Agenda item

Following consultation with the Director of People and Deputy Chief Executive, it was agreed that this meeting would be Finance themed.

Discussion:

Members received a presentation and considered the reports under this theme.

Members then raised several questions and comments:

Education Health Care Plans - a Member raised a question at the 27 November 2025 Business Support and Digital Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting which was referred to this Committee for a response. It was asked, due to the rise in cost of Education Health Care Plan (EHCP) assessments, whether the Council had confidence that the money it saved through the introduction of the London Banding System was realised, given the need to invest to meet the additional demand of EHCPs. The Assistant Director Education and SEND clarified that costs had not risen but the numbers of EHCPS that were processed had risen, due to the announcement of SEND reforms, many believed that EHCPs would be removed, and this resulted in doubling of requests since April 2025, this was experienced Nationally.

It was commented that there had been an increase in reliance on Exceptional Financial Support (EFS) in 2025/26 and it was asked what Medway had done to demonstrate it was moving away from government support as it was unsustainable and put pressure on finances. Officers acknowledged the use of EFS over the last few years and said that as part of the process for applying for EFS, a CIPFA resilience review was undertaken. One of the outcomes of that review was more regular reporting of progress against savings as part of the Financial Improvement and Transformation plan, which was reported to Cabinet. It was, however, made clear that the pressures being experienced were demand led. Services had worked extensively to plan and manage their budgets; however, pressures were beyond what had been planned and budgeted for.

Staff retention - a question was asked on how the long term issues with staff retention were being managed despite the annual increased pay award for staff. The Committee was informed that recruitment and retention of staff remained a national issue and continuous investment was being made to attract and retain staff in Medway. A recruitment video had been launched, as well as a five day induction programme with no cases for newly recruited social workers for 5 days. Exit interviews took place with staff that decide not to stay in Medway as well as stay interviews for staff who remain in Medway and there had been extensive learning derived from the interviews that had been instrumental in highlighting areas for change.

Overspend - further clarification was sought on the overspend of £1.5million on Client Support Packages and £1.384million in Inclusion and SEND. The Committee was informed that the Client Support Package supported children to remain in the care of families and carers to potentially prevent breakdown which could  result in a child coming into Local Authority care and seeking placement for that child which would incur far greater cost than that of Client Support. The overspend in Inclusion and SEND was as a result of the doubling of EHCP assessment requests since April. A backlog project team was built in to address backlog, that project had ended and in order to prevent falling behind again and not meeting statutory time frames, some staff were retained to keep abreast of applications. The service was now meeting its targets and were above national average.

Members of the Committee agreed and commented that all children in Medway matter and there was a strong commitment demonstrated in improving outcomes for children and young people. It was vital to ensure that young people had the best start in life regardless of financial challenges experienced by the Council. Long term investment in services such as Early Help, and in-house foster carers was key as prevention was instrumental to improved life outcomes for children and young people in Medway.

Fairer funding modelling review – in response to a question on how much difference this would make, the Committee was informed that what had been reported was the national picture. There had been some modelling completed on what it may mean for individual Councils, and this was being reviewed by officers. There would be a multiyear settlement which was a welcome development, but part of the issue was that whilst Medway may benefit over the three year period, it may not be as quickly as we would want. This was due to the fact that in order for one Council to benefit, others may lose out, therefore a transition period had to be in place to minimise impact on other Local Authorities.