Adult social care and health
Total - £14,545,293 ongoing, £2,306,000 one-off, £22,830,000 inflation ongoing contingency, £673,000 inflation one-off contingency.
Demographic growth
£5,711,000 ongoing.
Demographic growth pressures remain in adult care due to a number of factors including an increase in the 65 and over population, more disabled adults accessing services, an increase in the complexity of cases and the increasingly complex needs of young people transitioning from children's services to adult care.
Home First – new hospital discharge arrangements
£5,000,000 ongoing.
Changes introduced to facilitate rapid hospital discharge have increased activity and spend in adult care. Previously funded by government, this funding ceased on 31 March 2022. New hospital discharge grant funding for 2023-24 has since been announced but the grant conditions have yet to be published. It is possible that the funding may mitigate some of this pressure.
Independent Living Fund (ILF)
£2,534,293 ongoing.
In 2015 local authorities in England became responsible for supporting clients previously supported through the ILF. The government originally committed to providing funding until 2019-20. One-off grant support was then provided by government at the same cash level from 2020-21 to 2022-23. The provisional settlement for 2023-24 announced that this ring-fenced grant is being rolled up into the Social Care Grant from 2023-24, at the same cash level. The council is providing additional ongoing funding of £2,534,293 to the adult social care and health base budget to reflect the roll up of this grant.
Invest to save costs
£1,175,000 ongoing.
This reflects additional project, professional and technical resources to deliver transformation including a proposed revised co-funding policy, increasing the uptake of direct payments to promote choice and control, implementation of new online tools for the self-assessment of needs and financial assessments, and commissioning reviews. The amount requested reduces in future years of the medium-term financial plan reflecting delivery of projects.
MOSAIC revised hosting arrangements
£125,000 ongoing.
Additional contract costs of the core case management system for adult and children's social care. This reflects revised hosting arrangements. A further pressure of £375,000 is also built into the 2024-25 budget to reflect the full year contract variation.
Derbyshire Discretionary Fund (DDF)
£2,006,000 one-off.
The DDF is a financial assistance scheme to residents of Derbyshire who meet eligibility criteria. The scheme has catered for significant additional demand using time-limited COVID-19 funds including the Household Support Fund. A review of the scheme is being undertaken with a view to aligning the level of assistance to the original base budget. The recently announced extension of the Household Support Fund into 2023-24 may mitigate some of this pressure but the council's allocation has yet to be announced.
Social care reform
£300,000 one-off.
The charging aspect of social care reform has been deferred. However some aspects of the system reform are continuing and will require one-off financial resources to implement including readiness and preparation for the adult care new inspection regime.
Inflation - contract fees paid to care providers
£22,830,000 inflation ongoing contingency.
There is an annual process to determine the inflation uplift payable to independent sector care providers. The calculation is based on an existing fee model with the key factors being the increase in the National Living Wage (9.7% for 2023-24) and the impact of average earnings growth and CPI across other non-care wages and running costs (estimated at 9% for 2023-24).
Inflation - transport and catering supplies
£673,000 inflation one-off contingency.
This reflects the additional inflation pressure associated with transport and catering contracts for directly provided care settings.
Children's services
Total - £1,844,000 one-off, £3,903,263 inflation ongoing contingency.
Special needs (SEND) home to school transport
£1,084,000 one-off.
The number of children with SEND support is increasing year on year, leading to growth in the number of children eligible for special needs home to school transport.
Social workers
£400,000 one-off.
To fully fund the frontline social work structure and the market supplement, without the need to hold a level of vacancies which would be counter-productive in meeting the statutory demands to help, protect and care for children in Derbyshire. The market supplement payment for social workers in frontline children's social work teams was introduced in July 2019 to support the council's recruitment strategy. A review has commenced to consider a future resolution to the impact of pay on recruitment and retention of social workers.
Elective home education
£360,000 one-off.
Since the pandemic, nationally and locally there has been a large increase in the number of electively home educated (EHE) children. Funding to extend the EHE team to meet statutory functions to manage applications, determine whether there are any safeguarding risks and assess whether their education is suitable.
Inflation - home to school transport
£1,811,000 inflation ongoing contingency.
To fund the rising cost of bus and taxi contracts as a result of fuel price increases and other changes within the transport market.
Inflation - children's social care
£2,092,263 inflation ongoing contingency.
To fund inflationary uplifts in allowances paid to carers, placement fees and other support services. Additional one-off support will be provided in-year if required.
Corporate services and transformation
Total – £1,908,867 ongoing, £3,252,000 one-off, £5,663,000 inflation one-off contingency.
Legal services – staffing budget deficit
£952,000 ongoing.
To ensure the Legal Services salaries budget meets the costs of the current structure.
Legal services – child protection
£850,000 ongoing.
Jointly endorsed pressure by legal services and children's services to secure funding to cover the budget deficit for children in care proceedings.
Organisation, development and policy – leadership development programme
£300,000 one-off.
The funding will enable the second year of the council's leadership development programme. This programme will enable and upskill our leaders to understand their role in leading their teams within a high-performance culture and support the facilitation of cultural transformation across the council.
Organisation, development and policy - business partnering hub and spoke transformation model
£180,000 one-off.
Aligned to the creation of the new transformation and strategy division, this funding will enable the training for employees in Prince2, MSP and MoP to equip them with the right skills to ensure the council delivers projects efficiently and successfully.
Organisation, development and policy - Vision Derbyshire annual contribution
£87,000 ongoing.
The funding is to support the ongoing implementation of the Vision Derbyshire approach in particular the funding of the programme team.
Food safety enforcement
£19,867 ongoing.
The provisional settlement for 2023-24 announced that this grant is being rolled up into the Revenue Support Grant from 2023-24, at the same cash level. The council is providing additional ongoing funding of £19,867 to the corporate services and transformation base budget to reflect the roll up of this grant.
Corporate property - disposal professional fees
£446,000 one-off.
To instruct property agents and solicitors required to deliver capital receipts for the forecasted 5-year disposal programme, a plan to deliver revenue budget savings through the rationalisation of the council's property assets which may involve selling or relinquishing leases of those assets. Additional resource to support with tracking, reporting and general technical responsibilities to ensure retained professionals can focus on value added opportunities.
Corporate property – demolition budget
£550,000 one-off.
To replenish the corporate revenue demolition budget, which is already fully committed for this financial year with projects in progress, to enable demolition work to continue on identified and agreed surplus and operational sites so that sites can either be redeveloped for operational purposes (for example new schools) or in the case of surplus assets, sold on the open market for an enhanced value. The demolition of surplus assets will also ensure that outcomes of the ASCH (adult social care and health) housing, accommodation and support strategy 2019-2035 can be delivered.
Corporate property – asset valuations and fees
£324,000 one-off.
Additional fees required to meet the statutory requirement to value the council's property asset base including the newly introduced IFRS 16 valuations. Current in-house team is suffering from significant recruitment issues and unable to achieve the 2023/24 valuations without additional support from external agencies.
Corporate property – commercial appraisal officers
£229,000 one-off.
Development appraisal team required to accelerate asset appraisals, determining deliverable options for property assets identified during the asset challenge process, enabling faster decision-making regarding best consideration for the council and quicker realisation of value for the council. These posts would be essential for the delivery of the accelerated programme of asset rationalisation, where outsourcing this advice is time consuming and expensive.
Corporate property – carbon reduction for corporate buildings
£400,000 one-off.
To support the carbon reduction programme for corporate buildings.
Corporate property – CCTV installations/rationalisation
£179,000 one-off.
To implement outcomes of CCTV governance investigations in order to bring the council into a position of compliance with the Information Governors Code of Practice.
Corporate property – decommissioning, dilapidations and staff relocations
£501,000 one-off.
To decommission buildings that are closing and being disposed of. This includes relocating staff, services and data, clearing sites of unwanted furniture and equipment, reduction or closing off utilities, boarding up, additional security measures for vacant premise, or any dilapidations for rented premises.
Corporate property – project co-ordination pool
£143,000 one-off.
To add additional resource for internal projects to achieve the asset rationalisation programme.
Inflation – property running costs
£5,663,000 inflation one-off contingency.
To cover increased property running costs including utility costs.
Place
Total - £4,090,000 ongoing, £3,661,000 one-off, £6,308,000 inflation one-off contingency.
Elvaston masterplan
£50,000 ongoing, £340,000 one-off.
The Elvaston masterplan requires targeted activity to develop and test the business case for the masterplan. This will help ensure sustainable and commercially viable solutions are secured for the estate. The planned work includes preliminary studies, assessments and design work to identify the costs, requirements and potential return on investment.
Highways revenue/reactive maintenance
£2,000,000 ongoing, £2,500,000 one-off.
Current budgets within the highways service were set on an historic organisational structure with an income target that is not achievable with the current level of staff resource. As the highways authority the council has a statutory duty to maintain highways. Reactive maintenance is necessary whereby the council is required to attend to defects on the highways and in response to emergency situations such as flooding. The highway service operates an out-of-hours service and is developing procedures to allow quicker response times. Neglecting this duty can lead to claims against the council for damages. The current delivery model is being reviewed under the ongoing work in the 'Derbyshire Highways Programme' (formerly the 'Future Highways Model').
Bus companion service
£150,000 ongoing.
Residents of Derbyshire who qualify can apply for a Gold Card which is valid for free travel on buses at specified times. This is a national scheme, and the terms are laid down in statute. Introducing a companion service will allow a discretionary service to provide free travel to a family member or carer when they accompany Gold Card holders.
Commercial services
£1,000,000 ongoing.
Most of the local bus services in Derbyshire are run commercially. Providers have withdrawn from certain routes as they are no longer commercially viable. Where there isn't a commercial case to operate specific local bus routes across Derbyshire, then the council – in its role as Local Transport Authority (LTA) – can consider funding a service to maintain services where there is a social, economic, and environmental need for them to operate key routes in the county.
Restructure of integrated transport unit
£200,000 ongoing.
Many of the services offered by the Integrated Transport Unit (ITU) have statutory or legislative requirements. The ITU commissions and manages a significant number of services through an IT system which requires replacement and an upgrade to meet increasing demand and complexity. A service restructure is required to ensure adequate resources are in place to meet current and future demands and challenges, improve service delivery and efficiency, meet the council's statutory duties, and administer the Bus Services Improvement Plan (BSIP) grant.
Grounds maintenance
£365,000 ongoing.
The countryside service has developed a business plan which establishes the service's strategy and operational priorities over the medium term. Funding is required to enable a bespoke grounds maintenance schedule of work and appropriate allocation of resources across the council's 123 countryside sites. It will also enable management of leachate at Grassmoor Lagoons in compliance with statutory environmental obligations and Environment Agency requirements.
Management team restructure
£325,000 ongoing, £325,000 one-off.
The new departmental strategy for place outlines a new approach and the need for additional investment in senior management. This will fund the restructure that took place in 2022 and help the department in the delivery of council plan objectives.
APP/Flare database
£46,000 one-off.
The trading standards database provides an effective and efficient way of recording all the work undertaken by the service. This helps not only with workload management but provides an essential source of evidence for investigations and prosecutions. It also acts as the database for the Trusted Trader Scheme and licences. A new database is needed as the contract for the current one is about to end. The new system will be purchased, implemented and existing data will need to be migrated across.
Ash die back and woodland creation
£450,000 one-off.
The council is undertaking a step change in tree-planting across the county driven by its climate change strategy, nature recovery motion, and its anticipated role as responsible authority for the Derbyshire local nature recovery strategy. The target is to facilitate the planting of up to one million trees by 2030, and to ensure delivery of the council's ash die back action plan.
Inflation - reactive maintenance
£1,025,000 inflation one-off contingency.
As the highways authority, the council has a statutory duty to maintain highways. The cost of doing so has been impacted by hyperinflation due to the cost of construction materials required to maintain the highway.
Inflation - waste
£3,583,000 inflation one-off contingency.
The council is a statutory waste disposal authority and has a legal obligation to make arrangements to treat and dispose of all household waste arising across the county. Under each contract for the disposal or treatment of waste, inflationary pressures are passed to the council. There are a number of different inflation indices used (for example CIP, RPI), and these are applied to the contracts based on the value of these indices each January. Hyperinflation has had a significant impact on the cost of this service.
Inflation - tendered network increase
£1,700,000 inflation one-off contingency.
The supported local bus network has recently been re-tendered and a significant increase in cost has been experienced due to inflationary pressures. These costs are being passed onto the council as otherwise the routes would no longer be commercially viable and there would be a risk that the bus operators would withdraw the service.