Contact: Gordon Shinn, (01962) 847545; [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This report sets out the current status of the 2008/09 Revenue Budget following approval by the Cabinet and the County Council.

1.2 Proposals for the use of new grant funding streams are set out for approval by the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services (Education).

2 Recommendations

The Executive Lead Member for Children's Services (Education) is recommended to:

1 Agree the proposed use of new government grants as outlined in this report.

2 Agree the changes to the 2009/10 and 2010/11 Schools Budget proposals agreed by Schools Forum.

3 Introduction

3.1 The medium-term budget for 2008/09 to 2010/11 was considered by the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services (Education) on 23 January. Detailed budget proposals were agreed for submission to the Cabinet, including a request for an additional one-off investment of £1.4m in in-house foster care services (to be repaid in 2010/11).

3.2 These budget proposals have subsequently been approved by Cabinet and by the County Council. In addition to the proposals submitted the County Council agreed an extra £150,000 for Children's Services to facilitate local support and co-ordination for the developing programme of children at the centre of the community.

3.3 The report to the Executive Lead Member for Children's Services (Education) on 23 January set out some further issues that required reporting back on, as follows:

· Connexions Grant for 2008/09, 2009/10, and 2010/11. These figures were unknown.

· Proposals by the Ministry of Justice to implement `full-cost' charges relating to the implementation of the Public Law Outline for children in care cases. Essentially the consultation document referred to this additional financial burden as having been reflected in the Revenue Support Grant calculations for local authorities. However, at that time there was no provision in the County Council's provisional RSG settlement and costs were estimated to be in excess of £400,000 per annum.

· New government grants relating to new `burdens' for which the budget assumption is that expenditure will be incurred to meet the new requirements. These grants are:

Grant	2008/09	2009/10	2010/11
	£000	£000	£000
Area Based Grants:
Care Matters	560	757	869
Child Death Review Processes	109	112	116
LINks (Local Involvement Networks) Adult Services & Children's Services	378	379	381
Specific Grant
Aiming High for Disabled Children	70	1,397	4,560

3.4 The grant covering the transfer of the Connexions Service has still to be announced for Hampshire County Council. Further discussions are taking place to resolve outstanding issues, which largely relate to possible liabilities that the County Council may be required to pick up.

3.5 Following successful lobbying of the Government an amount of £563,000 has been added to the County Council's RSG for 2008/09 in respect of Public law Family Fees. This has been added to the Children's Services budget.

4 New government grants - proposed use

Care Matters

4.1 Detailed guidance is awaited on use of the grant monies from the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), although the grant is not ring-fenced as it is part of the Area Based Grant. The White Paper, Care Matters: Time for Change, sets out expectations in the following areas:

· Corporate Parenting. A Care Council and a Pledge for Children in Care

· Family and Parenting Support. Effective care planning and support to relatives to apply for a residence order

· £500 personalised educational allowance for every child in care at risk of not reaching the expected national standards of attainment

· Care placements. Improving support to those placed out of area, improving skill for foster carers.

· Promoting health and well being. Named health professionals, improved sex and relationship counselling., access to leisure and positive activities

· Transition to adulthood. Supporting care leavers up to 25 in education, allowing young people to remain with foster carers until 21 and national bursaries for higher education.

· Role of the Practitioner. Access to independent visitors and to advocates.

· First Class Education. Priority in school admissions, no disruption to schooling in years 10 and 11, designated teachers, £500 per annum to support children in school, reducing absence and exclusion.

4.2 It is proposed to create a half time post to drive forward the developments needed for care matters: to support additional data collection requirements around emotional well being; to make additional funding available to support permanence and adoption; to increase the capacity within the Parent Partnership to support carers where children have special educational need; to support children in care who are not in Hampshire schools and therefore do not benefit from the Dedicated Schools Grant allocation; to create funds to support young people with interests and talents outside of school; and to improve access to independent visitors and advocates for young people in care:

4.3 Changes may need to be made when the guidance is available and so it is not proposed at this stage to set out funding for subsequent years.

Child Death Review Processes

4.4 The Children Act 2004 sets out the requirement for the creation of Child Death Review Panels. The purpose is to provide a rapid response to the deaths of children and to assess the avoidability and preventability of deaths and form a local view of the contributory factors. The new processes put in place systems for collecting and analysing information about each childhood death (0-18 years) with a view to: identifying any case that gives rise to the need for a Serious Case Review; any matters of concern affecting the safety and welfare of children in the area; and any wider public health or safety concerns arising from a particular death or from a pattern of deaths. There are two elements: first, to offer a multi-disciplinary `rapid response' to evaluate all unexpected deaths and second, to establish multi-disciplinary Child Death Overview Panels (CDOP) that will meet at regular intervals to evaluate all deaths of children and young people in a given locality.

4.5 The proposal to set up a Child Death Overview Panel for Portsmouth, Hampshire, the Isle Of Wight (IOW) and Southampton will include:

· Appointment and remuneration of the chair

· Training for the panel members and other agencies

· The appointment of the coordinator to arrange for the collation of notification of child deaths, for the collection of agencies' information for the panel, for the dissemination of key documents to the panel members and for the administration of the meetings

· Awareness raising - in form of a parent leaflet and the production of an annual report

· Awareness raising - to professional; and public via media, publications etc

· Resultant campaigns - it is planned that once local intelligence is gathered about preventable deaths, Local Safeguarding Children's Boards (LSCB's) and combined LSCB's will carry out publicity campaigns to raise public awareness of risk and prevent/reduce future risks to children

4.6 Funding for the four Local Safeguarding Children Boards' combined Child Death Overview Panel is anticipated to be as follows:

LSCB	£000
Southampton	32
Hampshire	109
Isle of Wight	18
Portsmouth	26
Total	185

4.7 Spending profiles recommended by the four LSCBs are as follows:

LINks (Local Involvement Networks)

4.8 A report by the Chief Executive, which sets out the requirements of this legislation (principally to procure a host organisation in order to establish a LINk for their area to replace current NHS specific arrangements for engagement and participation), was submitted to the Executive Member for Policy and Resources on 7 December 2007. That report also detailed the actions taken to date and the issues to be addressed. Approval was given for the additional funds to be spent through the County Council's procurement process.

4.9 It is not proposed at this stage to make firm proposals to the Executive Member for the use of this funding. There is currently a consultant employed to make recommendations to the Council and the Primary Care Trust, on the appropriate response to the guidance.

Aiming High for Disabled Children

4.10 £70,000 is to be made available in 2008/9 to support consultation and service developments, primarily around short breaks. The Executive Member for Children and Families, at the last decision day, approved proposals to consult on the short break services and the following summarises proposals to support development activities:

· Additional tendering and contract support - £10,000

· Additional support to consultation and service planning - £40,000

· Consultation events, materials and administration - £5,000

· Additional support to separate care management and integrated service delivery project - £15,000

4.11 The disabled children charter has been launched and consultation on Aiming High has commenced. A service development strategy will be developed later in 2008/09 for implementation in 2009/10.

4.12 The grant is ring-fenced within the Sure Start Early Years and Childcare Grant and is subject to the terms and conditions within that grant. However, there is no restriction on the target age group.

4.13 In addition to the revenue grant there is also a capital grant that should be used for equipment, building adaptations and new facilities that will support disabled children's short breaks. The grant is £681,000 in 2009/10 and £1,588,000 in 2010/11. There is nothing for 2008/09.

5 Schools Forum proposals

5.1 At its meeting on 24 January 2008 Schools Forum agreed to use additional funds within the headroom available in 2009/10 and 2010/11 arising from the lower than budgeted teachers' pay award in those years, as follows:

· 2009/10 - £601,000 for pay and benefits

· 2010/11 - £890,000 for general deprivation.

6 Consultation

6.1 Members are involved with the development of Care Matters through the work of the Corporate Parenting group.

6.2 At her last decision day, the Executive Member for Children and Families agreed a consultation programme on Aiming High for Disabled Children. This is rolling out over the coming year.

7 Legal implications

7.1 None.

8 Financial implications

8.1 The financial implications are contained within the proposals in Section 4.

9 Personnel implications

9.1 The report outlines proposals that may include appointment to new posts. These will be included in the department's workforce plan.

10 Impact assessment

10.1 The proposals contained in this report are not considered to be discriminatory .

11 Crime prevention issues

11.1 None.

12 Views of the Local County Councillor

12.1 No specific consultations or views sought.

13 Conclusion

13.1 It is not possible to set out in detail proposals for the use of the new government grants, particularly beyond 2008/09. However, the report outlines the main areas of focus planned for 2008/09.

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background documents

The following documents discuss facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1. Published works.

2. Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act. - none

None