CQ026-17 from Councillor Luke Clancy Councillor Simon Hall When and where will you publish the description of your plans to spend the adult social care precept? Reply The DCLG requires all Local Authorities to publish their plans on their website. Initially the requirement from DCLG was to publish this information within 21 days of setting the Authorities Council Tax. This requirement has changed and we are now required to publish details in line with our RA (Revenue Budget Return) to DCLG which is the 19th April 2017.
CQ025-17 from Councillor Margaret Bird Councillor Louisa Woodley The Public Health Department had 50 posts under the previous Director and I understand this has now been cut to 35 with a further reduction of 14 according to the budget papers. How will you be able to deliver this service with only 21 staff? Please list which public health contracts are to be reduced and give an idea of the current value versus the projected value. Reply responsibility for most public health functions transferred from Croydon Primary Care Trust to Croydon Council in April 2013 we have considered how best to discharge those functions. This includes staff posts funded through the public health grant. 38 staff members transferred from the PCT to the council on 1 April 2013. These included business support staff for the public health team as well as specialist public health practitioners. On the advice of the Director of Public Health we have decided that the council can most effectively deliver improved public health outcomes with a combination of a specialist public health team reporting to the Director of Public Health and a range of other posts across the council either supporting or delivering public health outcomes but accountable to other directors. For example, public health commissioners and public health intelligence posts now sit within Commissioning and Improvement, business support staff are now based within the council’s business support function, finance officers within the finance division and work as ‘one team’. At this point in time the core specialist public health team reporting to the Director of Public Health comprises 24 posts (21 full time equivalents). There are also 15 posts delivering public health outcomes reporting to other council directors within the People and Place departments. There are a further 20 posts wholly or partly supporting delivery of public health outcomes including commissioners, public health intelligence, communications, finance and business support posts. These are now located in the Resources department. The 2017/18 public health budget has been completely rebased. This makes direct comparison with the 2016/17 budget shown in the budget book difficult. Movement in the 2017/18 budget reflects a number of factors including adjustments to reflect actual levels of spending in 2016/17 (either higher or lower than original budget), service efficiencies, reconfigurations and service redesign. The overall reduction in the public health budget between 2016/17 and 2017/18 totals £724,000 (a 3% overall reduction - in line with reductions in government grant funding). All public health contracts are currently subject to a review. This review will provide a clear