Draft budget shows rising care demand
Borough: Charges for meals on wheels delivery among cost savings
The Royal Borough has laid out its draft budget for 2023/24 – laying out what it wants to build up and what it may have to cut to save money.
The council looks to be spending less than in last year’s (2022/23) budget, in large areas of council responsibility including adults and housing, and children’s services.
The same is true in ‘place’, which covers planning, highways, transport and infrastructure.
The total expenditure on services proposed for this draft budget is set at about £88.8million, which is £950,000 less than last year’s.
Some of the pressures the Borough is facing in adult social care and children’s services are:
▪ An increase in the number of adults requiring both residential and nursing care
▪ A shortfall for the nursing and residential block contracts
▪ The level of income from people paying for their care remains below budget
The Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) funding has also been reduced by 20 per cent each year since 2019 and external grant opportunities ‘have ceased’.
This is going to impact The Information Advice and Support Service – which provides support to disabled and special needs young people and their carers.
Another hit to the council’s finances comes from taxis. There has been a ‘significant reduction’ in licence renewals of hackney carriages.
Savings in social services
A lot of the savings the borough is looking to make are in adult social care, where much of the budget is spent.
The borough is looking to facilitate more support for people in their own homes and in the community, to keep people living independently as long as possible.
It is also looking to start charging delivery costs for meals on wheels. Those receiving it already pay for meals but the council pays for delivery.
In children’s services, the council is looking to phase out ‘exceptional provision’ of home-toschool transport over the course of five years.
Instead, it wants to provide the service at the statutory level, ie the legal minimum it has to.
The borough is also looking at a reduction in the youth offending team and the removal of some family support worker posts.
It proposes limiting the offer to vulnerable children to only time-limited interventions ‘which reduce the immediate risk of serious harm.’
Another reduction is the removal of all nonstatutory Family Hub services. The health visit service would remain as the main offer.
Savings in other services
The draft budget proposes a ‘review’ of the operation of parks. This includes considering charging for public conveniences.
On the car parking front, the borough suggests reviewing its policy of subsidised parking, as well as the parking enforcement near two schools.
It is also considering ‘additional opportunities for charging’, looking at free parking on Sundays and management of the Riverside car park.
The Borough may also increase the use of cashless parking, using the RingGo app.
For waste, the council is looking to review waste transfer station opening times, or possibly introduce a re-use ‘shop’ at the household waste recycling centre.
Large investments
As well as its revenue budget, which covers the yearly spending to maintain services, the draft papers also include a capital programme.
This looks at investments into long term projects which introduce or improve services.
The aims include:
▪ Bring in more than 3,000 new homes by 2026, of which at least 1,000 will be affordable
▪ Decrease number of households in temporary accommodation to less than 100 by April 2025
▪ Increase in full fibre to 95 per cent of properties by 2025; eliminate 4G ‘not-spots’ in rural areas and establish a small-cell rollout for 5G
▪ Deliver new and enhanced community and youth facilities, including at Blackamoor Lane, Larchfield and Windsor
▪ Increase walking and cycling by 50 per cent by 2025, investing in new cycle infrastructure
▪ Increase the number of bus journeys per head of population, and passenger satisfaction
▪ Spend £1 million on reducing emissions through energy efficiency improvements
▪ Increase recycling to 50 per cent of waste by 2025.
Capital bids
The borough is also looking at infrastructure improvements funded by grants. These include improvements to Maidenhead town centre costing around £150,000, to
‘better facilitate trips into and around town by bike and on foot’.
Another avenue is road safety schemes, worth £200,000. These include pedestrian crossings, traffic calming and speed limit reviews.
Around £50,000 would ‘resolve ongoing problems’ with electrical cables. There are 61 assets with faults caused by ‘damaged and ageing’ private electrical cables.
About £200,000 will go to ‘essential improvements’ to council car parks. This will include works to improve the lifespan of structures ‘as well as improving safety’.