The Committee will consider the reports detailed below as part of the 2019/20 budget refresh process.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Executive and the City Treasurer which provided an update on the Council’s financial position and set out the next steps in the budget process.  The report summarised Officer proposals for how the Council could deliver a balanced budget for 2019/20.

In conjunction to the above, the Committee also received and considered the Manchester Health and Care Commissioning Pooled Budget 2019/20, Including Adult Social Care, which set out in broad terms the directorate’s key priorities, key activities and Homelessness Business Planning: 2019/20, which was a refresh of the directorate’s Business Plans for 2018/20 in the context of current resources, challenges and opportunities.

Taken together, the report and the directorate Business Plan illustrated how the directorate would work together and with partners to deliver Our Plan and progress towards the vision set out in the Our Manchester Strategy.

Homelessness Business Planning: 2019/20

The Deputy Leader addressed the Committee regarding the issue of homelessness in Manchester stating that the impact of austerity and welfare reform had a significant impact on the levels of homelessness and people who sleep rough, and this presented a significant challenge. She described how Manchester was responding to this challenge by investing in preventative services, utilising the Social Impact Bond that was funding available from the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) that was conditional on achieving positive outcomes through a payment by results model. She further advised that properties were being purchased to accommodate families and commented that the legal lessons learnt from this exercise would inform any future purchases to reduce the time taken to secure these.

Members noted the Cold Weather funding from the MHCLG of £35,000 for cold weather winter provision for people who sleep rough and commented that this was an inadequate amount for the scale of the challenge. A Member further enquired if any impact assessments of Universal Credit had been undertaken. The Strategic Lead for Homelessness responded by saying that the Welfare Reform Board did monitor and analyse the impact of Universal Credit and information on this would be shared with the Committee. She further commented that they were currently lobbying the MHCLG for additional funding and a decision on this was pending. In response to a comment from a Member regarding the provision of hot water at a facility she said that she was unaware of any issue, however she would make appropriate enquiries.

Members then discussed the issue of Private Sector Landlords and the use of retaliatory Section 21 Notices (eviction notices) if a tenant complained about disrepair in a property. The Deputy Leader responded by saying that she acknowledged the comments made and that the Executive Member for Housing and Regeneration was undertaking work around this issue as part of a broader piece of work around the Private Rented Sector. She said that inspections of private properties were undertaken before placing people in them and officers would reject a property if unsuitable and then work with the landlord to improve the property conditions. She said that discussions were also currently underway with Housing Providers to utilise their experience to undertake property inspections. 

A Member enquired how the different needs of the homeless population were met, noting that families would have different needs to single people and may also have other complex needs. The Strategic Lead for Homelessness said this was recognised and the Manchester Homelessness Partnership brought together a number of different statutory organisations and voluntary groups with lived experience to inform the response to the issue homelessness. The Director of Population Health and Wellbeing further advised that there was a multi-agency approach to delivering health and mental health services for homeless people and made reference to the Urban Village Medical Practice Homeless Healthcare Service based at the Ancoats Primary Care Centre.

Manchester Health and Care Commissioning Pooled Budget 2019/20

The Executive Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing said that despite the continued reduction in funding from central government for Adult Social Care the Council remained committed to improving the health outcomes of all Manchester residents and protect services for vulnerable people.   

The Director of Adult Social Care said the delivery of the new models of care that would be achieved through the Local Care Organisation would reduce the number of non-elective hospital admissions. The Director of Adult Social Care said this would also be supported by the introduction of assistive technology to support people in their home, when appropriate and the Executive Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing commented that a report on assistive technology would be provided to the Committee at an appropriate time. A Member commented that technology across all health and social care providers needed to be appropriate to ensure that information could be shared and accessed by all staff delivering health and care.  

In response to a question regarding staff engagement and Trade Union involvement the Director of Adult Social Care commented that the workforce were the most valuable asset to delivering the ambitions of the Local Care Organisation, and the duty of care to staff was taken very seriously. She explained that asset based staff and team training had been delivered that had included resilience training and Trade Unions had been fully consulted with. In response to a comment from a Member regarding the use of agency staff the Director of Adult Social Care said that they were seeking to reduce the number of agency staff where possible.

The Director of Population Health and Wellbeing responded to a comment from a Member regarding the actions on preventable early deaths by saying that the Population Health Plan that had been submitted to the May meeting of Health Scrutiny Committee had outlined how this would be addressed, along with the other priorities identified.

Decisions

The Committee notes the reports and request that the comments of the Committee be taken into consideration when the final business plans were produced.