Issue - meetings

          The Board received a report from the Executive Director – Adults, which provided a summary of the Adult Social Care (ASC) budget position.  It also highlighted the actions being taken to address immediate financial challenges and identify known budget pressures in the short to medium term.

          It was anticipated that the ASC division would be overspent against the planned budget by circa £700,000.  This would be the first year that the division would not achieve a balanced budget.  This was due to problems of recruitment and retention and the underachievement of income for the community meals and telehealth care services.

          Community Care services were experiencing significant and increased pressures and these were detailed in the report.  A Community Care budget recovery working group had been established to identify  ways to reduce spend. 

          A financial recovery action plan and tracking monitoring system had been established with the aim of delivering a balanced community care budget at year end.  The details of this was contained in section 6 of the report.

Social Care budgets had been impacted by ongoing financial pressures within the NHS, such as access to Continuing Health Care and costs incurred from services such as transport, medication support and occupational therapy, which should all be funded from health.  Current responsibilities and processes changes were under review across the Cheshire and Merseyside region.  There were also additional pressures from packages transitioning from Children’s Social Care.  However, it was noted that the Complex Care Pool Budget was on track to achieve a balanced budget.

          Following discussions and questions raised by Members of the Board, some additional information was noted:

·       at the end of 2022-23, the total overspend for Care Homes was £1.9M this was due to Government grants coming to an end after the Covid Pandemic, although the activity needed to continue e.g. additional staffing, PPE etc.  The following year the overspend reduced to £1.6M and this year the projected overspend was £800,000;

·       the most financially challenging area was Community Care due to it being demand led; and

·       recruitment and retention was still a major issue in care homes, however, there had been an improvement in social care and an end date for agency staff had been agreed.  A report with further details would be presented to the Board in due course. 

          RESOLVED:  That the Board:

1)    note the financial position outlined in the report; and

2)    consider the budget pressures highlighted in the report.