On track to save more than £1m

Slough: Plan for children’s services and adult social care

Slough Borough Council is preparing to make millions of pounds worth of savings within its children’s services and adult social care budgets as it continues to dig itself out of its financial mess.

A people scrutiny panel on Monday saw two presentations on the cost saving exercises the authority is pursuing to help repair the under-pressure sectors.

In children’s services, councillors learned that SBC is on track to save more than £1million this financial year, but it was also revealed the service is experiencing a range of pressures.

One is the council’s provision of Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) services, which has seen ‘major sustained weaknesses across the system since 2014’, said director of children’s services Andrew Fraser.

Another issue for the team is the impact of closing a series of children’s centres in Slough, which ‘would have a detrimental effect on the levels of need across communities’.

For the next financial year, a savings target of £1.1million has been proposed, with the repurposing of children’s centres into family hubs generating an additional £407,000.

Mr Fraser also updated members on the figures for Slough Children First (SCF), a company wholly-owned by SBC to provide services to children and families.

As with the council’s children’s services, the company is ‘on target to deliver budgeted savings’ worth more than £1million in 2021/22, including ‘service reductions’.

Mr Fraser told the panel that SCF is also experiencing pressures such as increased demand and workforce issues, adding that whilst the latter had ‘slightly improved’, it was still looking to lower its reliance on agency staff which make up 35 per cent of the workforce.

SCF interim director of operations Carol Douch said that 11 new permanent faces had started in their roles since November, and that a target had been set to reduce agency staff to about 20 per cent within six months.

In 2022/23, SCF proposes to save £4.7million, although more than £2million is ‘at risk’ due to concerns over whether all of this can be achieved.

Monday’s meeting also heard about the series of savings SBC is attemping to make within its adult social care sector.

Alan Sinclair, executive director of people and adults, said that a target of £3.8million in 2021/22 was ‘progressing well’ and that his team was looking to save an additional £5.9million in 2022/23. This has involved a number of hard decisions, most notably the closure of all adult social care provider services, generating £1.1million.

Members of the panel heard that this involved the closure of a series of residential and respite care services, with 108 people using them and 52 staff employed.

The report said: “Most people have alternative services in place to meet their needs [and] some families have chosen not to have a new assessment or service at this time.”