savings and cuts options will be required to be worked between now and January and be reported back to Scrutiny committees in February. Each scrutiny committee is invited to consider the current proposed changes which are within its remit and to make recommendations to the Executive before it agrees to the final budget proposals in February 2023.

Despite the socio-economic climate, Children’s and Education Services has continued to make service improvements.  In part this is associated with continued and strengthening partnerships across Manchester and the conurbation that support even greater collaboration and robust leadership; underpinned by an effective performance/assurance framework.

The focus of the Directorate has continued to be delivering a safe, effective and efficient intervention that prevents the unnecessary escalation of children’s needs. This is translated into a budgetary approach that is driven by ‘cost avoidance, effective care planning, commissioning and ensuring services are efficient.   

In addition, maintaining the Directorate’s commitment to securing a stable, confident and talented workforce to provide a high quality of social work practice and management oversight, whilst ensuring the education system is inclusive, delivers good or outstanding schools and meets the needs of all learners. This requires the Directorate to adapt, anticipate and respond to the challenges with purpose and focus. It is through this approach the Directorate has formulated a set of proposals that does not have any workforce implications and delivers £11.725m plus £75k Youth and Play services;this service’s budget currently sits in the Neighbourhood Directorateand are detailed in Appendix 1.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services which was the first in the cycle for the budget programme 2023-26. It set out an overview of the services within the remit of this Committee and their key priorities. The budget growth assumptions in the Medium-Term Financial Plan were set out. The report provided a draft set of officer proposals for further savings for 2023-26, developed in the context of the financial challenge facing the Council.

The main points and themes within the report included:

• Service overview and priorities;
• Service budget and proposed changes;
• Future opportunities and risks;
• Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG); and
• Workforce implications.

Some of the key points and themes that arose from the Committee’s discussions were:

• Concern and frustration about the Council being forced into the position of having to make cuts over many years and the impact of this on children and families, particularly when they were also facing the cost-of-living crisis;
• Concern about the financial position that schools were in and what could be done to continue to make improvements to schools with less money;
• Noting that Manchester’s Children’s Services had recently been judged as “good” by Ofsted, were there concerns about maintaining that improvement, especially in light of the cuts that would need to be made;
• The impact of cuts to youth services;
• Recruitment of foster carers and support for kinship carers;
• How could the budget pressures in the High Needs Block of the DSG be addressed;
• Concern about the costs of travel to school for children whose families had been placed in bed-and-breakfast accommodation in a different area;
• Concern about how some academies managed their budgets; and
• Concern about families not being able to afford school uniforms and that many families who were on low incomes were not eligible for free school meals.

The Chair highlighted the combination of pressures affecting families and the importance of universal free school meals.  She stated that the Council had been forced by the government to make cuts over a number of years, that services had been cut to the bone, the impact this was having on children and families and that it was not possible to keep finding more cuts.  She stated that the government had said it was committed to levelling up in the most deprived areas but that this had not happened.

The Executive Member for Children Services reported that the Council had made youth services a big priority and that it was very disappointing to have to be considering this reduction; however, he highlighted that the Council had significantly increased its investment in youth services in 2022 so, while this proposal represented a decrease in this additional investment, it was still a higher budget for youth services than in previous years.  He expressed concern that, while the Council was working with partners to improve the lives of children and young people, these partner organisations were also experiencing funding cuts, which made this more challenging.

The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services acknowledged the concerns that Members had raised, and the challenges presented; however, he reported that Children’s Services had officers who were very committed to Manchester and to children and young people.  He advised that the Council had in place good partnership working, leadership from senior officers, political leadership and a focus on the quality of social work practice.  He reported that the first priority when considering budget options was always that children and young people in the city were safe.  He advised that his service was focused on the well-being of children, rather than achieving Ofsted judgements, which should validate what his team already knew about how they were performing.  He highlighted the valuable role of foster carers and the need to consider what the cost-of-living rise would mean for them.  He reported that their mileage costs had already been reviewed, along with an inflation uplift from next year, and that consideration was being given to what more could be done in the immediate and short-term.  He suggested that the Committee might want to consider a report on foster carers at a future meeting.  The Deputy Director of Children’s Services highlighted the recommendations in the Care Review about benefits available to kinship carers, advising that it was expected that the government would provide a response to this later in the year. 

The Head of Finance (Children, Education and Schools) reported that many Headteachers were very concerned about their schools’ future financial position.  She advised that most of the DSG was distributed to schools, that a smaller amount was retained by the Council for the services it provided and that the Council was spending more than the amount it received on these services, with the High Needs Block being an area of overspend.  She outlined some of the support and advice that the Council was providing to schools, including on budgets, energy costs and procurement.  In response to a question from the Chair, she explained how schools with excessive balances were dealt with, with some money being clawed back from 11 schools.

In response to a Member’s question about support for children arriving in the UK, the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services highlighted the Council’s pledge to support Looked After Children and Care Leavers with insecure immigration status.  He reported that specific commissioned support was provided to Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children and that the Council’s New Arrivals Team had been highly commended in a national awards scheme.  In response to a question from the Chair about the High Needs Block, he advised that the number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) had increased by around 2000 in recent years and he outlined how the Council was now working with partners on joint commissioning for children who needed a specialist provision, with costs being shared.  He clarified that Home To School transport was specifically for children with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) but that families who were re-located to a different area from their school could receive a free travel pass.

The Executive Member for Children’s Services informed Members that the Deputy Executive Member for Children’s Services and the Education Business Partner were currently auditing schools on their offer for free school uniforms.  He acknowledged the Member’s concern about the limited eligibility for free school meals and expressed support for a universal offer of free school meals.  In response to a Member’s question, he advised that Manchester paid a good rate to its foster carers compared to some local authorities but would be looking into making an one-off additional payment.

Decisions

1.            To note the report, subject to Members’ comments.

2.            To recommend that Councillors lobby the government to address the issues raised.

3.            Noting that the Committee is not expecting a further budget report until February 2023, to request that Councillors be kept updated on the financial situation outside of the meetings.