Archived decisions

HAMPSHIRE COUNTY COUNCIL

Decision Report :

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

1) Summary of Decision Area:

1.1. This report seeks approval for submission of the proposed capital programme for 2009/10 to 2011/12 to the Leader and Cabinet.

1.2. The report has been prepared in consultation with the Executive Member and will be reviewed by the Safe and Healthy Select Committee. It will be reported to the Leader and Cabinet on 6 February 2009 to make final recommendations to County Council on 19 February 2009.

2) Issues Covered in Report:

2.1. The report considers the schemes which it is proposed to include in the capital programmes for 2009/10, 2010/11 and 2011/12.

2.2. The proposals contained in this report are derived from the departmental service plan(s) which have been developed to support the priorities of the Corporate Strategy.

3) Recommendations:

It is recommended that:

3.1. The capital programme for 2009/10 to 2011/12, attached, be approved for submission to the Leader and Cabinet.

MAIN REPORT

1) Purpose of the Report:

1.1. This report sets out the proposed Adult Services capital programme for 2009/10 to 2011/12. This report has been prepared in consultation with the Executive Member and will be reviewed by the Safe and Healthy Select Committee. It will be reported to the Leader and Cabinet on 6 February 2009 to make final recommendations to County Council on 19 February 2009.

2) Contextual Information:

2.1. In approving the medium term financial strategy on 27 October 2008, the Cabinet requested that executive members prepare proposals for:

· a locally-resourced capital programme for the three-year period from 2009/10 to 2011/12 within guidelines that spread the existing capital programme for 2009/10 and 2010/11 over three years. This is in recognition of the sharp decline in the expected availability of capital receipts over the next three years as a result of the condition of the housing market

· a programme of capital schemes supported by Government grants or supported borrowing in 2009/10 and 2010/11 and those expected to be supported in 2011/12, subject to limits restricting the take-up of Government supported borrowing approvals.

2.2. The medium term financial strategy is closely linked to the Corporate Strategy and the Corporate Business Plan to ensure that priorities are affordable and provide value for money and that resources follow priorities.

Key Issues

3) Locally resourced capital programme:

3.1. The cash limit guidelines for the locally resourced capital programme for the Adult Services service set by Cabinet are as follows:

		£000
	2009/10	700
	2010/11	470
	2011/12	585

3.2. The guidelines include an addition of 2.5% for inflation, in line with the non-pay inflation assumption for the revenue budget.

4) Proposed capital programme 2009/10 to 2011/12 - locally resourced schemes:

4.1 The Adult Services capital programme for locally resourced schemes is principally in accordance with, and continues to prioritise, those elements reported to Cabinet in February 2008. It reflects the corporate aims of maximising well being, Hampshire safer and more secure for all and enhancing our quality of place. It includes the following:

· Various IT systems and projects needed to meet government requirements and targets and

· Other spending in relation to inescapable demand factors such as essential minor works and extra care housing.

· The detailed programme is shown in Appendix 1 and expenditure for 2009/10 is summarised in the table below:

5) Capital programme supported by Government allocations:

5.1. As the Government has previously announced details of its support for capital schemes in 2009/10 and 2010/11, the cash limit guidelines for the programme supported by Government borrowing allocations for those years remain unchanged. They continue to allow for not taking up Government supported borrowing in full based on the existing policy of limiting the increase in the capital financing requirement to 2.5% per annum, subject to the specific decisions taken in 2008/09 to support additional borrowing.

5.2. Details of Government support for projects in 2011/12 will not be known until after the Government's Spending Review expected in 2009, but Cabinet has agreed that programmes for 2011/12 can be planned provisionally, where this is appropriate, on the basis of the best information available on potential future levels of support after taking account of the policy of limiting the increase in the capital financing requirement. On this basis, the proposed programme for 2011/12 is based on the cash limit for schemes supported by Government borrowing allocations for 2010/11 and is nil for Adult Services.

5.3. The cash limit guidelines for the capital programme supported by Government borrowing allocations are as follows.

		£000
	2009/10	-
	2010/11	-
	2011/12	-

5.4. These guidelines are supplemented by capital grants expected from the Government, as follows.

		£000
	2009/10	2,184
	2010/11	612
	2011/12	-

6) Proposed capital programme 2009/10 to 2011/12 - schemes supported by Government allocations:

6.1. The proposed programme for 2009/10 is summarised below and attached.

		£000
	Extra care housing grant	1,592
	Mental Health grant	291
	Social care infrastructure	301
	Total	2,184

6.2. In 2008/09 the government announced a £3.184m grant to support an Extra Care Housing scheme at Basingstoke working with partners: Basingstoke & Deane District Council, HPT, and Saxon Weald Homes Housing Association. The project will produce a scheme of 64 flats with integrated support and care, linked to a specialist dementia day centre and a bespoke health and wellbeing facility. This grant was to be paid over two years. The £1.592m grant in the table above is the second and final instalment. The project will be tightly managed in view of the current economic climate.

6.3 The capital grant of £291,000 relates to ongoing Government support for mental health capital expenditure in relation to responsibilities under the mental health national service framework. This expenditure is linked to the Corporate Strategy of maximising well being. In 2008/09 capital grant replaced the former borrowing approval extra allocation.

6.4 The social care infrastructure grant of £301,000 relates to Improving IT infrastructure to support Hampshire's Information Sharing strategy and integration with partner organisations including Health. This covers procuring, developing and implementing greater IT network and systems capability to meet future performance requirements for social care IT including Electronic Social Care Record (ESCR) and Common Assessment Framework (CAF).

6.5 In addition, capital grant of £731,000 has been awarded for 2009/10 and 2010/11 for the Single Capital Pot designed for general capital use. It already underlies the capital programme's allocations to Adult Services and to P&R programmes - such as capital repairs - which support Adult Services. 

7) Capital programme summary:

7.1. On the basis of the position outlined above, the total value of the capital programmes submitted for consideration for the three years to 2011/12 are:

8) Revenue implications:

8.1. The revenue implications of the proposed capital programme are as follows:

8.2. The total revenue implications for the three years of the starts programme, including capital charges, represent a real term increase of 0.05% over the 2008/09 original budget of Adult Services service.

9) Other Factors

9.1 The £2m transferred from revenue to capital in 2008/09 is embodied in the 2008/09 capital programme primarily for extra care housing and plans for spending it are in place. Of the £2m transferred from revenue £1.5m is for locally resourced  Extra Care Housing. £750,000 of this has been earmarked for a scheme to secure the development of 50 new high quality Extra Care apartments within a single Extra Care development for people in Gosport with housing, support and care needs. £600,000 is for the Extra Care Housing scheme at Basingstoke (see para 6.2). A further scheme at Denmead is being proposed. The remaining £500,000, transferred from revenue, is planned to be spent on fire precautions and other improvements in residential settings.

9.2 As previously reported, the County Council is in the process of integrating its learning disability services with those provided by the NHS Hampshire Partnership Trust. The County Council is the designated lead agency for this programme, which follows on from the previous successful merger of mental health services. Service integration will be supported by joint working of staff teams and sharing accommodation in office bases. Where possible this will be achieved by relocating staff within premises already owned and occupied by the two agencies. It is apparent though that for a number of reasons, e.g. the expiry of existing lease agreements, this will not be possible in all areas of the County.

9.3 The two agencies have agreed to share the responsibility and cost of establishing new / alternative facilities. Costs will be both one-off, to undertake any necessary adaptations for example, and on-going, such as rental payments. The nature and level of these costs, which are potentially significant, will vary in each circumstance and cannot be accurately estimated in advance. It is anticipated, however, that it will be possible to accommodate them within existing budgetary provision through the use of contingencies and the virement of existing funds. Further reports will be submitted as necessary and as the costs of local solutions become clearer.

10) Conclusions

10.1 The capital programme has been prepared within the resources guidelines and reflects the priorities of the service, in particular extra care housing provision.

11) Recommendations:

11.1. Please see the Executive summary for the recommendations.

CORPORATE OR LEGAL INFORMATION:

COMPREHENSIVE RISK & IMPACT ASSESSMENT:

Adult Services budgets are targeted at the most vulnerable in society. How budgets are used have a significant impact on the most excluded. The operational directors have lead responsibility to ensure that impact assessments take account of the needs of these groups. The Head of Finance is a member of the Departmental management team, and part of her role is contribute to these impact assessments. This Capital programme report provides information on the capital spending plans of the Directorate and will contribute to better outcomes for all.