Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Guildhall, Swansea. View directions

Contact: Liz Jordan 01792 637314

Items

No.

Item

Disclosure of Personal and Prejudicial Interests.

www.swansea.gov.uk/disclosuresofinterests

Minutes:

No disclosures of interest were received.

Child and Family Services Draft Budget Proposals

Invited to attend are Cllr Will Evans and Cllr Elliott King, Cabinet Members for Children’s Services and relevant Social Services officers.

Link to Cabinet Papers for 14 February 2019, which contain the budget proposals (papers should be available online from 7 February 2019).

Minutes:

Councillors Will Evans and Elliott King, Cabinet Members for Children’s Services, Dave Howes, Chief Social Services Officer and Julie Thomas, Head of Child and Family Services went through the proposed budget proposals in relation to Child and Family Services highlighting the main issues and answering questions.

Summarising Views and Making Recommendations

The Panel is asked to discuss and agree its views and recommendations on the budget proposals in relation to Child and Family Services which it would like to make to Cabinet.

The conveners of each of the performance panels will feed in the views of their panel to the Service Improvement and Finance Performance Panel which meets on 12 February and has been convened to specifically look at the draft budget. Chris Holley, Convener of the Service Improvement and Finance Performance Panel will then attend Cabinet on the 14 February to feed in the collective views of the scrutiny performance panels.

Minutes:

The panel agreed the following views and recommendations on the budget proposals in relation Child and Family Services it would like to make to Cabinet:

No real concerns as far as budget is concerned. All questions were answered at the meeting.
Although pleased to see budget for CFS is increasing next year, we understand that it is not increasing in real terms as the increase is to cover increases in salary and accommodation costs.
The Panel acknowledges that it is difficult to forecast what is going to transpire during the year as it is a demand driven service.
The CFS Panel will continue to scrutinise the Service going forward and make suggestions and recommendations for improvement.

Following on from this meeting:

The convener will feed in the views of this Panel, along with the conveners of the other panels to the Service Improvement and Finance Panel which meets on 12 February. The convener of the Service Improvement and Finance panel will then attend Cabinet on 14 February to feed in the collective views of the scrutiny performance panels and write a letter to the Cabinet member.