Council tax set to soar again as £13 million cuts loom

Proposals for Brighton and Hove’s 2018/19 financial year reveal the council’s intention to increase tax while cutting spending by £13 million to balance the budget.

The tax increase, which would follow a 4.99 per cent rise this year and 3.99 per cent in 2016, will mean the council tax bill for a Band D households will have increased by around £200 in just over two years.

Between 80 and 90 council jobs will be lost through voluntary redundancies and natural wastage.

An additional £3 million has been budgeted to support children in care, and an extra £6 million to meet the rising costs of adult social care.

And around £10 million has been earmarked for major projects including £1 million for the redevelopment of Shelter Hall at the foot of West Street, and £1 million to match the hoped-for government fund to renovate Madeira Terraces.

Yesterday morning council leader Warren Morgan told The Argus there would be no major cuts to frontline services and that most of the savings had come from back-office efficiency measures.

His figures specify around £12 million of the savings needed with £1 million still to be identified.

He told The Argus: “You can’t look at this budget and say there’s a big headline cut to any particular service. These aren’t salami slices they’re proper efficiency measures.

“There’s no service that’s going to face a major cut. We’re keeping children’s services, we’re not cutting any libraries. “

He said savings, efficiencies measures, and management cuts were all contributing to savings.

“We have post reductions but I would stress those are post reductions not job cuts,” he added.

Councillor Morgan said his minority administration anticipates receiving the votes it needs from Conservative councillors at the time of the final budget debate and vote in February, subsequent to debates and horse-trading in the intervening months. But he expects opposition from the Greens.

Conservative Group leader Tony Janio said: “We expected a lack of fresh initiatives and ideas from moderate Labour Councillors, as they protect themselves against a Momentum onslaught.

“If Cllr Morgan and his more sensible colleagues need support to undertake the genuine reform he knows the Council needs, and are struggling to deliver, he only has to reach out to The Conservative Group for help.”

However Green leader Councillor Phelim MacCafferty said: “Not one Councillor from the Labour administration is quoted in the council’s budget press release on the city’s finances. It might be Labour’s budget - but they are ashamed to put their name to it.”

He said the Greens believed 18 of the redundancies would in fact be compulsory and that would be a red line for his party. The council employs approximately 4,200 people.

The proposals will now be debated at the powerful Policy Resources and Growth committee meeting next Thursday. The council is legally mandated to set its budget and council tax policy by March 11 2018.

HEADLINE FIGURES

The chart above shows the scale of cuts to each of the council’s main departments, with the black segment representing the £1,262,000 which has yet to be identified.

BLUE Families, children and learning £4,308,000

RED Health and adult social care £3,426,000

GREEN Economy environment and culture £1,582,000

PURPLE Neighbourhoods and housing £653,000

TURQUOISE Finance and resources £1,181,000

ORANGE Strategy governance and law £225,000

MAUVE Corporate services £725,000

BLACK Remaining Gap £1,262,000

£2M LESS FOR FOSTERING

FOSTERING and adoption service budgets will be squeezed by around £2 million under these proposals.

A service redesign anticipates finding £220,000 in savings to the cost of finding and reviewing potential foster carers and adopters. But should the plans not succeed, the papers warn “higher cost foster placements would persist”, putting the savings at risk.

A significant £1,777,000 is to be slashed from the £10.5 million budget for residential, fostering and secure placements for looked-after children provided by external agencies.

More fostering is being provided in house, reducing costs.

An improved working model is expected to lead to a continuing fall in the number of children in agency care and in the costs of providing it.

But the papers warn these savings will only come about if other strategies for helping children in care are successful.

SOCIAL WORKERS

THERE will be £590,000 less for social worker teams under this budget.

The council says this is due to a reduction in demand for services and better management leading to less reliance on expensive agency staff.

Over the last two years caseload has reduced by 7.7 per cent and the number of children in care has reduced by 8.7 per cent. Meanwhile the use of agency social workers has reduced from some 20 per cent in October 2015 to zero.

The £590,000 cut will come from a budget of £8.8 million so represents a 6.7 per cent decrease.

However the savings are not guaranteed. The budget papers warn: “Increased demand and referral rates, as a result of unforeseen national or social contextual issues, may put at risk social work staffing efficiencies.”

INCREASES TO CARE BUDGETS

THE overall expenditure for children in care and looked-after children is planned to increase by more than £3 million.

A fall in the number of young people using the services has allowed for some cost savings but overall the costs of providing care continues to rise and both locally and nationally there has been an increase in the number of adolescents requiring intensive support, including high-cost residential placements.

In part this is related to the greater focus on meeting the needs of young people who are vulnerable to exploitation.

The planned safeguarding and care budget of £38 million will cover children in need and child protection, children in care and leaving care services, and adolescence and youth offending services. Additionally the cost of adult social care will rise by £6 millon.

LEARNING DISABILITIES

THE £24 million budget for adult community care for those with learning disabilities will have £745,000 cut under these proposals.

The council anticipates spending less as a result of a series of schemes intended to “promote independence”.

There are currently 833 adults with learning disabilities receiving support from the community learning disability team, ranging from direct payments through to full residential care.

The budget plans state: “We are developing a more personalised approach to our clients, including close working with housing colleagues.

“Additional support has been provided to carry out reassessments of the support needs of our clients.”

The budget for in-house residential and supported living is also planned to reduce by £100,000.

PHYSICAL SUPPORT

PHYSICAL and sensory support services for adults requiring care will have £1.7 million cut from its £15 million budget.

The strategy document does not outline any specific services to be cut or give examples of what services will no longer be provided.

But the language suggests fewer people will receive care packages.

The budget document, under the heading “service proposals”, states: “Support delivery of preventative approaches to reduce flow of new care packages, ensure all new care packages secure value for money and prioritise reviews and target higher cost packages to explore more effective means of delivery, integration with health to focus upon admission avoidance and discharge to assess at home.”

Elsewhere in social care spending, cuts to junior staff in mental health care teams are expected to bring in £100,000 in savings.

SEXUAL HEALTH

SEXUAL health prevention and treatment programmes will receive £600,000 less than their current budget of £4.8 million under these proposals, which comes with a risk of some patients not receiving services.

The council’s three-year contract with its current provider of integrated sexual health services and chlamydia screening programmes comes to an end in March. Officers plan on saving the money through negotiations with the current provider or re-procurement.

However the plans are clear that costs would actually rise by £400,000 if the service closes without being recommissioned properly.

It adds: “Reduced funding of sexual health services may lead to a reduction in the overall number of patients treated if alternative approaches cannot meet needs.”

CAPITAL INVESTMENT

AWAY from day-to-day spending the budget plans include proposals for £10 million in spending on capital projects which the council hopes will generate money in the longer term.

These include £1 million for the regeneration of Shelter Hall, without which Councillor Morgan said the seafront would grind to a halt.

There is also £1.5 million to turn Brighton Town Hall into a money-spinning revenue in the mould of Mansion House in London, to be used as a venue for more weddings and corporate meetings.

And £1 million has been earmarked to spend on Madeira Terrace. This would be added to a hoped-for £4 million Heritage grant and the £400,000 the current crowdfunding campaign aims to raise by the end of the month.