Report of the Strategic Director for Children and Education Services

This report outlines the financial management and leadership of the Directorate’s budget, the financial position which includes demography, growth of demand and a series of savings options proposed by officers aligned to the remit of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee to contribute to the Council’s duty to achieve a balanced budget in 2021/22. The report also sets out the impact the options will have on residents and the workforce.

The Council’s budget proposals for 2021/22 and onwards will be subject to further refinement following feedback from public consultation and scrutiny committees.  Final budget proposals will be made to Scrutiny and Executive in February 2021.

The Committee received a report of the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services which outlined the financial management and leadership of the Directorate’s budget, the financial position which included demography, growth of demand and a series of savings options proposed by officers aligned to the remit of the Committee to contribute to the Council’s duty to achieve a balanced budget in 2021/22. The report also set out the impact the options would have on residents and the workforce.  It noted that the Council’s budget proposals for 2021/22 and onwards would be subject to further refinement following feedback from public consultation and scrutiny committees and that final budget proposals would be made to Scrutiny and Executive in February 2021.  The report reflected the fact that the Council had declared a climate emergency by making carbon reduction a key consideration in the Council’s planning and budget proposals.

Officers referred to the main points and themes within the report, which included:

·         The background and context;

·         Directorate budget approach;

·         Directorate Revenue Budget 2021/22 and proposed savings;

·         Changes to the report since it was last considered at the Committee’s meeting on 4 November 2020;

·         The impact on the workforce and Manchester residents; and

·         Next steps.

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

·         Whether the proposed savings rated as “red” in the table appended to the report could be looked at again and whether there were any alternatives that could be considered;

·         Concern about the proposal relating to the Children and Parent Service, outlined at point 4.56 in the report, noting the considerable benefits of early intervention in improving outcomes for children and families and reducing the need for more expensive interventions later on;

·         The impact of COVID-19 on families and on Children’s Services;

·         Request for further clarification on the information relating to residential placements, including the plans for Lyndene Children’s Home;

·         Concern about the proposed cut to funding for interventions to support the improvement of maintained schools outlined at points 4.47 and 4.48 in the report; and

·         Request for further clarification on the savings relating to Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) and the impact of these.

The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services informed the Committee that, as the majority of the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) was allocated to schools and 47% of the Children’s Services budget was spent on care provision for children, the opportunities and areas of the budget where savings could be made was limited.  He advised that these areas were interconnected so changes in one area of the service would have an impact elsewhere and that none of these proposals were without risk. 

In response to Members’ comments about the impact of the pandemic, the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services advised that there had been an increase in requests for advice and support and an increase in referrals to Children’s Services, which had included an increase in issues relating to domestic abuse but that the number of children becoming Looked After had not significantly increased so far.  He advised that it was a challenging situation as it was more difficult to predict future demand.  He also outlined some of work that was currently being developed to support children and families during this time, including short break provision for children attending special schools, sessions for children and young people, similar to the summer holiday provision, and help with paying utility bills for families who were struggling financially.

The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services informed Members that Lyndene was a commissioned children’s home and that the children and young people being placed there predominantly had additional health needs, learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorder.  He outlined work taking place with health colleagues to commission specialist provision and re-purpose the home to improve outcomes for these children.  He suggested that the Committee might want to look at this work further at a future meeting.

In response to a Member’s question, the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services clarified that it was proposed to re-purpose three Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) workers to work with foster families to reduce the risk of foster care placements breaking down.  He informed Members that unplanned endings of foster care placements could result in significantly increased costs if the young person had to be placed in a residential children’s home.

The Strategic Director of Children and Education Services reported that, as Manchester was now receiving more UASC, this enabled the work to support them to be more intelligence-led and for better commissioning arrangements, based on contracts for supporting a number of young people rather than buying ad hoc support for individual children.  He informed the Committee that the Home Office had also recently increased the grant payment to the Council for UASC.  Therefore, he advised, that the savings in this area did not represent a reduction in the quality of support provided to these young people.  He suggested that the Committee might want to look at the work taking place to secure settled status for these young people. 

In response to a Member’s question, the Strategic Director of Children and Education Services outlined the support provided to Care Leavers and advised the Committee that a report providing more information on this would be submitted to the next meeting of the Corporate Parenting Panel.

The Chair noted the improvements that had been made in Children’s Services in recent years, expressed disappointment that the Council had been put in this financial position due to the level of funding provided by the national government and expressed concern that this could impact on these services in future.

Decisions

1.            That the Committee does not support the proposal for the revised parenting commission at 4.56 in the report, which would reduce the number of families receiving this support, and believes that this reduction in early intervention would result in increased costs later on.

2.            That the Committee does not support the proposed cut to funding for interventions to support the improvement of maintained schools outlined at points 4.47 and 4.48 in the report, particularly in light of the impact that COVID-19 is having on children’s education.

3.            To receive further information on the plans to re-purpose Lyndene Children’s Home in a future report.

4.            That the Committee will monitor the impact of the transformation of CAMHS.