Issue - meetings

That the actions being taken by Flintshire’s Supporting People team to manage the reduction in the 2015/16 Supporting People Programme Grant to protect, as much as possible, housing support services for vulnerable residents, be noted.

The Team Manager - Advice & Homeless Service introduced an update on work being undertaken to put appropriate measures in place to manage the reduction within the 2015-2016 Flintshire Supporting People Programme Grant to protect service delivery as much as possible.

Table 1 of the report highlighted year on year reductions in the grant for Flintshire, culminating in a 10.4% reduction (£659,026) for 2015/16 with further cuts expected for 2016/17.  Major concerns about the negative impact of these cuts on budgets for other services had prompted a review of service provision by remodelling existing services.  Table 2 in the report set out identified efficiency savings of £649,000 for 2015/16 across five service areas.

Councillor Peter Curtis requested that the information in Table 2 show the current budget figures for each service area.  The Chief Officer (Community & Enterprise) agreed to provide the Committee with percentage cuts for each area, along with the full commissioning plan once discussions with service providers had been completed.

Councillor Hilary Isherwood asked if there was any rationale behind the more substantial reduction in funding for the grant in 2015/16.  The Chief Officer explained that work in redistributing the grant across Wales had impacted more negatively on North Wales, with similar levels of cuts expected for 2016/17 onwards.  She added that this remained a ringfenced budget in Wales and stressed the need for all Council in Wales to make representations to the Welsh Government to highlight the importance of this grant due to the positive effect that these services could have in reducing expenditure on acute services.

Following a request by Councillor Isherwood for a breakdown of Supporting People Programme Grant cuts for Wrexham and Denbighshire Councils, the Chief Officer agreed to provide this information in relation to councils in North and South Wales over the past few years.

RESOLVED:

That the actions being taken by Flintshire’s Supporting People team to manage the reduction in the 2015/16 Supporting People Programme Grant to protect, as much as possible, housing support services for vulnerable residents, be noted.