Menu
Council meetings

Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

Venue: Civic Suite/Hybrid

Contact: Timothy Andrew Email: (timothy.andrew@lewisham.gov.uk) 

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes of the meeting held on 9 July 2024 pdf icon PDF 78 KB

Minutes:

1.1         Resolved: that the minutes of the meeting on 9 July be agreed as an accurate record.

2.

Declarations of interest pdf icon PDF 82 KB

Minutes:

2.1         Councillor John Paschoud declared an interest in relation to item five arent of an adult daughter in receipt of a package of adult social care.

 

3.

Responses from Mayor and Cabinet

 

There are none.

Minutes:

3.1       There were none.

4.

Financial monitoring pdf icon PDF 796 KB

Decision:

That the Committee would refer its views to Mayor and Cabinet, as follows – the Committee recommends that the Council open discussions with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government about actions which can be taken to stabilise the HRA Budget should sufficient overspend reductions and once-off-funding not be identified.

Minutes:

4.1        Nick Penny (Head of Service Finance) introduced the report – noting the challenging financial situation facing the Council and highlighting pressures in key areas across the general fund, housing revenue account (HRA), dedicated schools grant and capital programme. Nick also provided an update on the savings, cost avoidance and cuts measures projected through the medium-term financial strategy to balance the Council’s budget in coming years.

 

4.2        Nick Penny and David Austin (Executive Director for Corporate Resources) responded to questions from the Committee – the following key points were noted:

·        Of the savings outlined for 2024-25 £6.8 million had been achieved. £200k were unachievable and £1m were under review as potentially unachievable.

·        The HRA reserves were recognised as being below the optimal level. The intention was to keep 10% of the overall budget in reserve.

·        Work was taking place to stabilise the HRA over the medium term – and to rebuild the reserves.

·        Work was taking place to ensure that the repairs service was functioning as well as possible – to reduce costs and improve the service for residents.

·        Work was still taking place to finalise the budgets for the Lewisham Homes legacy company.

·        The process for recharges was currently being reviewed which might reduce some of the charges on the HRA as all of Lewisham Homes’ services were reincorporated into the Council.

·        The return of right to buy receipts was carried out for a number of reasons – including the benefits of accessing alternative funding as well as slippage in the timing of the capital programme.

·        The implementation of some savings proposals had been delayed by practical issues, hampering implementation.

·        The largest risk of slippage in the capital programme was on the delivery of new homes.

·        The later programmes were delivered through the capital programme the more costly they were (in terms of construction and also due to foregone rents for housing related schemes)

·        There were a number of initiatives being carried out to reduce the Council’s costs. Collecting Council debts was one part of this.

·        Work was taking place to streamline the management of debts and improve the availability of reporting.

·        An assessment was being made to determine what the correct level of resourcing was for the council tax and business rate collection teams.

·       None of the measures being taken to manage overspending in the HRA had an impact in the general fund (they were kept entirely separate)

·        A number of the measures being taken to manage the HRA budget were time limited and would only control costs in the short term.

·        Measures were being developed on medium and long term approaches to managing the HRA.

·        Officers were ensuring that there was early engagement with the government over the pressures facing the HRA.

 

4.3        Councillor Amanda de Ryk (Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Performance) was invited to address the Committee – the following key point was noted:

·        It was clear that the performance of Council tax and business rate collection teams needed improvement – and work was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

5.

Social care commissioning and contracting pdf icon PDF 813 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

To recommend that officers should carry out a further review of the data management systems in children’s social care and return to the Committee with a timeline for improvement.

Minutes:

5.1        Tom Brown (Executive Director of Adult Social Care and Health) introduced the report – noting the key aims of adult social care, the duties contained in the care act and the pressures facing adult social care.

 

5.2        Tom Brown and Councillor Paul Bell (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) responded to questions from the Committee – the following key points were noted:

·         One of the benefits of paying the London Living Wage and the ‘maximising wellbeing at home’ approach taken by the Council meant that the delivery of care in people’s homes was relatively stable – in contrast to much of London.

·         The payment of the London Living Wage had benefits beyond the immediate renumeration of the staff involved. It reduced staff turnover and improved overall outcomes for service users.

·         Staffing of care home provision was slightly more challenging (but still better than the situation nationally)

·         All of the Council’s home care was provided by external providers – there were very few services provided internally. All suppliers had to have a local focus – and they usually recruited locally.

·         Some care homes were small family businesses – but some were much larger national organisations.

·         The adult social care market was more stable than the children’s social care market. The Care Quality Commission carried out enhanced regulation for the largest care providers in the market.

·         The Council had an enablement approach to social work – to support people to live as independently as possible.

·         The Council did not have the resources to monitor all of the care providers in the market. The CQC also had a large backlog of providers to review.

·         For the organisations that the Council contracted with, regular checks were carried out to ensure compliance.

·         The Council was well prepared for the implementation of fair pay agreements in the care sector.

·         The cost of increasing all care provision to the London Living Wage would be around £5m.

·         The Council did not use care providers that were rated as less than ‘good’ (or were on their way to being rated so) by the Care Quality Commission.

·         Consideration had been given to the costs of providing free homecare in line with the recommendations of the Lewisham Disability Commission report but this was currently unaffordable.

·         The funding to provide more staff would be welcome but there were also challenges in accessing sufficient social workers.

·         The quality of systems and data being used by the Council had been improved and was currently working well.

·         There had been interest from other boroughs in the approach being taken by Lewisham and the successes being achieved.

 

5.3        Councillor Chris Barnham (Cabinet Member for Children and Young People) introduced the section of the report on children’s social care – noting the challenges facing the sector and acknowledging the financial pressures in Lewisham.

 

5.4        Lucie Heyes (Director of Children’s Social Care) introduced the report – outlining the numbers of children in contacts with care services, setting out the environment in which the service was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

6.

Select Committee work programme pdf icon PDF 164 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

That the work programme for the meeting on the 28 November be agreed.

Minutes:

6.1         The Committee discussed the work programme for its November meeting.

 

6.2         Resolved: that the work programme for the meeting on the 28 November be agreed.