Issue - meetings

A permanent financial virement authority of £454,580 of out-of-county residential locations' budget for funding in-house [EW(1] provision as part of developing the Small Group Homes scheme.

The report was submitted by Cllr. Elin Walker Jones

DECISION

A permanent financial virement was authorised of £454,580 from the out-of-county residential placements' budget for funding in-house provision as part of developing the Small Group Homes scheme.

DISCUSSION

It was reported that the Council had a duty to provide sufficient residential placements for looked-after children. It was explained that the Council’s financial procedures allowed financial virement between headings in a department's budget. However, it was emphasised that the Cabinet needed to approve the transfer of a higher sum than £200,000. Details were given that there was a need to advertise permanent jobs to register the homes with Care Inspectorate Wales. It was noted that there was a need for permanent funding to manage to do this.

It was reported that developing the residential provision through the Small Group Homes Scheme was a priority in the Council Plan 2023-28. It was also noted that the Placement Strategy for Looked-after children addressed the range of placement provisions needed to achieve statutory duties by detailing that 80% of Gwynedd fostering placements were provided through an internal provision.

It was acknowledged that there was no residential provision currently for looked-after children in Cyngor Gwynedd's ownership and that all the placements used by the Council came from external providers, with 92% of them being private providers. It was detailed that 76% of current residential placements were outside Gwynedd, with 46% of those in North Wales and 30% outside Wales. ⁠It was explained that the demand for residential placements were high, and the current supply did not address the demand.

It was explained that the Council's expenditure on out-of-county residential placements was £6 million within the 2023-24 financial year. It was acknowledged that this was significantly higher than the budget of £5.53 million. ⁠It was noted that the task of funding out-of-county residential placements could be unforeseen as the cost varied between placements. It was emphasised that out-of-county residential placements' budget represented 50% of the whole budget for the looked-after children's placements.

It was confirmed that developing the submitted plan in the report would be an opportunity to save costs and ensuring that children in residential placements could stay locally, be part of the community and receive education within the County. It was detailed that the residential placement annual average cost was £330k. It was noted whilst setting a budget of £454,580, there was a potential annual saving of around £215k per Small Group Homes with 2 children in a placement. It was confirmed that there would be no full expenditure of the budget this year as £255k of grant money was ensured through the Regional Integrated Fund.