Agenda item

LIST OF BACKGROUND PAPERS AS REQUIRED BY LAW

(Papers relied on to write the report, which do not contain exempt information and which are not published elsewhere)

Decision

RESOLVED

To agree the use of uncommitted fee income and reserves to fund the proposed additional posts within for the revised ‘People Services’ service grouping and to earmark the uncommitted fee income and the required level of reserves to support the funding of the structure for the next 2 years.    

Reasons for the decision:

To provide capacity to deliver an enhanced service in support of the Corporate Plan objectives and maximise the opportunities to lever in external funding and income to expand the offering further

The Portfolio Holder for Housing and Benefits, Cllr Fredericks, introduced this item. She said that following the creation of a new ‘People Services’ directorate, the Assistant Director had identified a number of challenges and opportunities for the service and had proposed changes to the structure, including additional posts, to provide capacity to deliver an enhanced service in support of the Corporate Plan objectives and to maximise opportunities to lever in external funding and income. She thanked the officers for their hard work in preparing the report.

Cllr Gay, seconded the proposals, saying that the report provided a clear portrait on what would happen and how it would benefit residents.

Cllr C Cushing said that it was proposed to allocate £0.5m into management roles when the focus should be on streamlining and creating efficiency. He said that this was the wrong direction and asked the Portfolio Holder how it could be justified. Cllr Fredericks replied that it was being funded from money that was already held in reserves. The service area in question dealt with the general public on a daily basis and requests for support had increased considerably during the pandemic. The proposed structure sought to address this growth in demand and provide help more quickly.

The Assistant Director for People Services said that the majority of funding for the service came from Government and the proposal set out how it could be spent in the most effective way by bringing several services together. The focus now would be on prevention rather than crisis management.

Cllr E Withington said that she was supportive of the proposals.

Cllr V Gay referred to paragraphs 1.9 and 1.10 which set out how the proposals would enable the Council to attract additional funding and generate income.

Cllr Cushing asked whether performance targets would be put in place to measure the benefit of the money spent on salaries for the new posts. The Assistant Director for People Services replied that targets were set for key areas such as preventing homelessness, reducing the number of people in temporary accommodation and ensuring that homeless people could be housed in the District rather than beyond. She added that it was hard to put metrics against social benefits but the focus was on quality and helping those facing complex situations.

Cllr J Rest asked whether it was possible to provide information on how many people were currently being assisted with all of these services and how many more would be helped with an increase in staff and funding. The Assistant Director for People Services replied that such figures were reported on a monthly basis in meetings with the Portfolio Holder and via the Council’s performance management system.

The Deputy Leader, Cllr Seward, said that paragraph 3.2 set out how success would be measured and this had been requested by Cabinet. He said that the service was currently struggling to deal with a rise in homelessness and not being able to process Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) promptly. He added that currently, too much of managers’ time was being spent on casework.

The Leader said that the Administration took their responsibilities towards residents very seriously.

It was proposed by Cllr W Fredericks, seconded by Cllr V Gay and

RESOLVED

To agree the use of uncommitted fee income and reserves to fund the proposed additional posts within for the revised ‘People Services’ service grouping and to earmark the uncommitted fee income and the required level of reserves to support the funding of the structure for the next 2 years.    

Reasons for the decision:

To provide capacity to deliver an enhanced service in support of the Corporate Plan objectives and maximise the opportunities to lever in external funding and income to expand the offering further