Briefing Note

Warwickshire County Council Budget 2007/08

Liberal Democrat Group Proposals

A County for the People

Headline Information

• Independence, well-being and choice - £4.16m: P.2

Warwickshire's older and disabled population continues to grow in size placing additional resource pressures on our Adult, Health and Community Services Directorate. We are allocating additional funds to help break into this vicious cycle of care. Our aim is to modernise adult services and deliver an independence, well-being and choice agenda for Warwickshire's most vulnerable residents.

• Supporting and empowering young people - £2m: P.4

We are investing in the development of preventative services, which provide help and support to vulnerable children and their families at an early stage. We are also providing additional resources direct to Warwickshire's Area Youth Forums and Youth Parliament to spend on projects and initiatives targeted to help break the cycle and problems of disaffected young people in our communities. Our aim is to ensure that the young people of Warwickshire achieve their full potential and become active members of their local community.

• Safer and greener communities - £200k: P.9

The fear of crime is a constant message that Liberal Democrats will seek to tackle. We are allocating resources to Warwickshire's Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships, to be targeted at the development of Neighbourhood Watch within each district of the county. We are also are investing directly into initiatives which will help prevent alcohol abuse and enable a real difference to be made in Warwickshire.

Climate change is here and Liberal Democrats want to see real change and real action being taken to tackle this major issue. We will invest-to-save in energy efficient projects and encourage the take up of initiatives, which will reduce our carbon footprint.

• Accessibility to transport - £200k: P.10

Access to transport is a growing concern for many of Warwickshire's young people. We intend to make a start on tackling this issue by investigating the feasibility of a introducing a concessionary travel scheme for the county's 16-19 year-olds. It is our view that an accessible transport system makes for a fairer, more inclusive society.

Introduction

This briefing paper details the funding priorities of the Liberal Democrat Group for the 2007/08 budget of Warwickshire County Council. It highlights the key revenue pressures and the investment proposals that we will fund, why we are choosing to make these allocations, and the benefits that these extra resources will have on the County.

The priorities outlined in this paper are drawn from our vision that Warwickshire should be a county that invests in its children, cares for its vulnerable and is a place where people can grow old in comfort and security. The investments we propose are a means of achieving this vision.

Our council tax increase to fund this budget will be 4.95%, which equates to an additional 95 pence per week on a band D property. This will enable us to meet our vision for an ever-improving sustainable Warwickshire - a county for the people.

This year's budget has once again been put together within a highly unsatisfactory resource position. The Government has increased Warwickshire's grant settlement by only 2.7% - this is the minimum that local authorities can receive. In real cash terms this only amounts to a 1.9% increase

Our Priorities

The financial pressures facing Warwickshire's Adult, Health and Community Services Directorate continue to grow year on year. The following points illustrate why we are investing over £4 million into the service (on top of pay and price inflation):

The present position isn't a satisfactory base to create a situation in which social care for the elderly can grow and thrive.

All this evidence only serves to prove how important it is that we invest a considerable amount of money into our Adult, Health and Community Services.

In last years budget (2006/07), we allocated £1 million to adult services; the Labour Group made provisions of £500k; and the Conservative Group initially failed to recognise that any additional investment was needed at all. If our budget had gone through, adult services would be in a better position than they are now. Our total allocations for this coming financial year and the current financial year amount to over £5m, which is much more than the other 2 political parties have allocated.

This year's allocation of just over £4 million aims to break into the vicious circle of care faced by the Directorate. The money will help achieve the following PAF indicators and targets:

• 200 increase in the people provided with intensive home care
• 100 increase in the number of adults with disabilities helped to live at home
• 2,000 increase in the number of older people helped to live at home
• 140 increase in people receiving direct payments
• 600 increase in carers receiving a carers service

Arts-for-health projects - £50k

Building on from our theme last year, we are allocating additional money to each Area Committee to spend on projects which aim to improve the health and well-being of Warwickshire residents - particularly younger people, older people and people with disabilities. We recognise that arts and cultural projects contribute to reducing health inequalities, whilst at the same time they help to promote community development and partnership working.

An allocation to support libraries, learning and culture - £50k:

The base budget for the old libraries and heritage department has been overspent for a few years - this has not been addressed and can no longer be sustained. Whilst we recognise that the service is high spending compared with other shire counties, not dealing with this overspend is not going to help. Money will just continue to be used to balance the budget rather than to be invested in new initiatives to help modernise the service, reduce spending in the long-term and improve value for money.

Improvement of the stock of minority language and older people's books - £40k:

In recognition of the increasing number of different languages spoken in Warwickshire, we are allocating additional money to help improve the stock of specialist books in libraries across the county. This allocation will also improve the stock of books for older people in response to the demographic changes.

We value the library service and recognise the importance of ensuring that it is inclusive and that all groups within Warwickshire have access to literature that is appropriate and interesting. Libraries are at the heart of the community and are not just a place for borrowing books, but a place where people can meet, learn and access information. Libraries help build cohesive communities.

An allocation to develop frontline Youth Work - £50k:

We recognise the valuable service carried out by our Youth Workers in contributing to the achievement of teenage pregnancy targets, improving school attendance and reducing youth offending. We are therefore allocating additional money to help modernise the youth service and free up the time of our Youth Workers so that they can concentrate more on front line youth work and provide a better service to Warwickshire's young people. At the moment, much of their time is spent on collecting information, data returns and financial management. The additional funding will mean that the time spent on service delivery by our Youth Workers will increase by up to 25%, and up to 1,000 more young people in targeted communities, will be provided with support.

An allocation direct to Warwickshire's Area Youth Forums - £50k:

What better way to empower Warwickshire's young people than to give them a direct allocation of money for them to spend on initiatives and projects brought forward to them by young people in their local area. We will give £10k to each Area Youth Forum and ask them to spend it on projects and initiatives specifically aimed at empowering disadvantaged and disaffected youths.

This initiative will help Warwickshire to achieve the following LAA indicators:

• (Sa6) Build respect in communities and reduce ASB.
• (CYP7) Reduce the fear of crime experienced by young people.

The roll-out of Enhanced Support Services across the County - £300k:

Early intervention is key to preventing families from reaching crisis point and for improving outcomes for children. The first Enhanced Support Services Network started in September 2006 in the Rugby Area. It brought together schools, social services, Police, Health and voluntary and community sector organisations. We are committed to seeing this network rolled out across the county.

Our allocation will support the delivery of the following outcomes:

• More accurate identification of need through Common Assessment Framework (CAF)
• Multi-agency response to meeting need involvement in family support meetings
• Outcomes measured against CAF action plan
• Greater engagement and satisfaction by service users
• Reduction in bureaucracy, duplication, frustration by practitioners in schools and services
• Clarity established about pathways of support and care between mental health services and universal/targeted services for children, young people and families
• Attendance at school and extended school by targeted groups
• Reduction in anti-social behaviour by service users

Development of the Children's Information Service - £50k:

The aim of the Warwickshire's Children's Information Service is to provide free, confidential and impartial information to parents and carers about childcare and early education options available to help them make informed childcare choices. The service can also provide information about other family matters such as tax credits, lone parents and teenage pregnancy. Service staff are all trained to deliver Parent Direct - Impartial Information and advice on working parents rights and flexible working.

Our allocation will help develop this valuable service and help it to meet new legislative requirements, particularly those that have come out of the Childcare Act 2006. The Childcare Act 2006 has broadened the existing duty on local authorities to ensure that information is available to parents of children and young people aged up to 20 - rather than 16 as it was before; and to ensure that information is accessible to fathers, as well as mothers, and to disadvantaged and excluded groups. Local authorities are also required to provide a 'brokerage service' targeted to assist parents who have not been successful in finding suitable childcare and to assist those who might find it difficult to access the help they need.

The funding will help towards the provision of high quality support to parents and carers. Evidenced by:

• number of parents/carers accessing services, and % positive feedback
• number of parents accessing information through the outreach service
• number of parents using the childcare brokerage service with a successful placement

An allocation to support the Assessment, Statementing and Review Service - £100k

This additional money will help the service to continue supporting children with special education needs (SEN) along with their schools, teachers and parents. This service is vital for ensuring that children and young people with SEN have access to the curriculum and achieve their full educational potential.

The money will support achievement towards the following indicators:

• BVPI 43a and 43b, which relate to the percentage of statements of SEN issued by the Authority within 18 weeks.
• School exclusions indicator CH39.

Extension of the Family Group Conferencing service - £40k:

Warwickshire's Family Group Conferencing service was first established in December 2004. Family group conferences are decision-making forums that focus on the welfare of the child. They enable local authorities to work in partnership with families and communities, recognising the knowledge and expertise of all parties. Family group conferences seek to empower families to make choices and decisions about their life. The process aims to strengthen families whilst at the same time respecting and affirming each family's unique experiences.

The service has proved to be successful in engaging families to work together for the best interest of their child.

Our allocation will extend access to this service to children at risk of exclusion from school. It will help towards achievement of the following outcomes:

• An additional 20 families would use the service each year
• Training in solution focused work with schools
• Clear criteria for referral for the service
• Clear differentiated model of delivery in FGC
• Target % of children and YP accessing the service with positive feedback
• Monitoring of the success rate in reducing exclusions and increasing engagement in school

Corporate Parenting - £100k:

As councillors we have a special duty to ensure that the needs of Warwickshire's looked after children are being met and prioritised so that they are able to achieve the best outcomes in life that they can.

Unfortunately, although outcomes for children in care have improved in recent years, there remains a significant and widening gap between these and the outcomes for all children. For example, nationally, only 11% of children in care attained 5 good GCSEs in 2005 compared with 56% of all children, and similar performance gaps exist at all ages both before and after Key Stage 4. Furthermore, the long-term outcomes of children in care are also devastating. They are overrepresented in a range of vulnerable groups including those not in education, employment or training post-16, teenage parents, young offenders, drug users and prisoners.

This situation is unacceptable and needs to be addressed urgently. Our allocation will enable a number of initiatives to be developed as part of Warwickshire's Corporate Parenting Strategy, which was agreed by the Council in December 2006. Specifically, it will enable better support to looked after children at key transition periods and at times when they face key challenges. We will ensure that these children and young people feel secure and supported, and are encouraged to have full and fulfilled lives that raise their self esteem and confidence.

The following indicators, as specified in the Corporate Parenting Action Plan, will benefit from the additional funds:

• PAF C19 - health of looked after children
• APA CH39 - Number of looked after children
• PAF A1 - Short term stability for looked after children
• PAF D35 - Long term stability for looked after children
• PAF C23 - Children adopted from care
• PAF B7 - looked after children in foster care placements or placed for adoption
• PAF 68 - Timeliness of looked after reviews
• PAF A2 - GCSEs for young people leaving care 16+
• PAF C24 - Children looked after absent from school
• PAF C69 - Distance children newly looked after are placed from home
• PAF C18 - Final warnings and convictions for looked after children
• PAF C63 - Participation in looked after reviews
• PAF A4 - Employment, education and training for care leavers at age 19

An allocation to support Leaving Care Services - £175k:

Linked to the previous allocation, Warwickshire's Leaving Care services are facing particular pressures due to the rising mean age at which care leavers are becoming independent. In 2001, there were 112 care leavers eligible for ongoing support; by 2005 this had risen to 139 - an increase of 24%. Demand is expected to continue increasing, particularly with the Care Matters Green Paper, which is proposing to support young people living with their foster families up to the age of 21.

Our allocation will contribute to the delivery of new legislative requirements, and will help towards the achievement of the following targets:

• PAF A2 - GCSEs for young people leaving care 16+
• PAF A4 - Employment, education and training for care leavers at age 19

The Education Social Work Service - £50k:

Warwickshire's education social work service comprises a number of responsibilities that have expanded due to further government legislation. As a result, the Division's existing resources are being placed under increasing pressure. These areas of pressures include:

• Attendance and the requirement to provide strategic support to schools
• Dealing with the rise in school exclusions
• Responsibility for children missing from, or at risk of missing, education
• Supporting an increase in home educated students
• Administering increasing numbers of child employment applications and theatre inspections

Our allocation will support the service and help them to make gains against the following performance indicators:

• Key DfES outcome:
• Reduction of school absence
• Outcomes identified in the Children and Young People's Plan:
• Promote good patterns of attendance in education
• Increase the attendance of traveller pupils
• Reduce exclusions and ensure that there is sufficient education for permanently excluded pupils
• Ensure children in Warwickshire feel safe from bullying
• Identify children who are without education, or at risk of falling out of education

Additional Sessional Workers - £15k:

This allocation will fund the creation of 2 part-time sessional workers to assist with the implementation of the teenage pregnancy strategy. They will specifically work with young men, offering one-to-one support and group sessions on contraception and sexual health concerns. They will develop this work across the county, targeting those areas with the highest rates of teenage pregnancy, and working towards the achievement of the following indicators:

• To reduce the rate of under 18 (15-17 years) conceptions by 15% by 2004 (not yet achieved) and by 50% by 2010.
• To reduce the social exclusion experienced by young parents with a specific target to encourage and support young parents into education, employment and training.

Development of the Integrated Disability Service - £100k

This allocation will help mainstream and extend the Keyworking service for disabled children with complex needs, and ensure delivery of a coordinated, multi-agency approach. It will also help extend the use of direct payments, which enable a more flexible and creative response to meeting the individual needs of disabled young people and their carers.

The key deliverables will be:

• Easier access to services through a single point of contact.
• Reduction in family stress levels.
• Increased numbers of 16 + 17 year old disabled young people taking responsibility for their care through direct payments.
• Increased numbers of families receiving an integrated package of care and support.

Development of the Educational Psychology Service - £50k

Warwickshire's Educational Psychology Service is under increasing pressure due to a rise in the number of exclusions and the number of children with special educational needs and behavioural difficulties. This additional funding will develop the capacity of the service and help it to implement the Behaviour Strategy, agreed by Cabinet on the 7^th December 2006.

The key benefits will be:

• A year on year reduction in school exclusions
• Extra capacity in schools and in the Educational Psychology Service
• Greater staff awareness for Early Years through to Secondary education.

An allocation to support young athletes in Warwickshire - £10k

There is currently no long-term mechanism at county level to support Warwickshire's talented young athletes. Our allocation will help to develop a strategy and will support between 5 and 20 young people in Warwickshire each year in the lead up to the 2012 Olympic Games.

Support for a young persons concessionary travel scheme - £100k:

Access to transport is a growing concern for many young people in the county. Those aged 16 and over are particularly disadvantaged because in most cases they are no longer eligible for child fares on buses and trains, and yet many are still in full-time education. Furthermore, as the cost of learning to drive increases it becomes ever more important to provide affordable, accessible transport to enable young people to get out and about.

These issues were highlighted in a presentation to Cabinet by Warwickshire's Members of the Youth Parliament on the 7th December 2006. The UK Youth Parliament is currently leading a campaign to get a national concession card for all young people under the age of 18 in full-time education. They believe that reduced fares would make buses more accessible and would provide more opportunities for young people to access leisure facilities etc.

Other County Councils, such as Hertfordshire and Derbyshire, have already made progress on this issue and have their own concessionary travel schemes for young people up and running. We want to see Warwickshire going down the same path and taking a more sustainable and fair approach to post-16 travel. It should not be limited to those that are just in education.

This money will fund a feasibility study into how Warwickshire can best meet the travel needs of its' young people. The money will then be available the following year to support the implementation of the outcome of the study.

Post-16 Transport - £100k:

The Lib Dems are allocating £100k to post-16 transport to enable the service to continue until the results of the feasibility study and a more sustainable approach to post-16 travel can be established.

An allocation to Warwickshire's CDRPs - £100k

The latest data shows a significant increase in crime across Warwickshire, including theft from vehicles, criminal damage, domestic burglary and domestic violence. This does nothing to ease the community's fear of crime, which is already a major issue across the county.

Lib Dems are committed to taking effective action to make our communities safer. We are allocating additional funds to Warwickshire's Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships to specifically work to develop Neighbourhood Watch schemes across the county.

Neighbourhood Watch is a useful tool to help people prevent and reduce the fear of crime in their communities by means of improved home security, greater vigilance, accurate reporting of suspicious incidents to the police and by fostering a sense of community spirit. It is particularly helpful to the more vulnerable members of the community.

An allocation to the Swanswell Trust - £50k:

Alcohol consumption and alcohol related illnesses are increasing at an alarming rate. For example, according to the Office for National Statistics, the number of alcohol-related deaths has more than doubled from 4,144 in 1991 to 8,386 in 2005.

A recent paper presented to the Children, Young People and Families O&SC (15^th Jan 07) has also revealed that alcohol consumption amongst young people is growing at particularly alarming rate. In England alone, 48% of men and 39% of women aged 16 to 24, drink above the daily recommendation.

We are allocating additional money to support the Swanswell Trust and help them maintain and develop the valuable service they provide to those in Warwickshire who misuse alcohol or have relatives or friends that do so.

The Swanswell Charitable Trust provides a Community Alcohol Service for Warwickshire and has done so for 18 years. Their aim is to help reduce the harm associated with alcohol misuse. They offer free services to people who are concerned about their own drinking or that of a family member, friend or colleague. They have a successful history of working in partnership with Warwickshire's GPs. At present, the service is projecting a funding shortfall of £50,000 required to maintain services at their current level. This is partly due to the withdrawal of funding from Warwickshire's DAT.

The following statistics identify just how important it is that we continue to support the Swanswell Trust:

An allocation to tackle nuisance youth and anti-social behaviour - £30k:

We are giving £6k to each Area Committee Social Inclusion Fund for them to support projects and initiatives that will specifically help tackle nuisance youth anti-social behaviour issues in their local area.

An allocation to replace highway trees in Warwickshire - £20k:

A report to the Environment O&SC on the 18th January 2007, revealed that there aren't enough new trees to replace the current maturing stock on Warwickshire's highways. As a result, some areas are suffering from a prolonged period of non-replacement.

A budget of £20,000 would facilitate the replacement of about 50-60 trees per year, including the costs of planting and early maintenance. Whilst this is only a small amount, such initiatives will help to reduce our carbon footprint.

Better metering of electricity, gas and water usage - £300k (capital):

We are allocating £300k for the installation of smart gas, electricity and water meters. At a time when energy prices are increasing at a fast rate and climate change is upon us, we need to do more to keep our energy usage as low as possible to make savings and reduce our carbon footprint.

Contact Information:

Cllr Jerry Roodhouse

Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group

Warwickshire County Council

Tel: 07768 058353

cllrroodhouse@warwickshire.gov.uk

or

Cllr Sarah Boad

Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group

Warwickshire County Council

Tel: 01926 339822

cllrboad@warwickshire.gov.uk

5^th February 2007