Sheffield council finances improve but £66m still needs to be saved over four years
“It is about better outcomes for Sheffield and its people”
Sheffield City Council is facing an improved financial outlook with a “worst case scenario” overspend of £8.35m this year but £66m savings are still planned for the next four years.
The council’s financial position was discussed yesterday (September 2) by the key strategy and resources committee, made up of policy committee chairs and political group leaders.
Jane Wilby, assistant director for finance and accounting, told the meeting that the council is predicted to be £8.35m overspent in the current financial year, based on performance in the first three months.
She said the improvement was due to better use of technology and better ways of working.
The largest budget pressure is £5.3m on adult social care costs, said Ms Wilby.
“Huge amounts of work” to cut the cost of transporting children with special educational needs to school and providing more temporary homeless accommodation, rather than using B&Bs, means those budgets are now not overspent.
“Overall the position is much stronger and the key challenge has shifted away from identifying large amounts of saving and delivering transformation into our plans,” she said.
Recruitment controls remain in place, said Ms Wilby. She stressed it is not a recruitment freeze.
Ms Wilby said the council’s medium-term financial strategy predicts a £10.4m spending gap by 2030/31.
The Future Sheffield programme will deliver service change, better use of technology and more efficient ways of working to save £66m over the same period.
Future Sheffield is a savings programme based on transforming how the council works to increase efficiency. It focuses more on preventative work in frontline services so that expensive later interventions can be avoided.
Chief operating officer Parveen Akhtar said of Future Sheffield: “It is more than just about saving money – it is more ambitious than that, it is about better outcomes for Sheffield and its people, as important as the budget position is.”
Council leader Coun Fran Belbin said that the £8.35m overspend is “the worst case scenario”. She said that it was caused by delays in making predicted budget savings.
Coun Mike Levery praised the work taking place in children’s services but said that adult social care has had a “significant increase in budget”.
The high cost of both adult and children’s social care placements has been a major pressure on council finances in recent years.
Coun Levery asked why the total budget has risen by £5.3m.
He also asked whether Future Sheffield could deliver £36.1m savings on adult social care in “a challenging environment”.
Strategic director of adult care and wellbeing Matt Bowsher said: “There is no complacency whatsoever in terms of where we are, we know we have more work to do to get as close to balance as we possibly can do.”
He said that transformation plans for delivering the service more cheaply are under constant review.
Housing committee chair Coun Douglas Johnson said that the council has acquired former student flats to use as temporary accommodation, rather than B&Bs.
“You should never have people in B&Bs, really not a place to be when you’re in a crisis of homelessness.”
Coun Belbin said the medium-term strategy is for council reserves to be used to help fund investment to cut the cost of delivering services, then using the savings made to replenish the reserves.
Council chief executive Kate Josephs said maintaining the pace of change is vital for the plan.