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Brighton & Hove City Council

 

Budget Book 2022/23

 

&

 

Medium Term Financial Strategy

 

2022/23 to 2025/26


Table of Contents

Revenue Budget Summary. 3

2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown. 3

2022/23 BUDGET - Budget changes from 2021/22 to 2022/23. 4

2022/23 Revenue Budget – Gross Budget to Net Budget. 5

Specific Government Grants 2022/23. 6

Investment to support Corporate Plan Commitments and Service Pressures 2022/23. 8

Summary of Directorate Budget Plan. 11

Summary of Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27. 12

Families, Children & Learning Directorate. 14

Families, Children & Learning Budget Summary. 19

Families, Children & Learning 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown. 19

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown. 20

Families, Children & Learning Directorate Budget Plan. 21

Families, Children & Learning Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27. 26

Health and Adult Social Care Directorate. 27

Health & Adult Social Care Budget Summary. 32

Health & Adult Social Care 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown. 32

Health & Adult Social Care Directorate Budget Plan. 33

Health & Adult Social Care Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27. 37

Economy, Environment & Culture Directorate. 38

Economy, Environment & Culture Budget Summary. 44

Economy, Environment & Culture 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown. 45

Economy, Environment & Culture Directorate Budget Plan. 47

Economy, Environment & Culture Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27. 52

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Directorate. 55

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Budget Summary. 61

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown. 61

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown. 62

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Directorate Budget Plan. 63

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities (GF) Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27. 64

Housing Revenue Account Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27. 65

Finance & Resources Directorate. 66

Finance & Resources Budget Summary. 73

Finance & Resources 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown. 74

Centrally Managed Budgets 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown. 75

Finance & Resources and Centrally Managed Budgets Directorate Budget Plan. 75

Finance & Resources Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27. 78

Strategy, Governance & Law Directorate. 79

Strategy, Governance & Law Budget Summary. 84

Strategy, Governance & Law 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown. 85

Strategy Governance & Law Directorate Budget Plan. 86

Strategy, Governance & Law Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27. 89

Summary of Reserves & Provisions. 90

Medium Term Financial Strategy 2022/23 to 2025/26. 92

Glossary of Terms. 96

 


Revenue Budget Summary

2021/22 Net Expenditure / (Income)

 

2022/23 Budget

2022/23 Budgeted Contracted Staff

Service Area

Expenditure

Income

Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

FTE

119.842

Families, Children & Learning

122.266

(19.517)

102.749

22.651

125.400

850.5

78.024

Health & Adult Social Care

126.626

(54.923)

71.703

4.328

76.031

584.1

64.121

Economy, Environment & Culture

109.260

(70.422)

38.838

25.760

64.598

910.0

23.582

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities

49.454

(25.807)

23.647

4.041

27.688

285.7

7.076

Finance & Resources

138.888

(116.764)

22.124

(14.164)

7.960

495.5

1.232

Strategy, Governance & Law

9.503

(4.148)

5.355

(4.498)

0.857

158.2

293.877

Service Areas Total

555.998

(291.582)

264.416

38.118

302.534

3,284.0

(109.070)

Centrally Managed Budgets

17.667

(77.669)

(60.002)

(42.679)

(102.681)

0.0

184.807

General Fund Total

573.664

(369.250)

204.414

(4.561)

199.853

3,284.0

 -

Dedicated Schools Grant Funded (DSG)

212.042

(213.380)

(1.338)

1.338

 -

102.8

 -

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

60.527

(63.750)

(3.223)

3.223

 -

501.1

184.807

BHCC Revenue Total

846.233

(646.380)

199.853

 -

199.853

3,887.9


2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown

Service Description

Employee Expenditure

Other Expenditure

Total Expenditure

Income From Fees, Charges & Rents

Other Income

Government Grants

Total Income

Total Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Families, Children & Learning

43.728

78.538

122.266

(4.520)

(6.514)

(8.483)

(19.517)

102.749

22.651

125.400

Health & Adult Social Care

25.789

100.837

126.626

(15.643)

(15.394)

(23.886)

(54.923)

71.703

4.328

76.031

Economy, Environment & Culture

37.231

72.029

109.260

(69.568)

(0.581)

(0.273)

(70.422)

38.838

25.760

64.598

Neighbourhoods, Communities & Housing

11.754

37.701

49.454

(14.457)

(1.309)

(10.041)

(25.807)

23.647

4.041

27.688

Finance & Resources

11.681

127.206

138.888

(3.766)

(0.962)

(112.036)

(116.764)

22.124

(14.164)

7.960

Strategy, Governance & Law

7.822

1.681

9.503

(3.748)

(0.378)

(0.022)

(4.148)

5.355

(4.498)

0.857

Service Areas Total

138.005

417.992

555.998

(111.702)

(25.138)

(154.741)

(291.582)

264.416

38.118

302.534

Centrally Managed Budgets

2.770

14.896

17.667

 -

(28.635)

(49.034)

(77.669)

(60.002)

(42.679)

(102.681)

General Fund Total

140.776

432.889

573.664

(111.702)

(53.773)

(203.775)

(369.250)

204.414

(4.561)

199.853

Dedicated Schools Grant Funded (DSG)

155.995

56.047

212.042

(1.340)

 -

(212.041)

(213.380)

(1.338)

1.338

 -

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

19.591

40.936

60.527

(63.663)

(0.086)

 -

(63.750)

(3.223)

3.223

 -

BHCC Revenue Total

316.361

529.872

846.233

(176.705)

(53.859)

(415.816)

(646.380)

199.853

 -

199.853


 

 

2022/23 BUDGET - Budget changes from 2021/22 to 2022/23

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2021/22 Revised Base

Internal Transfers

Reversals of One Off Allocations

Inflation

Service Pressures

 Commitments & Reinvestment

VFM & Other Savings

2022/23 Original Budget

Change Over Revised Base

Change Over Revised Base

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

%

Families, Children & Learning

97.412

0.053

(0.513)

1.876

5.165

1.508

(2.752)

102.749

5.337

5.48

Health & Adult Social Care

68.544

0.055

-

1.654

3.211

0.463

(2.224)

71.703

3.159

4.61

Economy, Environment & Culture

40.313

(0.100)

(3.775)

0.795

3.086

0.959

(2.440)

38.838

(1.475)

(3.66)

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities

23.806

0.020

(2.358)

0.590

3.008

0.530

(1.949)

23.647

(0.159)

(0.67)

Finance & Resources

20.108

0.033

(0.871)

0.327

1.459

1.218

(0.150)

22.124

2.016

10.03

Strategy, Governance & Law

5.563

-

(0.388)

0.077

0.392

0.189

(0.478)

5.355

(0.208)

(3.74)

Total Directorate Spending

255.746

 

(7.905)

5.319

16.321

4.867

(9.993)

264.416

8.670

3.39

Insurance

3.127

-

-

0.023

-

0.202

-

3.352

0.225

7.20

Financing Costs

9.643

-

-

-

0.644

(2.468)

-

7.819

(1.824)

(18.92)

Corporate VFM Savings

(0.095)

0.096

-

(0.001)

-

-

(0.250)

(0.250)

(0.155)

163.16

Contingency and Risk Provisions

1.201

(0.020)

(0.545)

0.025

-

2.479

-

3.140

1.939

161.45

Unringfenced grants income

(40.766)

(0.145)

2.968

-

-

(11.091)

-

(49.034)

(8.268)

20.28

Levies to External Bodies

0.215

-

-

0.004

-

-

-

0.219

0.004

1.86

Other Corporate Budgets

(2.003)

0.008

(0.043)

(0.087)

-

(0.111)

(0.075)

(2.311)

(0.308)

15.38

NET REVENUE EXPENDITURE

227.068

 

(5.525)

5.283

16.965

(6.122)

(10.318)

227.351

0.283

0.12

Contributions to/ from(-) reserves

(42.261)

-

40.440

-

-

(25.677)

-

(27.498)

14.763

(34.93)

BUDGET REQUIREMENT

184.807

 

34.915

5.283

16.965

(31.799)

(10.318)

199.853

15.046

8.14

Funded By:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Revenue Support Grant

6.666

 

 

 

 

 

 

6.877

0.211

3.17

Business Rates Local Share

60.559

 

 

 

 

 

 

52.362

(8.197)

(13.54)

Tariff Payment

(1.184)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(1.184)

-

-

Business Rates Levy payment

(0.098)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(0.140)

(0.042)

42.86

Business Rates Collection Fund surplus/(deficit)

(35.080)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(19.564)

15.516

(44.23)

Council Tax Collection Fund surplus/(deficit)

(1.970)

 

 

 

 

 

 

(2.150)

(0.180)

9.14

Council Tax

155.914

 

 

 

 

 

 

163.652

7.738

4.96

Total

184.807

 

 

 

 

 

 

199.853

15.046

8.14



2022/23 Revenue Budget Gross Budget to Net Budget2022/23 Revenue Budget – Gross Budget to Net Budget

Centrally Held (Corporate) Budgets
 (This includes Financing Costs and contributions to the Capital Programme)
 
  (£60.002)m
                

 

Other grants & Contributions
 £53.859m
 ,Contributions from NHS & Health Authorities
 £16.702m
 ,Other Grants & Contributions
 £37.157m
 Fees, charges & receipts
 £176.705m
 ,Less,Government
 Grants
 
  £415.816m
 ,Less,Equals,Housing Revenue Account Income
 £63.663m
 ,Parking Services Income
 £44.831m
 ,Other Fees, Charges & Receipts
 £68.211m
 ,Schools
 Funding
 
 £212.041m
 ,Housing Benefit Subsidy Grants
 
 £112.025m
 ,Other Specific
 Grants
 
 £91.750m
Net Budget
 (Total amount of Council spending that is directly financed from the Revenue Support Grant, Business Rates & Council Tax Receipts)
 £199.853m
 ,Net Service
 Spend
 
  £259.855m
Gross Budget
 (Total amount of money the Council spends on delivering its services to the community)
 £846.233m
Less
Note that the figures quoted above may include minor rounding differences.

 


Specific Government Grants 2022/23

Department

Grant

Budget 2022/23

£m

Families, Children & Learning

 

 

Education & Skills

DfE - LA PFI Revenue Payments

(2.390)

Education & Skills

DLUHC - Troubled Families

(0.933)

Education & Skills

DfE - Virtual school heads s31 grant

(0.059)

Education & Skills

DfE - ESFA School Improvemnt Monitor Grant

(0.221)

Education & Skills

DfE - ESFA Adult Safeguarded Learning

(0.570)

Education & Skills

DfE - Early Years Professional Dev Fund

(0.042)

Education & Skills

DWP - Flexible Support Fund

(0.167)

Childrens Safeguarding & Care

DfE - Extended Personal Adviser Duty Imp

(0.039)

Childrens Safeguarding & Care

MoJ - Youth Justice Board General Funding

(0.257)

Childrens Safeguarding & Care

DHSC - Asylum Seekers

(3.201)

Childrens Safeguarding & Care

DfE - Staying Put Implementation Grant

(0.307)

Childrens Safeguarding & Care

YJB - Remand grant

(0.080)

Health, SEN & Disability

DLUHC - Independent Living Fund Grant

(0.217)

Families, Children & Learning Total

 

(8.483)

Health & Adult Social Care

 

 

Adult Social Care

DLUHC - Independent Living Fund Grant

(0.311)

Integrated Commissioning

DLUHC - Improved Better Care Fund

(1.733)

Public Health

DHSC - Ring-fenced Public Health Grant

(21.070)

Public Health

PHE - Innovation Fund

(0.090)

Public Health

PHE - Sec31 Drug treat. Crime & harm reduction 21-22

(0.519)

Public Health

PHE - Adult Weight Management Grant

(0.099)

Public Health

DHSC - PrEP Grant

(0.064)

Health & Adult Social Care Total

 

(23.886)

Economy, Environment & Culture

 

 

City Environmental Management

DEFRA - Natural England High Level Steward

(0.060)

Transport

DfT - Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG)

(0.173)

Transport

DfT - Cycle Training Grant

(0.040)

Economy, Environment & Culture Total

 

(0.273)

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities

 

 

Housing General Fund

DLUHC - Rough Sleepers Grant

(2.801)

Housing General Fund

DLUHC - Flexible Homeless Support Grant

(6.240)

Housing General Fund

DLUHC - New Burden Funding

(1.000)

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Total

 

(10.041)

Finance & Resources

 

 

Finance

ESFA - Apprenticeship Service Funding

(0.002)

HR & Organisational Development

ESFA - Apprenticeship Service Funding

(0.009)

Revenues & Benefits MOBO

DWP - HB Non-Subsidy Grants

(0.114)

Revenues & Benefits MOBO

DWP - Housing Benefit Rent Allowance Subs

(74.343)

Revenues & Benefits MOBO

DWP - Housing Benefit Rent Rebate Subsidy

(36.657)

Revenues & Benefits MOBO

DWP - Discretionary Housing Payment

(0.911)

Finance & Resources Total

 

(112.036)

Strategy, Governance & Law

 

 

Life Events

Office of National Statistics Grant

(0.004)

Life Events

CO -  IER funding

(0.018)

Strategy, Governance & Law Total

 

(0.022)

Centrally Managed Budgets

 

 

Centrally Managed Budgets

DfE - Extended Rights To Free Travel

(0.057)

Centrally Managed Budgets

DWP - Housing Benefit Admin Grant

(1.008)

Centrally Managed Budgets

DLUHC - New Homes Bonus Scheme Grant

(0.822)

Centrally Managed Budgets

DLUHC - Business Rates Retention S31 Grants

(20.394)

Centrally Managed Budgets

DLUHC - Council Tax Support Admin Subsidy

(0.349)

Centrally Managed Budgets

DLUHC - Improved Better Care Fund

(10.505)

Centrally Managed Budgets

DLUHC - PFI Grant

(3.003)

Centrally Managed Budgets

DHSC - Local Reform Community Voice Grant

(0.126)

Centrally Managed Budgets

DLUHC - Social Care Grant

(8.036)

Centrally Managed Budgets

DLUHC - Services Grant

(4.077)

Centrally Managed Budgets

DLUHC - Lower Tier Services Grant

(0.657)

Centrally Managed Budgets Total

 

(49.034)

General Fund Total

 

(203.775)

Dedicated Schools Grant Funded (DSG)

 

 

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)

DfE - Universal Infant Free School Meals

(1.882)

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)

DfE - Teachers Pension Grant

(7.017)

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)

DfE - Dedicated Schools Grant

(183.700)

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)

DfE - Pupil Premium Grant

(9.024)

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)

DfE - Teachers Pay Grant

(1.660)

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)

DfE - Funding for 6th Form Students

(3.046)

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)

DfE - Schools Supplimentary Grant

(5.712)

Dedicated Schools Grant Funded (DSG) Total

 

(212.041)

BHCC Total

 

(415.816)

 

Investment to support Corporate Plan Commitments and Service Pressures 2022/23

Priority

Proposed Corporate Plan Investments

Annual Revenue Investment 2022/23

Annual Revenue Investment 2023/24

One-off Revenue Support

Enabled Capital Investment 2022/23

Enabled Capital Investment 2023/24

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Housing

Provision for increased Temporary Accommodation

1.000

 

 

 

 

Continued investment in Housing First (after expiry of Contain Outbreak Management Funding in 2022/23)

 

0.138

 

 

 

Preparatory costs for creating a council-run not-for-profit lettings agency

 

 

0.075

 

 

NEW GENERAL FUND HOUSING INVESTMENTS

1.000

0.138

0.075

0.000

0.000

A City Working For All

Investment on eastern seafront/Madeira Terrace beautification

 

 

0.022

 

 

Seafront heritage lighting renewal programme

0.016

0.028

 

0.250

0.450

Victoria Fountain refurbishment

0.014

 

 

0.250

 

Increased investment in Public Toilet provision (above £2.7m already approved) to include Saltdean Undercliff

0.012

 

 

0.190

 

Prince Regent entrance works

0.008

 

 

0.070

 

Expand graffiti pilot and fund additional clean-up / clean-up week for 2022/23

0.050

 

 

 

 

Investment in 6 additional seasonal staff to manage sustainable weed removal

0.070

 

 

 

 

Investment in Planning Guidance for the Liveable Cities initiative

 

 

0.150

 

 

Investment to support Planning Reforms including provision of further design expertise

0.100

 

 

 

 

Development of a city-wide Strategic Transport Model and ongoing update costs

0.076

0.076

 

0.500

0.500

Anticipated one-off cost of Public Inquiries in 2022/23

 

 

0.050

 

 

Continuation of support for EU Settled Status refugees and migrants

 

 

0.070

 

 

NEW INVESTMENT TO SUPPPORT A WELL-RUN CITY

0.346

0.104

0.292

1.260

0.950

Climate Action & Sustainability

Warmer homes - extend capital investment programme into 2023/24

 

0.189

 

 

3.000

City Downland Estate - implementation and actions to develop the Whole Estate Plan (WEP)

0.100

 

 

 

 

Parks Infrastructure including boundary works, replacement trees and tree planting

0.025

0.063

 

0.400

1.000

Managing Ash and Elm Dieback safely to improve public spaces, including a co-ordinator post

 

 

0.600

 

 

Provision of funding for a Tree Preservation and Enforcement Officer

0.040

 

 

 

 

Investment to increase the supply of allotments

 

 

0.040

 

 

On-Street and Communal Bin infrastructure investment to improvement collection and recycling

 

0.056

 

 

0.500

Extension of the Tech Take back recycling scheme

 

 

0.068

 

 

Circular economy investment (promotion and awareness)

0.040

0.020

0.057

 

 

Food Waste *

 

 

 

 

 

Ongoing support for the School Streets initiative

0.067

 

 

 

 

Cycle Training - Bike it

 

 

0.027

 

 

Increased provision of Bike Hangers (self-financing capital investment)

0.000

 

 

0.500

 

Increased investment in the Carbon Neutral 2030 programme including:

0.597

0.398

 

7.500

6.500

-       Air Quality - Two automatic analyser stations and continued diffusion tube       monitoring.

-       Expanding liveable neighbourhoods.

-       Carbon reduction measures to operational buildings.

-       Items covered under the Sustainability Carbon Reduction Infrastructure Fund (SCRIF) programme.

NEW INVESTMENT TO SUPPORT CLIMATE ACTION & SUSTAINABILITY

0.869

0.726

0.792

8.400

11.000

A Growing & Learning City

Investment to manage the increase in Education, Health and Care Plans (Education Psychologists)

0.145

 

 

 

 

Investment in SEN Casework Officers due to increased Education, Health & Care Plans (EHCPs)

0.080

 

 

 

 

Youth Mental Health

 

 

0.025

 

 

Developing and embedding the Disadvantage Strategy and Early Help

 

 

0.050

 

 

NEW INVESTMENT TO SUPPORT A GROWING & LEARNING CITY

0.225

0.000

0.075

0.000

0.000

A Health & Caring City / A Stronger City

Investment to meet increased demand and costs for Adult Social Care – Physical Disability Age 18 - 64

1.846

 

 

 

 

Investment to meet increased demand and costs for Adult Social Care – Physical Disability Age 65+

0.882

 

 

 

 

Investment to meet increased demand and costs for Adult Social Care – Mental Health

0.043

 

 

 

 

Investment to meet increased demand and costs for Adult Learning Disability

1.805

 

 

 

 

Investment to maintain in-house Care Home provision

0.440

 

 

 

 

Investment to meet increased Children’s Disability Agency Placement and Children in Care costs

2.351

 

 

 

 

Increased funding to meet demands on the Home to School Transport Service

0.440

 

 

 

 

Investment in the Information, Advice & Assistance (IAA) Service (Children & Young People)

0.041

 

 

 

 

Preventive investment in Emotional Health & Mental Health Service (Staffing)

0.042

 

 

 

 

Strategic Lead for anti-racist social care

0.036

 

 

 

 

Funding to maintain Prevent Co-ordination following withdrawal of government funding

0.060

 

 

 

 

Investment for Information & Privacy Advisers to manage increased Subject Access Requests

0.100

 

 

 

 

Investment to enhance support and simplify the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS)

0.331

 

 

 

 

Enhanced support for the Council Tax Reduction Discretionary Fund

 

 

0.190

 

 

Continuation of the Welfare Reform Support Fund including the Local Discretionary Social Fund

 

 

0.180

 

 

Community wealth building/social value staff and member training

 

 

0.035

 

 

Business case development for victims of domestic abuse accommodation

 

 

0.010

 

 

Support for drink spiking tests

0.005

 

 

 

 

Pavilion and Mess Room refurbishment programme

0.016

0.063

 

0.250

1.000

NEW INVESTMENT TO SUPPORT A HEALTHY & CARING CITY

8.438

0.063

0.415

0.250

1.000

Corporate Pressures

Increased Housing General Fund management and staffing costs due to significantly increased demands on the service including Temporary and Emergency Accommodation, Housing First services, Health & Safety management, and substantially increased major Housing Investment programmes

0.175

 

 

 

 

Investment to maintain Procurement & Contract Management services following ending of 3-year Modernisation Fund support

0.220

 

 

 

 

Investment to maintain support functions following withdrawal of HROD and Business Operations from the Orbis Partnership arrangements

0.700

 

 

 

 

City parks and City Clean pay and grading increases following re-evaluation of roles and duties

0.750

 

 

 

 

Investment required to develop and implement the council's Data Governance Framework

0.070

 

 

 

 

Additional Democratic Services Officer to service the increased number of council meetings, appeals and panels

0.042

 

 

 

 

Provision of permanent funding for the bi-annual City Tracker (£50k every 2 years) to start in 2023/24

0.025

 

 

 

 

Increased cost of Corporate Cleaning contract due to increasing the number of lots to enhance social value

0.100

 

 

 

 

Increased cost of the Corporate Security Contract (training, certification, living wage)

0.200

 

 

 

 

Provision for various unavoidable above-inflation contractual and service cost increases across a range of priority directorate services

0.254

 

 

 

 

CORPORATE SERVICE PRESSURES

2.536

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

 

TOTAL CORPORATE PLAN INVESTMENTS

13.414

1.031

1.649

9.910

12.950

 

Summary of Directorate Budget Plan

Unit

Savings Proposals  2022/23

Total 2022/23 Posts Deleted

£m

FTE

Director of Families, Children & Learning

 -

0.0

Health, SEN & Disability Services

1.046

0.0

Education & Skills

0.091

1.4

Children's Safeguarding & Care

1.529

0.0

Quality Assurance & Performance

0.086

1.2

Families, Children & Learning Total

2.752

2.6

Adult Social Care

1.465

5.2

S75 Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT)

0.689

0.0

Integrated Commissioning

0.070

0.0

Public Health

 -

0.0

Health & Adult Social Care Total

2.224

5.2

Transport

1.554

0.0

City Environmental Management

0.229

0.0

City Development & Regeneration

0.135

1.0

Culture, Tourism & Sport

0.180

0.0

Property

0.342

2.0

Economy, Environment & Culture Total

2.440

3.0

Housing General Fund

1.780

0.0

Libraries

0.094

1.0

Communities, Equalities & Third Sector

0.040

1.0

Safer Communities

0.035

0.5

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Total

1.949

2.5

Across Directorate

0.150

0.0

Finance (Mobo)

 -

0.0

HR & Organisational Development (Mobo)

 -

0.0

IT & D (Mobo)

 -

0.0

Procurement (Mobo)

 -

0.0

Business Operations (Mobo)

 -

0.0

Revenues & Benefits (Mobo)

 -

0.0

Contribution To Orbis

 -

0.0

Finance & Resources Total

0.150

0.0

Corporate Services Total

0.325

0.0

Corporate Policy

0.028

0.5

Legal Services

0.119

0.4

Democratic & Civic Office Services

0.110

2.0

Life Events

0.140

0.0

Performance, Improvement & Programmes

0.033

0.8

Communications

0.048

2.0

Strategy, Governance & Law Total

0.478

5.7

Grand Total

10.318

19.0

 

Summary of Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27

 

2022/23

2023/24

2024/25

2025/26

2026/27

 

£000

£000

£000

£000

£000

Approved Schemes

 

 

 

 

Health & Adult Social Care

9.330

 -

 -

 -

 -

Families, Children & Learning

20.642

 -

 -

 -

 -

Economy, Environment & Culture

43.711

25.301

8.130

6.817

2.500

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

Housing Revenue Account

46.323

 -

 -

 -

 -

Strategy, Governance & Law

 -

 -

 -

 -

 -

Finance & Resources

1.000

 -

 -

 -

 -

New Schemes to be Approved

 

 

 

 

Health & Adult Social Care

4.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

Families, Children & Learning

7.715

5.615

5.615

5.615

5.615

Economy, Environment & Culture

27.375

52.589

39.319

14.924

7.250

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities

8.800

4.000

1.000

1.000

1.000

Housing Revenue Account

48.311

50.330

40.058

 -

 -

Strategy, Governance & Law

 -

 -

 -

 -

 -

Finance & Resources

4.580

4.740

2.000

1.000

1.000

Total Schemes

222.788

143.575

97.122

30.356

18.365

Funded by:

 

 

 

 

Government Grants (non ringfenced) - no conditions

31.173

13.700

9.000

9.500

9.500

Government Grants (ringfenced) - with conditions

13.405

9.797

16.798

2.000

2.000

Capital Receipts

21.525

10.328

2.025

 -

 -

Capital Reserves

0.518

 -

 -

 -

 -

Specific Reserves

5.729

2.550

0.850

0.500

0.500

External Contributions

3.490

2.502

2.040

0.574

 -

Direct Revenue Funding - GF

0.887

0.815

0.615

0.615

0.615

Revenue contribution to capital (HRA self financing)

20.947

21.485

23.450

 -

 -

Council Borrowing

125.114

74.398

34.594

9.417

4.000

Total Funding

222.788

135.575

89.372

22.606

16.615

General Fund - Funding Shortfall

 -

8.000

7.750

7.750

1.750

 

 

 


Families, Children & Learning Directorate

 

Service Context

The Families, Children and Learning Directorate brings together different services for children and young people with services for adults with learning disabilities and 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 the national 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. Such placements tend to be more expensive residential provision.  There are also significant pressures on the community care budget for adults with learning disabilities.  

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 over the coming years.

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 also 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 £9.447m

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 £49.396m

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 £42.290m

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 31st 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 31st 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 30th 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 £2.845m

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.

 

 

 

Families, Children & Learning Budget Summary

2021/22 Net Expenditure / (Income)

 

2022/23 Budget

2022/23 Budgeted Contracted Staff

Service Area

Expenditure

Income

Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

FTE

1.135

Director of Families, Children & Learning

0.358

(0.219)

0.139

1.585

1.724

4.0

48.325

Health, SEN & Disability Services

57.655

(8.259)

49.396

2.424

51.820

269.8

25.480

Education & Skills

16.005

(6.558)

9.447

15.767

25.214

240.2

43.151

Children’s Safeguarding & Care

46.665

(4.375)

42.290

2.619

44.909

309.8

1.752

Quality Assurance & Performance

1.584

(0.107)

1.477

0.256

1.733

26.7

119.842

Families, Children & Leaning Total (Excluding DSG)

122.266

(19.517)

102.749

22.651

125.400

850.5

 -

Dedicated Schools Grant Funded (DSG)

212.042

(213.380)

(1.338)

1.338

 -

102.8

119.842

Families, Children & Leaning Total (Including DSG)

334.309

(232.898)

101.411

23.989

125.400

953.3

 

Families, Children & Learning 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown

Service Description

Employee Expenditure

Other Expenditure

Total Expenditure

Income From Fees, Charges & Rents

Other Income

Government Grants

Total Income

Total Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Director of Families, Children & Learning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children's Services Central Costs

0.323

0.035

0.358

 -

(0.219)

 -

(0.219)

0.139

1.585

1.724

Director of Families, Children & Learning Total

0.323

0.035

0.358

 -

(0.219)

 -

(0.219)

0.139

1.585

1.724

Health, SEN & Disability Services

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Adult Learning Disability Services

7.615

38.482

46.097

(3.093)

(1.221)

(0.217)

(4.530)

41.567

1.675

43.242

Children in Care

2.113

3.670

5.783

 -

(0.387)

 -

(0.387)

5.396

0.385

5.781

Children's Social Care Services

1.096

1.437

2.533

(0.004)

(0.625)

 -

(0.629)

1.904

0.166

2.071

Special Educational Needs

3.405

(0.163)

3.242

 -

(2.713)

 -

(2.713)

0.529

0.198

0.727

Health, SEN & Disability Services Total

14.229

43.426

57.655

(3.097)

(4.946)

(0.217)

(8.259)

49.396

2.424

51.820

Education & Skills

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children in Care

0.056

0.017

0.073

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.073

0.012

0.085

Early Years and Early Help

5.742

(0.324)

5.418

(1.091)

(0.062)

(0.975)

(2.128)

3.290

1.614

4.905

Other Education Services

1.130

6.297

7.427

(0.081)

(0.367)

(2.669)

(3.117)

4.309

13.725

18.035

Schools

0.090

0.015

0.105

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.105

0.009

0.114

Schools Skills & Learning

1.713

0.326

2.039

(0.133)

(0.167)

(0.737)

(1.038)

1.001

0.235

1.236

Services for Young People

0.311

0.632

0.943

(0.020)

(0.255)

 -

(0.275)

0.668

0.172

0.840

Education & Skills Total

9.043

6.962

16.005

(1.325)

(0.851)

(4.382)

(6.558)

9.447

15.767

25.214

Children’s Safeguarding & Care

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children in Care

4.951

26.019

30.970

(0.035)

(0.063)

(3.627)

(3.725)

27.245

0.994

28.240

Children's Social Care Services

13.298

2.166

15.464

(0.059)

(0.302)

(0.257)

(0.618)

14.846

1.591

16.438

Early Years and Early Help

0.217

0.013

0.230

 -

(0.032)

 -

(0.032)

0.199

0.033

0.232

Children’s Safeguarding & Care Total

18.466

28.198

46.665

(0.094)

(0.396)

(3.884)

(4.375)

42.290

2.619

44.909

Quality Assurance & Performance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children's Social Care Services

1.500

(0.130)

1.370

 -

 -

 -

 -

1.370

0.218

1.588

Children's Services Central Costs

0.166

0.048

0.214

(0.004)

(0.103)

 -

(0.107)

0.107

0.038

0.145

Quality Assurance & Performance Total

1.666

(0.082)

1.584

(0.004)

(0.103)

 -

(0.107)

1.477

0.256

1.733

Families Children & Learning Total

43.728

78.538

122.266

(4.520)

(6.514)

(8.483)

(19.517)

102.749

22.651

125.400

 

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown

Service Description

Employee Expenditure

Other Expenditure

Total Expenditure

Income From Fees, Charges & Rents

Other Income

Government Grants

Total Income

Total Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Dedicated Schools Grant

 -

 -

 -

 -

 -

(183.700)

(183.700)

(183.700)

 -

(183.700)

Early Years and Early Help

0.421

13.926

14.347

(0.025)

 -

(0.005)

(0.030)

14.317

0.086

14.402

Other Education Services

0.286

0.036

0.322

(0.110)

 -

 -

(0.110)

0.212

0.058

0.269

Schools

149.921

22.053

171.974

(1.152)

 -

(26.448)

(27.601)

144.373

0.663

145.036

Special Educational Needs

5.367

20.033

25.400

(0.052)

 -

(1.887)

(1.939)

23.461

0.532

23.993

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) Total

155.995

56.047

212.042

(1.340)

 -

(212.041)

(213.380)

(1.338)

1.338

 -

 

 

 

 

 

Families, Children & Learning Directorate Budget Plan

Section

Service Area

Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks

Savings Proposals 2022/23

£'000

Director of Families, Children & Learning

There are no savings planned in the service area for 2022/23.

 

 

 

Director of Families, Children & Learning Total

 

0

Health, SEN & Disability Services

Services for children with disabilities

Direct payments

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. See EIA 1

50

Services for children with disabilities

Contracted services, adaptations, management

Savings achieved by re-negotiation / re-tendering / bringing in-house Children's Disability Service contracts. 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. See EIA 2

70

Learning Disabilities - Adults Community Care

Learning Disabilities

Savings achieved through a 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 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. See EIA 3

926

Health, SEN & Disability Services Total

 

1,046

Education & Skills

Youth Services

The Youth Led Grants Programme provides additionally funded youth activities/projects across the city.

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 could be ringfenced for youth groups to focus on providing holiday activities with a healthy meal for young people taking up free school meals. Delivery risk: Manageable as HAF funding confirmed for next 3 years. See EIA 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.

Propose stopping the Youth Arts programme. This would result in a loss of opportunity for vulnerable children, including CiC who are disengaged from education to achieve a nationally accredited award and reintegrate them back into education, training or employment. Delivery risk: Manageable although reduction in offer to young people. See EIA 5 and Staffing EIA S1

48

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.

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 - 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.

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) See EIA 6

9

Education & Skills Total

 

91

Children's Safeguarding & Care

Social Work & Legal

Expenditure incurred under section 17 & 18 of the 1989 Children Act.

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. See EIA 7

100

Contact Service

Family contact for children in care (Chic) and children in need (CIN)

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: Reduced capacity to facilitate court ordered contact. See EIA 8

70

Care Leavers

Services for 18-24 year olds leaving care, including staying put and ex-asylum seekers.

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

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 for 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. See EIA 9

1,064

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

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. Stretch saving may impact on support available.

80

Children's Safeguarding & Care Total

 

1,529

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.

The LADO role to be permanently held in the Safeguarding and Reviewing Service. The manager will hold the LADO position and delegate tasks to the Reviewing Officers in the team. The capacity for this is created by the dropping of CP numbers in the team. The current LADO role will be deleted upon the retirement during 2022/23 of the current post holder. Delivery Risk: the SARS team is demand led and if CP numbers or CIC numbers increase this will cause pressures in the team and a stretch on the service to Children subject to Child Protection and Children in Care. See Staffing EIA S2.

86

Quality Assurance & Performance Total

 

86

Families, Children & Learning Total

 

2,752

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Families, Children & Learning Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27

 

Profiled Payments 2022/23

Profiled Payments 2023/24

Profiled Payments 2024/25

Profiled Payments 2025/26

Profiled Payments 2026/27

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Approved Schemes

 

 

 

 

 

New Pupil Places (Basic Need)

15.296

 -

 -

 -

 -

Healthy Pupils/Surrendean Pool

0.015

 -

 -

 -

 -

Capital Maintenance 2019/20

0.319

 -

 -

 -

 -

Capital Maintenance 2020/21

2.661

 -

 -

 -

 -

Capital Maintenance 2021/22

2.231

 -

 -

 -

 -

Stanford Junior School Windows Replacement

0.120

 -

 -

 -

 -

New Schemes to be Approved

 

 

 

 

 

Education Capital Maintenance Grant

4.500

4.500

4.500

4.500

4.500

Devolved Formula Capital Grant

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

Structural Maintenance Contribution

0.615

0.615

0.615

0.615

0.615

Brighton Youth Centre

2.100

 -

 -

 -

 -

Families, Children & Learning

28.357

5.615

5.615

5.615

5.615


Health and Adult Social Care Directorate

 

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 4 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 20/21 we 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:

·         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:

 

Whilst the directorate has received growth funding over the past 3 years of £17.6 m acknowledging a combination of increasing 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:

·         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 Funded 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, now requires review. 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.

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 have been 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– measured by a reduction in the cost per head of population for services provided by placing an emphasis on reducing health inequalities across the city. A key example of this workstream will be more joint commissioning and purchasing with local Health partners of services that are jointly utilised.

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.  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.

 

 

Health & Adult Social Care Budget Summary

2021/22 Net Expenditure / (Income)

 

2022/23 Budget

2022/23 Budgeted Contracted Staff

Service Area

Expenditure

Income

Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

FTE

46.008

Adult Social Care

65.476

(19.781)

45.695

4.477

50.172

432.8

24.100

S75 Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT)

32.130

(9.419)

22.711

0.970

23.681

54.4

7.817

Integrated Commissioning

6.510

(3.330)

3.180

(1.258)

1.922

47.3

0.099

Public Health

22.509

(22.392)

0.117

0.140

0.257

49.6

78.024

Health & Adult Social Care Total

126.626

(54.923)

71.703

4.328

76.031

584.1

 

Health & Adult Social Care 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown

Service Description

Employee Expenditure

Other Expenditure

Total Expenditure

Income From Fees, Charges & Rents

Other Income

Government Grants

Total Income

Total Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Adult Social Care

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Assistive Equipment & Technology

1.259

2.591

3.850

(0.627)

(2.676)

 -

(3.304)

0.546

0.209

0.755

Clients with Memory/Cognition Support

3.036

0.214

3.250

(0.478)

(0.008)

 -

(0.485)

2.764

0.846

3.610

Clients with Physical Support

3.818

43.018

46.836

(8.865)

(5.131)

(0.311)

(14.307)

32.530

1.697

34.226

Clients with Sensory Support

 -

0.229

0.229

(0.021)

 -

 -

(0.021)

0.208

0.045

0.253

Clients with Substance Misuse Support

 -

0.672

0.672

(0.036)

 -

 -

(0.036)

0.636

0.034

0.670

Social Care Activities

8.523

0.358

8.880

(0.038)

(0.704)

 -

(0.742)

8.139

1.353

9.492

Supported Accommodation

1.255

0.505

1.760

(0.832)

(0.055)

 -

(0.887)

0.873

0.293

1.166

Adult Social Care Total

17.890

47.586

65.476

(10.896)

(8.574)

(0.311)

(19.781)

45.695

4.477

50.172

S75 Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clients with Memory/Cognition Support

 -

16.328

16.328

(4.234)

(2.578)

 -

(6.812)

9.516

0.280

9.796

Clients with Mental Health Support

 -

12.166

12.166

(0.489)

(1.752)

 -

(2.241)

9.926

0.273

10.198

Social Care Activities

2.902

0.734

3.636

 -

(0.367)

 -

(0.367)

3.269

0.417

3.686

S75 SPFT Total

2.902

29.229

32.130

(4.723)

(4.697)

 -

(9.419)

22.711

0.970

23.681

Integrated Commissioning

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Clients with Physical Support

 -

0.006

0.006

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.006

0.021

0.027

Commissioning & Service Delivery

2.552

0.689

3.241

(0.011)

(0.129)

(1.733)

(1.873)

1.368

(1.569)

(0.201)

Housing Related (Supporting People)

 -

0.491

0.491

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.491

0.037

0.528

Information & Early Intervention

0.088

1.937

2.025

 -

(0.926)

 -

(0.926)

1.098

0.233

1.331

Support To Carers

 -

0.748

0.748

 -

(0.530)

 -

(0.530)

0.217

0.019

0.236

Integrated Commissioning Total

2.640

3.870

6.510

(0.011)

(1.586)

(1.733)

(3.330)

3.180

(1.258)

1.922

Public Health

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Children's Public Health Programmes (5-19)

0.123

5.757

5.879

 -

(0.028)

(0.090)

(0.118)

5.762

0.021

5.783

Commissioning

0.057

0.332

0.389

 -

(0.001)

(21.070)

(21.071)

(20.681)

(0.252)

(20.933)

Miscellaneous Public Health Services

1.342

2.092

3.434

(0.005)

(0.414)

 -

(0.419)

3.015

0.086

3.101

NHS Health Check Programmes

0.075

0.273

0.347

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.347

0.043

0.390

Obesity

 -

0.499

0.499

 -

 -

(0.099)

(0.099)

0.400

0.021

0.421

Physical Activity

0.310

0.310

0.621

(0.008)

 -

 -

(0.008)

0.613

0.049

0.662

Public Health Advice

0.247

0.017

0.264

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.264

0.021

0.285

Sexual Health Services

0.064

4.825

4.889

 -

 -

(0.064)

(0.064)

4.824

0.064

4.889

Substance Misuse

0.139

6.047

6.186

 -

(0.094)

(0.519)

(0.613)

5.573

0.086

5.658

Public Health Total

2.357

20.153

22.509

(0.013)

(0.537)

(21.842)

(22.392)

0.117

0.140

0.257

Health & Adult Social Care Total

25.789

100.837

126.626

(15.643)

(15.394)

(23.886)

(54.923)

71.703

4.328

76.031

 

Health & Adult Social Care Directorate Budget Plan

Section

Service Area

Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks

Savings Proposals 2022/23

£'000

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

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
- Redevelopment of social care building
- Developing new social care 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 achievable.

1,353

Assessment & Support and Intervention Team (SIT)

Community Equipment Service

No inflationary increase to contract
Delivery Risk: Increase in supply costs impact on delivery of the saving

50

Memory & Cognition Support - Day Services

Wayfield Avenue Day Services

45 budgeted capacity for 2021/22

Closure of Wayfield Avenue Day Centre. The saving proposal includes reprovision costs in the independent sector. Existing staff can be absorbed within vacancies within establishment. After 2022, further plans can be made for use of the building.

Delivery Risk: Impact on existing staffing and alternative services required See EIA 10 and Staffing EIA S3

62

Adult Social Care Total

 

1,465

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

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 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

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 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

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

 

689

Integrated Commissioning

Commissioning & Contracts

Integrated Commissioning

No inflationary increase to contracts
Delivery Risk: Increased costs pressures present delivery of the savings challenges

70

Integrated Commissioning Total

 

70

Public Health

There are no savings planned in the service area for 2022/23.

 

 

 

Public Health Total

 

0

Health & Adult Social Care Total

 

2,224

 

 

Health & Adult Social Care Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27

 

Profiled Payments 2022/23

Profiled Payments 2023/24

Profiled Payments 2024/25

Profiled Payments 2025/26

Profiled Payments 2026/27

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Approved Schemes

 

 

 

 

 

Knoll House Resource Centre Supported Housing

9.330

 -

 -

 -

 -

New Schemes to be Approved

 

 

 

 

 

Better Care Funding - Capital Grant

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

Adult Social Care Accommodation

4.000

 -

 -

 -

 -

Health & Adult Social Care

13.830

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500


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.

 

Economy, Environment & Culture Budget Summary

2021/22 Net Expenditure / (Income)

 

2022/23 Budget

2022/23 Budgeted Contracted Staff

Service Area

Expenditure

Income

Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

FTE

8.548

Transport

40.624

(47.023)

(6.399)

13.313

6.914

174.0

40.086

City Environmental Management

38.904

(3.019)

35.885

5.641

41.526

466.1

4.058

City Development & Regeneration

6.588

(3.098)

3.490

0.772

4.262

102.0

13.904

Culture, Tourism & Sport

11.096

(6.843)

4.253

11.258

15.511

80.8

(2.475)

Property

12.049

(10.440)

1.609

(5.224)

(3.615)

87.1

64.121

Economy, Environment & Culture Total

109.260

(70.422)

38.838

25.760

64.598

910.0

 

 

 

 

 

 

Economy, Environment & Culture 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown

Service Description

Employee Expenditure

Other Expenditure

Total Expenditure

Income From Fees, Charges & Rents

Other Income

Government Grants

Total Income

Total Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Transport

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Concessionary Bus Fares

 -

10.717

10.717

(0.019)

 -

 -

(0.019)

10.697

0.041

10.738

Highway & Traffic Management

0.483

1.064

1.547

(0.723)

 -

 -

(0.723)

0.824

1.811

2.635

Highway Assets & Maintenance

0.865

2.653

3.518

 -

 -

 -

 -

3.518

3.852

7.370

Parking Operations

4.734

12.781

17.515

(44.812)

 -

 -

(44.812)

(27.296)

2.241

(25.055)

Public Transport

0.188

1.464

1.652

(0.473)

(0.016)

(0.173)

(0.662)

0.990

0.093

1.083

Road Safety

0.517

0.003

0.520

(0.022)

 -

(0.040)

(0.062)

0.458

0.558

1.016

Road Works Permit Scheme

0.498

0.081

0.580

(0.701)

 -

 -

(0.701)

(0.121)

0.105

(0.016)

Street Lighting & Illuminations

0.140

2.177

2.317

(0.035)

 -

 -

(0.035)

2.282

0.665

2.947

Transport Projects

0.106

0.690

0.796

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.796

4.448

5.244

Winter Maintenance

0.050

0.279

0.329

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.329

0.009

0.338

Head of Transport, Policy and Strategy

0.954

0.180

1.134

(0.010)

 -

 -

(0.010)

1.124

(0.510)

0.614

Transport Total

8.536

32.088

40.624

(46.794)

(0.016)

(0.213)

(47.023)

(6.399)

13.313

6.914

City Environmental Management

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

City Clean - Refuse & Recycling

6.074

0.339

6.413

(1.206)

 -

 -

(1.206)

5.207

1.692

6.899

City Clean - Street Cleansing

4.799

0.464

5.263

(0.002)

 -

 -

(0.002)

5.261

0.697

5.958

City Parks

4.320

0.975

5.295

(0.417)

(0.030)

(0.060)

(0.507)

4.788

2.277

7.065

Public Conveniences

0.100

0.802

0.902

(0.016)

 -

 -

(0.016)

0.886

0.187

1.074

Vehicle Fleet & Maintenance

0.762

2.610

3.372

(0.113)

 -

 -

(0.113)

3.259

0.634

3.893

Head of City Environmental Management

0.187

0.019

0.206

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.206

(0.336)

(0.130)

Strategy & Projects

1.333

0.309

1.643

(0.455)

 -

 -

(0.455)

1.188

(0.458)

0.730

Waste Disposal

 -

15.810

15.810

(0.660)

(0.059)

 -

(0.720)

15.090

0.949

16.039

City Environmental Management Total

17.576

21.328

38.904

(2.869)

(0.090)

(0.060)

(3.019)

35.885

5.641

41.526

City Development & Regeneration

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Building Control

0.799

0.022

0.821

(0.913)

 -

 -

(0.913)

(0.092)

0.350

0.259

Business Development & Customer Services

0.535

0.015

0.550

(0.010)

 -

 -

(0.010)

0.540

0.214

0.754

Development Planning

1.637

0.090

1.727

(1.934)

 -

 -

(1.934)

(0.207)

0.487

0.280

Economic Development

0.499

0.280

0.779

 -

(0.142)

 -

(0.142)

0.637

(0.023)

0.615

Economy, Environment & Culture Management

0.213

0.007

0.221

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.221

(0.234)

(0.013)

Head Of Planning

0.202

0.228

0.430

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.430

(0.569)

(0.138)

International Team

0.119

0.016

0.135

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.135

0.029

0.164

Major Projects & Regeneration

0.307

0.012

0.319

 -

(0.067)

 -

(0.067)

0.252

0.253

0.505

Sustainability

0.465

0.406

0.871

(0.020)

 -

 -

(0.020)

0.851

0.088

0.938

Planning Policy, Projects and Heritage

0.602

0.133

0.735

(0.012)

 -

 -

(0.012)

0.723

0.176

0.899

City Development & Regeneration Total

5.379

1.209

6.588

(2.888)

(0.209)

 -

(3.098)

3.490

0.772

4.262

Culture, Tourism & Sport

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Royal Pavilion & Museums

0.021

1.707

1.728

 -

(0.020)

 -

(0.020)

1.708

0.862

2.570

Seafront Services

0.653

0.381

1.034

(2.601)

 -

 -

(2.601)

(1.568)

1.484

(0.084)

Sports Facilities

0.234

0.956

1.189

(0.132)

 -

 -

(0.132)

1.058

3.267

4.325

Tourism & Marketing

0.388

1.679

2.067

(0.231)

(0.153)

 -

(0.384)

1.683

0.082

1.765

Venues

2.121

0.117

2.238

(3.035)

 -

 -

(3.035)

(0.797)

5.036

4.239

Volks Railway

0.285

0.056

0.341

(0.264)

 -

 -

(0.264)

0.077

0.163

0.240

Arts (including Partnership Arrangements)

0.288

1.935

2.224

 -

 -

 -

 -

2.224

(0.215)

2.009

Outdoor Events

0.122

0.153

0.275

(0.407)

 -

 -

(0.407)

(0.132)

0.579

0.447

Culture, Tourism & Sport Total

4.112

6.984

11.096

(6.670)

(0.173)

 -

(6.843)

4.253

11.258

15.511

Property

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Architecture & Design

(0.943)

0.161

(0.782)

(0.041)

 -

 -

(0.041)

(0.823)

0.187

(0.636)

Education Property Management

 -

0.737

0.737

(0.020)

(0.037)

 -

(0.056)

0.681

0.015

0.696

Energy & Water Management

0.119

(0.008)

0.112

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.112

(0.110)

0.001

Estates Management

0.516

0.911

1.428

(9.601)

 -

 -

(9.601)

(8.173)

4.357

(3.816)

Facilities & Premises

1.441

8.568

10.009

(0.685)

(0.057)

 -

(0.742)

9.267

(9.170)

0.097

Asset Management

0.495

0.051

0.545

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.545

(0.503)

0.043

Property Total

1.629

10.420

12.049

(10.346)

(0.094)

 -

(10.440)

1.609

(5.224)

(3.615)

Economy, Environment & Culture Total

37.231

72.029

109.260

(69.568)

(0.581)

(0.273)

(70.422)

38.838

25.760

64.598

 

 

 

 

 

Economy, Environment & Culture Directorate Budget Plan

Section

Service Area

Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks

Savings Proposals 2022/23

£'000

Transport

Parking Services

Strategy & contracts / Traffic Control Centre

Increase on-street paid parking tariffs - Increase all paid parking by 15%. (£750k)
High tariff increase by a further 4% to 19% (£60K)

Increase off-street pay & display parking tariffs for four main car parks (Trafalgar Street / Lanes / Regency Square / London Road - Increase by 15% (£450k)

Increases to other off-street car parks by 15%. (50k)
 
 ***1.5% inflation will have to be factored into parking charges (£500k) so these 15% increases would not be included in EEC Budget saving figures. Further increases beyond 15% would be included***
 
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; a 2% decrease in parking income = £0.75m loss PCN charges, Resource issues to implement. These are the maximum possible savings, assuming there is a) no further outbreaks or formalised lockdown and b) no long-term loss of tourism / visitors / travel as a result of the past 18 months. See EIA 11

810

Parking Services

Customer Services

Increase prices of resident permits:

£10 increase to a full parking scheme permit – Base rate £165 to £175 reducing increase on quarterly permits (£60k)

Increase from 50% to 75% for the high emission charge for various permits (£250K)

Further increases to the surcharges on resident permits for second and third+ vehicles per household. (£115k)

Increases in various visitor permits (£90K)

£25 increase to a high demand full parking scheme permit in Central Brighton – Base rate £195 to £220 (£85k)

Add Area M (Brunswick & Adelaide to high demand rate – Base rate of £175 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: Impact of resident permit surcharges in 2021/22 yet to be seen (June 22) - £240k income. Disproportionate impacts on local residents and considerable local resistance. See EIA 11

672

Parking Services

Customer Services

Proposal: Increase price of traders permits by 5% from £760 to £800
Delivery risks:
Resistance from local traders. See EIA 11

40

Traffic Management

Traffic Management

Proposal: Increases to fees & charges above corporate inflation as set out in ETS January 2022 Report
Delivery risk: Reduction in activity could impact on saving being achieved.

32

Transport Total

 

1,554

City Environmental Management

City Clean

City Clean

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 Clean

City Clean

Proposal: Increases to fees & charges above corporate inflation as set out in ETS January 2022 Report
Delivery risk: Reduction in activity could impact on saving being achieved.

69

City Parks

City Parks

Proposal: Income from car parking in parks
Delivery risk: subject to committee approval

50

City Parks

City Parks

Proposal: Increases to fees & charges above corporate inflation as set out in ETS January 2022 Report
Delivery risk: Reduction in activity could impact on saving being achieved.

10

Fleet & Maintenance

Fleet & Maintenance

Proposal: Commercial activities
Delivery Risk: Capacity in the workshop and outside storage

30

City Environmental Management Total

 

229

City Development & Regeneration

Development Planning

Development Planning

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

Development Planning

Development Planning

Proposal: Increases to fees & charges above corporate inflation as set out in TECC January 2022 Report
Delivery risk: Reduction in activity could impact on saving being achieved.

10

Sustainability & International

Sustainability & International

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

Sustainability & International

Sustainability & International

Proposal: Use vacant or unfilled posts within the ED and S&I teams to deliver a new structure that generates a further £50k reduction in establishment costs.

Delivery Risk: Very difficult to create a new structure that realises that saving and has capacity to deliver across the range of sustainability and ED workstreams. May result in dilution of the emphasis on delivery of the Zero Carbon Programme.

50

Economic Development

Economic Development

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

City Development & Regeneration Total

 

135

Culture, Tourism & Sport

Heritage and Archives

Heritage and Archives

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

Heritage and Archives

Heritage and Archives

Planned reduction in Royal Pavilion & Museums Trust service fee as contained in business plan approved by Policy & Resources Committee.

35

Sport and Leisure

Seafront

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

38

Sport and Leisure

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

32

Sport and Leisure

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

Proposal: Ticketing commission - renegotiated sales income percentage Delivery Risks: Reduces maintenance and funds for upkeep of the centre, affecting reputation of the city

30

Culture, Tourism & Sport Total

 

180

Property

Facilities & Building Services

Building Services & Helpdesk team

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. See Staffing EIA S4

40

Facilities & Building Services

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.

70

Facilities & Building Services

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

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

95

Building Surveying & Maintenance

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

Education Property Management

Capital Strategy

Proposal: Reduction in the Education property maintenance budget Delivery Risk: Significant increase in demand for maintenance could potentially make saving unachievable.

7

Energy & Water Management

Energy & Water Team

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 Management

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 Management

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

40

Estates Management

Commercial

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

 

342

Economy, Environment & Culture Total

 

2,440

 

Economy, Environment & Culture Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27

 

Profiled Payments 2022/23

Profiled Payments 2023/24

Profiled Payments 2024/25

Profiled Payments 2025/26

Profiled Payments 2026/27

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Approved Schemes

 

 

 

 

 

Waterfront Redevelopment

0.350

0.350

0.350

 -

 -

Black Rock Enabling Works

9.900

 -

 -

 -

 -

Public Conveniences

1.735

0.904

0.315

0.317

 -

On-Street and Communal Bin Infrastructure

 -

0.500

0.500

0.250

 -

Pavilion and Mess Room Refurbishment Programme

0.250

1.000

1.000

0.750

 -

Holingdean Deport Office Accommodation

 -

2.000

 -

 -

 -

Holingdean Deport Site Surface

 -

1.000

 -

 -

 -

Stanmer Park restoration Fund HLF

0.900

 -

 -

 -

 -

Playground Refurbishment programme 2021-2025

0.509

0.275

 -

 -

 -

Parks and Open Spaces Investment

0.400

1.000

1.000

1.000

 -

Procurement of Vehicles

2.500

2.500

2.500

2.500

2.500

Brighton Museum & Art Gallery Works

1.200

 -

 -

 -

 -

Saltdean Lido Replacement Library

0.350

 -

 -

 -

 -

Portslade 3G Pitch

0.011

 -

 -

 -

 -

Saltdean Lido Restoration

2.000

 -

 -

 -

 -

Withdean Sports-Soft play Development

0.025

0.025

 -

 -

 -

Seafront Railings & Beach Hut Replacement

0.250

 -

 -

 -

 -

Seafront Railings Upgrade

0.100

 -

 -

 -

 -

Levelling Up Fund - Kingsway to the Sea

4.700

5.847

 -

 -

 -

Withdean Sports Complex - 3G Development

0.545

 -

 -

 -

 -

King Alfred Main Pool Reinforcement

0.750

 -

 -

 -

 -

Kings Road Paddling Pool

0.040

 -

 -

 -

 -

Prince Regent Entrance

0.070

 -

 -

 -

 -

Madeira Terrace Structural Repairs

0.266

 -

 -

 -

 -

Stanmer Park Agricultural Buildings

0.300

 -

 -

 -

 -

Barts House - Cladding & Window Replacement

0.040

 -

 -

 -

 -

King Alfred Cathodic Protection System Repairs

0.200

 -

 -

 -

 -

Royal Pavilion External Repairs PMB

0.022

 -

 -

 -

 -

Window Replacement Cottages Property Portfolio

0.020

 -

 -

 -

 -

Workstyles Phase 4

0.850

 -

 -

 -

 -

BTH - PMB contribution to refurbishment

0.180

 -

 -

 -

 -

Building Security

0.092

 -

 -

 -

 -

Phoenix House

0.297

 -

 -

 -

 -

Brighton Centre Lift Refurbishment

0.016

 -

 -

 -

 -

Moulsecoomb Hub and Housing – Workstyles 4

5.810

4.700

 -

 -

 -

Commercial Property Portfolio Repairs

0.079

 -

 -

 -

 -

Portslade Sixth Form Conversion - Workstyles 4

2.000

 -

 -

 -

 -

Victoria Fountain Repairs

0.250

 -

 -

 -

 -

Brighton Marina to River Adur Works

0.250

 -

 -

 -

 -

Street Lighting Maintenance (LTP)

2.000

 -

 -

 -

 -

Valley Gardens Phase 3 (LTP)

3.000

4.000

2.000

2.000

 -

Hove Station Footbridge

 -

0.250

0.250

 -

 -

Brighton Bikeshare Replacement Programme

0.704

 -

0.215

 -

 -

Citywide Strategic Transport Model

0.500

0.500

 -

 -

 -

Seafront Heritage Lighting Renewal Programme

0.250

0.450

 -

 -

 -

Identified Schemes Not Yet approved

 

 

 

 

 

Stanmer Park - Redevelopment of Traditional Agricultural Buildings

0.500

3.787

 -

 -

 -

Madeira Terraces Development Implementation Works

6.950

6.000

6.000

6.000

 -

Madeira Terraces Phase 2 Scheme

 -

3.635

 -

 -

 -

Strategic Investment Fund

0.250

0.250

0.250

0.250

0.250

Royal Pavilion Estate Development (Phase 2 Gardens)

 -

4.700

 -

 -

 -

Royal Pavilion Estate Development (Phase 3 Museum)

 -

 -

4.000

 -

 -

Asset Management Fund

1.000

1.000

1.000

1.000

1.000

Planned Maintenance of operational buildings

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

Planned Maintenance - Social Services Buildings

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

New England House - City Deal

3.000

17.000

6.000

 -

 -

Solar Panels for Corporate Buildings

0.500

 -

 -

 -

 -

Community Asset Transfer Policy

0.425

 -

 -

 -

 -

Local Transport Plan - Capital Grant

4.500

4.500

4.500

5.000

5.000

Pothole Action Fund - Capital Grant

1.400

1.400

1.400

 -

 -

Incentive Funding - Highways Capital Grant

0.350

0.350

0.350

 -

 -

Marina to River Adur Coast Protection Works

 -

2.467

14.819

1.674

 -

Carbon Neutral 2030 Investment fund

7.500

6.500

 -

 -

 -

Economy, Environment & Culture

71.086

77.890

47.449

21.741

9.750


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.

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:

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.

 

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Budget Summary

2021/22 Net Expenditure / (Income)

 

2022/23 Budget

2022/23 Budgeted Contracted Staff

Service Area

Expenditure

Income

Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

FTE

10.670

Housing General Fund

36.076

(23.345)

12.731

1.391

14.122

140.9

6.496

Libraries

5.229

(0.475)

4.754

1.827

6.581

59.0

3.259

Communities, Equalities & 3rd Sector

3.484

(0.495)

2.989

0.261

3.250

11.2

3.157

Safer Communities

4.665

(1.492)

3.173

0.563

3.736

74.6

23.582

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Total (Excluding HRA)

49.454

(25.807)

23.647

4.041

27.688

285.7

 -

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

60.527

(63.750)

(3.223)

3.223

 -

501.1

23.582

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Total (Including HRA)

109.981

(89.557)

20.424

7.264

27.688

786.8

 

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown

Service Description

Employee Expenditure

Other Expenditure

Total Expenditure

Income From Fees, Charges & Rents

Other Income

Government Grants

Total Income

Total Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Housing General Fund

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Housing Management & Support

0.161

0.006

0.167

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.167

(0.166)

0.001

Housing Options & Homelessness

1.276

0.069

1.345

(0.029)

 -

 -

(0.029)

1.316

0.364

1.680

Housing Strategy & Enabling

0.227

0.007

0.234

 -

(0.051)

 -

(0.051)

0.183

0.037

0.220

Private Sector Housing

1.309

0.146

1.455

(0.474)

(0.149)

 -

(0.623)

0.832

0.229

1.061

Temporary Accommodation

2.323

30.050

32.372

(12.424)

(0.076)

(10.041)

(22.542)

9.830

0.800

10.630

Travellers Services

0.169

0.334

0.503

(0.100)

 -

 -

(0.100)

0.403

0.127

0.529

Housing General Fund Total

5.466

30.611

36.076

(13.028)

(0.276)

(10.041)

(23.345)

12.731

1.391

14.122

Libraries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Libraries & Information Services

2.198

3.031

5.229

(0.475)

 -

 -

(0.475)

4.754

1.827

6.581

Libraries Total

2.198

3.031

5.229

(0.475)

 -

 -

(0.475)

4.754

1.827

6.581

Communities, Equalities & Third Sector

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Communities

0.563

2.620

3.184

 -

(0.195)

 -

(0.195)

2.989

0.236

3.224

Community Safety

0.114

0.186

0.300

 -

(0.300)

 -

(0.300)

0.000

0.025

0.025

Communities, Equalities & Third Sector Total

0.678

2.806

3.484

 -

(0.495)

 -

(0.495)

2.989

0.261

3.250

Safer Communities

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Animal Welfare

0.073

0.055

0.128

(0.007)

 -

 -

(0.007)

0.121

0.017

0.138

Civil Contingencies

0.128

0.007

0.135

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.135

0.021

0.156

Community Safety

0.775

1.108

1.884

 -

(0.473)

 -

(0.473)

1.410

0.100

1.510

Environmental Health

1.337

0.028

1.366

(0.020)

(0.064)

 -

(0.085)

1.281

0.166

1.448

Licensing

0.596

0.037

0.633

(0.831)

 -

 -

(0.831)

(0.198)

0.190

(0.008)

Pest Control

0.108

(0.025)

0.083

(0.087)

 -

 -

(0.087)

(0.005)

0.018

0.013

Trading Standards

0.396

0.042

0.438

(0.009)

 -

 -

(0.009)

0.429

0.051

0.480

Safer Communities Total

3.412

1.253

4.665

(0.954)

(0.538)

 -

(1.492)

3.173

0.563

3.736

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Total

11.754

37.701

49.454

(14.457)

(1.309)

(10.041)

(25.807)

23.647

4.041

27.688

 

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown

Service Description

Employee Expenditure

Other Expenditure

Total Expenditure

Income From Fees, Charges & Rents

Other Income

Government Grants

Total Income

Total Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Estate Regeneration

0.630

0.033

0.663

 -

(0.010)

 -

(0.010)

0.653

 -

0.653

Housing Management & Support

2.169

25.998

28.167

 -

(0.044)

 -

(0.044)

28.123

3.223

31.345

Housing Strategy (HRA)

0.606

0.293

0.899

(1.161)

 -

 -

(1.161)

(0.262)

 -

(0.262)

Income Involvement & Improvement

2.196

1.230

3.427

(54.519)

(0.032)

 -

(54.552)

(51.125)

 -

(51.125)

Property & Investment

9.249

10.318

19.567

(2.276)

 -

 -

(2.276)

17.292

 -

17.292

Tenancy Services

4.740

3.064

7.804

(5.707)

 -

 -

(5.707)

2.097

 -

2.097

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) Total

19.591

40.936

60.527

(63.663)

(0.086)

 -

(63.750)

(3.223)

3.223

 -

 

 

 

 

 

 

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Directorate Budget Plan

Section

Service Area

Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks

Savings Proposals 2022/23

£'000

Housing General Fund

Temporary Accommodation & Allocations

Temporary Accommodation (TA)

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

Housing General Fund Total

 

1,780

Libraries

Libraries

Library PFI

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

Libraries

Community Libraries

Reduce staffed opening hours in all community libraries to a maximum of three days a week (affecting Patcham, Hangleton, Whitehawk and Portslade Libraries). See EIA 12 and Staffing EIA S5

17

Libraries

Income Generation

£20k savings from increases in some fees and charges and room hire charges over and above the corporate inflation figure added to 2022/23 . As reported to TECC Committee on 13 January 2022.

20

Libraries Total

 

94

Communities, Equalities & Third Sector

Communities

Communities, Equalities and Third Sector (CETS) Development staffing and operational budget

CVS transformation post was built into budget last year to provide additional support to CVS and is currently vacant. Recruitment was delayed due to a service restructure and staff circumstances. This is a new post created in Spring 2021 following budget amendment. 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, Equalities & Third Sector Total

 

40

Safer Communities

Trading Standards

Trading Standards

Review non statutory functions in Trading Standards to see if efficiencies can be made. See Staffing EIA S6

25

Service wide

 

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

 

35

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities Total

 

1,949

 

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities (GF) Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27

 

Profiled Payments 2022/23

Profiled Payments 2023/24

Profiled Payments 2024/25

Profiled Payments 2025/26

Profiled Payments 2026/27

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Approved Schemes

 

 

 

 

 

LDV On-Going Costs - Community Homes (B&HSCH)

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

0.500

New Schemes to be Approved

 

 

 

 

 

Disabled Facilities Grant (Better Care Funding) - Capital Grant

1.000

1.000

1.000

1.000

1.000

Accommodation for Supported Housing Delivery

3.000

 -

 -

 -

 -

Brighton & Hove Warmer Homes Investment Fund

4.800

3.000

 -

 -

 -

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities (GF)

9.300

4.500

1.500

1.500

1.500

 

 

 

 

 

 

Housing Revenue Account Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27

 

Profiled Payments 2022/23

Profiled Payments 2023/24

Profiled Payments 2024/25

Profiled Payments 2025/26

Profiled Payments 2026/27

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Approved Schemes

 

 

 

 

 

Victoria Road

3.530

 -

 -

 -

 -

Windlesham Close

0.773

 -

 -

 -

 -

Empty Properties

0.090

 -

 -

 -

 -

Roofing

0.220

 -

 -

 -

 -

Environmental Improvements (EDB)

0.090

 -

 -

 -

 -

Citywide Loft Conversions & Extensions Projects

0.200

 -

 -

 -

 -

Solar PV City Wide

0.700

 -

 -

 -

 -

Design Competition

2.125

 -

 -

 -

 -

Structural Repairs

4.160

 -

 -

 -

 -

Home Energy Efficiency & Renewables

0.357

 -

 -

 -

 -

House Purchase Scheme

3.000

 -

 -

 -

 -

Housing Joint Venture Purchase

17.409

 -

 -

 -

 -

Extended Home Purchase Scheme

3.000

 -

 -

 -

 -

Moulsecoomb Hub - Housing

4.917

 -

 -

 -

 -

New Housing Asset Management System

0.500

 -

 -

 -

 -

New Housing Works Management System

0.592

 -

 -

 -

 -

Housing First

2.990

 -

 -

 -

 -

Palace Place Redevelopment

1.670

 -

 -

 -

 -

New Schemes to be Approved

 

 

 

 

 

HRA Capital Investment Programme 2022-23

48.311

 -

 -

 -

 -

HRA Capital Investment Programme 2023-24

 -

50.330

 -

 -

 -

HRA Capital Investment Programme 2024-25

 -

 -

40.058

 -

 -

Housing Revenue Account

94.634

50.330

40.058

 -

 -


Finance & Resources Directorate

 

(now part of a new Governance, People & Resources Directorate)

Service Context

The Finance & Resources Directorate has merged with the Strategy, Governance & Law Directorate to become the Governance, People & Resources Directorate under the restructure approved by Policy & Resources Committee in December 2021. However, as this change occurred very late in the budget planning process for 2022/23, the two former directorates’ budget strategies and proposals are presented separately so that they can be traced back to the earlier Draft Budget proposals, also submitted to the December 2021 meeting. The budget proposals of the two former directorates will be brought together in a single budget for the new Governance, People & Resources Directorate for the start of the new financial year in April 2022.

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 and tactical plans. 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 and appraisal, 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 & Digital 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 the council’s 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 in partnership and 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 its 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;

·         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)

Procurement

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 (on-line) services and forms 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, Payroll and 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, and;

·         Continuing 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 and has also been re-awarded the South Downs National Park Authority Financial Services contract from April 2022.

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 on-line 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.

The brining together of the Strategy, Governance & Law and Finance & Resources directorates creates a further opportunity to improve the support to the council and its services as the new Governance, People & Resources Directorate will be able to ensure a consistent approach to the provision of support across all of its functions and, through closer working, integrated management and oversight of these functions, will be able to achieve a more co-ordinated and comprehensive response to meet service demands and support more effective governance across the organisation.

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.

 

 

Finance & Resources Budget Summary

2021/22 Net Expenditure / (Income)

 

2022/23 Budget

2022/23 Budgeted Contracted Staff

Service Area

Expenditure

Income

Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

FTE

(0.025)

Finance (Mobo)

2.233

(0.246)

1.987

(2.128)

(0.141)

2.0

0.706

HR & Organisational Development (Mobo)

2.937

(0.086)

2.851

(2.030)

0.821

10.8

(0.008)

Information Technology & Digital (Mobo)

4.158

(0.177)

3.981

(3.508)

0.474

2.4

0.095

Procurement (Mobo)

0.114

 -

0.114

0.105

0.219

0.0

0.100

Business Operations (Mobo)

0.416

 -

0.416

(1.576)

(1.160)

4.0

5.895

Revenues & Benefits (Mobo)

120.929

(116.255)

4.674

1.261

5.935

166.8

0.314

Contribution to Orbis Partnership

8.101

 -

8.101

(6.288)

1.813

309.5

7.076

Finance & Resources Total (Excluding Centrally Managed Budgets)

138.888

(116.764)

22.124

(14.164)

7.960

495.5

(109.070)

Centrally Managed Budgets

17.667

(77.669)

(60.002)

(42.679)

(102.681)

0.0

(101.995)

Finance & Resources Total (Including Centrally Managed Budgets)

156.554

(194.432)

(37.878)

(56.843)

(94.721)

495.5

 

 

 

 

 

Finance & Resources 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown

Service Description

Employee Expenditure

Other Expenditure

Total Expenditure

Income From Fees, Charges & Rents

Other Income

Government Grants

Total Income

Total Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Finance (Mobo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Audit & Business Risk

0.002

0.008

0.010

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.010

(0.010)

(0.000)

Financial Services

2.218

0.004

2.223

(0.003)

(0.241)

(0.002)

(0.246)

1.977

(2.118)

(0.141)

Finance (Mobo) Total

2.220

0.013

2.233

(0.003)

(0.241)

(0.002)

(0.246)

1.987

(2.128)

(0.141)

HR & Organisational Development (Mobo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Business Partnering & Workforce Development

1.217

0.036

1.253

 -

 -

(0.005)

(0.005)

1.248

 -

1.248

Health, Safety & Wellbeing

0.713

(0.215)

0.498

 -

(0.001)

 -

(0.001)

0.498

 -

0.498

HR Strategy, Policy & Projects

1.388

(0.202)

1.185

(0.022)

(0.055)

(0.003)

(0.080)

1.105

(2.030)

(0.925)

HR & Organisational Development (Mobo) Total

3.318

(0.381)

2.937

(0.022)

(0.055)

(0.009)

(0.086)

2.851

(2.030)

0.821

Information Technology & Digital (Mobo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

IT&D

0.137

4.020

4.158

(0.032)

(0.145)

 -

(0.177)

3.981

(3.508)

0.474

Information Technology & Digital (Mobo) Total

0.137

4.020

4.158

(0.032)

(0.145)

 -

(0.177)

3.981

(3.508)

0.474

Procurement (Mobo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Corporate Procurement

0.154

(0.040)

0.114

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.114

0.105

0.219

Procurement (Mobo) Total

0.154

(0.040)

0.114

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.114

0.105

0.219

Business Operations (Mobo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Business Operations

0.339

0.077

0.416

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.416

(1.576)

(1.160)

Business Operations (Mobo) Total

0.339

0.077

0.416

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.416

(1.576)

(1.160)

Revenues & Benefits (Mobo)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Housing Benefit Transfer Payments

 -

113.001

113.001

(2.752)

 -

(111.000)

(113.752)

(0.751)

0.241

(0.510)

Revenues & Benefits

5.513

2.415

7.928

(0.957)

(0.521)

(1.025)

(2.503)

5.425

1.020

6.445

Revenues & Benefits (Mobo) Total

5.513

115.416

120.929

(3.709)

(0.521)

(112.025)

(116.255)

4.674

1.261

5.935

Contribution to Orbis Partnership

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contribution to ORBIS Services

 -

8.101

8.101

 -

 -

 -

 -

8.101

(6.288)

1.813

Contribution to Orbis Partnership Total

 -

8.101

8.101

 -

 -

 -

 -

8.101

(6.288)

1.813

Finance & Resources Total

11.681

127.206

138.888

(3.766)

(0.962)

(112.036)

(116.764)

22.124

(14.164)

7.960

 

 

 

 

 

Centrally Managed Budgets 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown

Service Description

Employee Expenditure

Other Expenditure

Total Expenditure

Income From Fees, Charges & Rents

Other Income

Government Grants

Total Income

Total Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Capital Charges

 -

 -

 -

 -

 -

 -

 -

 -

(44.712)

(44.712)

Contingency

 -

3.140

3.140

 -

 -

 -

 -

3.140

 -

3.140

Financing Costs

 -

8.956

8.956

 -

(1.137)

 -

(1.137)

7.819

 -

7.819

Insurance Premiums

0.521

2.831

3.352

 -

 -

 -

 -

3.352

(3.352)

 -

Levies & Precepts

 -

0.219

0.219

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.219

 -

0.219

Other Corporate Services

2.249

(0.249)

2.000

 -

(27.498)

 -

(27.498)

(25.498)

5.385

(20.113)

Unringfenced Grants

 -

 -

 -

 -

 -

(49.034)

(49.034)

(49.034)

 -

(49.034)

Centrally Managed Budgets Total

2.770

14.896

17.667

 -

(28.635)

(49.034)

(77.669)

(60.002)

(42.679)

(102.681)

 

Finance & Resources and Centrally Managed Budgets Directorate Budget Plan

Section

Service Area

Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks

Savings Proposals 2022/23

£'000

Across Directorate

All staffing budgets

All Staffing budgets

Increase to the staff turnover allowance to reflect the vacancy position across all non-Orbis services (HR, Finance, Business Operations).

150

Across Directorate Total

 

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.

The Executive Director post is vacant and the saving from this post has been taken into account in the council's recent Senior Management restructure proposals reported to Policy & Resources Committee in December 2021. No other savings opportunities have been identified on other MOBO budgets, the largest element of which is external audit fees which are expected to increase significantly following the 'Redmond Review'.

0

Finance (Mobo) Total

 

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.

No savings opportunities identified. There are pressures on Trade Union facilities time budgets under this heading, and the social care training budgets held here support statutory training requirements.

0

HR & Organisational Development (Mobo) Total

 

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.

IT&D non-staffing budgets have been under severe pressure due to historic under-investment in infrastructure, networks, devices and systems over a period of years. Step increases in the budget have been built into the MTFS to address this and provide funding for associated capital investment in new systems, devices, networks (Windows 10) and digital technologies. However, efforts will continue to achieve VFM across third party contracts for software, security, data and voice services and systems licences to minimise overall budget increases as far as possible.

0

IT & D (Mobo) Total

 

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.

This income budget reflects short term Modernisation Fund support for Procurement & Contract Management staffing and improvements. No saving is available on this budget heading as the Modernisation Fund support ends in 2022/23.

0

Procurement (Mobo) Total

 

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.

Any increase in recharges (e.g. 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

 

0

Revenues & Benefits (Mobo)

Revenues & Benefits

Administration of Housing Benefits, Council Tax, Council Tax Reduction awards and management of Welfare Support (Hardship) & Rights services.

No new savings opportunities identified. 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 transition of benefit caseload to Universal Credit (i.e. DWP) on which savings are predicated. The service is undergoing restructuring currently and will therefore concentrating on delivering the deferred 2021/22 saving of £0.5m.

0

Revenues & Benefits (Mobo) Total

 

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.

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. Some of the planned Orbis are also not deliverable. The focus will therefore be on managing down pressures created by the 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

 

0

Centrally Managed Budgets

Corporate Pension Costs

Corporate Pension Costs - historic retirement decisions

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

Corporate Debt Management

Debt management practices across the whole council

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

Centrally Managed Budgets Total

 

325

Finance & Resources and Centrally Managed Budgets Total

 

475

 

 

Finance & Resources Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27

 

Profiled Payments 2022/23

Profiled Payments 2023/24

Profiled Payments 2024/25

Profiled Payments 2025/26

Profiled Payments 2026/27

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Approved Schemes

 

 

 

 

 

Wide Area Network - The Link

1.000

 -

 -

 -

 -

New Schemes to be Approved

 

 

 

 

 

Desktop & Laptop Replacement Programme

0.250

1.000

1.000

 -

 -

Managing Staff Changes (Restructure / Redundancy)

0.400

0.400

 -

 -

 -

Modernisation Enablers

0.930

0.940

 -

 -

 -

Invest to Save (4-year plans)

0.450

0.350

 -

 -

 -

Customer Digital

1.550

1.050

 -

 -

 -

IT&D Fund

1.000

1.000

1.000

1.000

1.000

Finance & Resources

5.580

4.740

2.000

1.000

1.000


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

 

 

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:

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:

 

Strategy, Governance & Law Budget Summary

2021/22 Net Expenditure / (Income)

 

2022/23 Budget

2022/23 Budgeted Contracted Staff

Service Area

Expenditure

Income

Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

FTE

(0.037)

Corporate Policy

0.883

(0.106)

0.777

(0.746)

0.031

11.0

0.025

Legal Services

1.939

(0.359)

1.580

(1.702)

(0.122)

47.9

(0.059)

Democratic & Civic Office Services

1.841

(0.093)

1.748

(1.815)

(0.067)

13.1

1.196

Life Events

3.517

(3.575)

(0.058)

1.049

0.991

52.4

0.002

Performance, Improvement & Programmes

0.676

 -

0.676

(0.651)

0.025

18.3

0.106

Communications

0.648

(0.016)

0.632

(0.633)

(0.001)

15.5

1.232

Strategy, Governance & Law Total

9.503

(4.148)

5.355

(4.498)

0.857

158.2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Strategy, Governance & Law 2022/23 Revenue Budget Breakdown

Service Description

Employee Expenditure

Other Expenditure

Total Expenditure

Income From Fees, Charges & Rents

Other Income

Government Grants

Total Income

Total Budget Allocation

Capital Charges & Recharges

Net Expenditure / (Income)

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Corporate Policy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chief Executives Office

0.276

0.013

0.290

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.290

(0.315)

(0.026)

Democratic Services

0.056

 -

0.056

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.056

(0.056)

(0.000)

Policy, Partnerships & Scrutiny

0.328

0.208

0.537

 -

(0.106)

 -

(0.106)

0.431

(0.374)

0.057

Corporate Policy Total

0.661

0.222

0.883

 -

(0.106)

 -

(0.106)

0.777

(0.746)

0.031

Legal Services

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Legal Services

1.977

(0.038)

1.939

(0.237)

(0.122)

 -

(0.359)

1.580

(1.702)

(0.122)

Legal Services Total

1.977

(0.038)

1.939

(0.237)

(0.122)

 -

(0.359)

1.580

(1.702)

(0.122)

Democratic & Civic Office Services

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Democratic Services

0.393

0.120

0.513

 -

(0.069)

 -

(0.069)

0.444

(0.476)

(0.032)

Mayor's Office

0.127

0.015

0.143

 -

(0.024)

 -

(0.024)

0.119

(0.156)

(0.037)

Members Allowances & Training

0.980

0.055

1.035

 -

 -

 -

 -

1.035

(1.035)

0.000

Political Administration Support

0.150

0.001

0.150

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.150

(0.148)

0.002

Democratic & Civic Office Services Total

1.650

0.191

1.841

 -

(0.093)

 -

(0.093)

1.748

(1.815)

(0.067)

Life Events

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bereavement Services

1.014

1.132

2.146

(1.941)

(0.037)

 -

(1.978)

0.168

0.784

0.952

Electoral Services

0.367

0.173

0.540

(0.005)

 -

(0.018)

(0.023)

0.517

0.065

0.582

Land Charges

0.098

0.012

0.110

(0.603)

 -

 -

(0.603)

(0.493)

0.026

(0.467)

Registrars

0.677

0.043

0.720

(0.966)

(0.001)

(0.004)

(0.971)

(0.250)

0.175

(0.075)

Life Events Total

2.156

1.361

3.517

(3.515)

(0.038)

(0.022)

(3.575)

(0.058)

1.049

0.991

Performance, Improvement & Programmes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Performance

0.320

0.029

0.349

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.349

(0.348)

0.001

Programme Management

0.021

0.002

0.023

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.023

 -

0.023

Standards & Complaints

0.296

0.008

0.304

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.304

(0.303)

0.001

Performance, Improvement & Programmes Total

0.638

0.038

0.676

 -

 -

 -

 -

0.676

(0.651)

0.025

Communications

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Communications

0.741

(0.093)

0.648

0.004

(0.020)

 -

(0.016)

0.632

(0.633)

(0.001)

Communications Total

0.741

(0.093)

0.648

0.004

(0.020)

 -

(0.016)

0.632

(0.633)

(0.001)

Strategy, Governance & Law Total

7.822

1.681

9.503

(3.748)

(0.378)

(0.022)

(4.148)

5.355

(4.498)

0.857

 

 

 

 

Strategy Governance & Law Directorate Budget Plan

Section

Service Area

Brief Summary of Budget Proposal/Strategy and Risks

Savings Proposals 2022/23

£'000

Corporate Policy

Chief Executive

Chief Executive

Small reduction in Corporate Training budget

4

Policy, Partnership & Scrutiny (PPS)

Policy, Partnership & Scrutiny including Leadership Support

Savings target £24 K
Options – LGA Subscription – can forgo, and achieve saving of circa £54K
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 bare minimum, and we struggle to maintain anything like a satisfactory service across all areas of Policy, Partnerships and Scrutiny at these staffing levels. By comparison, staffing levels have reduced from 15 in 2012 to 6 currently, a staffing reduction of 60%
Total net budget of £0.377m is also misleading , as currently, £55K is ringfenced for LGA subscription, leaving a total of £0.322m to deliver all 3 service areas.

24

Corporate Policy Total

 

28

Legal Services

Legal Services

Legal Services (Note: income of £0.066m from services to schools has been netted off with gross budget).

Proposal: Use external income generated from undertaking legal work for the LEP (£55k), voluntary reduction in hours (15k), additional income from new income streams (£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 due to change in LEP governance/structures and funding.

85

Safeguarding & Advice (Children & Adults)

Child protection and Adult safeguarding legal proceedings and advice

Proposal: Voluntary reduction in hours (£14k) and replacement of 1 x lawyer with 1 x trainee solicitor (£20k). Strategy: Maintains sufficient service and reflects 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

 

119

Democratic & Civic Office Services

Democratic Services

Democratic Services

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 December with the appointment of a temporary DSO for 12 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.

39

Democratic Services

Democratic Services

Termination of meeting webcasts, to be replaced by posting recorded proceedings on YouTube or other similar platform.

10

Democratic Services

Democratic Services

Proposal: Reduction of Ward budgets from £1,000 per Councillor to £500
Strategy: To support the overall savings requirement but maintain a level of direct support to local communities.
Delivery risk: There will be a need to manage expectations and ensure funding is utilised.

27

Civic Office

Civic Office

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.

6

Civic Office

Civic Office

Proposal: Review Civic Office chauffeur support to Mayor.
Strategy: The Mayor could either self-drive or casual drivers could be used which would have an additional cost implication.
Delivery risk: This would impact on the Civic Office and Mayor who would need to attend engagements and use alternative transport that will have associated costs if review resulted in changes to the current arrangements and the support was not provided in-house. See Staffing EIA S7.

28

Democratic & Civic Office Services Total

 

110

Life Events

Life Events

Bereavement Services

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. (Estimated at £37k) The Coroner's service is exploring a merge of jurisdictions with West Sussex County Council. There are currently interim arrangements in place with a view to a decision on merging to be taken by the Chief Coroner and Lord Chancellor in the spring of 2022. Interim arrangements will continue to be monitored (Savings estimated at £15k). See EIA 13

52

Life Events

Bereavement Services

Additional 40k target achievable through modernisation changes including improvements to software systems and digitised working practices.

40

Life Events

Registrars

Proposed 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 . See EIA 14

14

Life Events

Elections and Local Land Charges

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 £24k. Part of the property search process, including compilation of data from our local property register, transfers to HMLR’. See EIA 15

34

Life Events Total

 

140

Performance, Improvement & Programmes

Performance, Improvement & Programmes (Permanent Budget)

Customer Experience and Customer Feedback, Corporate Performance, Risk Management and Corporate Governance

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. See EIA 16

33

Performance, Improvement & Programmes Total

 

33

Communications

Communications

Communications

While the savings figure for Communications Team in 22/23 is £48k, there is also the need to cut an additional £80k which is pressure funding in 21/22 and £30k Covid pressure funding which will drop out from the budget in 22/23, making a total of £158k 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. See EIA 17

48

Communications Total

 

48

Strategy, Governance & Law Total

 

478

 

 

Strategy, Governance & Law Capital Investment Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27

 

Profiled Payments 2022/23

Profiled Payments 2023/24

Profiled Payments 2024/25

Profiled Payments 2025/26

Profiled Payments 2026/27

 

£m

£m

£m

£m

£m

Approved Schemes

 

 

 

 

 

None

 -

 -

 -

 -

 -

New Schemes to be Approved

 

 

 

 

 

None

 -

 -

 -

 -

 -

Strategy, Governance & Law

 -

 -

 -

 -

 -


Summary of Reserves & Provisions

 

Reserves & Provisions

Description

Estimated Balance as at 01/04/22
£m

Planned Use 2022/23
£m

Estimated Balance as at 31/03/23
£m

General Fund Reserves

 

 

 

General Fund Working Balance/General Reserves

9.000

 -

9.000

General Fund Working Balance/General Reserves - held for specific future commitments

1.038

(0.642)

0.396

Capital Receipts Reserve

13.059

(11.159)

1.900

Capital Reserves (GF)

0.516

 -

0.516

Library PFI Reserve

0.950

(0.020)

0.930

Waste PFI Project Reserve

5.131

0.925

6.056

Section 106 Receipts (Revenue)

0.601

 -

0.601

Section 106 Interest

0.534

 -

0.534

Developer Contributions Unapplied (S106 Capital)

0.422

 -

0.422

Brighton Centre Redevelopment Reserve

1.301

0.152

1.453

ICT Investment Reserve

0.199

(0.199)

 -

Environmental Enforcement Reserve

0.120

 -

0.120

Winter Maintenance

0.285

 -

0.285

Outdoor Events

0.074

(0.074)

 -

Dome Planned Maintenance

0.181

(0.100)

0.081

Hove Park 3G Pitch Renewal

0.015

 -

0.015

Surface Water Management Reserve

0.432

0.039

0.471

BikeShare Scheme Reinvestment Reserve

0.055

(0.055)

 -

Sports Facilities Reserve

0.244

(0.189)

0.055

Licensing - other reserve

0.044

 -

0.044

Taxi Licensing

0.088

(0.010)

0.078

Stanmer Park Parking Surplus

0.100

 -

0.100

East Brighton Parking Surplus

0.020

 -

0.020

Preston Park Parking Surplus

0.237

 -

0.237

Road Works Permit Scheme

0.033

 -

0.033

Overdown Rise Footpath Maintenance

0.020

(0.005)

0.015

i360 Reserve

7.806

 -

7.806

HMO Licensing Fees Reserve

0.384

 -

0.384

HMO Additional Licensing Fees (3)

0.272

 -

0.272

Phoenix House Sinking Fund

0.060

(0.060)

 -

Damage Deposit Guarantee Scheme

0.200

 -

0.200

Cemeteries Maintenance Reserve

0.056

(0.025)

0.031

PRS Rent Deposit Scheme

0.041

(0.041)

 -

Travellers Site Capital Reserve

0.079

 -

0.079

City Deal New England House Dev Reserve

4.568

 -

4.568

Investment Properties (Dilapidations)

0.239

(0.239)

 -

Restructure Redundancy Reserve

0.157

(0.157)

 -

CIL - Neighbourhood reserve

0.100

 -

0.100

CIL - Strategic reserve

0.535

 -

0.535

Total General Fund Reserves

49.196

(11.859)

37.337

HRA Reserves

 

 

 

HRA Working Balance

7.347

(3.900)

3.447

EDB Reserves

0.240

(0.120)

0.120

Renewable Energy Reserve

0.120

(0.030)

0.090

Rent Support Reserve

 -

0.370

0.370

Sustainability works and retrofit reserve

4.010

0.790

4.800

Total HRA Reserves

11.717

(2.890)

8.827

Schools / DSG Reserves

 

 

 

Schools PFI Project Reserve

0.854

(0.185)

0.669

Schools LMS Balances

6.912

 -

6.912

Portslade Adult Learning

0.020

 -

0.020

Total Schools / DSG Reserves

7.786

(0.185)

7.601

TOTAL RESERVES

68.699

(14.934)

53.765

General Fund Provisions

 

 

 

Hostel Accommodation Dilapidations

0.082

 -

0.082

Voluntary Severance Provision

0.288

(0.288)

 -

Insurance Provision

4.326

 -

4.326

Workstyles Dilapidations

0.041

 -

0.041

Total General Fund Provisions

4.737

(0.288)

4.449

TOTAL ALL FUNDS

73.436

(15.222)

58.214


Medium Term Financial Strategy 2022/23 to 2025/26

 

The 2022/23 budget includes £10.318m of savings and short term financial smoothing over the MTFS period of £1.983m to deliver a balanced budget. The Budget Gaps for future years can only ever be a best estimate as resources, demands or budget forecast trends can change significantly with time. However the predicted gaps over the 4 year period indicate that using reserves to smooth over the 4 year period would support mitigating the larger budget gap for 2022/23 and 2023/24 whilst planning for replenishment of reserves in 2024/25 and 2025/26 ensuring the financial position and use of reserves is sustainable over the 4 year planning period.

 

Resource Assumptions:

The government announced a three-year Spending Review for 2022/23 – 2024/25 however this did not translate into a 3 year financial settlement for local government. The government plans to review the funding distribution for local government in time for the 2023/24 financial settlement whilst committing to a £1.6bn increase to core funding for local authorities nationally from 2022/23. It is expected that the redistribution of funding nationally will follow evidence gained through the fair funding review however the options to increase locally retained business rates from its current level of 50% to 75% is not being progressed.

 

Revenue Support Grant (RSG) is assumed to increase by inflation each year. This grant has reduced dramatically during the period 2010/11 to 2019/20 but subsequently has had inflationary adjustments.

Funding for Adults and Children’s Social Care is assumed to increase by £1m per annum through a combination of additional government funding and support through the NHS. This is separate from funding required to support the governments proposed Build Back Better plan for Health and Social Care which is assumed to be cost neutral i.e. government provide all additional funding to cover the additional costs to introduce a cap on individuals personal social care contributions.

 

Inflation and Other Cost Estimates:

A pay award for 2021/22 has yet to be agreed although the final offer from the employers of 1.75% has been reflected in the budget. Future years pay awards are not being discussed until the 2021/22 award is finalised and the council has assumed a 2% pay award in each of the future financial years. The council’s MTFS follows the funding assumptions and announcements made by government as far as they are known. For future years, assumptions are primarily based on long term projections of inflation The budget projections assume the council implements a revised minimum salary scale that exceeds the Living Wage Foundation’s minimum wage for 2022/23 .

The triennial review of the East Sussex Pension Scheme for the period 2020/21 to 2022/23 was completed in December 201. This review reduces  the contribution of 20.3% in 2021/22 to 19.8% in 2022/23. No assumptions of further change have been included beyond 2022/23.

There is provision for general price inflation ranges between 0% and 2% depending on the type of budgeted expenditure with the exception of the Waste PFI where a prudent 3.5% increase has been assumed until 2022/23. Increases in costs above assumed inflation levels will be managed through services’ budget strategies unless the increase is significant and is identified as a corporate budget pressure.

The New Homes Bonus (NHB) scheme is planned to be replaced in 2023/24. The scheme is likely to include harder targets to achieve. The planning assumption is the grant received in 2022/23 will cease with no assumption for new funding at this stage. This position will be updated once the government consult on a replacement scheme.

 

Corporate Plan Investments and Priority Service Pressure Funding

The 2022/23 budget includes over £15m investments to support the Corporate Plan, in particular, growth in demand and increases in costs across Children’s and Adults Social Care services, and Homelessness, as well as a small number of financial pressures across all other services. In addition, £2.233m has been allocated on a one off basis to support short term pressures relating to Covid.

 

Investment levels in services from 2022/23 have been included for the key projected demographic and cost increases or income reductions but these will be kept under review. These projections include £1.031m recurrent revenue funding in 2023/24 to support strategic priorities included within the Corporate Plan.

 

Predicted Budget Gaps (Savings Requirements):

In 2023/24, the budget gap is projected to be £7.0m with the overall gap for the MTFS period 2023/24 – 2025/26 to be £18m.

 

MEDIUM TERM FINANCIAL STRATEGY TABLES

 

Core Planning Assumptions

 

The table below sets out the core planning assumptions included in the MTFS projections:-

 

Summary of MTFS Assumptions

 

2022/23

2023/24

2024/25

2025/26

Pay inflation and pay related matters:

 

 

 

 

 - Provision for pay award

2.0%

2.00%

2.00%

2.00%

 - Employers pension contribution rate change

-0.50%

-0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

General inflation:

 

 

 

 

 - Inflation on non pay expenditure

0.0% - 2.0%

0.0% - 2.0%

1.0% - 2.0%

1.0% - 2.0%

 - Inflation on waste PFI

3.50%

2.00%

2.00%

2.00%

 - Inflation on income

1.50%

3.00%

3.00%

3.00%

 - Inflation on parking income

1.50%

3.00%

3.00%

3.00%

 - Inflation on penalty charge notices

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

Resources:

 

 

 

 

Change in Settlement Funding Assessment

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

Change to Revenue Support Grant (RSG)

3.10%

2.00%

2.00%

2.00%

Business rates poundage inflation uplift

4.90%

2.00%

2.00%

2.00%

Assumed council tax threshold increase

1.99%

1.99%

1.99%

1.99%

Adult Social Care Precept

1.00%

1.00%

1.00%

0.00%

Council Tax Base Growth

1.91%

0.75%

0.75%

0.75%

Summary of MTFS projections

 

The table below sets out the savings /budget gap taking into account the anticipated expenditure over the MTFS period and the funding resources available:-

 

Summary of General Fund Budget Projections

Medium Term Financial Strategy

2022/23

2023/24

2024/25

2025/26

£m

£m

£m

£m

Sub-total Net Budget Requirement B/Fwd

219.722

199.853

239.768

251.418

Remove net one off short term MTFS smoothing funding from reserves

 

1.983

1.403

-0.876

Standard inflation - Pay and prices

6.569

7.276

7.910

8.059

Costs of new National insurance/Care levy

0.963

 

 

 

Changes to pay including adjusting for the 2021/22 pay award, pay negotiations and market supplements

5.047

 

 

 

Standard inflation - Income

-1.286

-2.664

-2.851

-2.935

Changes to S31 grants and reserves relating to Business Rates Retention reliefs

-31.141

30.828

1.142

-0.170

Changes to financing costs

-2.468

0.891

1.851

0.849

Removal of one off Covid 19 grant allocation

8.023

 

 

 

Expected unringfenced grant reductions

 

0.883

0.100

0.090

New funding for social care from government/NHS

-7.922

-1.000

-1.000

-1.000

Investment in modernising IT & Digital services

0.500

0.500

0.500

 

Other changes to commitments

0.912

0.320

0.251

0.118

Changes to 3 year collection fund smoothing

 

0.297

1.468

0.000

Demographic and cost pressures

12.125

7.750

6.000

5.250

Corporate Priorities/Carbon Reduction investments

0.958

1.031

 

 

contribution from Reserves MTFS smoothing

-1.983

-1.403

0.876

2.510

Repay Covid 19 one off costs from 2021/22

0.152

 

 

 

Repay Covid 19 one off costs from 2022/23

 

0.223

 

 

Savings Programme

-10.318

 

 

 

Savings programme - operational buildings

 

-0.250

-0.500

-0.500

Savings programme - Service redesigns and digital efficiencies

 

-0.500

-0.750

-0.750

Budget Gap (Savings Requirement)

 

-6.250

-4.750

-3.718

Budget Requirement C/Fwd

199.853

239.768

251.418

258.345

Funded by:

 

 

 

 

Revenue Support Grant

6.877

7.014

7.154

7.297

Locally retained Business Rates

51.038

65.667

68.064

70.002

Business Rates Collection Fund Deficit

-19.564

-1.207

0.000

0.000

Council Tax Collection Fund Deficit

-2.150

-1.520

0.000

0.000

Council Tax - Adult Social Care Precept

1.588

1.650

1.695

0.000

Council Tax - Including 1.99% General increases

162.064

168.164

174.505

181.046


Glossary of Terms

Budget Allocation - This is the financial limit for each service unit’s budget excluding charges for support services and capital financing.

 

Budget Requirement - Total expenditure (after deduction of income) that the Council can finance from Revenue Support Grant, Business Rates and Council Tax.

 

Business Rates - Business rates are taxes to help pay for local services. They’re charged on most non-domestic properties including shops, pubs, offices and factories.

 

Business Rates Local Share - The council is responsible for collecting business rates income in Brighton and Hove. Under the Business Rates Retention Scheme, the council is allowed to retain 49% of the business rates income it collects. Of the remainder 50% is paid over to central government and 1% to East Sussex Fire Authority.

 

Business Rates Tariff Payment - A payment to Government to reflect the level of business rates retained locally that is above the baseline funding level calculated by a Government funding formula.

 

Capital Charges & Recharges - Includes depreciation (cost of fixed assets consumed during the year) and support services charges in respect of administrative and professional services and office accommodation charged to a particular service. These charges are outside of a service unit’s budget allocation.

 

Capital Investment Programme - Spending which produces an asset, enhances or improves an asset, or extends the useful life of an asset e.g. the cost of building a school or purchasing a vehicle.

 

Capital Receipts - Income received from the sale of capital assets.

 

Contingency - The council’s contingency budget includes provision for costs which are likely to occur but for which the estimated cost cannot be adequately foreseen at the time of setting the budget.

 

Council Tax - The main source of local taxation to local authorities and is levied on households within its area by the billing authority.

 

Council Tax Base - Represents the amount that would be raised by setting a £1 council tax on a Band D property. The budget to be funded by council tax is divided by the tax base to determine the amount of council tax to be levied. Band D is a property valuation band commonly used to specify the average council tax.

 

Council Tax Reduction Scheme - The Council Tax Reduction scheme is a local scheme that replaced the national Council Tax Benefit on the 1st April 2013. Council Tax Reduction is support for those on low incomes with the cost of their Council Tax. If Council Tax payers are eligible for support their council tax bills are reduced.

 

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) - The Dedicated Schools Grant is payable to local authorities by the Department for Education. It is a ring fenced specific grant and must be used in support of the Schools Budget as defined in the School Finance (England) Regulations 2008. It can be used for no other purpose.

 

Direct Revenue Funding -Resources provided from the revenue budget to finance the cost of capital projects.

 

Financing Costs - Capital expenditure is financed by loans, Government grants, external contributions, direct revenue funding, and capital receipts. The revenue budget bears the cost of direct revenue funding, together with interest and the provision for repayments of these loans.

 

General Fund - This is the main revenue fund of the council. The day-to-day transactions are conducted through this fund, other than sums to be paid into the Collection Fund or a trust fund.

 

Government Grants - Contributions by central Government towards either the revenue or capital cost of services.

 

Housing Revenue Account (HRA) - The Local Government and Housing Act 1989 requires each local housing authority to keep a Housing Revenue Account within its General Fund to account for income and expenditure on council houses and flats.

 

Levies - Other public bodies may levy the council by making a demand on the council tax requirement. The two organisations that levy the city council are the Environment Agency and Sussex Inshore Fisheries and & Conservation Area.

 

Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) - This is the Councils financial projections and spending plans for future years for both the capital and revenue budget. The current MTFS provides financial projections to 2023/24.

 

New Homes Bonus - A government grant which is aimed at encouraging local authorities to increase the number of homes in their area.

 

Reserves & Provisions - Reserves are set aside to finance future expenditure for purposes falling outside the definition of provisions. Provisions are made for liabilities of uncertain timing or amount.

 

Revenue Expenditure - The day to day spending on running and providing services e.g. salaries and wages or the running costs of a building such as heating and lighting.

 

Revenue Support Grant - A general government grant to support the General Fund expenditure.

 

Ringfenced - This term is used for the Government controls to prevent discretionary transfers between the Housing Revenue Account and other accounts of the General Fund. It is also used to refer to grants which are awarded to the council on the condition that they are spent on a particular area or project.

 

S75 - Agreements, regarding the pooling of resources, made under Section 75 of the Health Act 2006 between the City Council and National Health Service partners. The City Council has in place a Section 75 agreement for the provision of adult social care services.

 

Third Sector - A collective term for charities, voluntary and community organisations, and social enterprises.

 

Transfer Payments - Payments made to individuals for which no service or goods are exchanged – examples include housing benefit payments or carers’ allowances.

 

Value for Money (VFM) - A council-wide programme for ensuring our services can demonstrate economy, efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of services, particularly when compared with similar providers or authorities.