Rotherham Council: Budget 'begins to undo some of the damage caused by austerity' as council tax set to rise

Speaking at an overview and scrutiny meeting on February 9, Councillor Chris Read, leader of the council, said this year’s budget comes ‘against the backdrop of £200 million worth of cuts and savings that have come out of the council across the last decade’.

“We have the volatility around Covid, both in terms of the direct impact 1000 on services, the impact on staffing,” added Coun Read.

“The general level of uncertainty as we go into this budget is pretty unprecedented, in the nearly seven years now that I’ve been doing this.

“Every year I sit here and denounce the government for not giving us enough money so let’s give them a bit of credit where it’s due, they’ve given us a bit more money this year, so we should take that and say thank you while we can.

“They’ve brought forward the financial support that we expected to see in three years time from now, to year one. They’ve given us a one year settlement.”

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Council tax is set to rise 4.5 per cent, meaning residents in a Band D property will pay an extra £72.66 per year, bringing their annual council tax bill to £1,687.24.

Coun Read said there is ‘particular pressure at the moment’ on the planning enforcement department as ‘lots of new buildings going up means more planning enforcement activity is necessary’.

Children’s services

During the meeting, Councillor Robert Elliott, Rotherham Democratic Party member for Greasbrough asked coun Read to guarantee that the welfare of children in the borough will not be affected by the budget.

Coun Read said: “We absolutely can, councillor Elliot, and acknowledging the concerns you’ve expressed – what I’d say is in cash terms, children’s services budget overall is going up something like £3m – it’s a cash increase that’s going into that budget.

Coun Read added that part of that increase is for specific budgets, such as support for youngsters with SEND.

“We continue to think that we can drive out savings from Children’s [services]

“We have statistically too many children receiving council services – too many children in care, too many children on child protection plans.

“I think that’s a consequence of the failures that we know about in the past – services just didn’t get to families and services who needed it, and they ended up needing more support down the line.

“Our children’s social workers are under enormous pressure to absolutely ensure the safety of each individual child, quite rightly, but in a context of a service that had failed.

Councillor Elliott added that he believed the council has taken ‘13 unoccupied Afghan children into care’, and asked if the council received funding for their care.

Sharon Kemp, Chief Executive of Rotherham Council, said: “We work closely with the Home Office around the different elements that are under that.

“In terms of the Afghan programme, then there are grants that we get refunded through the Home Office as part of the Afghan relocation scheme. ”

Adult social care

The budget proposal would put an additional £11m towards services for elderly residents, people with disabilities and additional needs, but the council say the adult social care levy will still have to be raised, to bridge the gap in government funding.

Councillor Read told the meeting that £5.3 million of the additional costs in the budget proposals are the additional costs of care providers.

“Providers are facing enormous challenge in the private sector, in the market, in terms of being able to deliver services.

“A shortage of staff that is, at long last, driving up wages for frontline staff.

“That does take us to a position where the adult social care budget is £94m, for the coming year.

“We need to spend about an additional £11 million for adult social care. That does mean that unfortunately, we’re in a position where we still need to use the Adult Social Care Levy to raise more money in order to bridge that gap.

“The good news is that we’re in a position that we think is sustainable. We’re able to make sure our reserves are adequate to meet the risks that we face.”