Agenda and minutes

County Councillor Stephen Holgate replaced County Councillor Alyson Barnes for this meeting.

None were received.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None were disclosed.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meeting held on 23 September 2016 at 10:00am be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

The Chair welcomed County Councillor Tony Martin, Cabinet Member for Adult and Community Services; Louise Taylor, Corporate Director Operations and Delivery; Tony Pounder, Director of Adult Services; and Ian Crabtree, Head of Service Policy, Information and Commissioning, to the meeting.

A report was presented highlighting demographic pressures, increasing financial pressures on local government and significant workforce and retention difficulties which had raised concerns that the quality and sustainability of the adult social care markets for home care, residential and nursing homecare were at risk. The national situation was particularly precarious in those segments of the care market which relied heavily on council funding. Weaknesses in the market were also impacting on other areas within the wider health and social care system, for example by creating delays in discharging patients from hospital.

Lancashire's home care and residential/nursing care markets broadly reflected those national patterns but there were some distinctive local features which were drawn out in the report.

The Local Government Association (LGA), Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) and bodies such as the Kings Fund continued to seek new ways of sustaining adult social care. And this report included an overview of how Lancashire was responding to some of these challenges with new commissioning and clinical models, plans for closer and further integration with the NHS and involving local communities in efforts to maintain health and wellbeing into older age. The County Council had also to be open about what people – both self-funders and those whose care was paid for by councils – could expect from social care in Lancashire, what constitutes a fair price for care, and about the council's ability to fund care needs for its population in the future.

Regarding finances, nationally the 2% Council Tax social care precept had raised £380m but the implementation of the National Minimum wage had cost £612m. It also benefited those areas with higher property values (typically in the South) rather than those with lower values (typically in the North).

The County Council was currently forecasting that it would receive additional resources of £84m as a result of additional funding from both Council Tax and Better Care Fund over the next five years, however the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) contained additional price and demand pressures of £176m over the same period.

The County Council faced a financial gap of approximately £148m by 2020/21, including a forecasted £92m shortfall in adult social care which was part of the overall shortfall in Health and Social Care identified in the Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) for Lancashire and South Cumbria.

The 2% Council Tax precept fell far short of addressing the financial gap for Adult Social Care. In 2017/18 the precept was estimated to generate £8.3m and the Better Care Fund would provide an additional £3.2m in Lancashire. However the price and demand pressures for Adult Social care total £37.7m resulting in an overall pressure for the service area of £26.2m in 2017/18.

Questions and comments by the Committee in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Wendy Broadley, Senior Democratic Services Officer (Overview and Scrutiny), explained to the Committee that the Budget Scrutiny Working Group had the responsibility for considering budget proposals and issues on behalf of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees. The report presented set out the proposed approach for the budget proposals due to be considered by Cabinet in December 2016.

Resolved: The Committee agreed the approach to be taken by the Budget Scrutiny Working Group as set out in the report.

The Work Plan was presented to the Committee regarding upcoming topics and future topics not yet scheduled as well as an update on ongoing Task Groups.

Following discussions at the Chair's briefing it was agreed to move the Skills Agenda topic scheduled for the meeting on 16^th December to a later date, and, also to swap the Flood Drainage Authority topic scheduled for 17^th March 2017 with the Crime and Disorder Strategy scheduled for 13^th April 2017.

Resolved:

1.  The Committee approved the 2016/17 work plan.

2.  The Committee agreed to amend the work plan as discussed.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency. Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member's intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There were no items of Urgent Business.

The next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee will be held on 16 December 2016 at 10:00am at the County Hall, Preston.

The next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee will take place on Friday 16^th December 2016 at 10.00am in Cabinet Room B (The Diamond Jubilee Room) at the County Hall, Preston.