Meeting documents

The Chairman will allow members of the public to present a petition on any matter within the Committee’s remit. Questions or statements about any matter on the agenda for this meeting will be taken at the time when each matter is considered.

The Chair of the Committee confirmed that 2 members of the public had registered to speak at the meeting.

Members heard a statement from Mr David Orr, who before he spoke thanked the Monitoring officer for providing clarity and allowing him some flexibility.

Surrey County Council experienced similar finance problems to Somerset in early July last year, with an £11.8m overspend announced. Sounds all too similar to the deficit position here in Somerset last year. The common factor is they are both County Councils with inadequate National social care funding.

This Council’s budget issues arose, in part, because the austerity freezing of Council Tax, I felt, went on three years too long and damaged the Council’s base budget. Additionally, recovering from the Inadequate rating for our Children’s Services was a long task which required significant additional funding that made balancing planned budgets difficult.

This authority was courageous enough to film with Panorama, without editorial control, and show all of England that the cost pressures and impacts on people’s lives, through underfunded social care is real and shames us all, as a First World society. Somerset has helped make the social care crisis National.

While it is good news that this Council will not follow Northamptonshire County Council into effective bankruptcy this year, the low reserves and the sustainability of the medium-term budget remain serious concerns.

I commend the external auditor for their report and for delaying their final opinion, to ensure that clear demographic and other cost pressures in social care, are properly reflected in medium-term budget projections. 3 years after Brexit, the government can’t get on with the day job.

Until the County Council has sustainable National funding for social care, then I do not believe that a Unitary Council across Somerset can be viable. If social care remained under funded, then there is a danger that over time the reserves of the District Councils could be used to make up for social care deficits. Also, the non-statutory service budgets could over time also come under pressure (as they have in the County Council).

I hope that our new PM Boris Johnson will make good on his pledge to "fix the social care crisis once and for all". At the very least, 2020 to 2021 should see interim social care funding from the Government, whilst a sustainable tax base is created to support social care with dignity (and without bankrupting those whose families are unlucky enough to be struck down by the illness of dementia).

The Chair replied by thanking Mr Orr for addressing the Committee with his thoughts. She noted there had not been a question in his statement, and as it was not directly related to the agenda items relating to the County and Pension Fund Statement of Accounts for 2018/19, she would make no further comment nor invite any officer response.

The Chair of the Committee confirmed that 2 members of the public had registered to speak at the meeting.

Members heard a statement from Mr David Orr, who before he spoke thanked the Monitoring Officer for providing clarity and allowing him some flexibility.

"Surrey County Council experienced similar finance problems to Somerset in early July last year, with an £11.8m overspend announced. Sounds all too similar to the deficit position here in Somerset last year. The common factor is they are both County Councils with inadequate National social care funding.

This Council’s budget issues arose, in part, because the austerity freezing of Council Tax, I felt, went on three years too long and damaged the Council’s base budget. Additionally, recovering from the Inadequate rating for our Children’s Services was a long task which required significant additional funding that made balancing planned budgets difficult.

This authority was courageous enough to film with Panorama, without editorial control, and show all of England that the cost pressures and impacts on people’s lives, through underfunded social care is real and shames us all, as a First World society. Somerset has helped make the social care crisis National.

While it is good news that this Council will not follow Northamptonshire County Council into effective bankruptcy this year, the low reserves and the sustainability of the medium-term budget remain serious concerns.

I commend the external auditor for their report and for delaying their final opinion, to ensure that clear demographic and other cost pressures in social care, are properly reflected in medium-term budget projections. 3 years after Brexit, the government can’t get on with the day job.

Until the County Council has sustainable National funding for social care, then I do not believe that a Unitary Council across Somerset can be viable. If social care remained under funded, then there is a danger that over time the reserves of the District Councils could be used to make up for social care deficits. Also, the non-statutory service budgets could over time also come under pressure (as they have in the County Council).

I hope that our new PM Boris Johnson will make good on his pledge to "fix the social care crisis once and for all". At the very least, 2020 to 2021 should see interim social care funding from the Government, whilst a sustainable tax base is created to support social care with dignity (and without bankrupting those whose families are unlucky enough to be struck down by the illness of dementia)".

The Chair replied by thanking Mr Orr for addressing the Committee with his thoughts. She noted there had not been a question in his statement, and as it was not directly related to the agenda items relating to the County and Pension Fund Statement of Accounts for 2018/19, she would make no further comment nor invite any officer response.