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Department of Adult Social Care and Housing Budget Challenge
Client: Croydon Council
Value: £50,000
Duration: May 2010 - June 2010
Project Overview
Like many councils Croydon faces ongoing pressure to balance their budget while continuing to supply high quality services. These pressures arise from simultaneous increases in demand for services and a decrease in available budget. In recent years, Croydon has managed the annual budget setting and efficiency planning through the “Budget Challenge” process where each service critically assesses their performance. The Department of Adult Social Care and Housing (DASH) has generally high levels of performance however as the easy wins are made and savings pressures intensify, identification of further efficiencies cuts becomes increasingly difficult.
CPC’s Role
CPC were tasked with:
- Working with each individual Divisional team to develop proposals for income generation, efficiencies and potential areas of service cuts
- Undertaking a benchmarking analysis of expenditure and performance
- Modelling the impact of a variety of corporate change projects
- Developing budget challenge documentation for the Chief Executive and Leader of the Council
In developing savings proposals we looked at a wide range of opportunities, including:
- Maximising income through timely financial assessments and recovery of charges
- Increasing income from charges and fees
- Reducing costs through intelligent use of agency staff
- Assessing the impact of a proposed pre-habilitation service that targets users before they needed intensive support
- Developing outcome based contracts, introducing greater control of care packages and a wider menu of care options
- Investigating opportunities for the use of social impact bonds
- Restructuring of elements of the service
In addition we assessed the likely impact and additional proposals that allow for a flexible response to any additional cuts in Area Based Grants.
Client Benefits
As a result of the budget challenged process we identified overall savings of £7.3 million for 2011/12 that are evidence based and deliverable, and identified a range of initiatives that would provide a sound basis for further efficiencies in the following 3 year period. 2011/12 savings included £2.5 million within Learning Disability, £660k within Mental Health Services and £400k with Housing Needs and Renewals.
