Service Area				Savings Proposals  2022/23
Unit	Gross budget 2021/22	Net budget 2021/22	FTEs 2021/22
	£'000	£'000	FTE	£'000
Director of Families, Children & Learning	352	133	4	0
Health, SEN & Disability Services	54,290	46,157	270	646
Education & Skills	14,456	8,466	242	171
Children's Safeguarding & Care	44,313	40,410	310	1,036
Quality Assurance & Performance	1,549	1,442	28	22
Families, Children & Learning Total	114,960	96,608	853	1,875
Adult Social Care	62,247	42,643	438	1,403
S75 Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT)	31,895	22,546	54	689
Integrated Commissioning	6,760	3,430	47	70
Public Health	22,429	117	50	0
Health & Adult Social Care Total	123,331	68,736	589	2,162
Transport	39,552	(4,819)	174	709
City Environmental Management	36,049	33,242	466	150
City Development & Regeneration	5,950	2,985	103	75
Culture, Tourism & Sport	10,791	4,190	81	115
Property	11,858	1,103	89	207
Economy, Environment & Culture Total	104,200	36,701	913	1,256
Housing General Fund	35,078	12,003	141	1,780
Libraries	5,177	4,728	60	74
Communities, Equalities & Third Sector	3,282	2,987	12	40
Safer Communities	4,536	2,979	75	35
Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Total	48,073	22,697	288	1,929
Across Directorate	0	0	0	150
Finance (Mobo)	378	322	2	0
HR & Organisational Development (Mobo)	917	895	11	0
IT & D (Mobo)	3,652	3,479	2	0
Procurement (Mobo)	(336)	(336)	0	0
Business Operations (Mobo)	(85)	(85)	4	0
Revenues & Benefits (Mobo)	7,519	4,707	167	0
Contribution To Orbis	10,945	10,945	310	0
Corporate Services	20,488	(25,280)	0	825
Finance & Resources Total	43,478	(5,353)	496	975
Corporate Policy	767	661	12	28
Legal Services	2,022	1,653	48	104
Democratic & Civic Office Services	1,847	1,755	15	45
Life Events	3,535	13	52	100
Performance, Improvement & Programmes	589	589	19	33
Communications	580	565	18	33
Strategy, Governance & Law Total	9,340	5,236	164	343
Grand Total	443,382	224,625	3,303	8,540

Families, Children and Learning

Service Context

The Families, Children and Learning Directorate brings together different services for children and young people from birth up to the age of 25, with services for both adults with learning disabilities and for skills and employment. Much of the education and special educational needs provision is funded through the ring-fenced Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG). This budget strategy is focused on General Fund spend.

The main area of General Fund spend relates to the placement costs for children and young people in care and adults with learning disabilities (LD). Spend on children’s placements is under pressure given placement sufficiency issues which have been exacerbated by the pandemic.  This has resulted in children being placed in provision on the basis of availability rather than need. This has resulted in children being placed in more expensive residential provision.  There are also significant pressures on the community care budget for adults with learning difficulties.   

Nationally the number of children with child protection plans and children being brought into care has reduced slightly over the past 12 months. Over recent years the numbers in Brighton & Hove had been reducing in the context of national rises. During 2021 there has been a significant reduction in the number of children subject to a child protection plan.  However, the number of children in care has started to increase. This is primarily due to the impact of the pandemic on the court’s ability to make timely decisions regarding children’s permanence arrangements;  and the impact of lockdowns on family relationships, particularly in those families with adolescents.   There has also been an increase in the number of children with disabilities and complex needs requiring special residential provision.  Further pressure on these budgets is anticipated as the impact of Covid-19 manifests itself.

In addition, 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.  There is currently a significant national issue regarding foster placement sufficiency, resulting from the significant rise in the number of children in care.  The impact locally is that when placements are required, the lack of options means that placements can sometimes be made on the basis of availability rather than need. 

Our vision is for a Directorate that is ambitious and works closely with partners. We want all of the City’s families and children to be happy, healthy and safe, fulfilling their potential. Over the last few years, services have been redesigned in order to improve efficiency and reduce costs and this will continue in future years. Inevitably, this requires difficult decisions in balancing untargeted, non-statutory support with preventative, statutory and safeguarding provision.

There are three key branches in the directorate together with a performance and safeguarding service that ensures that we meet our duties and provides quality assurance. The key branches are as follows:

Education and Skills £8.446m

This service area includes:

· Early Years, Youth and Family Support (including Children’s Centres);

· School Organisation and Access to Education and Hidden Children;

· Education Standards and Achievement;

· Skills and Employment;

· Virtual School for children in care and those previously in care;

· Stronger Families (Troubled Families programme);

· Ethnic Minority Achievement Service and Traveller Education Service.

Health SEN and Disability Services £46.157m

This service area includes:

· Inclusion Support Services for Schools including Education Psychology services and Schools Wellbeing services;

· Special Educational Needs services;

· Social work and early help support for children with a disability;

· Residential, short break and respite provision for children with a disability;

· Assessment, social work, behaviour support and health services for adults with learning disabilities;

· Council residential and day activities services for adults with learning disabilities.

Children’s Safeguarding and Care £40.410m

This service area includes:

· Fostering, family placement and permanence services;

· Children in need and child protection social work services;

· Children in care and leaving care services;

· Unaccompanied asylum seeking children services;

· Adolescence and youth offending services;

· Front Door for Families which includes MASH (Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub);

· Multi-disciplinary Partners in Change Hub including Early Parenting Assessment Programme;

· Contact and Family Group Conference Services.

Users of Families, Children and Learning Services

The directorate provides a range of different services from universal to those targeted at small groups of people with very high levels of need and/or where we are required to fulfil a statutory duty. Some of the key groups of users we interact with are as follows*:

· 31,978 children attend city’s school (May 2021)

· 16,814 contacts were received by the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub/Front Door for Families during the year ending August 2021, of these 2,897 were safeguarding concerns that required follow up work;

· 7,658 Parents/Carers applied for school places (2020-21);  

· 5,792 children receive SEND support in maintained schools (including 1,305 children who have an Education Health & Care plan) (May 2021);

· 6,568 children are eligible for free school meals (May 2021);

· 778 individual unique children attending children’s centre nurseries throughout the year. This is a reduction on previous years due to the Covid -19 pandemic.

· For children’s centres, a total of 1392 case work interventions were started by BHCC staff in 2020/21, for 856 children aged five and under (compared to 2019/20: 891 started, 737 children).

· In addition to this a total of 6,505 unique contacts through delivering food parcels and essential items were delivered via the foodbank for 274 families

· 2,096 families supported by Early Help teams April 2020 to March 2021

· 1,540 children are supported by social work to be safe August 2021

· 250 children are on a child protection plan (as at 31^st August 2021);

· We act as Corporate Parent to 399 children in care and 387 care leavers aged between the ages of 18 and 25 (August 2021);

· We help support 40 unaccompanied asylum-seeking children (August 2021);

· 453 pupils in Brighton and Hove are educated at home (as at 30/06/2021);

· There are 174 in–house Foster Care Households as at 31^st August 2021 including 18 Supported Lodging Households;     

· 10 children have been adopted in the last 12 months;

· 743 Adults with a Learning Disability aged 18-64 in receipt of Adult Social Care as at 30^th June 2021.

*       Please note these figures are a mixture of snapshots in time or usage over a set period and are shared with the intention of being illustrative.

Budget Strategy

Direction of Travel

We work as one Families, Children and Learning directorate and with others in the city to deliver safe and whole family services, improving outcomes, developing inclusive and accessible provision and developing our staff. To achieve this, we:

• Promote, support and deliver high quality educational and skills provision;

• Promote whole family working with a focus on reviewing Early Help provision and improving outcomes for disadvantaged and vulnerable people;

• Deliver a safe and effective social work service which responds to changing needs of children and their families;

• Work to support adults with learning disabilities to live independent and positive lives;

• Work with young people and other partners to deliver high quality youth services across the city;

• Co-produce and continue to improve SEND provision and services in the city;

• Manage effective budget arrangements across the directorate;

• Improve the diversity of the workforce.

The voice of children, young people, their families and those of adults with learning disabilities is at the heart of everything we do. We commission and deliver services with partners to ensure children, young people and adults with learning disabilities live happy, safe and positive lives, achieving their potential. This is achieved within the context of high demand and reducing resources.

Areas of Focus for Savings

The Directorate is exploring options for savings on Adults with Learning Disabilities through a number of targeted strategies including:

• Continuation of the 'Move On' project supporting adults with LD to move on from high cost placements into new living arrangements which promote independence.

• Appropriate joint funding arrangements to be pursued i.e. Continuing Health Care funding.

• Improved transition arrangements for young people. The Specialist Community Disability Service 14-25 pod will seek to provide a greater focus on this high cost area.

• Review of existing block contracts for outsourced services, to address any over provision and more effective utilisation of voids.

• Expansion of Shared Lives capacity.

The project to increase the number of in-house foster placements and reduce reliance on more expensive independent provider provision is ongoing. This will enable further savings in Children’s Agency Placements:

• Ensuring value for money is obtained when using external providers; this is supported by the children's services framework contract arrangements and preferred provider guidelines.

• Relationship based social work practice and the specialist adolescence service continues to contribute to diverting children from the care system by meeting need and managing risk within the home. 

• For those already in care, there is a focus on stepping down to in house and/or less expensive placements, in line with assessed need, and on returning children to their families where this is safe to do so.

An increase in grant funding available from the Home Office for Unaccompanied Asylum-Seeking Children (UASC) leaving care will enable a saving to be considered in Care Leavers funding.

Elsewhere, a review of all lines of the FCL budget took place to identify other savings and efficiencies.

Investment in Services

The following investment in services is planned to meet demographic and other cost increase to maintain investment in priority services and meet statutory requirements:

· Adults with Learning Disabilities £1.805m;

· Home to School Transport £0.440m;

· Support for Looked After Children, Nurseries and Children with Disabilities £3.509m

Supporting the Council’s Priorities

The budget position is challenging. In undertaking the review of budgets to identify savings, those services supporting the most vulnerable in the City have been protected and it has been ensured that all statutory obligations can be met. Systems for managing demand led services within FCL are well established and robust. A review of Early Help services is planned to ensure that preventive work is effective at reducing the need for high cost interventions at a later stage.

Horizon scanning, modernisation and planning for future needs is a priority. Work is underway to explore in-house options for children with a disability; this is an area where we currently experience high unit costs.

Below is a summary of work we have planned over the next three years that supports council’s priorities as set out in the city’s council plan and the administration’s priorities.

A city to call home

· Work to ensure care leavers and adults with a Learning Disability have suitable accommodation.

A City Working for All

· Lead on apprenticeship work.

· Support the education and skills city plan.

· Develop plans for youth employment hub with Department for Work & Pensions.

· Youth and disability employability support.

A Stronger City

· Coordinate development of anti-racist schools’ strategy.

· Support to schools in delivering equalities curriculums.

· Continued development of anti-racist social work practice.

· Implementing a coproduced all ages SEND Strategy, including improving access for disabled people.

· Continuing our investment in and partnership working with the local voluntary and community sector.

A growing and learning city

· Supporting high quality early years and education provision in the city, supporting ongoing improvement.

· Coordinating the city’s Education Partnership.

· Retaining a focus on disadvantaged families, supporting the development of a multi-agency city wide strategic approach.

· Delivering and supporting high quality youth support in the city and further developing youth engagement opportunities.

· Supporting lifelong learning and a positive transition into adulthood for all.

A Sustainable City

· Ensuring sustainability is a priority factor in all delivery and contract management.

· Further exploring environmental education.

A Heathy and Caring City

· Delivering a strongly regarded social work service for children and adults with disabilities.

· Delivering on the prevention focussed Starting Well priority in the city’s Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

Service Area					Savings Detail
Section	Service Area	Gross budget 2021/22	Net budget 2021/22	FTEs 2021/22	Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks	EIA No.	Savings Proposals  2022/23
		£'000	£'000	FTE			£'000
FAMILIES, CHILDREN & LEARNING
DIRECTOR OF FAMILIES, CHILDREN & LEARNING
Director of Families, Children and Learning	Salary and directorate support costs for the Director and support staff	352	133	4.0
Director of Families, Children & Learning Total		352	133	4.0			0
HEALTH, SEN & DISABILITY SERVICES
Services for children with disabilities	Residential, respite and short breaks.	2,147	1,606	31.6
Services for children with disabilities and Adults with learning disabilities	Management, assessment, operations and admin	2,483	2,309	45.1
Services for children with disabilities	Direct payments	959	546	0.0	Possible saving due to current situation where the children's direct payment budget is incorrectly incurring costs for clients post-18 (already captured in pressures calculation in adults community care budget). Delivery Risk: There is uncertainty about the ongoing and future impact of Covid-19 and the levels of support required by families particularly if Drove Road and Tudor House are at full capacity. Direct Payments budget currently underspending.	1	50
Services for children with disabilities	Family support services	247	198	3.6
Services for children with disabilities	Contracted services, adaptations, management	664	559	0.0	Savings achieved by re-negotiation / re-tendering / bringing in-house high cost/ low supply Children's Disability Service contracts. Calculated at 10% of current contract value. This is subject to an effective commissioning function being established. Delivery Risk: Manageable if focus is on areas of contracts where current delivery and benefits are low.	2	70
Agency disability	Independent and non maintained children's homes, special schools and boarding school placements	2,515	2,136	0.0
Special educational needs	Special Educational Needs	1,267	272	19.0
Inclusion Support Service	Inclusion Support Service. Including Educational Psychology Service and Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS)	1,360	305	30.9
Learning Disabilities - Adults Community Care (ALD)	Learning Disabilities	36,633	33,017	0.0	Savings on ALD achieved through number of strategies number of targeted strategies. · Continuation of The 'Move On' project supporting adults with LD to move on from high cost placements into new living arrangements which promote independence. · Appropriate joint funding arrangements to be pursued i.e. Continuing Health Care funding. · Improved transition arrangements for young people. The SCDS 14-25 social work pod will seek to provide a greater focus on this high cost area. · Review of existing block contracts for outsourced services, to address any over provision and more effective utilisation of voids. · Expansion of Shared Lives capacity. Delivery Risk: Reducing fees or restricting fee increases to providers may lead to termination of contracts/closure of services. To reduce level of support within individual care packages the council would be at risk of not fulfilling statutory duties, experiencing a breakdown of packages and putting a greater pressure on carers. In addition to the savings identified the Council has identified budget pressures based on the anticipated increase in costs for current and future clients. Savings identified here contingent on receiving this pressure funding.	3	526
Learning Disabilities - Community Support (Adults)	Community Support Service	202	181	4.6
Learning Disabilities - Day Services (Adults)	Learning Disabilities Day Options	755	730	21.9
Learning Disabilities - Residential (Adults)	In house Residential and Supported Living	4,109	3,430	92.2
Learning Disabilities - Residential (Adults)	Respite Services	949	868	20.9
Learning Disabilities - Shared Lives (Adults)	Shared Lives Service	Budget included above	Budget included above
Learning Disabilities - Supported Accommodation (Adults)	Registered Supported Living (8 Services)	Budget included above	Budget included above
Health, SEN & Disability Services Total		54,290	46,157	269.8			646
EDUCATION & SKILLS
Schools PFI	PFI budget for 3 schools	2,410	0	0.0
Standards & Achievement	Core LA school improvement team and commissioned School Partnership Advisers who support schools causing concern and lead disadvantaged education strategy work including the School Improvement Monitoring grant	569	333	4.0
School Organisation and Admissions.	This includes our staff and support to deliver on our statutory school organisation and admissions role and management and leadership of school meals and all other statutory school organisation functions. Note: Income of £110k from services to schools has been netted off within the gross budget.	340	293	4.5
Home to School Transport	Transport between home and school for children who live beyond the statutory walking distance. The appropriate school is the nearest maintained school to the child's home that is suitable to their age, educational needs and has a place available.	3,464	3,382	6.7
The Virtual School.	The Virtual School aims to support children and young people in care to enable them to make the very best of their education.	81	22	0.0
Other Educational support	This includes Governor support, Redundancy and Asset management and Education & Traded services support	(26)	(224)	5.6
Youth Services	Commissioned youth services provides a range of traditional youth services across the city, and include equality groups	439	189	0.0	Propose not to make any savings to the Youth Service Grant Programme as the funding for the recommissioned services (due to start on 1st Oct) was agreed at the March 2021 CYPS Committee. This is  a 42 month grant programme.
Youth Services	The Youth Led Grants Programme provides additionally funded youth activities/projects across the city.	110	110	0.0	Propose reducing Youth Led Grants funding from £110k to £80k. A reduction in the Youth Led Grants Programme would result in 6-8 less youth projects being funded each year for disadvantaged young people across the city. To compensate for this reduction in funding a proportion of the Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) programme funding (if continued; dependant on annual spending review decisions) could be ringfenced for youth groups to focus on providing holiday activities with a healthy meal for young people taking up free school meals. The risks would include HAF funding not continuing resulting in less disadvantaged young people accessing youth activities.	4	30
Youth Services	Internal council services – Youth Participation Team provide a range of services for children and young people who are/have been in care or receiving social work support; this includes youth advocacy, Children in Care Council, Independent Visitor Programme. The service also provides an accredited Youth Arts Programme and wider participation activities, e.g. Youth Council, Youth Wise.	503	484	14.2
Early Years - Children's Centres	City-wide service providing family support, early learning and support for parents to train and work to improve outcomes for children under 5.  During Covid all services have been targeted on families assessed as needing support. Health visiting and midwifery services also deliver from CCs.  Integrated Team for Families and Parenting Service based in Tarner and Moulsecoomb.   Seven designated Children’s Centre’s are: Roundabout, Moulsecoomb, Tarner, Hollingdean, Hangleton, Conway Court (SCFT building), Portslade.  Services also provided from linked sites:  Hollingbury and Patcham & South Portslade Library, Fairlight School, West Hove School, City View CC (SCFT), Preston Park CC.     Note: statutory duty to secure sufficient children's centres and to consult before making significant changes or closing children’s centres.	1,490	1,414	41.8
Early Years Nurseries	Pavilion Pre-School Portslade, 24 places, term time, school day.  Total budget including DSG is 103k. Council subsidy is 4%.  Total number of children summer 21 - 30.  29% reduction since average for summer 18/19. 5 funded 2 year olds, 6 Early Years Pupil Premium summer term 21.  20 children attending in autumn 2021.	10	4	2.1	Pavilion - transfer to Mile Oak School.   The school have expressed an interest in managing and hosting the pre-school but would need capital funding for toilets (estimated at £45k).  Note this funding has not been agreed.  The change would require consultation with staff who will need to agree to contracts with the school.		4
Early Years Nurseries	Bright Start, St. Peter's and North Laine, 50 places full day/year.  Total budget including Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) is 446k.  Council subsidy 21%. Total number of funded children summer 21 - 73.  29% reduction since average summer number 18/19.  12 funded 2 year olds, 8 Early Years Pupil Premium summer term 21.  Autumn term:  48 children attending or due to start this term including 11 funded two year olds.	294	94	17.1
Early Years Nurseries	Jump Start, Moulsecoomb, 34 places, full day/year.  Total budget including DSG is 385k.  Provides free meals for DSG funded children.   Council subsidy is 52%.  Total number of children summer 21 - 46.  50% reduction since average summer number 18/19.  Some children could not be offered places because unable to recruit staff.  9 funded 2 year olds, 21 Early Years Pupil Premium summer term 21.  31 children attending in the autumn term.	234	199	10.4	Jump Start - to restructure staff and change to school day and term time only and to continue to offer funded places for 2, 3 and 4 year olds.  Term time / school day provision is cheaper to run so would reduce the subsidy needed.  More work is needed to costings if this option is chosen.   This would maintain places for the disadvantaged children who attend Jump Start including two year olds from low income families and SEND children.  Risks are: · There would be no full day care provision in Moulsecoomb available for working parents.  The closest full day care nursery is a 25 minute walk away; · Possible shortage of childcare places in the future when the new housing development is completed (240 houses); · Impact on staff of changes to the structure and hours of work.  The new posts may not be considered a suitable alternative for full time staff.  Others may want to work school hours.	5	100
Early Years Nurseries	Acorn Nursery, North Portslade, 60 places full day/year.   Total budget is 543k including DSG.  Council subsidy is 21%.  Total number of children summer 21 - 82.  34% reduction since average summer number 18/19.  11 funded 2 year olds, 10 Early Years Pupil Premium summer term 21.   56 children attending in the autumn term	371	115	23.2
Early Years Nurseries	Cherry Tree Nursery, Hollingdean, 50 places full day/year.  Total budget is 522k including DSG.  Council subsidy is 24%. Total number of children summer 21 - 88. 10% reduction since average summer number 18/19  17 funded 2 year olds, 19 Early Years Pupil Premium summer term 21.   66 children attending in autumn 2021	318	123	17.3
Early Years Nurseries	Roundabout Nursery, Whitehawk. 86 places full day/year.  Total budget is 862k including DSG.  Council subsidy is 20%.  Total number of children 153 summer 21.  19% reduction since average summer number 18/19.  33 funded 2 year olds and 45 Early Years Pupil Premium summer term 21 (both are the highest numbers in the city).  111 children attending in the autumn term.	364	160	26.4
Early Years - Childcare	Management of the early years service including council nurseries.  Support for private and voluntary nurseries, childminders, out of school childcare, childcare workforce training, and management and administration of free early years entitlement for 2/3/4 year olds. Oversight of the Holiday Food and Activity Programme.  Statutory duty to secure sufficient childcare places and information, advice and training to childcare providers and to complete an annual childcare sufficiency assessment.  Early years providers pay for most training courses.	279	196	4.5	Statutory duty to secure sufficient childcare and free early education places and information, advice and training to childcare providers and to complete an annual childcare sufficiency assessment. No longer fund the Whitehawk After School Club holiday provision.  This can be funded by the Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF) if this continues (£9,000).  If HAF does not continue then this could adversely impact on the viability of WASP. No longer fund the Resource Centre to provide support to voluntary sector childcare providers (£8,000).  This would mean less support for voluntary groups.	6	17
Early Help - Integrated Team for Families and Parenting Service (including the Troubled Families Grant)	The ITF & Parenting Service work intensively with families with children of all ages, who have multiple, complex needs that generally fall just below the social work threshold. The Parenting Service delivers evidence based group and 1:1 targeted parenting interventions. Much of this service is funded by the Supporting Families Grant	1,563	630	26.2	Propose not to make any savings within ITF and Parenting Service due to current pressures in the service; any reduction in service would currently result in increasing the pressure on social work.
Skills & Employment	Adult Education Budget & Community Learning	570	0	3.2	This is funded directly by the Education Skills Funding Agency on an annual non procured grant.
Skills & Employment	This service ensures the governance and compliance of the council’s adult education and community learning budgets £560k, Employability Service £765k, £2.4m Apprenticeship Levy and S106 Employment Scheme. This service leads on a number of strategic partnerships	124	124	3.9
Skills & Employment	The Paid Placement scheme - covers the salaries of placements for disabled adults,  Looked after children, Not In Education, Employment or Training’ (NEET) who have a disability, or have had an Educational Health Care Plan, or received SEN support at secondary or further education. The fund also pays of the uplift required for Kickstart placements.	164	164	3.7	£90k of budget is ring-fenced to Able and Willing former permanent employees. A reduction of £20k will lead to a reduction of paid placements in council departments for those with greatest barriers to securing employment. (disabled people of all ages with a particular focus on LAC, NEET who have a disability or EHCP under age of 25) DWP is funding our Pre-employment Officer until July 2022, this post will then be paid from this budget. The role is pivotal to creating Paid Placements,  KickStart vacancies, Supported Internships, T Levels and work experience schemes. A dedicated resource is required to drive the national interventions that are part of the government’s Plan for Jobs strategy. This role is central to delivering a coherent and transparent offer across the council in line with the fair and inclusive strategy and supports the City Employment Skills Recovery Plan 2021-2023	7	20
Skills & Employment	Youth Employability Service (Youth Employment Service, Youth Employment Hub and Supported Employment Team	657	579	15.8
Skills & Employment	Apprenticeship Team manage the Apprenticeship Levy of 1.2m per year which covers the training costs of council apprentices and SME’s supported through the Levy Transfer scheme. The current team is contract managing £1.6m of training for over 178 apprentices on programmes of between 13months and 5 years. The council has a statutory duty to have due regard to the public sector target of 2.3% apprenticeship starts per year based on head count approx. 182. The area requires technical expertise to adhere to the Levy conditions and funding mechanisms.  Unspent levy returns to the government on a use it or lose it basis.	131	131	3.0
Skills & Employment	Local Employment Scheme – S106
Print & Sign	Print & Sign Unit	(3)	(56)	8.0	This service is entirely funded by work it carries out on a cost recovery basis.
Education & Skills Total		14,456	8,466	241.6			171
CHILDREN'S SAFEGUARDING & CARE
Fostering & Adoption	Payments to in-house carers for fostered and adopted children.	9,113	8,931	0.0
Fostering & Adoption	Staffing teams assessing and supporting foster carers and potential adopters. Allowances paid to Adopters	3,708	3,652	59.9
Social Work & Legal	Social work staffing teams.	9,180	9,158	181.4
Social Work & Legal	Expenditure incurred under section 17 & 18 of the 1989 Children Act.	442	442	0.0	Budget ensures that the Council is able to fulfil its statutory duties to support families in need.  Effective budget management (achieved by devolving budgets) has resulted in an underspend on Section 17 budget line. Delivery Risk: Reduction in Section 17 spending, to the extent that it would not meet demand, would reduce ability to support families resulting in possible escalation of need. However, the current underspend across Section 17 budgets suggests this is low risk.	8	100
Social Work & Legal	Legal costs relating to assessment and court fees.	845	845	0.0
Contact Service	Family contact for children in care (Chic) and children in need (CIN)	747	747	5.7	The service co-ordinates, supports and supervises court ordered parental and family contact with children in care and children in need.  Service redesign has resulted in significant savings in previous years. Review of sessional worker use and their transportation costs should result in modest savings.  Delivery Risk: manageable.	9	50
Care Leavers	Services for 18-24 year olds leaving care, including staying put and ex-asylum seekers.	3,884	2,382	9.0	Increase in grant funding available from the Home Office for Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) leaving care. Delivery Risk: within budget parameters.		215
Agency Placements	Residential, fostering and secure placements for looked after children provided by external agencies	12,513	10,998	4.0	Project to increase the number of in house foster placements and reduce reliance on more expensive independent provider provision is ongoing.  Provision of high quality, value for money provision though contracted services with external providers supported by the children's services framework contract arrangements and preferred provider guidelines. In addition to the savings proposed, there is pressure funding of £1.628m in 2022/23 to cover future anticipated increased costs for existing clients. Relationship based social work practice and the specialist adolescence service is contributing to diverting children from the care system, and for those already in care, a stepping down to in house and/or less expensive placements. Close scrutiny of placement costs, together with an increase in in-house foster carers is contributing to a reduction in unit costs.                         Delivery Risk: This is a high cost service where the failure of effective prevention and demand management would not only impact on the achievement of cost reduction but is likely to be of corporate financial significance to the council's challenging medium term financial position. The proposals set out here assume that other pressures on this budget will be met across the overall budget. A small number of adolescents with very significant needs continue to provide pressure on these budgets combined with a national shortage of placements. Impact on Outcomes: Improved practice model prevents children needing care and contributes to improved outcomes for young people. Demand management has implications for managing risk effectively to meet safeguarding requirements and statutory duties.	10	621
Adolescent Service	Support and supervision to young people at risk of exploitation, some of whom are at risk of becoming involved in the Criminal Justice System and preventative work for children and young people at risk of becoming involved in offending.	2,388	1,862	38.9
Family Support Services	Family group conferences and intensive intervention initiatives	418	386	4.7	Maintaining investment in this preventive service area is critical for effective demand management. Family Group Conferencing is used to identify alternative means to meet the needs of families who are facing difficulties and so avoid the need for a child to be brought into care.
Partners in Change Hub & specialist assessments	Lead practitioners and adult workers supporting social workers to manage risk effectively within families; specialist assessments to support social work decision making	1,075	1,007	6.2	The Partners in Change Programme was a spend-to-save project initiated two years ago. This project has now become embedded within the service and savings can be achieved if it continues to deliver above the spend-to-save targets and support increase in social work practice. Delivery Risk: Manageable as savings being achieved.		50
Children's Safeguarding & Care Total		44,313	40,410	309.8			1,036
QUALITY ASSURANCE & PERFORMANCE
Children's Safeguarding & Quality Assurance	Specific child protection services, the Brighton & Hove Safeguarding Children's Partnership (BHSCP) and independent reviewing officers. Note: Income of £45k from services to schools has been netted off within the gross budget.	1,549	1,442	27.9	Proposal - Both CPRO/ IRO (reviewing officers). Reduction of Staffing by 1 day/0.2 FTE per week for 1.0 FTE (£14k) - Voluntary reduction in hours.  Reduction of travel budget whilst maintaining statutory visiting expectation (£8k).  Risk - Staffing - Staffing numbers are unable to manage if CP numbers increase again or CIC numbers go up.  Travel - Do not receive same quality of IRO Support.		22
Quality Assurance & Performance Total		1,549	1,442	27.9			22
Families, Children & Learning Total		114,960	96,608	853.1			1,875

Health & Adult Social Care

Service Context

The Health and Adult Social Care Directorate consist of Public Health and Adult Social Care.

Principle service area responsibilities covered in this strategy include services for vulnerable adults including older people, people with physical disability and mental health needs, public health and all ancillary activities. Services for adults with learning disability and autism sit within Family, Communities and Learning Directorate. Similar to adult social care nationally, HASC continues to deliver services to meet its statutory responsibilities and the needs of local communities without the assurance of a long-term sustainable funding solution. Managing the budget in this environment with future demographic projections suggesting increasing demand and complexity and more recently the volatility of market prices becomes ever more challenging. In this context we are also determining the full impact of Covid-19 for the future. However, in listing here the services we deliver and acknowledging they all have a financial impact, this budget strategy concentrates on highest and increasing spend areas and how we plan to tackle them over the next 3 years.

The wellbeing of Brighton & Hove residents remains at the heart of our approach and is reflected in the HASC core offer, which is to:

· Provide information and advice for all adults seeking care and support;

· Assess need and arrange help for individuals and their carers who are eligible under the Care Act for support from Adult Social Care;

· Provide, arrange and support interventions to improve population health outcomes, reduce health inequalities  and protect the health of our residents including from Covid-19

· Promote preventative approaches to maintain health & wellbeing, to improve the health of our population and reduce demand for more expensive, statutory services;

· Maintain and support the local care market;

· Provide support that reduces the need for social care in the longer term and/or prevents the need for a more expensive service; and

· Safeguard vulnerable adults who are at risk of harm or abuse.

During 2020/21 Health and Adult Social Care Directorate undertook the following activity, shown below in relation to the last 2½ years. The impact of Covid has been unpredictable, showing a decrease in activity in some areas during the height of the pandemic, such as new requests for support, and the issuing of aids for daily living. Other areas of activity, such as safeguarding enquiries are showing a steady and ongoing increase.

We are closely monitoring all activity, and actively undertaking work to predict the financial impact beyond this financial year.

ACTIVITY DATA	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22 (Apr – Sept)
New requests for ASC support	5,384	4,530	2,221
New long term funded social care services	1,243	1,029	466
Clients issued with Simple Aids for Daily Living	5,481	3,992	2,114
Clients receiving telecare	5,086	5,024	4,949 (snapshot)
Clients receiving short-term service to optimise independence	914	1,263	350
Carers Supported	1,978	1,938	1,490
DoLS applications	1,718	1,456	742
Safeguarding enquiries undertaken	808	872	478
Mental Health Act assessment referrals	1,129	1,473	622 (April – Aug)

During 20/21we provided long term funded care services for 3,516 adults. This support was provided in the following ways, shown below in relation to the previous 2½ years:

FUNDED CARE SERVICE	2019/20	2020/21	2021/22 (Apr – Sept)
Adults receiving domiciliary care	1,647	1,856	1,500
Adults receiving residential care	651	637	524
Adults receiving nursing care	697	591	601
Adults receiving a direct payment	459	432	419
Total number of adults provided with long term funded care during the period	3,454	3,516	3,044

Budget Strategy

While there are a range of service areas across the Directorate that contribute to the delivery of this activity, there are three main budget areas, and these are detailed below:

1) Public Health £0.117m (Funded by grant - gross budget £22.429m)

This service area includes:

• Substance Misuse
• Sexual Health

• Children 0-19 Public Health programmes
• Health Improvement
• Public Health advice to NHS and partners

· Health protection, in partnership with UK Health Security Agency and other partners

With respect to the Public Health ring fenced grant, whilst this budget strategy does not propose a focus on this area it continues to play a vital role in the overarching HASC budget strategy for the following reasons:

· Public Health grant is ring fenced with very specific criteria for spend and has to be considered separately from the general fund.

· HASC strategy, expressed in large part in policy terms through the adopted Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy, is key to resourcing and delivering whole population health outcomes and in the medium/longer term this preventative focus will contribute to the overall financial stability of both the directorate and the Council.

· As part of the Strategy approach to make health and wellbeing everyone’s business and improve the wider determinants of health, Public Health is supporting delivery of wider corporate and directorate priorities working with external partners and stakeholders.

2) Adult Social Care Services (incl. S75 SPFT) £65.189m

This service area includes:

• Assessment, Social Work, Occupational Therapy and community care for adults requiring physical support, mental health support and memory & cognition support
• Community Short Term services
• Telecare and equipment services
• In house provider services

Whilst the directorate has received growth funding over the past 3 years of £17.6 m acknowledging a combination of increasing demand, complexity and unit cost, over the same period it has experienced a reduced contribution of £3.1m from the Clinical Commissioning Group. Whilst we understand the rationale behind reduced contributions in certain areas we are actively pursuing specific concerns where we believe current joint funding arrangements may not be equitable.

3) Commissioning, Contracts and Performance £3.430m

This service area includes:

• Commissioning & Performance teams
• Housing related support contracts

· Carer support

In total therefore HASC net budget for 21/22 is £68.736m. The Community Care budget is £46.632m and equates to 68% of the overall HASC budget, meaning our main area of spend relates to the provision of care for those people who have been assessed as eligible for social care support (Community Care). This covers a vast array of services and includes such areas as Residential and Nursing Care and Home Care. Adult Social Care provision is primarily commissioned rather than internally provided. In house services include residential care units at Craven Vale, Ireland Lodge and Wayfield Avenue, home care with a reablement focus through Independence at Home and two hostels, New Steine Mews and Glenwood Lodge.

The rising cost of services and the cost pressures experienced by many of our providers mean that ensuring we have the right services at a sustainable price remains challenging. High demand and complexity of people’s needs requiring social care support is adding to these pressures. This is a national picture being faced by many local authorities with Adult Social Care responsibilities.

At the 1st April 2021 the average Nursing Home placement cost was £883, and the average Residential placement cost was £835. (The framework rate was £600 per week, plus Free Nursing Care for Nursing placements at £187.60 per week).

By 1st September 2021 the average Nursing Home placement was £891 (49% above the framework rate) and the average Residential placement cost was £856 (43% above the framework rate), showing an increase in market price of 1% for Nursing placements and 3% for Residential placements since April. From a budget strategy perspective the impact of the pandemic upon our unit costs for both residential and nursing care confirms that our current pricing framework, which was already significantly strained, has now collapsed. Across our 92 care homes in the city only 47% of our providers are operating at our agreed framework rates yet we continue to place with a significant proportion of care homes across the city. Our budget strategy looking forward will urgently consider options to address market management looking forward.

The financial challenges in the local system are reflected within social care and the NHS nationally. Measures announced in the October Budget and Spending Review are being scrutinised to understand the local impact, and though increased funding for the public sector is very welcome, social care funding commitments to date will likely not meet future demand and other pressing issues such as workforce pressures. Reforms have been set out as to how we pay for adult social care, including a lifetime cap on care costs, but work remains to ascertain how this will address the funding related challenges within the existing system in order to stabilise and recover the system post Covid. Providers face additional costs from the rise in National Insurance contributions and the National Living Wage., which will impact on the Council as both commissioner and provider.  

Direction of Travel

HASC’s vision is for everyone in Brighton & Hove to have the best opportunity to live a healthy, happy and fulfilling life, by ensuring that they are starting well, living well, ageing well and dying well, and this is set out in the joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy. Our mission is to promote and improve health and wellbeing, supporting people to live independent and fulfilling lives.

In order to achieve this and meet our corporate financial responsibilities of savings and reducing pressures our budget strategy requires:

- Demand and Complexity management – whilst both Public Health and Adult Social Care are driven in large part by demand we will continue to adopt means that manage this effectively and equally look to the best services to support the increasing complexity of need we continue to see, working closely with our NHS partners and other key stakeholders. A key example of this workstream will be to continue to reduce the level of new placements into long term residential care.

- Market management – Lead better system working to ensure that we support the market to provide the services that meet the needs of our population at a price that is equitable and can be sustained. A key example of this workstream will be to review and redesign in-house service provision to meet both service user demand and budget strategy objectives.

- Financial Management – as measured going forward by a reduction in the cost per head of population for services provided and placing an emphasis upon whole population outcomes to improve wellbeing overall and reducing inequalities across the city. A key example of this workstream will be more joint commissioning and purchasing with the Brighton and Hove CCG of services that we both utilise.

We have an approach to support delivery of this both in our business as usual activity and as part of the HASC Modernisation programme where our Target Operating Model relies upon key projects that deliver both better lives and stronger communities informed by the data and intelligence now available to us.

Supporting the Council’s Priorities – HASC supports a One Council approach recognising that it will lead on delivering corporate priorities in some areas working with partners and stakeholders and equally elsewhere, where it may not lead, it can still offer significant support.

A city to call home

Whilst the focus of delivery here sits with colleagues in Housing, Neighbourhoods and Communities Directorate we will continue to support the accommodation and social care needs of residents irrespective of their eligible need.  A priority is to continue to identify new models of accommodation in the city for people with complex eligible needs.

A City Working for All

The Directorate’s Commissioning Strategy will support the use of the Council’s spending power to support local people and businesses, including consideration of social value within contracts. We will continue the integration agenda working with our NHS colleagues to optimise commercial opportunity and economies of scale using our joint buying power. We will work towards getting the market to step into the space where we need less low level residential care and more high needs nursing care, especially in relation to dementia, and shape a market with the ability to flex up and down throughout the year as demand requires.

A Stronger City

The Directorate will continue our investment in, and partnership working with the local voluntary and community sector and build on joint community working developed through the Covid-19 response.

Service redesign under the HASC operating model will support social work to safeguard the most vulnerable in the City from harm, abuse and exploitation.  Equally with our sector’s significant contribution to the local economy we will support actions agreed to stimulate recovery and respond to any negative impact from the EU exit.

A growing and learning city

The Directorate will continue to support strong professional practice informed by national drivers and evidence-based approaches to deliver impact for people and communities. We will take the learning from Covid-19 to apply opportunities to improve working practices.  The pandemic has raised both nationally and locally the profile of both public health and Adult Social Care (independently from and working with our NHS partners) and we will ensure this learning is applied to future planning.

A Sustainable City

The Directorate will explore opportunities to support to delivery of key corporate priorities, for example. carbon reduction in the City. Through our commissioning responsibilities and relationships with providers across the city we will explore options to promote and measure carbon reduction.

A Heathy and Caring City

The Directorate will take a key role in the delivering actions of the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy, supporting an increase in healthy life expectancy and a reduction of health inequalities.

Service Area					Savings Detail
Section	Service Area	Gross budget 2021/22	Net budget 2021/22	FTEs 2021/22	Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks	EIA No.	Savings Proposals  2022/23
		£'000	£'000	FTE			£'000
HEALTH & ADULT SOCIAL CARE
ADULT SOCIAL CARE
Community Care  budget funding packages of care to meet statutory responsibilities across adult care groups apart from Learning Disability and Mental Health. Services include; community support, home care, supported accommodation, residential and nursing care.	Physical Support & Sensory Support 2,357 budgeted capacity for 2021/22	41,451	27,410	0.0	The action the directorate will take will be to manage the pressures on the community care budget by: · Front door redesign · Use of assistive Technology · Fee uplifts · Direct Payments · Health funding incl. CHC and joint funding · Expectations/Choice policy · New reablement offer incl. increased health funding · Increasing in-house reablement packages started · Debt Management · Placement reviews · Enhanced use of Voluntary Community Services HASC has a modernisation programme with programme support to deliver the above. This is an ambitious programme and risks to delivery could include a lack of resource. Risks to delivery would include further impact from Covid-19 diverting resources from the programme and requiring urgent placements at high costs to meet the Covid response for hospital discharge. Delivery Risk:  The service is expected to receive investment of £4m in 2022/23 to meet identified demand and cost pressures. This puts the service in a strong starting position and means that it can focus on implementing improvements to care and service pathways to improve its cost base and reduce long term, expensive placements. The savings are challenging but potentially achievable.		1,353
Assessment and Support Teams. Social Work teams delivering statutory duties under the Care Act to assess eligible needs, intervene where people are at risk to themselves, others or the community. Deliver statutory duties under the Mental Capacity Act, Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoL's)	Assistant Director Community Short Term Services Social Work Team Access Point Financial Assessments Rapid Response Team Hospital Discharge Service Acute Planned Response Service Carers Development Team Assessment and Reablement Deprivation of Liberty Safeguarding team Independent Living Carelink	9,663	8,089	210.8
Assessment & Support and Intervention Team (SIT)	Community Equipment Service	2,651	209	0.0	No inflationary increase to contract Delivery Risk: Increase in supply costs impact on delivery		50
Hostel Accommodation	Hostel Accommodation 71 beds budgeted for in 2021/22	1,713	838	27.4
Memory & Cognition Support - Day Services	Wayfield Avenue Day Services 45 budgeted capacity for 2021/22	174	139	4.4
Memory & Cognition Support - Residential	Ireland Lodge Residential Wayfield Ave Residential 47 budgeted capacity for 2021/22	2,870	2,324	78.3
Community Short Term Services	Community Short Term Services & Independence at Home  (Including Early Supported Stroke Discharge and Apportionment of Assessment Duties Budget capacity for 2021/22 assumes a max of 65 people in service at any time through 12 month period Craven Vale Residential 24 budgeted capacity for 2021/22	3,725	3,634	117.1
Adult Social Care Total		62,247	42,643	438.0			1,403
S75 SUSSEX PARTNERSHIP FOUNDATION TRUST (SPFT)
Community Care  budget funding packages of care, support, residential/nursing care for people suffering a cognitive impairment (mainly dementia in older people);  services will include Community Support, Home Care, direct payments, supported accommodation, residential/nursing care and specialist placements	Memory & Cognition Support 425 budgeted capacity for 2021/22	16,226	9,477	0.0	The action the directorate will take will be to manage the pressures on the community care budget by: · Front door redesign · Fee uplifts · Health funding incl. CHC and joint funding · Expectations/Choice policy · Debt Management · Placement reviews · Enhanced use of Voluntary Community Services HASC has a modernisation programme with programme support to deliver the above. This is an ambitious programme and risks to delivery could include a lack of resource. Risks to delivery would include further impact from Covid-19 diverting resources from the programme and requiring urgent placements at high costs to meet the Covid response for hospital discharge. Delivery Risk:  The service is expected to receive investment of £4m in 2022/23 to meet identified demand and cost pressures. This puts the service in a strong starting position and means that it can focus on implementing improvements to care and service pathways to improve its cost base and reduce long term, expensive placements. The savings are challenging but potentially achievable.		252
Community Care  budget funding packages of care, support, residential/nursing care for people suffering a functional mental illness  services will include Community Support, Home Care, direct payments, supported accommodation, residential/nursing care and specialist placements	Mental Health Support 499 budgeted capacity for 2021/22	11,977	9,744	0.0	The action the directorate will take will be to manage the pressures on the community care budget by: · Front door redesign · Fee uplifts · Health funding incl. CHC and joint funding · Expectations/Choice policy · Debt Management · Placement reviews · Enhanced use of Voluntary Community Services HASC has a modernisation programme with programme support to deliver the above. This is an ambitious programme and risks to delivery could include a lack of resource. Risks to delivery would include further impact from Covid-19 diverting resources from the programme and requiring urgent placements at high costs to meet the Covid response for hospital discharge. Delivery Risk:  The service is expected to receive investment of £4m in 2022/23 to meet identified demand and cost pressures. This puts the service in a strong starting position and means that it can focus on implementing improvements to care and service pathways to improve its cost base and reduce long term, expensive placements. The savings are challenging but potentially achievable.		262
Assessment, Support and Intervention Team (SIT). Social Work teams delivering statutory duties under the Care Act to assess eligible needs, intervene where people are at risk to themselves, others or the community. Deliver statutory duties under the Mental Capacity Act, Mental Health Act Safeguarding Vulnerable Adults, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoL's)	Section 75 Staffing teams Including: Mental Health Homeless Team Assessment Treatment Service Living Well with Dementia Service Adult Mental Health Practitioners (AMHP) Crisis Resolution Home Treatment Team (CRHTT) Mental Health Management	3,692	3,325	54.4	Section 75 review and insourcing Forensic Social Work. Delivery Risk: Joint working with health partners and timescales required		175
S75 Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT) Total		31,895	22,546	54.4			689
INTERGRATED COMMISSIONING
Commissioning & Contracts	Support to Carers	747	217	0.0
Commissioning & Contracts	Adults Commissioning & Performance Team Executive Director Adult Services Safeguarding Team	3,141	1,279	45.5
Commissioning & Contracts	Integrated Commissioning	2,624	1,686	1.8	No inflationary increase to contracts. Delivery Risk: Increased costs pressures present delivery challenges.		70
Commissioning & Contracts	Self Directed Support	142	142	0.0
Commissioning & Contracts	Learning Disability Development Fund	106	106	0.0
Integrated Commissioning Total		6,760	3,430	47.3			70
PUBLIC HEALTH
Public Health	Ring-fenced Public Health Grant	0	(21,070)	n/a
Substance Misuse	Substance Misuse services residential rehab	5,679	5,115	2.9
Sexual Health	Commissioning of sexually transmitted infection (STI) prevention and treatment,  contraception,  HIV prevention and advice services.	4,962	4,897	1.0
Children 0-19 Public Health Programmes		6,184	6,094	4.3
Health Improvement		5,604	5,081	41.4
Public Health Total		22,429	117	49.6			0
Health & Adult Social Care Total		123,331	68,736	589.3			2,162

Economy, Environment & Culture Directorate

Service Context

The Economy, Environment & Culture directorate works with City and City region partners to develop and deliver services that support low carbon economic growth to maintain an attractive, connected, and well-run city for residents, businesses and visitors.  

The Economy, Environment & Culture directorate is leading the city’s programme of recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and progress towards carbon neutrality by 2030. 

This is delivered through the following service areas:

· City Development & Regeneration – Shaping development in the city through the statutory plan making process, development management which ensures good urban design and protection of heritage and ensuring compliance with the building regulations to ensure safety. Leading the council’s work with Greater Brighton and city partners to develop a strong and prosperous and sustainable economy. Leading the Carbon Neutral 2030 Programme, the Circular Economy framework and the Living Coast Biosphere through a growing Sustainability Team. Collecting section 106 and CIL payments, delivering investment in infrastructure and major regeneration and projects and developing new affordable homes through the Homes for Brighton & Hove Joint Venture and New Homes for Neighbourhoods Programme.

· Transport – Delivering an accessible, safe and sustainable city transport network that supports growth and enables the city to become carbon neutral by 2030. Maintaining and improving the city’s transport network and its highways infrastructure to increase resilience, including managing the risks posed by flooding and protecting coastal structures, as well as working closely with the Department for Transport and Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to deliver major infrastructure projects. Managing the transport network through regulating traffic and parking, influencing people’s travel choices to reduce congestion, deliver improvements in air quality and providing sustainable transport options.

· City Environmental Management – Delivering recycling, refuse and street cleaning services to improve the cleanliness of the city, including the delivery of our commercial waste service, garden waste service, and graffiti strategy. Leading the decarbonisation of the Council’s fleet through the delivery of the Fleet Strategy.  Management of our city’s parks and open spaces, cemeteries and church yards, including the delivery of the Stanmer Park Masterplan.

· Property – Leading the council’s property strategy and the delivery of corporate and commercial property services with an emphasis upon an investment strategy that delivers new revenue streams from our assets, whilst keeping the council’s assets safe and fit for purpose, and contributing to housing delivery, the carbon neutral agenda and community wealth. The council’s property and land portfolio includes operational and rural assets such as council offices, town halls, heritage, schools and leisure centre assets, commercial properties and agricultural farmlands.  Developing and delivering the City Downland Estate Plan to promote natural capital investment, support biodiversity and tackle climate change. 

· Culture, Tourism & Sport – Leading the recovery of the city’s unique culture, events and tourism sectors and expanding these for a wider city region, working extensively with partners.  Delivering the Cultural Recovery Plan, the Visitor Economy Recovery Plan, and strengthening the city’s positive reputation through progressing the ten-year plan for revitalised sports facilities.  Managing our visitor economy assets including the Brighton Centre, the seafront and our destination marketing service Visit Brighton.

Key metrics for services within Economy, Environment & Culture are as follows:

City Development & Regeneration

• The planning department is the third busiest Unitary Planning team in England – dealing with over 3700 planning applications and 600 enforcement cases a year, whilst protecting 3,400 listed buildings.

• The Planning Department consented 1,216 new homes in the year 2020/21 , Of which 390 were affordable. 

• The Estate Regeneration team has delivered 14 projects and 227 new council homes via New Homes for Neighbourhoods and has further circa 652 homes in the pipeline.  In addition, they are supporting the delivery of a further 346 affordable homes through the Homes for Brighton & Hove joint venture around half of which will become council homes.

• The Economic development team has worked to deliver Covid support business grants to business

• Working with Greater Brighton partners to deliver Covid-19 economic recovery plan, the 10 environmental pledges, the Energy and Water Plans

• The Living Coast influences the management of 390km² of land in urban and rural settings, and provides opportunities for health, wellbeing, clean water and local food for more than a third of a million people.  The Living Coast is the UK’s only urban Biosphere and part of the global network of 701 UNESCO Biospheres.

Property & Design

• Landlord to over 550 commercial urban buildings ,over 1000 tenants

• Manage 10,500 acres of City Downland Estate farmland and Landlord to 14 main farms

• Corporate Landlord to over 650 operational buildings

• Produce £11.5m revenue income per annum to contribute to the council’s budget, supporting service delivery

• Achieve £6m of capital receipts per annum to contribute to the council ‘s Capital Investment Strategy and programme

• Reduced co2 emissions on council’s portfolio by 10% 19/20, overachieving on target of 4% pa.

City Environmental Management

• Managing 45 playgrounds, 74 outdoor spaces, 55 cemeteries and churchyards

• Cleansing 700 miles of pavement

• Carrying out 7.5 million waste collections per year

• Providing power to fuel 25,000 homes a year from incineration of waste

• Management and maintenance of the fleet of 411 council vehicles

Culture, Tourism and Sport

• Sports facilities with over 1.5 million attendances in the city each year.

• Co-ordination for over 300 outdoor events per annum in public spaces.

• 13 km of seafront, working 365 days per year with 200 properties under management

• Brighton Centre delivers between £50-£60m of economic impact for the city per annum

• Visit Brighton has 540 business partners, promoting the city to visitors and attracting high value conferencing

• Tourism employs over 15,000 people, supporting 16% of city jobs

City Transport

• Maintaining 624km of roads, 1000km of pavements, 20km of bus priority lanes, 325 highway and seafront structures and 38 km of permanent cycle lanes.

• Delivering more than £6.2m of integrated and sustainable transport improvements to better connect and improve neighbourhoods and manage key transport routes, in addition to £2.9m of active travel schemes in response to Covid-19.

• Managing over 41,800 on-street parking spaces, 2,200 off-street car park spaces, as well as issuing 36,300 resident permits and 6,800 other permits, including processing 5,000 Blue Badge applications and managing 13,500 existing city resident Blue Badge passes.

• Dealing with more than 4,200 highway obstructions and issuing and enforcing approximately 4,000 skips, scaffold and tables & chairs licences on the highway.

• Maintaining more than 170 signal junctions and crossings, 17 variable message signs, and 36 vehicle activated signs to effectively move traffic around the city.

• Leading on the investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure including 200 on-street charging points installed in residential areas this year and development of electric hubs with rapid taxi and public charging facilities.

Directorate objectives and the direction of travel for 2020/24 includes:

· Leading the city’s Covid-19 recovery and renewal programme

· Delivery the Climate Assembly and establishing a 2030 Carbon Neutral City plan

· Working across the council and the city to establishing a community wealthbuilding programme and supporting the city’s transition to a circular and more equitable economy

· Leading on the Greater Brighton City Region Covid-19 Economic Recovery Plan and Energy and Water Plans

· Developing a new sustainable local Transport Plan for the City, including a local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plan

· Developing a new City Downland Estate Plan

· Progressing the development of a deliverable business case for the roll out of full fibre and 5G

· Developing a Waste, Recycling and Reuse Strategy for the City

· Developing a new Sports Facilities Investment Plan

· Progressing the city’s major regeneration and infrastructure projects

· Delivering new council homes and affordable home through the New Homes for Neighbourhood Programme and Homes for Brighton & Hove Joint Venture

Budget Strategy

The directorate provides strong civic leadership and place-making to lead the development and delivery of the Covid-19 Recovery and Renewal programme, the City’s 2030 Carbon Neutral Plan, and the community wealth building programme.  Working with partners of Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership, the Greater Brighton city region and South East 7 (SE7) to attract external investment in low carbon growth, increase economic resilience, improve sustainability, transport connectivity and local access to jobs, apprenticeships and housing. Focus is also upon improving the efficiency of services to maintain the city's infrastructure and environment, whilst working increasingly with partners, communities and businesses to find alternative ways to share environmental responsibilities, generate new income streams, reduce costs, and become financially more self-sufficient.

Leading and delivering the City’s 2030 Carbon Neutral Programme

The budget strategy will focus upon leading the emerging 2030 Carbon Neutral Programme and overseeing a co-ordinated programme of investment in projects that will progress the city towards carbon neutrality by 2030.  This includes securing investment to deliver sustainable infrastructure, low carbon economic growth, and sustainable travel, building upon the outcomes of the 2020 Climate Assembly and supporting the development of options for liveable city centre initiatives and a new Ultra Low Emission Zone, replacing existing income streams or providing new opportunities, such as expanded CCTV enforcement, and finding other alternatives to income from parking.

As local authority funding changes and demand for services increase, continual improvement in energy and carbon management will contribute towards controlling and reducing energy, fuel and water consumption, and spend, contributing to development of the Council’s financial resilience, and protection of front-line services.

Leading the city’s Covid-19 Recovery & Renewal Programme

A significant focus throughout 2022/23 will be supporting the city’s continued recovery from the effects of Coronavirus.  This includes securing investment in sustainable infrastructure, energy and visitor economy projects, retrofitting programmes, measures which promote active travel, improving air quality, and delivery of major regeneration projects.

Supporting the recovery of visitor numbers and spend through major events and attractions in the city.  Continuing to recover employment in the creative, cultural and tourism sectors.  Making best use of the council’s operational and commercial property portfolios, with a focus upon delivering sites for affordable housing and supporting community wealth. 

Areas of Focus for Savings

· Savings for the directorate will be achieved through a mixture of commercial approaches to generating income, establishing alternative delivery models, service redesigns and transformations, changes to commissioning, and finding alternative ways to share environmental responsibilities, generating new income streams, reduce costs, and become financially more self-sufficient.

· By embedding our carbon management programme across the Council’s operations, we will prove ourselves capable of meeting the carbon challenge head on. By doing so we will ensure our continued leadership and influence of local businesses, communities and residents to deliver a city that progresses towards carbon neutrality by 2030. 

· Move forward on potential new income streams to supplement and replace income from parking, building on the outcomes of the 2020 Climate Assembly and the opportunities linked to Liveable City initiatives and an expanded Ultra-Low Emission Zone.

· Review and revise parking permit fees and tariffs across the city to maximise income generation opportunities and encourage a reduction in congestion, whist promoting alternative, sustainable forms of transport by moderating demand. Alongside this, improving the approach to debt recovery in parking and tackling permit fraud.

· Review the council’s operational assets to support changes in service delivery across the council, create possible savings in running costs and achieve potential capital receipts. Review the council’s commercial assets in conjunction with the One Public Estate Agenda working with other public sector organisations in the Region to release sites and or re-locate services enabling regeneration and comprehensive redevelopment of sites

· Review access to council services across the city and contribute to the corporate customer experience strategy through new arrangements to Customer service centres and switchboard reception services 

Areas for investment

· Delivery of the capital investment programme of projects to support the city recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and transition to Carbon Neutral by 2030. 

· Long term capital investment to renew and strengthen the infrastructure of the city will continue, to ensure effective management of the highways network and improve air quality, along with the delivery of major regeneration projects to bring about quality new affordable housing and business space whilst generating income from land and property assets and increasing business rate and council tax returns.

· Continued investment in the development of new Council housing through the New Homes for Neighbourhood Programme and new living wage rent housing through the Homes for Brighton & Hove Joint Venture.

· Delivering major regeneration programmes.  During 2021 and 2022 over 500 new homes and 80,000 ft2 of new office space has come online at Circus Street and Preston Barracks (both major regeneration sites), generating approximately £1m per year in new council tax and business rates.

· Investment in Seafront Infrastructure, including £12m investment in the eastern seafront at Black Rock and progressing the restoration of Madeira Terraces.

· Continued investment in the city’s Cultural assets, with the completion of the ‘Heritage Centre Stage’ restorage of the Corn Exchange and Studio Theatre on the Royal Pavilion Estate and The Dance Space at Circus Street.

· Investment in the expansion of the City Bikeshare Scheme through the procurement of a new operator to deliver a city-wide scheme including the introduction of e-bikes.

· Investment in the Local Transport Plan capital programme to deliver integrated transport projects and a maintenance programme of carriage and footway resurfacing works on the transport network.

· Continue investing in the city’s electric vehicle charging network utilising government grant funding.

· Continue designing the Brighton Marina to River Adur coastal protection scheme in partnership with other Authorities and with significant investment from the Environment Agency.

· Investment in active travel and cycling and walking infrastructure through the delivery of the Emergency Active Travel Fund and Local Cycling & Walking Infrastructure Plan.

· Investment in School Streets and low traffic neighbourhood initiatives

· Investment in the city’s playgrounds, parks and open spaces including the completion of the Stanmer Park Master Plan restoration project.

· Investment in phase 2 of the Solar PV programme on the council’s corporate buildings.

· Continue modernising the city’s street lighting infrastructure as part of the invest to save initiative.

· Investment in the Fleet Strategy to progress the city council’s fleet towards carbon neutrality by 2030.

· Investment in the City’s Tree collection to tackle the impacts of elm disease and ash dieback.

Supporting the Council’s Priorities

The directorate’s action plan and budget strategy can support the council’s Corporate Plan and sustainability priorities as follows:

A City to Call Home

· Deliver a programme of affordable house building, through the New Homes for Neighbourhood Programme, and the Homes for Brighton & Hove Joint Venture.

· Deliver the Sport and Physical Activity modernisation programme to progress the quality of sports facilities in the city over the next ten years, enabling greater participation.

· Oversee delivery of the City Plan, ensuring as many homes as possible to address the shortfall against our objectively assessed need for new homes.

A City Working for All

· Work with City Region Partners in the Greater Brighton Economic Board to develop and implement the Covid 19 Economic Recovery Plan.

· Consider the jobs, skills and training implications of a move to a low carbon economy and prepare to capitalise on opportunities.

· Promote the city nationally and internationally to accelerate the recovery of business, leisure and retail activity, supporting thousands of jobs. Use external funds at every opportunity.

· Develop new partnerships designed to increase the positive impact of the visitor economy in the city and to bid for new funds.

· Progress plans to improve the seafront as an asset for residents and visitors

· Improve the look and feel of the city through the development and implementation of Waste, Recycling and Reuse Strategy making it more attractive to residents, visitors and investors.

· Develop and deliver a playground investment programme.

A Stronger City

· Lead the delivery of the recovery plan for the arts and cultural sectors to minimise the loss of creative people in the city.   Ensure artists, organisations and audiences are informed and included in activities.

· Preparing for the adoption of a City Plan Part 2, to complete the council’s development plan and put the city in a strong position from which to plan development that is high quality and sustainable.

· Implementing the Community Infrastructure Levy, to generate investment to deliver vital new city infrastructure.

A Sustainable City

· Leading the city’s Carbon Neutral 2030 Programme and prepare the Carbon Neutral 2030 Plan for agreement by Committee, informed by the Climate Assembly.

· Prepare and agree a Circular Economy Routemap for the City, focusing on moving key sectors of the economy away from a linear use and dispose model to one that maximises resource reuse.

· Develop a new City Downland Estate Plan with a future Vision for our 12,500 acres of City Downland, to make best use of our unique landscape, and contribute to the carbon neutral agenda creating emission reduction savings, promoting different uses including local food production and exploring a possible solar farm to create a self-sufficient renewable energy supply.

· Create savings through the reduction of co2 emissions in the council’s operational estate deploying energy efficient technology and rolling out a programme of solar photovoltaics where suitable.   

· Work in partnership with key stakeholders to develop a new Local Transport Plan and a Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan that supports sustainable travel, with investment in walking, cycling and smart traffic signalling to contribute towards the city becoming carbon neutral by 2030.

· Deliver the Local Transport Plan capital programme for investment in integrated transport projects and a maintenance programme of carriage and footway resurfacing works on the transport network.

· Continue investing in the city’s electric vehicle charging network utilising government grant funding.

· Continue designing and procure the first phase of the Brighton Marina to River Adur coastal protection scheme in partnership with other Authorities and with significant investment from the Environment Agency.

· Engage with strategic partners via Transport for the South East and Coast to Capital LEP to consider local and regional transport needs, developing and submitting bids for investment and jointly co-ordinating transport projects.

· Extend tree cover, creating more resilient woodlands in the city whilst tackling tree disease.

· Deliver the Fleet Strategy to decarbonise council fleet and improve service efficiency.

Service Area					Savings Detail
Section	Service Area	Gross budget 2021/22	Net budget 2021/22	FTEs 2021/22	Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks	EIA No.	Savings Proposals  2022/23
		£'000	£'000	FTE			£'000
ECONOMY, ENVIRONMENT & CULTURE
TRANSPORT
Head of City Transport		518	518	3.0
Parking Services	Strategy & contracts / Traffic Control Centre	16,310	(25,435)	91.2	Proposal: Increase on-street pay & display parking tariffs - Increase all paid parking by 10% (£550k) Increase off-street pay & display parking tariffs for four main car parks (Trafalgar Street / Lanes / Regency Square / London Road - Increase by 10% (£325k) Proposal: Increases to other car parks by 10%. (£37k). Delivery risks: Impact on Tourism / visitors. Deficit from parking loss in 2021/22 is unclear. Ongoing impact of Covid-19 unknown – high no. of cases in B&H may discourage visitors. Note: A 1.5% corporate inflation assumption (target) across all parking incomes must be met in the first instance and reduces the above saving accordingly (£500k).	11	412
	Customer Services				Proposal: Increase prices of resident permits: £10 increase to a full parking scheme permit – Base rate £165 to £175 (£100k) £25 increase to a high demand full parking scheme permit in Central Brighton – Base rate £195 to £220 (£85k) Add Area M to high demand rate – Base rate of £180 increase for 22/23 to £220 (£40k) £10 increase to a light touch parking scheme permit – Base rate of £110 to £120 (£32k) Delivery risks:  Impacts on local residents and  local resistance.	11	257
	Customer Services				Proposal: Increase price of traders permits by 5% from £760 to £800. Delivery risks: Resistance from local traders.	11	40
Traffic Management		5,371	4,000	33.5
Transport Policy and Strategy		542	532	10.8
Transport Projects & Engineering		6,200	4,955	35.5
Concessionary Bus Fares		10,611	10,611	0.0
Transport Total		39,552	(4,819)	174.0			709
CITY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT
City Clean		11,057	9,607	299.5	Proposal: Increase collections efficiency and reduce agency costs Delivery risks: Continued high levels of staff absence sickness, Covid and AL may mean we continue to rely on agency.		70
City Parks		4,219	3,777	129.4	Proposal: Income from car parking in parks Delivery risk: subject to committee approval		50
Fleet & Maintenance		3,306	3,224	12.4	Proposal: Commercial activities Delivery Risk: Capacity in the workshop and outside storage		30
Strategy & Projects		1,999	1,864	23.8
Head of City Environmental Management		190	190	1.0
Waste Disposal		15,278	14,580	0.0
City Environmental Management Total		36,049	33,242	466.1			150
CITY DEVELOPMENT & REGENERATION
Development Planning		2,517	(207)	52.4	Proposal: Offer Validation services to neighbouring authorities, who are not performing as well as BHCC in this important area for ensuring timely planning decisions (and hitting govt. targets) Delivery Risk: Dependent on demand from those authorities.		10
Planning Policy and Major Projects		716	704	11.2
Sustainability & International		992	972	6.3	Proposal: £55k in budget being held to create posts in restructure to be reduced to £40k Delivery Risk: Very low.  Less money to create posts in the restructure but creating the same post(s) at p/t rather than f/t would be possible.		15
Executive Director - EEC		213	213	2.0
Major Projects		303	236	8.3
Economic Development		593	451	5.8	Proposal: Existing LEP fees are £100k, but LEP are moving to a more income focused model, and future model for LEP funding is unclear.  Potential for a 50% cut. Delivery Risk: Risk that there is no viable change to LEP funding model.		50
Business Development and Customer Services		532	532	16.3
Head of City Development & Regeneration		84	84	0.7
City Development & Regeneration Total		5,950	2,985	103.0			75
CULTURE, TOURISM & SPORT
Heritage and Archives	The Keep	1,692	1,672	0.6	Proposal:   Reduce the council contribution to the annual costs of The Keep.                                                                                                           Delivery Risk:  Operation is managed by another council and year-end final costs are not under BHCC control.		20
Arts	Brighton Dome and Festival	2,159	2,159	1.8
Sport and Leisure	Seafront	2,736	(504)	32.1	Proposal:  Increase revenues for licences and fees for use of seafront space.                                                                                                                  Delivery Risks:  Ongoing pandemic constraints may impact on seafront income in 2022/23.		30
	Sports Facilities				Proposal:  Sports Centres - reduce maintenance of main sports centres. Delivery Risk:  Sports centres are already old and in need of investment.  Reduction of maintenance could lead to total failure.		25
Venues	Brighton Centre	2,166	(794)	36.0	Proposal:  Ticketing commission - renegotiated sales income percentage.                                                                                              Delivery Risks:  Reduces maintenance and funds for upkeep of the centre, affecting reputation of the city.		20
	Outdoor Events				Proposal:  Commercial Activity - Increase charges for use of public land. Delivery Risks:  Events income has still not recovered post pandemic and this saving might be unachievable in 2022/23.		20
Tourism and Marketing		2,038	1,657	10.3
Culture, Tourism & Sport Total		10,791	4,190	80.8			115
PROPERTY
Customer Services	AD Property & Design, Customer Service Centres, Reception/Switchboard & Security	974	974	18.9
Facilities & Building Services	Building Services & Helpdesk team	2,096	2,053	24.1	Proposal: Review the Post & Courier, Print/Copy Services in respect of service level requirements across the council for post, courier, print/copy, subject to consultation.                                                                                                                             Delivery Risk: Uncertainty and spread of COVID cases in Winter could impact on the ability to obtain evidence of demand and growth following the return to offices.		40
	Building Services & Helpdesk team				Proposal:  Reduction in the Corporate Landlord reactive maintenance budget                                                                                                      Delivery Risk:  Budget already insufficient and an increase in maintenance demands could lead to a prioritisation of H & S and structural day to day demands only.		25
	Building Services & Helpdesk team				Proposal: Review of re-charge system in place to be undertaken by Finance and Property & Design with aim of streamlining processes.                                                                                                                                                           Delivery Risk: A risk that the project is delayed due to staff capacity and that the efficiencies identified are not sufficient to enable a reduction in the staffing budget.		20
Building Surveying & Maintenance	Building Maintenance	2,671	2,671	0.0	Proposal:  Reduction in corporate planned maintenance budget.                                                                                   Delivery Risk:  Budget already insufficient and an increase in maintenance demands could lead to an increase in the backlog.		25
	Building Maintenance				Proposal: Generation of increased income from the professional fees charged for the building maintenance services delivered to partners by the building surveying team and the architect’s team.                                                                                  Delivery Risk:  Difficulty in recruiting and retaining additional staff  or lack of suitable commissions could make saving unachievable		20
Architecture & Design		(784)	(804)	23.7
Workstyles		1	1	5.0
Education Property Management	Capital Strategy	1,029	974	6.0	Proposal:  Reduction in the Education property maintenance budget. Delivery Risk:  Significant increase in demand for maintenance could potentially make saving unachievable.		7
Asset Management		89	89	0.0
Energy & Water Management	Energy & Water Team	1,679	1,671	4.0	Proposal:  Reduction in the budget for water and electricity. Savings most likely to come from corporate water procurement.                                                                                                                                                                                                 Delivery Risk:  Increase in prices could potentially make saving unachievable.		20
	Energy & Water Team				Proposal:  Phase 2 Solar PVs. Installation of PVs on poor performing buildings in the operational portfolio.                                                                                   Delivery Risk:  Delays in installation, increases in material or contractor costs could make saving unachievable.		20
	Energy & Water Team				Proposal:  Identify savings through energy audits of poorly performing buildings in the operational portfolio.                                                                                  Delivery Risk:  Delays in carrying out audits and/or increases in materials and contractors costs could make savings unachievable.		20
Estates Management	Commercial	4,103	(6,526)	7.4	Proposal: Spend to Save - to create new income streams from capital investment into Montague Place, Pavilion Buildings, C & H Western Road, Co-op Western Road. Focus will be on creating opportunities for community wealth building, third sector demand. The proposal is create Social Value/Community Wealth Building properties which can provide office space either on a serviced office basis or on short term leases, at more affordable rents, but affordable rents could impact on rental income targets, will need to review. Risks: Delays to or increased materials and costs of works and lack of suitable tenants could put saving at risk.		10
Property Total		11,858	1,103	89.1			207
Economy, Environment & Culture Total		104,200	36,701	913.0			1,256

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Directorate

Services and Responsibilities

The HNC Directorate includes the following services:

· Housing (Council housing management, repairs and investment, Housing Supply, Private Sector Housing, Temporary Accommodation and Homelessness, Travellers)

· Libraries and information services

· Safer Communities (Environmental Health, Licensing, Trading Standards, Emergency Planning, Prevent, ASB and Casework team and Domestic Violence services, Field Officers)

· Communities, Equalities & Third Sector

The directorate focuses on the issues affecting housing, neighbourhoods and communities, aiming to be a landlord of choice, develop closer and better relationship with communities, drive improvement in customer satisfaction and develop the council’s working with public service partners. This includes delivering a step change in partnership working with the third sector and enhancements in volunteering opportunities. In addition to the General Fund activities, much of the housing- related tenancy functions are funded by the ring-fenced Housing Revenue Account.

The directorate has responsibility for:

· Delivering landlord services to council housing residents and improving the quality, sustainability and safety of council homes.;

· Increasing housing supply, supporting provision of 800 additional council homes and development of 700 other new affordable homes.

· Improving the quality of private rented homes and delivering housing adaptations to help people live independently;

· Providing advice and support to reduce homelessness, and providing temporary accommodation

· Delivering statutory library services across the city and developing libraries as neighbourhood hubs;

· Closer engagement with local communities in the co-production of neighbourhood focused enforcement services;

· Leading the council’s ‘Prevent’ agenda; Leading on the Council’s approach to anti-social behaviour and tackling domestic abuse

·  Leading the equalities and inclusion agenda for the council ensuring fair and equitable services, leadership and employment;

· Improving customer satisfaction, complaints resolution and neighbourhood well-being across council services;

· Deepening the understanding across all services of city demographics and the practical measures to address communities of interest and neighbourhoods in need;

· Since 1 April 2020 the Council has also been directly delivering the council housing Repairs & Maintenance Service

Service

Service Context

Housing

Housing affordability is a major issue in the city, with Brighton & Hove becoming increasingly unaffordable for a significant proportion of the population, in particular those at risk of, or experiencing homelessness.

There are currently more than 17,900 social rented properties in the city. Council housing stock has fallen by more than 700 properties in the last 10 years but the council remains the largest landlord.

· Housing sees approximately 4,000 homeless households each year who need help with housing. Early intervention and prevention work is reducing levels of homelessness however demand for  assistance for homeless households remains high in the current year;

· Numbers of households in temporary accommodation is high but reducing slowly

· Currently license 3,710 Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs) across the city;

· The Private Sector Housing team received 62 Requests for Assistance during Q1, 2020/21;

· There have been 271 additional council homes delivered through the New Homes for Neighbourhoods, Hidden Homes and Home Purchase programme since May 2019. 

· There are a further 246 new council homes currently on site and targeted through the Home Purchase programme to be delivered by May 2023

· Specialist housing provision includes a commitment to treble Housing First units for homeless people with complex needs

· We continue to work toward our target of bringing over 160 empty private sector homes back into use each year;

· Landlord to approximately 11,500 council tenants and 2,900 leaseholders;

· Annual HRA rents and service charges of £62m per year; capital programme of around £24m a year improving homes; let approx. 550 homes and agree 150 mutual exchanges a year, proposed investment of £180m investment in new homes over the next three years to 2022/23; average of 85 repairs every calendar day in normal circumstances.

Libraries & Information Services

The Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964 requires Local Authorities to deliver a public library service which is a ‘comprehensive and efficient’ service for all persons in the area who want to make use of it, to promote this service, and to lend books and other written materials free of charge.

· Over 1.4 million people visit our libraries every year (pre-Covid), including over 38,000 during Libraries Extra unstaffed access hours; with 66% of transactions being self-service. Only 78,529 visits in 2020-21 due to enforced closures of libraries during the lockdowns and a highly restricted service when open;

· Lend nearly 1 million items a year (pre-Covid) - 439,011 during 2020-21;

· 93% of users tell us our library services are excellent or good;

· Network of 14 libraries across the city;

· 1.5 million website user sessions on libraries web pages (pre-Covid) - 372,052 during 2020-21, and 67% of all joining, reservations and renewals took place online in 2019-20.

Safer Communities

Safer communities provides a broad range of services including environmental health and protection, licensing and trading standards, food safety services and emergency planning as well as services to directly support the community safety plan such as violence against women and girls services, anti-social behaviour casework, and the government’s Prevent and Channel programmes.

· Over 98% of the 3,200 food businesses in the city rated 3 or above on the national Food Hygiene Rating Scheme;

· The Field Officer team dealt with more than 2900 jobs between January and October 2021;

· Community Safety Casework Team, Anti-Social Behaviour and hate incidents –528 initial reports and enquiries dealt with between January and October 2021;

· Domestic violence and abuse: 1600 referrals for domestic violence and abuse between April and Oct 2020 105 sexual violence cases reported;

· 1,400 licensed premises in the city. 580 Hackney Carriage and 498 private hire vehicles licensed and 278 gambling premises licensed;

· 2973 noise complaints including both domestic and commercial requiring investigation between January and October 2021.

· Obtained refunds and compensation for consumers of nearly £200,000 between January and October 2021

Communities, Equalities & Third Sector (CETS)

This team provides services including community engagement and collaboration, that strengthens communities, leads on the council’s equality duties and provides support to achieve a more sustainable, efficient and effective community and voluntary sector to deliver council priorities.

• Supporting activities that bring people and communities together to promote mutual understanding
• Working alongside communities on what matters to them and to increase resident involvement in housing services
• Increasing participation by using neighbourhood action plans and ward budgets as building blocks for engagement
• Continuing to invest in a strong and independent voluntary and community sector through awards of three-year grant through the Third Sector Commission and the Communities Fund
• Supporting community activities and festivals focussed on sports, arts and science, bringing people together for the benefit of their neighbourhood and the city through grant awards to CVS groups
• Taking a leading role in increasing equality and inclusion in the council and across the city
• Developing strategies to improve equalities outcomes across the Council’s services

Budget Strategy

The key areas of action for the Housing service as outlined in the Corporate Plan (2020/23), a City to call home, are:

• Reduce homelessness & rough sleeping
• Provide genuinely affordable homes & increase housing supply
• Improve private rented housing
• Improve council housing
• Make better use of existing housing capacity
  
  

The Council’s Housing Revenue Account (HRA) comprises rental and service charge income from our tenants and leaseholders and funds our landlord services. This includes both capital investment in improving the housing stock and providing much-needed new affordable housing. The HRA Capital Investment Programme for 2021/22 – 2023/24 includes proposals to invest £12.090m specifically for sustainability and carbon reduction measures. 

The Housing General Fund budget is under pressure because of the level of homelessness demand particularly during the current year. There is also a need to improve the quality of housing in the private sector and in particular sustainability and work to support carbon reduction. Budget priorities align with the projects and requirements of the agreed Housing Committee Work Plan.

For Libraries the development and delivery of the Libraries Strategy 2021-5, involving wide public consultation to inform the direction of travel of library services is key. This will also build on the learning and innovative services developed during the pandemic.

Libraries have already extensively modernised, reducing costs significantly while increasing accessibility for the public particularly though developing Libraries Extra unstaffed access. A large proportion of the budget is linked to the grant funded PFI scheme which benefits from significant PFI grant funding and where savings have already been achieved. The service will continue to look at how costs can be kept down without adversely affecting services through use of new technologies. Income sources associated with use of additional library building services have been impacted by the required closure of public-facing services this year.

The Jubilee Library PFI contract supports library revenue budgets because it attracts a government grant of £1.505M which effectively funds services across the city. A comprehensive external review of this was carried out in 2018 to ensure that it continued to deliver value for money. Jubilee Library, which is the fourth most visited public library in the country (CIPFA data 2019/20) also attracts a large amount of income which further supports library services across the city

The bulk of the budget in Safer Communities is linked to statutory functions to provide a wide range of Environmental health and regulatory services.  A new Community Safety Strategy was approved in September 2020 with a focus on early action to prevent crime and disorder, issues that have the biggest impact on people, reducing fear crime and meeting victims’ needs. The service has been under severe pressure prioritising COVID enforcement work in 2020/21 and 2021/22 and has had to adapt to new demands and develop different approaches to keeping the city safe. There is now a backlog of key tasks so the strategy will be focussed around more efficient and effective working whilst both catching up on the work delayed and continuing to provide the full range of both statutory and non-statutory functions as required by the Council.

CETS are focussed on the impact of Covid-19 on the community and voluntary sector with a rise in demand on services both in terms of number of and the increasing complexity of need of their beneficiaries, combined with challenging fundraising and income generation climate. Inequality issues have been exacerbated during the last year and there are a range of specific and complex impacts for communities . There is a need to respond by making more progress in bridging equality gaps with a particular focus on the concerns of BAME residents and making the city a more accessible place. 

Areas of focus for savings

Housing : Given the on-going pressures in homelessness services the focus is on improving homeless prevention and throughput to reduce overall numbers and the length of stay for households in temporary accommodation (TA) and in particular in emergency accommodation.

The review of our TA services including a review of income collection, voids turnaround, procurement, management of lettings etc, as well as work to increase the number of Council-owned TA units, is now part of a wider end to end Homelessness Transformation Programme encompassing review of the wider service to develop better systems, processes, policies and structures to improve efficiency and services to users. We will progress a review of the arrangements  with Seaside Homes to develop more cost effective ways of providing temporary housing.

The planned review of Allocations Policy next year also provides the opportunity to consider options that would reduce the use of TA. More immediately we will review how the Council can better support rough sleepers reflecting the aims of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping strategy, learning from the COVID-19 emergency housing programme and consequent budget pressures.

Council Housing – HRA: The HRA budget aims to balance the priorities of the council and its tenants and leaseholders and reflects a range of council policies and programmes on customer service, repairs and planned maintenance, capital investment in housing and engagement.

Libraries: The immediate focus for savings is on efficiencies that will not adversely impact the services available across the extensive network of libraries in the city. Developing the Libraries Strategy will provide a framework for future funding decisions, for instance where a library is not well used by the local community, consideration will be given to whether moving services to a nearby library or moving the library to a more accessible location for the public might better meet the needs of that community.

Safer Communities: Non-statutory services can provide savings but are closely linked to key Council priorities particularly in delivering the Community Safety Partnership strategy. There are some limited opportunities for efficiency savings and improvement to some income streams not limited by regulation or linked to economic recovery that will be reviewed.

Communities, Equalities & Third Sector: The majority of budgets in the service are associated with support to and commissioning of the third sector in the city and the wide range of services they provide.  However, this is discretionary spend and therefore savings in these budgets could be achieved. There are limited opportunities for efficiency savings.

Investment in services

Investment in Housing needs services will be needed to improve homelessness prevention, manage the TA service, identify move on accommodation and speed up moves within the housing stock to improve the customer journey and save money through more efficient use of the TA and permanent housing stock. Investment in housing systems and processes to streamline and automate manual processes will also produce savings in future. Some of the changes required are being identified through the Homelessness Transformation Programme where investment has already started to have a significant impact on overall expenditure

It will be important to align capital investment in new accommodation for TA use with a strategic approach to the TA placements and management functions and in the longer term, the strategic approach to providing new permanent homes. Investment to increase the TA stock directly managed or accessed by the Council will provide significant cost savings, through reducing emergency accommodation costs.

Investment in IT to automate systems for licensing may provide opportunities for future savings in Safer Communities services.  Additional time limited resources to coordinate work to deal with unauthorised encampments across the city would reduce costs and delays in dealing with this problem for a number of council services.

Investing in Library community spaces would both enhance the community hub role of the city’s extensive library network and increase rental income generation potential. 

Options  for investing in CETS activities include:

· Building Brighton and Hove’s reputation as a giving city by launch of Brighton & Hove Crowdfunding platform;

· Continuing to invest in a strong and independent voluntary and community sector through awards of three-year grant through the Third Sector Commission and the Communities Fund;

· Supporting community activities and festivals focussed on sports, arts and science, bringing people together for the benefit of their neighbourhood and the city through grant awards to CVS groups;

· Refreshing the CVS grant scheme including ‘supporting voluntary organisations and businesses to set up enterprises involving homeless people’ and to ‘look at creating an ethical loan scheme where the council matches community investors;

· Investing in an independent support services for people who have experienced racial and religiously motivated hate crime.

Supporting the Council’s Priorities 

A City to call home

· Reduce homelessness and rough sleeping.

· Develop strategies and business cases to provide genuinely affordable homes.

· Improve private rented housing quality and sustainability.

· Improve council housing quality and sustainability.

· Make better use of existing housing capacity.

A City Working for All

· Build community wealth

Tackle crime and antisocial behaviour:

· Increase participation in civic and community life through neighbourhood engagement and participatory strategies.

· Develop strategies to address the causes of poverty and its impact on our communities.

· Improve access for disabled people to services and the housing estate.

A Growing and learning city

· Promote lifelong learning and transition into adulthood through support to relevant CVS programmes.

A Sustainable City

· Use capital and revenue investment to support the objective of being a carbon neutral city by 2030 through improving energy efficiency and sustainability of Council Housing, housing developments and private sector housing.

A Heathy and Caring City

· Promote a City Equalities Standard together with our partners to promote fair employment practice to tackle the under representation of people from BME communities and disabled people.

· Taking a leading role in increasing equality and inclusion in the council and across the city’ and ‘challenge inequality in the city and within the council’.

· Supporting the international refugee crisis through driving delivery of the recommendations of the international migrant needs assessment, participation in the global refugee programme and continuing to be an asylum seeker dispersal area.

· Support people to live independently through Emergency and Temporary Housing provision and programmes such as Housing First and other move on support.

Service Area					Savings Detail
Section	Service Area	Gross budget 2021/22	Net budget 2021/22	FTEs 2021/22	Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks	EIA No.	Savings Proposals  2022/23
		£'000	£'000	FTE			£'000
HOUSING, NEIGHBOURHOODS & COMMUNITIES
HOUSING GENERAL FUND
Housing Services	Executive Director HNC	180	112	1.2
Housing Services	Homelessness -Housing Options  and Homemove - supporting vulnerable households	1,722	1,624	47.3
Housing Strategy & Development	Housing Strategy & Development - enabling & delivering increased housing supply & quality.	252	202	5.0
Private Sector Housing (PSH)	Private Sector Housing & Integrated Housing Adaptations Service - improving housing quality in private rented homes, enabling accessibility & supporting independent living across all tenures.	1,408	734	31.9
Temporary Accommodation & Allocations	Temporary Accommodation (TA)	23,510	4,209	41.5	Reduction of costs as a result of the homelessness transformation programme including: - increasing prevention - reducing placements made - maximising income - improving voids turnaround - increasing move-ons to social housing and PRS		1,780
	Temporary Accommodation (TA)
Rough Sleepers and Housing related Support	Commissioned Services	7,512	4,726	9.0
Travellers	Travellers	495	396	5.0
Housing General Fund Total		35,078	12,003	140.9			1,780
LIBRARIES
Libraries	Library PFI	2,476	971	0.0	Library Services have already delivered £277k savings through the PFI and a financial review of the PFI has also recently taken place corporately led externally by CIPFA. The saving proposed here is the removal of the budgetary provision for contribution to the PFI reserve following a  review of the latest Affordability Modelling and inflationary assumptions.		57
	Library PFI -Government Grant	incl. above	1,505	0.0	The PFI contract is partly covered by a government grant of £1.5m p.a. that is part of the council's settlement funding. The actual net PFI expenditure is £0.971m. It is worth noting that the revenue payments include an element to cover the capital costs of constructing the building. The grant also subsidises library revenue budgets by £700k. Therefore no savings can be made from this budget.
	Staffing and operational costs	2,701	2,701	60.0
	Community Libraries	incl. above	incl. above	incl. above	Reduce staffed opening hours in all community libraries to a maximum of three days a week (affecting Patcham, Hangleton, Whitehawk and Portslade Libraries).	12	17
	Income Generation	incl. above	(449)	0.0
Libraries Total		5,177	4,728	60.0			74
COMMUNITIES, EQUALITIES & THIRD SECTOR
Communities	Communities, Equalities and Third Sector (CETS) Development staffing and operational budget	496	396	8.8
	Communities, Equalities and Third Sector (CETS) Development staffing and operational budget				Delete vacancy of a new Disability Officer post. This post is currently vacant as recruitment was delayed due to a service restructure and staff circumstances. The authority meets Disability Discrimination Act and Equality Act duties and does not require the post to be compliant or lead improvements through the many services that work with disabled people, groups and communities, including through funding provided to Community & Voluntary Sector organisations. There is no precedent for this post and the saving will have no immediate material impact on the service or the community and voluntary sector.		40
	Communities and Third Sector Development Commission	2,006	1,811	0.0
	Communities Fund	331	331	0.0
	Equality & Cohesion	270	270	3.4
	Healthwatch	179	179	0.0	Contractual commitment to meet the legislative duty for each Local Authority area to have an independent health and social care watchdog. No saving proposed.
Communities, Equalities & Third Sector Total		3,282	2,987	12.2			40
SAFER COMMUNITIES
Environmental Health & Licensing	Environmental Health & Licensing	1,614	720	35.1
	Environmental Protection	402	394	9.8
	Pest Control	121	(5)	3.0
Trading Standards	Trading Standards	452	442	8.1	Review non statutory functions in Trading Standards to see if efficiencies can be made.	13	25
Civil Contingencies	Civil Contingencies	116	116	1.6
Community Safety	Reducing Violence against Women and Girls Commissioning. (VAWG)	1,323	935	3.0
	Casework Team	508	376	14.0
Service wide		incl above	incl above		To allow for an additional turnover of staff of 1% across the service to reduce employee budgets. RISK deemed to be low risk based on historic staff turnover.		10
Safer Communities Total		4,536	2,979	74.6			35
Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Total		48,073	22,697	287.7			1,929

Finance & Resources

Service Context

The Finance & Resources Directorate is due to merge with the Strategy, Governance & Law Directorate under current proposals. Finance & Resources primarily provides support service functions with the notable exception of the large Revenues & Benefits Service which is a core front line service that leads on the council’s response to welfare reforms.

Many of the support service functions in Finance & Resources were previously provided within the Orbis Partnership with East Sussex and Surrey Council Councils, however, the focus of the partnership has changed over time and from April 2022 the shared services remaining under Orbis will only include IT & Digital, Internal Audit & Counter Fraud, Procurement and small elements of Finance. Other Finance & Resources support service functions, namely HR, most of Finance and Business Operations,  will return to sovereign status and be provided wholly by BHCC.

Support Service functions operate at both a corporate level, providing essential business support to front-line services, while also supporting the council to meet statutory obligations, maintain strong governance and stewardship, and develop effective strategic plans and tactics. Including services under the Orbis Partnership, the aim is to provide sustainable, trusted and resilient corporate services while continually aiming for greater efficiencies and improved customer service.

The approach of the support service functions is to contribute to corporate leadership by operating as a ‘Strategic Business Partner’ to the council and its service directorates and supporting them through complex changes. This means being involved in the development of options and their evaluation, through to supporting and facilitating delivery, particularly through the modernisation agenda, capital investment and financing strategies, and a wide range of professional and technical advisory services across Finance, Internal Audit (& Counter Fraud), Procurement, HR, IT & D and Business Operations.

The Revenues & Benefits Service has a different emphasis but is also of strategic importance, particularly in terms of developing the council’s approach to Corporate Debt Management but also in developing and improving its response to welfare reforms and their local impact. The service has a strong customer focus and continues to develop and promote a more holistic, collaborative approach to supporting people in financial hardship through working with other services across the council.

Both Revenues & Benefits and Business Operations have a significant process and transactional side to their operations and, for this reason, with the advent of Business Operations being withdrawn from the Orbis Partnership, it is proposed to consult staff and unions on a potential merger of the two services into a large, local Service Hub which will collect the majority of the council’s income and taxation, manage corporate debts and recovery, process provider, supplier and benefit payments, manage major corporate IT systems, arrange corporate banking facilities, and lead the council’s welfare reform response including the management of discretionary funds.

Key metrics for Finance & Resources Services are as follows:

Revenues & Benefits

· The  strategic, discretionary and advisory lead provider of financial welfare support services, currently including those relating to COVID-19 pressures;

· Collection and recovery of £160m Council Tax (and Council Tax Reduction Scheme);

· Collection and recovery of £120m Business Rate income;

· Processing of Housing Benefit claims and managing the transfer to Universal Credit;

· Collection and recovery of Housing Benefit Overpayments;

· Leadership of the council’s Corporate Debt function to oversee corporate debt portfolio performance and deliver best practice in debt prevention, welfare support collaboration , financial inclusion and collection of difficult to collect debts.

Business Operations

· Collection and recovery of Adult Social Care and Sundry Debts (Business and Personal) (Accounts Receivable);

· Payroll services to over 12,000 staff across the council, schools and other external organisations;

· Processing over 200,000 payments to the council’s suppliers and providers (Accounts Payable);

· Provision of banking, purchasing card and urgent payment services and the management of corporate financial information systems.

Human Resources & Organisational Development (HROD)

· HROD provides services to around 9,000 staff across the council and in schools, including a comprehensive advisory, development and policy service to 750 people managers and 68 schools in the City;

• Delivery of ‘Our People Promise’ which includes the council’s development offer for staff, and aims to help improve the council’s performance;
• Health & Safety advice and support for all council services;

· An integrated management structure was put in place in April 2019 and achieved significant savings across ESCC and BHCC under the Orbis Partnership. However, ESCC gave notice to withdraw its HR services from Orbis in July 2021. Although every effort will be made to retain the many benefits of working collaboratively, BHCC is now re-creating a sovereign HR structure which is likely to have some cost implications.

Finance & Internal Audit (& Counter Fraud)

• Finance oversees the delivery of the council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and annual budget setting process and delivers the Targeted Budget Management (TBM) process in order to monitor and balance budgets on an ongoing basis. It also produces the annual Financial Statements and supports the external audit process.
• Finance supports 5 large service directorates including over 250 budget managers, as well as 68 schools, and provides Treasury Management for over £100m cash balances and investments and over £0.5 billion money market transactions, and annually and procures and negotiates over £1.8 billion insurance cover through premiums (£1.6m p.a.).
• Internal Audit (& Counter Fraud) provides over 1,000 audit days for circa 50 internal audit reviews providing assurance to management and the authority. It is a highly integrated Orbis function that includes specialist support in areas of counter fraud and IT audit.

Procurement

• Supports procurement of goods and services to the value of approximately £300m per annum;
• Supports circa 250 contract managers together with Legal Services including the provision of targeted contract management support for higher risk contracts;
• Manages and authorises waivers of Contract Standing Orders;
• Supports the Member Procurement Advisory Board to scrutinise significant procurements and consider procurement route options.

IT & Digital

· Maintains and supports the mission critical underpinning IT infrastructure used to run back-office services and deliver services to residents.  This includes the management and procurement of devices (e.g., laptops), software (e.g., Microsoft O365), network connectivity, telephony (mobile, contact centre and office), data centre and data storage services, Always on VPN (AOVPN remote access) and other contracts;

· Supports the day-to-day provision use of hardware, software and IT applications;

· Provides cyber resilience through the procurement and use of cyber monitoring and filtering technologies, as well, as the provision of secure remote connection that enables remote access to council systems and data;

· Provides traded IT support and training services to schools in the City of Brighton and Hove;

· Delivers projects and programmes to support the adoption of new IT and digital capabilities to enable service improvement and improved resident experience;

· Support the council’s adherence to IT and data regulation and compliance standards including GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), FOI (Freedom of Information) and PSN (Public Service Network) code of connection services.

Many of the services above are also involved in providing a wide range of traded services to schools, South Downs National Park Authority, the Coast to Capital LEP, Worthing & Adur Councils, and Horsham District Council, etc. which generate income.

Budget Strategy

Direction of Travel

Although, some services have now come out of the Orbis partnership, the directorate’s budget strategy for 2022/23 will continue to adopt the following strategies to attempt to meet increasing volume and complexity of demands while keeping cost increases to a minimum:

· Exploring further opportunities for collaboration, innovation and efficiency through improved use of technology, closer working with other directorates to design improved customer journeys and experience, and exploring opportunities to bring services or skills together, for example, the proposed merger of Revenues & Benefits and Business Operations;

· Continued implementation of systems developments, automation and digital services to improve customer service and deliver potential efficiencies. The service has embarked on a major review of the council’s Corporate Information Systems (e.g. HR, Finance) which is expected to report with options early in 2022;

· Continued investment in enhanced Business Partnering skills and ongoing review of the workforce skill mix to support the aim of being an effective Strategic Business Partner to the organisation;

· Utilising external peer challenge and reviews (at corporate and service level) to assist the authority in identifying strategic opportunities for improvement;

· To deliver debt prevention and welfare reform responses that minimise the financial and administrative costs of supporting financial vulnerable households across all council services.

Areas of Focus for Savings

All Services: Services continue to explore opportunities to generate income and contribute to corporate overheads. Services are already provided to Adur & Worthing Councils, South Downs National Park, Academies, and schools in other authorities. Bidding for new work has to carefully balance the value of the income generated with the potential impact on capacity to support the council. For example, the council succeeded in becoming the Coast to Capital LEP’s Accountable Body in April 2021.

Procurement: This service is a relatively small resource but will continue to look for collaboration opportunities from within and across the Orbis Partnership and continue its role in helping service directorates to improve economic and social value in their procurement and management of contracts which can enable savings to be offered across a wide range of contracted services. Additional contract management resources were approved in the 2021/22 budget and will provide targeted support to contract managers for higher risk contracts and develop the procurement approach to Community Wealth Building.

Revenues & Benefits: Continued roll-out of the Universal Credit caseload to the DWP and continued investment in digital customer developments and automation are required to support the achievement of efficiencies in this service, including approval of the proposed change of the Council Tax Reduction Scheme to a banded earnings scheme to reduce administrative burden and costs over time. The impact of the pandemic has been very significant on the service which has administered hundreds of millions of pounds of grants, vouchers and hardship funds for the city. Management of the service’s budget in 2022/23 relies to some extent on caseloads beginning to return to more normal levels.

Business Operations: The withdrawal of this service from the Orbis Partnership by the 3 partner authorities is likely to create a significant pressure on the Business Operations budget due to the disaggregation of some integrated posts and services, and the need to address unachieved Orbis Business Plan savings. This budget pressure will need to be addressed in the 2022/23 General Fund budget but to address the situation in the longer term it is proposed to bring the Business Operations and Revenues & Benefits services together into a new ‘Service Hub’. Together with a strategic review of the major corporate HR, Payroll and Financial information systems, the new combined service will look to optimise the use of digital and application technologies to reduce costs and improvement customer service over the medium term.

IT&D: Further contractual savings are sought in all re-procurements undertaken by IT&D across the Orbis Partnership. Opportunities for joint procurement and licensing are explored and waivers are used judiciously to align contract expiries to facilitate this. However, the historic under-investment in IT infrastructure, devices, network upgrades and access security have added significantly to IT&D costs while there is a need to continue investment in digital developments and platforms, the wide area network (Link replacement) and major corporate systems. These and other investments require step increases in funding to be provided within the Medium Term Financial Strategy and therefore the aim of the service is to minimise these increases through the actions above.

Areas for Investment

Investment in ‘Our People Promise’ and the supporting development activities and actions are proposed to be maintained in 2022/23 utilising capital receipt flexibilities through the Modernisation Fund. This funding is inclusive of £0.120m that funds the Policy, Pay and Reward team.

As noted earlier, substantial investment in IT&D and the Digital Strategy will be required and this will require step increases in financing costs and IT&D revenue budgets to be built into the council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy. This will cover necessary upgrades to the IT infrastructure, equipment replacement programmes, re-procurement of the Wide Area Network (The Link), funding for the digital development function, and licensing of major application suites (e.g. Office 365).

Expert advisory has been commissioned to determine the future of the council’s corporate information systems including the Financial System and the HR/Payroll system, including potential replacement. Both are over 10 years old and are nearing the end of their contract life. Capital, revenue and financing costs will be subject to an approved business case.

The recent decision by Orbis Partners to withdraw Finance, Business Operations and HROD services from the Orbis partnership will require additional investment to re-create sovereign functions in BHCC. The 2022/23 budget includes an estimated £0.700m additional costs due to the disaggregation of integrated services, sharing of unachieved Orbis Business Plan savings, and other losses of economy of scale.

Supporting the Council’s Priorities

Finance & Resources services support and facilitate other services to deliver against the 6 corporate priorities and also contribute to the aim of being a well-run council that plans and manages services effectively at both a strategic and operational level. Helping the council to develop robust financial strategies, workforce plans, digital customer strategies, and effective welfare reform responses is critical to maintaining sustainable, financially resilient and accessible council services.

A key determinant of the demands placed on Finance & Resources is therefore the level of change experienced across the organisation. This has been and is at unprecedented levels due to the cumulative effect of the growing financial challenges in local government requiring ever greater innovation in everything from digital services to corporate debt management to financing strategies that help resources and services go further. The key Corporate Plan objectives concerning Housing, Carbon Net Zero and equality also drive increased support requirements. This creates a tension between the need to provide cost effective support functions while ensuring that the council and its services have the support to make sound business judgements and decisions that minimise legal, financial, employment, equality, health & safety, governance, internal control and other risks. Evidence of growing risks and poor mitigation of risks, as seen elsewhere, usually leads to reputational issues and ultimately service delivery failure as well as external audit and other scrutiny or challenge. 

The welfare agenda is also a major part of the directorate’s work at all levels and becoming increasingly complex, leading to a fundamental re-think of how to provide debt prevention and responses to welfare reform impacts to maximise their strategic and operational impact. This has become particularly apparent during the pandemic which has inevitably exacerbated inequality but has resulted in a very effective welfare and emergency assistance response supported by the Revenues & Benefits Service and other professionals.

The pandemic has shown the value-added benefit that all of these services can bring as many services would have been unable to operate or support residents or businesses without their support, for example:

· IT & Digital support to develop critical digital application portals and on-line services;

· Procurement urgently sourcing bona fide PPE and advising on Supplier Relief negotiations;

· Audit advising on a very large number of internal control and process changes to enable wholesale remote working and remote authorisation across services;

· Business Operations paying suppliers immediately (zero-day terms) and creating new payrolls for Repairs & Maintenance and the Museums Trust;

· Finance advising and reporting on strategies for managing pandemic costs in the short and medium term, including ongoing development of the General Fund Medium Term Financial Strategy and annual budget proposals for the HRA, Schools and the General Fund;

· HR supporting services to deploy staff, claim furlough, and keep staff safe at home and at work. HR will also play a key role in reviewing the potential longer term changes, ‘Future Ways of Working’, that will follow to ensure that opportunities to become a more flexible organisation are identified; and

· Revenues & Benefits processing £millions of business grants, hardship funds, discretionary funds, emergency assistance funds, personal support payments and vouchers, as well as keeping the money coming in from Council Tax and Business Rates.

These examples demonstrate that these services are integral to front line delivery and work best when operating as a trusted strategic business partner as part of both corporate and directorate management teams’ roles in developing strategic responses and solutions for delivery.

A city to call home

· The directorate will play a key role in reviewing potential re-financing options for Seaside Homes as well as supporting financial modelling and financing strategies for a wide range of initiatives including Home Purchase, New Homes for Neighbourhoods, the Housing Joint Venture and other estate regeneration and emergency and temporary accommodation schemes.

A City Working for All

· Through procurement, ensuring that the City Council's spending power is used as far as possible to procure local services and where possible change the way the council outsources services to assist small local suppliers to bid, as well as considering the option of bringing services in house if this can increase social value.

· Embed policies and practice concerning Social Value and Community Wealth Building to increase Social Value across all contracts.

A Stronger City

· The people strategy for the organisation is delivered through ‘Our People Promise’ led by HROD. This programme is designed to ensure we have an engaged and motivated workforce who are able to deliver their best to the city enable all priorities to be supported. As a series of 5 commitments, it underpins HROD’s work in terms of wellbeing, equalities, development, reward and engagement.

· HROD also manages the Fair and Inclusive Action Plan (FIAP) which supports the organisation to become reflective of the community, and to improve the experience of all staff. During 2020 and 2021 this work has increased in profile and importance as a result of the impacts of Covid-19 and the black lives matter movement.

· Supporting the delivery of the council’s Anti-Racism Strategy by reflecting findings and actions across all HR policies and practice from recruitment to managing conduct.

· Actively supporting the corporate aim of diversifying the workforce at all levels, recruiting and retaining staff from all of the city's communities.

· Supporting the organisation to have a reward framework in place that enables successful recruitment and retention of staff while ensuring a fair and transparent system.

· The HROD service takes a lead in managing industrial relations, ensuring issues are dealt with fairly and transparently, and where necessary supporting the resolution of disputes.

· Supporting the organisation to ensure it fulfils its legal and moral health & safety responsibilities to provide a safe working environment where staff are supported to be happy and well.

· Providing a comprehensive learning and development offer that supports employees through from induction to planning for retirement. The offer also supports the culture change of the organisation, and in particular the work to ensure the council is fairer and more inclusive.

A growing and learning city

· The directorate provides a wide range of traded services to schools, from payroll to health & safety advice, to help them manage and administer a safe and effective school environment.

· Finance plays a key role in working with the Schools Forum and Schools Block Working Group to develop the annual Schools Budget across the 4 blocks of the Dedicated Schools Grant.

A Sustainable City

· Enable the successful delivery of digital improvement projects and programmes through the co-design and co-delivery of underpinning technologies, platforms and services in IT&D to support services in delivering corporate priorities.

· Develop a scalable and resilient IT&D technical architecture which provides a secure, highly available platform for business services.

· Exploring alternative financing options for low or zero carbon initiatives through the government’s emerging Green Investment proposals as well as local financing options and other viable business cases.

· Assisting in the development of a 5-Year Capital Investment Programme that supports the council’s priorities including Housing, Sustainable Transport and Zero Carbon schemes, Regeneration & Employment, Schools & Learning, and IT & Digital.

A Heathy and Caring City

· Continue to respond to the impact of welfare reforms and universal credit on an operational level including implementation of a Welfare Framework redesign including researching and recommending a service design that incorporates the council’s long term intentions around the response to welfare reform. This will be reflected in core budgets and will evolve the council’s Welfare Reform response into an ongoing framework for Welfare Support and economic wellbeing, bringing services together as appropriate.

· Identify ways to increase support for those struggling to afford the cost of housing. This will include making full use of discretionary payments.

· Examine the impacts of poverty on individuals and communities and deliver an action plan to make life fairer for those affected by poverty and the consequences of living in poverty.

· Investigate and recommend a design for Council Tax Reduction (CTR) for implementation in 2022/23 that makes the scheme simpler and addresses incompatibilities with the Universal Credit model and the consequent impact on collection.

Service Area					Savings Detail
Section	Service Area	Gross budget 2021/22	Net budget 2021/22	FTEs 2021/22	Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks	EIA No	Savings Proposals  2022/23
		£'000	£'000	FTE			£'000
FINANCE & RESOURCES
ACCROSS DIRECTORATE
All staffing budgets	All Staffing budgets	0	0	0.0	Increase to the staff turnover allowance to reflect the vacancy position across all non-Orbis services (HR, Finance, Business Operations).		150
Across Directorate Total		0	0	0			150
FINANCE (MOBO)
FINANCE MOBO	Cost of the Executive Director Finance & Resources and non Orbis running costs of the Finance service (External Audit fees, printing, postage, computers etc.) netted off by £58k internal income re costs recharged to other services.	378	322	2.0	The Executive Director Finance & Resources post is vacant and the saving from this post will be taken into account in the Senior Management restructure proposals. No other savings opportunities have been identified on Finance MOBO budgets, the largest element of which is external audit fees which are expected to increase significantly.		0
Finance (Mobo) Total		378	322	2.0			0
HR & ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (MOBO)
HR & OD - MOBO	Social Care training, Trade Union support and non Orbis running costs such as postage, printing, computers etc.	917	895	10.8	No savings opportunities identified. There are pressures on Trade Union facilities time budgets and social care training budgets support statutory training requirements.		0
HR & Organisational Development (Mobo) Total		917	895	10.8			0
IT & D (MOBO)
IT&D - MOBO	Non Orbis running costs (mostly IT&D contracts) netted off by £1.0m of internal income re costs recharged to capital projects and other services.	3,652	3,479	2.4	Step increases in the budget have had to be built into the MTFS to cover financing costs of capital investment in new systems, devices, networks, security, data centres (Windows 10) and digital technologies.		0
IT & D (Mobo) Total		3,652	3,479	2.4			0
PROCUREMENT (MOBO)
Procurement - MOBO	Non Orbis running costs (printing, postage, computers etc.) netted off by £445k of internal income from the Modernisation Fund and Public Health.	(336)	(336)	0.0	This income budget reflects short term Modernisation Fund support for Procurement & Contract Management staffing and improvements.		0
Procurement (Mobo) Total		(336)	(336)	0.0			0
BUSINESS OPERATIONS (MOBO)
Business Operations - MOBO	Non Orbis running costs (postages, computers etc.) netted off by £252k of internal income re costs recharged to other services.	(85)	(85)	4.0	Any increase in recharges (e.g. of banking charges) to other services simply increases costs elsewhere in the council. Charges are therefore set to recoup costs only.		0
Business Operations (Mobo) Total		(85)	(85)	4.0			0
REVENUES & BENEFITS (MOBO)
Revenues & Benefits	Administration of Housing Benefits, Council Tax, Council Tax Reduction awards and management of Welfare Support (Hardship) & Rights services.	7,519	4,707	166.8	This service had substantial savings targets in the previous two years but this was partly deferred to 2022/23 (through one-off funding) to recognise the significant number of additional services provided in response to the pandemic and, significantly, the further delay to the transfer of caseload to Universal Credit (DWP) on which savings are predicated. The service is undergoing restructuring currently and will therefore concentrate on delivering the deferred 2021/22 saving of £0.5m.		0
Revenues & Benefits (Mobo) Total		7,519	4,707	166.8			0
CONTRIBUTION TO ORBIS
Orbis Shared Services Partnership (This budget/service represents BHCC’s share of the contribution to Orbis Shared Services in accordance with the Inter-Authority Agreement)	This service area represents Orbis partnership services including: Finance, HROD, Procurement, IT&D, and Business Operations.	10,945	10,945	309.5	This budget has yet to be reduced to reflect Finance, HR & OD, and Business Operations services being withdrawn from Orbis This will be completed when the final disaggregation of budgets/contributions for the services remaining in Orbis are agreed. No savings opportunities are identified because there are likely to be significant budget pressures created by the withdrawal of services, particularly HROD and Business Operations, due to the unravelling of integrated posts, loss of economies of scale, and due to the increased demands on BHCC services. The focus will therefore be on managing down pressures created by disaggregation of Orbis and attempting to minimise these as far as possible. With regard to services remaining within Orbis (IT&D, Procurement, Internal Audit, Treasury Management & Taxation, and Insurance), no savings opportunities have been identified for 2022/23 and the Orbis Partners have stated that further savings cannot be delivered until at least 2023/24 when a revised Business Plan may identify further opportunities.		0
Contribution To Orbis Total		10,945	10,945	309.5			0
CORPORATE SERVICES
Financing Costs	Debt and investment interest	13,538	9,536	0.0	Review of the minimum Revenue Provision assumptions to reflect the regular reprofiling of capital investment funded from borrowing. This is expected to be an achievable level of reduction over the MTFS period but will need to be kept under review.		250
Insurance	Premiums & Excesses/deductibles/self insurance	3,127	3,127	0.0	No savings opportunities identified due to rising premiums and increased property claims likely to require increased funding over the MTFS period.		0
Contingency & Risk Provisions	Risk Provisions & other contingency items	1,295	1,295	0.0	Review of the business rates appeals provisions in light of the latest data for the Check-Challenge-Appeal process. This should result in the release of both one-off resources and recurrent income. Risk: The risk is that the appeals provision becomes inadequate to accommodate future reductions (successful appeals) causing increased budget pressures/gaps in the future.		250
Corporate Pension Costs	Corporate Pension Costs - historic retirement decisions	2,313	2,313	0.0	Expected reduction in these pension costs due to an ongoing fall in number of beneficiaries as time passes. The majority of the decisions were made at least 25 years ago.		75
Levies & Precepts	Levies & Precepts including: Sussex Inshore Fisheries & Conservation Area, Environment Agency and Enclosure Committees	215	215	0.0	No savings opportunities identified. Levies are set by relevant public bodies.		0
Unringfenced Grants	Unringfenced grants including: S31 Business Rates Retention (BRR) Scheme, New Homes Bonus, Education Services, PFI Grants and Housing Benefit Admin Grants.	0	(41,766)	0.0			0
Corporate Debt Management	Debt management practices across the whole council	n/a	n/a	n/a	Improvement to debt management across all services focussing on raising debts more quickly and capturing better invoice information to aid recovery actions, resulting in lower bad debt provisions. This is a corporate saving and will therefore need close monitoring to ensure it is being achieved in practice and is allocated where collection is improved.		250
Corporate Services Total		20,488	(25,280)	0			825
Finance & Resources and Corporate Services Total		43,478	(5,353)	495.5			975

Strategy, Governance & Law Directorate

Service Context

Strategy, Governance & Law’s purpose and mission is to help the council in setting its strategy and priorities, enabling delivery of those priorities and monitoring performance. It also supports the democratic process in terms of elections and decision-making. It has a significant element of delivering front line services through Life Events (registrars, bereavement services and local land charges).

The broad strategy adopted to identify savings has focused on the following:

1. Priority and risk based approach- prioritising the deployment of resources into high priority, high risk areas and reducing input from lower priority and lower risk areas

2. Increasing income both from fees and charges and also working for external organisations

3. Further digitisation and automation of services

4. Increasing move from “excellent” towards “good enough” delivery of services

A more specific description of services and the budget strategy for savings for each service area is set out below.

Legal Services (net budget £1.663m)

Service context

· Provides legal advice and representation across all of the Council’s functions as well as the Monitoring Officer function.

· Supports adult and children’s safeguarding functions, where there is a significant pressure nationally in relation to the volume of Court proceedings.

· Generates approximately £550k per annum in external income through traded services to other public bodies.

· Supports the good governance of the Council through advice to Committees and manages the investigation and reporting of complaints under the Code of Conduct for Members

· Achieves efficiencies through economies of scale through membership of a shared services Partnership, Orbis Public Law,

Direction of Travel

· Continued focus on increasing external income streams including renewal of contract to provide legal work for East Sussex Fire and Rescue Service and pursuit of new income streams from other authorities, such as SCC (property) and WSCC (childcare);

· Improve efficiency through reviewing processes and using new technology, such as digital sealing and signing of documents and Contracts Express software;

· Invest in new case management system to secure ongoing ability to work remotely, efficiently and sustainably;

· Recruit new trainees and apprentice to mitigate the challenges of recruiting qualified staff;

· Ongoing collaboration with Orbis Public Law to drive efficiencies, such as joint procurement of online library and case management systems, joint training and a joint framework agreement for external legal advice.

Budget Strategy- Areas of Focus for Savings

· Continued review of demand management options (such as restricting legal involvement to more complex or high risk issues and automating processes wherever possible.) 

· Increase in income from external work.  Bidding for new work has to carefully balance the value of the income generated with the potential impact on capacity to support the council. External work is currently undertaken for East Sussex Fire Authority, the LEP, SCC, BHCC schools, WSCC, the CCG and a number of Districts and Boroughs.

Areas of pressure

• Legal Services is struggling to recruit qualified staff into new roles. We have been unable to recruit to a number of lawyer roles. Pay is the issue, exacerbated by local competition (eg the Pensions Regulator) and the availability of remote working which enables staff to take up higher paid roles whilst staying local;
• The proposed changes to the governance of LEPs creates a risk to the continued income from the legal work to support the LEP as Accountable Body (£115k income at risk)
• There is an increase in volume and complexity of standards cases for investigation which we are unable to process within our agreed timescales and procedure;
• The backlog in Court Hearings caused by the pandemic is continuing to cause pressure on our safeguarding and litigation teams due to the high numbers of new cases starting without existing cases finishing.

Democratic and Civic Office Services (net budget £1.777m – including Members Allowances)

Service

This is a centralised service that provides support to Members generally. It is responsible for the co-ordination and administration of the democratic decision-making process, ensuring that statutory requirements are met. The Democratic Services team works closely with the legal and communications teams to maintain the transparency and accountability of the committee system.

The Democratic Services Team is also responsible for

· The co-ordination of Member training & development,

· Administering of School Appeals, which can range from 300-500+ in a year

· The Members’ Allowances Scheme and support to the Independent Remuneration Panel

· The Brighton Fund which provides small one-off funding allocations to support Brighton and Hove residents

The Civic Office forms part of the Democratic Services Team and is responsible for the co-ordination and support to the Mayor, ensuring that all Civic engagements in the City and the county are managed effectively.

Budget Strategy- Areas of Focus for Savings

· Review Ward Budgets

· Review web cast provision with view to in-house option or ceasing the service completely

· Review Members’ allowances to ensure the scheme for 2023-2027 is agreed prior to the 2023 elections so as to inform potential candidates

· Service redesign for the Democratic and Civic Offices to increase efficiencies

· Reducing administrative costs with less reliance on paper and more effective use of electronic agendas and the report management system

Policy & Partnerships (net budget £0.624m)

Service

This includes the Policy, Partnerships and Scrutiny teams. The partnership service is part funded by partners in the City and supports Brighton & Hove Connected as well as a number of initiatives in co-ordination with partners in the city. The main areas of service include the following:

· The Policy function leads on the creation and implementation of the Corporate Plan; enhancing organisational awareness of key policy objectives, and guiding and supporting the development and implementation of key strategies, such as the Economic Strategy, Housing strategy, Transport strategy, City Plan development etc. The PPS team enables the development of a coherent policy framework to realise the ambitions of the administration going forward

· The policy and partnerships teams have a leading role in the development of Carbon Neutral 2030 strategy, providing programme management, leadership support and ongoing policy / strategy advice to teams across the council and partner organisations

· PPS acts as a liaison between the Administration and officers, both individually and through Policy chairs Board, MWGs, Week Ahead meeting etc.

· We provide ongoing Policy Support to directorates, ensuring awareness of corporate policy objectives and coordination with specific policy initiatives within directorates and through the revived Corporate Policy Network.

· We coordinate the council’s work around Brexit.

· The partnership function is responsible for City wide engagement, relationship management and partnership development, support and delivery including the City Management Board, Brighton and Hove Connected and the range of thematic partnerships across the city. In addition, the team leads on specific projects as required, including Climate assembly, Civic leadership programme etc.

· The Scrutiny function leads on the statutory health scrutiny function (HOSC) and currently provides business management support to HWB, including developing and implementing review of HWB

Budget Strategy- Areas of Focus for Savings

· It is proposed to generate efficiencies/ additional income by continuing to support the  H&WB work.

· Further Reduction in training and development budget.

· Deletion of Vacant PPS Part time post to deliver require savings

Life Events (net budget £0.068m – consisting of gross expenditure of £3.513m and income of £3.445m)

The service

This includes Electoral Services, Local Land Charges, Registration and Bereavement Services. As the net budget figures indicate, it is largely funded from income generated from fees and charges. The service has delivered significant savings over previous years and has experienced some real challenges.  The current pandemic has had a major impact on service delivery and income generation, for both the Registration Service, and Bereavement Services.  The services are starting to recover from the pandemic impact, but slowly.  Registration Services specifically, has seen central government direct the suspension of marriage and civil partnership ceremonies, leading to significant shortfalls in income for a large part of 2020/21, as we went through the lockdown periods. Whilst services are returning to some form of normality there remain uncertainties and this will inevitably impact on income projections for the remainder of the financial year 21/22.  Electoral Services managed and delivered a safe PCC election taking into account all additional covid safety measures.  Team Leaders have acted into shared manager roles covering senior levels in both Bereavement Services and Registration Services during the unprecedented pandemic times.     Competition from alternative providers continues to influence fees and charges pricing structures, and a recent Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) review of costs of funerals nationally, will influence LAs abilities to set fees, in Bereavement Services.

Budget Strategy – area of focus for savings

· The Life Events budget is largely funded through income from fees and charges. The service will continue to set fees and charges at a level that maximises income within the law. We would do this in a competitive manner – ensuring that an evidence-based approach that considers competitors pricing and uptake of services is used when increasing or holding charges. 

· Across Life Events, modernisation projects and the optimisation of digital technology will continue to take place to bring about efficiencies and related savings. These include the continued expansion of e-communications within electoral registration and the digitalisation of documentation within Bereavement Services as the service continues to work with a new software provider to implement a new cloud-based software system. 

· The Coroner’s service, administered by the Local Authority, is currently being reviewed following discussions with the Chief Coroner’s Office, and the retirement of the Senior Coroner for the City of Brighton & Hove.  A merger of the service with neighbouring West Sussex County Council is the direction of travel which the Chief Coroner’s Officer have advised us to explore, and there are current interim arrangements in place for the Senior Coroner in West Sussex to be Acting Senior Coroner for the City of Brighton & Hove.  A consultation options paper is being drafted for consideration and there is ongoing work with the Chief Coroner’s Office and Ministry of Justice, to establish the most appropriate way forward.

· The provisional proposals include:

o Bereavement Services;  a review of fees and changes, digitisation of services

o Registrars:  review of fees and charges and prioritisation of services that can be delivered as the Registration Service recovers from the pandemic period where various elements of the service offer were suspended by central government. 

o Local Land Charges;  a review of fees and charges.

o Elections and Local Land Charges- consolidation of postal and printing arrangements, flexible staffing re design

Areas of pressure;

Ongoing uncertainty about impacts of Covid19 are significant to both the Bereavement Service and the Registration Service in terms of delivering services and maximising income.  A continued reduction in the death rate in the city , despite the pandemic pressures continues to impact on income targets.  Local Land Charges income needs careful monitoring due to impacts of Covid19 on the housing market, affecting property search no’s.

Performance, Improvement & Programme Management (net budget £0.626m)

Service

The role of this service is to drive continuous improvement and efficiency across the organisation to support strong corporate governance, minimise the adverse impact of financial challenges on customers, avoid costly mistakes and better protect council reputation. It also has statutory responsibility for ensuring objective resolution of customer dissatisfaction and taking the strategic lead in improving customer experience across the organisation through effective customer insight.

The Customer Feedback team processes approx. 2,000 Stage 1 complaints and 1,000 compliments, investigates approx. 200 Stage 2 complaints and assists the Ombudsman with approx. 100 cases. The performance team drives the corporate and directorate planning and monitoring processes. There are currently 6 Directorate Plans, and 69 Corporate Key Performance Indicators. The service also drives regular risk reviews, there are currently 13 strategic and 25 directorate risks. The service is responsible for production of the statutory Annual Governance Statement evidencing effectiveness of corporate governance. A number of modernisation projects and programmes across the organisation in all directorates are managed from the Corporate Programme Management Office which is funded largely from one-off modernisation funding. There are currently approx. 20 corporate projects/programmes

Budget Strategy-Areas of focus for savings

It is proposed to review the service based on priorities. Reduced resources within the Performance, Improvement & Programmes team would result in reduced capacity to drive continuous improvement and efficiency across the organisation and reduced capacity for ensuring sound corporate governance. The team will therefore need to prioritise areas of focus and optimise areas where corporate oversight will be absolutely necessary.

Corporate Communications (net Budget £0.568m)

From crafting engaging content, to project managing campaigns that help change behaviors, Brighton & Hove City Council’s award-winning Communications Team provides a fully integrated service that covers:

• Campaigns, marketing, public relations, film-making and copywriting. Turning complex messages into impactful content that reaches target audiences through innovative Campaign Plans clearly aligned to service, policy or corporate objectives;

• Internal communications; organizational culture. Building and supporting a network of ambassadors who can amplify our messages from the inside out;

• Media relations. Supporting staff and councillors by acting as a central hub for proactive and reactive media relations relating to the council’s corporate activities. Generating compelling news stories across newspapers, TV and radio, providing responses to media enquiries, managing requests for interviews, statements and comments and putting the story straight when misrepresented;

• Graphic design and branding. Managing the council’s identity so that our 700+ services are clearly recognized, creating powerful, visual, branded content that stands out;

• Consultation, engagement and public affairs. Designing interactive and creative processes which gather a true understanding of peoples’ needs, enabling services to work towards solutions based on those needs;

• Digital communications. Communicating online; building a strong presence in a city that thrives on digital media. Using social media platforms as an appropriate and effective way to connect with communities, promote online services, gather real-time insights and respond to comments and complaints.
• Emergency and crisis communications. Supporting the council and the city in the immediate aftermath of a significant incident and in the recovery stages.

Budget Strategy – area of focus for savings

The budget position is challenging as demand for accessible, inclusive and targeted communications increases across many channels. 

A service review and redesign is the only viable option to make the savings asked. The redesign will focus on maintaining high quality of communications whilst supporting the delivery of the council’s most important strategic priorities. Other benefits of the service redesign include:

• New service design meets the lower salaries budget
• Salaries are competitive with South East councils – addressing recruitment issues
• All pay grading and structural issues are resolved
• Strategic leads for channels/functions to ensure clear ownership and improved quality
• New O365 software will support agile working and triaging communications asks alongside planned campaign work
• Dedicated post for Consultation and Public Affairs to forge closer links with the Policy Team
• Creation of one new entry level position
• Change in portfolio alignment towards our democratic governance and policy rather than directorate/service allowing better prioritisation
• Helps directorates to consider communications needs when drafting their annual Directorate and Service plans

Service Area					Savings Detail
Section	Service Area	Gross budget 2021/22	Net budget 2021/22	FTEs 2021/22	Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks	EIA No.	Savings Proposals  2022/23
		£'000	£'000	FTE			£'000
STRATEGY, GOVERNANCE & LAW
CORPORATE POLICY
Chief Executive	Chief Executive	284	284	2.0	Small reduction in Corporate Training budget		4
Policy, Partnership & Scrutiny (PPS)	Policy, Partnership & Scrutiny including Leadership Support	483	377	9.5	Savings target £24k. Currently carrying PT vacancy, achieving saving circa £22k. This would still require identification of further £2k to meet savings. This is a one off opportunity, and the following year will result in staffing reductions to meet savings target. RISK – Staffing levels are already at a minimum and maintaining a satisfactory service across all areas of Policy, Partnerships and Scrutiny at these staffing levels may not be possible.  By comparison, staffing levels have reduced from 15 in 2012 to 6 currently, a staffing reduction of 60%. Total net budget of £0.377m also includes £55k is ringfenced for LGA subscription, leaving a total of £0.322m to deliver all 3 service areas.	14	24
Corporate Policy Total		767	661	11.5			28
LEGAL SERVICES
Legal Services	Legal Services (Note: income of £0.066m from services to schools has been netted off with gross budget).	1,776	1,447	32.1	Proposal: Use external income generated from undertaking legal work for the LEP (£55k) and voluntary reduction in hours (15k). Strategy: Avoids compulsory redundancies and maintains sufficient service levels. Delivery risk: LEP agreement is for 3 years from 1st April 2021 and therefore this additional income cannot be guaranteed beyond that date and may also be at risk before then subject to the outcome of the LEP Review by government (expected Jan 2022).	15	70
Safeguarding & Advice (Children & Adults)	Child protection and Adult safeguarding legal proceedings and advice	246	206	16.3	Proposal: Voluntary reduction in hours (£15k) and replacement of 1 x lawyer with 1 x trainee solicitor (£20k). This strategy  maintains sufficient service and resolves the difficulty in recruiting qualified legal staff. Delivery risk: Volume of work in this area continues to be exceptionally high and there will be an impact on the pace and ability to manage complex matters in-house, which may have an impact on services in terms of increased cost on external spend.		34
Legal Services Total		2,022	1,653	48.4			104
DEMOCRATIC & CIVIC OFFICE SERVICES
Democratic Services	Democratic Services	672	604	11.7	Overall target £45k. Proposal: Re-alignment of staffing budgets and service redesign, taking into account the deletion of a vacant post previously used to support web-casting. Strategy: Avoids any potential compulsory redundancies and enables sufficient resources to be maintained to support the web-casting service offered by the premises team. Delivery risk: The redesign does not provide for the service pressure identified in supporting the democratic process which has been covered for 2021/22 with the goodwill of the team initially and from September with the appointment of a temporary DSO for 6-months. However, if the number of meetings and demand on the team continues for 2022/23 it is unlikely that without an additional permanent DSO that the level of service can be sustained.	16	39
Civic Office	Civic Office	148	124	3.4	Proposal: Reduction of supplies & services budget. Strategy: To prevent any redundancies, although it will impact on the level of support offered for civic events. Delivery risk: There will be a need to manage the expectations placed on the Civic Office in relation to the support and resources offered for civic events.	16	6
Members	Members Allowances	1,027	1,027
Democratic & Civic Office Services Total		1,847	1,755	15			45
LIFE EVENTS
Life Events	Bereavement Services	2,153	210	23.4	A review of Bereavement and Coroner's services, including an analysis of fees and charges levels and also service costs.  The fees and charges review takes into account business knowledge and benchmarking information to ensure the service can remain competitive.  The Coroner's service will also need to be appraised, following the retirement of the postholder.	17	70
Life Events	Registrars	698	(246)	17.3	Propose some fees and charges increases where business knowledge and benchmarking information suggests the service can remain competitive.   Additionally, propose a "freeze" of some fees, where business knowledge suggests income may be at risk, if increased.	18	10
Life Events	Elections and Local Land Charges	684	49	11.7	1.  Electoral Services redesign of service, with no individuals placed at risk due to current unfilled vacancies.   Savings to be apportioned to election and non-election years, with non-election years providing higher savings opportunities, with efficiencies through leaner administration processes.  (canvassing and printing costs) Estimated at £10k .                                                                                             2.  Local Land Charges proposals to increase fees where business knowledge suggests it's possible, and requests made to "freeze" fees where income may be placed at risk if fees are increased further. Estimated at £10k.  Part of the property search process, including compilation of data from our local property register, transfers to HMLR.	19	20
Life Events Total		3,535	13	52.4			100
PERFORMANCE, IMPROVEMENT & PROGRAMMES
Performance, Improvement & Programmes (Permanent Budget)	Customer Experience and Customer Feedback, Corporate Performance, Risk Management and Corporate Governance	589	589	11.1	Reduced support for risk management and corporate governance. As a result there is a risk that council could make a costly mistake, reputation may get adversely affected or not having the right information needed for effective decision making and prioritisation of deployment of resources.	20	33
Programme Management Office (Temporary funding from internal modernisation fund)	Corporate Programme Management Office – overall oversight of modernisation governance and managing projects and programmes that are of corporate significance.	0	0	8.0
Performance, Improvement & Programmes Total		589	589	19.1			33
COMMUNICATIONS
Communications	Communications	592	573	14.8	While the savings figure for Communications Team in 22/23 is £33k, there is also the need to cut an additional £80k which is short term pressure funding in 2021/22 and £30k Covid pressure funding which will drop out from the budget in 2022/23, making a total of £143k to find. Consultation on a service redesign will begin in Jan 2022 to meet this budget reduction. The current business partnering structure, with support for each DMT will end. Work will instead have to be prioritised in a different way and aligned with council priorities and policy. Extra work generated through operational activity may have to be commissioned externally at extra cost to the council and services, and with a longer lead in time needed. Services will need to fund additional communications work.	21	33
Communications	Graphic Design Team (Note: income of £0.133m from other council services has been netted off within gross budget).	(12)	(8)	2.7
Communications Total		580	565	17.5			33
Strategy, Governance & Law Total		9,340	5,236	164.0			343