Report of the Chief Executive and the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer

This report provides an update on the Council’s overall financial position and sets out the next steps in the budget process, including scrutiny of the draft Budget proposals and Budget report by this Committee. Each Scrutiny Committee will receive a budget report aligned to its remit, showing the main changes proposed to delivery and funding. The services to be considered by each scrutiny committee are shown at table four. The report also outlines the officer proposals for how the Council could deliver a balanced budget for 2020/21, the details of which will be discussed at the relevant scrutiny committees.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Executive and the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, which provided an update on the Council’s overall financial position and set out the next steps in the budget process. In doing so, the report outlined Officer proposals for how the Council could deliver a balanced budget for 2020/21.

In conjunction to the above, the Committee also received and considered the draft Council Business Plan for 2020/21 and the Adult Social Care and Population Health Budget 2020/21.

Officers highlighted that the 2020/21 budget would be a one year roll over budget. It would reflect the fact the Council had declared a climate emergency and would also continue to reflect the priorities identified in the previous three-year budget strategy.

Taken together, the reports illustrated how the directorate would work to deliver the Our Corporate Plan and progress towards the vision set out in the Our Manchester Strategy.

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

·         A fair financial settlement for Manchester and a commitment for appropriate future levels of funding to deliver social care was required from central government;

·         Future reports should include how success was measured to demonstrate how pooled budget arrangements and the integration of health and social care was improving the health outcomes for residents;  

·         Clarification was sought on how the Transformation Fund awarded to Greater Manchester had been allocated across the authorities;

·         Had Learning Disabled citizens, their families and carers been consulted with and involved in the development of the reported Learning Disability Services;

·         Further information was sought on the approach to the care market and the reported potential need forcapital investment to allow market intervention; and

·         Concern was expressed regarding the move towards technology enabled care, commenting that this should never replace human interactions and emphasised the importance of ensuring that people’s data was protected.

The Executive Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing commented that despite the failure by central government to adequately fund social care and the pressures experienced in this area as a result of increased demand, Manchester had responded by pioneering the integration of health and social care to protect the most vulnerable people in the city. She stated that the reliance on increased Council Tax to support social care was a political decision imposed by central government and was not fair or sustainable in the long term and she called upon the government to provide a fair, long term financial settlement to deliver social care.

The Executive Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing responded to the comments regarding technology enabled care by stating that this would be used where appropriate and never be used to replace human interaction. She commented that in an age where technology and apps were more accessible and widely used, citing for example the prevalence of smart watches that already monitored a variety of activities, future generations would be increasingly familiar with this technology and it could be used to monitor people’s health where appropriate. She stated that reports on this approach could be provided to the Committee.  

In response to the question regarding the capital investment into the care market, the Executive Member for Adults, Health and Wellbeing stated that the care market was a vital component of the Adult Social Care system supporting Manchester to meet statutory responsibilities and supporting Mancunians to live as independently as possible. She informed the Committee that the options for capital investment were currently in the early stages of development and the Health Scrutiny Committee would be informed of this and views sought as this work progressed.

In response to the Members question, the Executive Director of Adult Social Care confirmed that Learning Disabled citizens, their families and carers would be fully involved with and central to the co-design of the Learning Disability Plan.

The Chief Finance Officer, Manchester Health and Care Commissioning informed the Committee that the £450m Transformation Fund, allocated to Greater Manchester over a five-year period from 2016 to 2021 had been allocated to each authority based on their local population size. She stated that an evaluation of this scheme would be undertaken and this would inform lobbying for future funding. In response to a question regarding Mental Health Services, Members were advised that this activity was provided by specific NHS funding and therefore did not form part of these budget reports.

The Director of Policy, Performance and Reform commented that measures of success would be provided in the budget reports submitted to the February 2020 meeting.

In response to a question raised by a Member in relation to dialysis services in South Manchester, the Director of Corporate Affairs, Manchester Health and Care Commissioning stated that he would follow this up following the meeting.

Decisions

The Committee recommend that their comments be submitted for consideration by the Executive at their meeting of 15 January 2020.