Madam Mayor,
Thank you for the opportunity to speak on the budget this evening. For Adult Social Care we are able to present a balanced budget and in fact have achieved an underspend for the current year, which has taken a significant amount of time and effort by officers and their teams.
Whilst significantly difficult decisions have had to be made, which are outlined in these papers, such as the closure of Cherry Hub Garden Centre the Mayor and the cabinet are committed to protecting statutory services for the most vulnerable and elderly in our borough. And this was highlighted in the council tax survey as a top priority for residents.
Coming to the point at which we took office we have started to unravel the complete and utter mess left by the previous administration much of which I highlighted in my speeches here at council when in October 2016 there were overspends of 7million in the department, in January 2019 I highlighted the complete lack of structure and governance within the directorate and then again on 2 March 2020 highlighted the disaster that was engulfing this council.
It has been a priority for me to unwind the complexities within the directorate’s budget and install good governance and oversight of every single area of service and operation.
Starting with the way in which care packages are delivered to our most vulnerable residents, for which there was no real understanding of what the resident required or needed and as a result we were the highest London authority in terms of cost per client. This figure has now been brought under control more in line with other London authorities and we are now 7th, but have some way to go.
There had been no true understanding of how the Public Health budget operated within other parts of the council budget and more importantly there were key risks attached to funding streams that would never materialise. This is now reported on regularly so we all have an understanding of the impacts and flows.
A number of key transformation projects are underway – highlighted in the appendix, on transitions, reablement and hospital discharge, placements, domiciliary care and mental health as well as a focus on Assurance and review of our Safeguarding data. A full review of the community equipment company is being undertaken to ensure we are getting best value for money. All our contractual arrangements and strategic policy commissioning is also under review.
All of this was completely ignored by the previous Administration and what is apparent is that unless you truly understand what lies beneath the numbers you will never be able to deliver the best services and value for the residents of Croydon.
All of this has been corrected and certainly for Health & Adult Social Care we are in a far better position with all these controls in place.
I support the budget.
