Spending cuts in Denbighshire- Welsh Assembly just announced the DRAFT revenue settlement

I have just seen the announcement from the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG)  regarding next years funding for the County Councils in Wales.

The documents are on our web site and they make for interesting reading and no doubt there will be a number of commentaries from various people explaining what all this means.

The immediate figure that caught my eye is that the cut in Denbighshire in cash terms amounts to 1.6% next financial year and once inflation is added the cut for Wales as a whole next year is 3% and for capital a massive 25%. The actual revenue figures from WAG are shown below. Interestingly Cardiff Council gets a slight increase?

Also on reading the draft statement they refer to the fact that the budgets  social services , schools and health have been protected i.e. no reduction and in fact there is reference of a 3% increase over the next 3 financial years for social services. The draft budget statement I have also copied below. It will also be on our web site

WELSH LOCAL GOVERNMENT SETTLEMENT 2011-12

Provisional
Shown in £000's


Unitary authority              final AEF*      provisional AEF      %          change Rank




Isle of Anglesey                   94,941             93,327          -1.70%               9

Gwynedd                          170,793           167,889          -1.70%               9

Conwy                             146,973            144,474          -1.70%               9

Denbighshire                    138,654             136,378          -1.60%               8

Flintshire                          188,000             184,804          -1.70%               9

Wrexham                         162,981             160,983          -1.20%               3

Powys                             181,537              179,270          -1.20%               4

Ceredigion                       101,601              100,863          -0.70%               2

Pembrokeshire                162,556               159,792          -1.70%               9

Carmarthenshire               252,260              249,090          -1.30%                5

Swansea                          302,447               297,991         -1.50%                7

Neath Port Talbot            199,799               196,402          -1.70%               9

Bridgend                          181,168               178,546          -1.40%               6

The Vale Of Glamorgan    153,100              150,497           -1.70%               9

Rhondda Cynon Taf                349,476        343,535           -1.70%               9

Merthyr Tydfil                           87,652          86,162           -1.70%               9

Caerphilly                               255,158         250,820           -1.70%              9

Blaenau Gwent                        110,245        108,370           -1.70%               9

Torfaen                                    131,759        129,519           -1.70%               9

Monmouthshire                          97,757          96,095            -1.70%               9

Newport                                 197,564         194,205            -1.70%               9

Cardiff                                    394,807         395,006              0.10%               1



Total Unitary Authorities        4,061,228     4,004,022            -1.40%


 
 
2nd Communiqué       Draft budget statement


You may recall that in August Welsh Ministers and WCVA wrote to you about the

process for setting this year’s budget.

In that letter, Welsh Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to the important role the

sector plays in advocating for those in need and in delivering services, and to

communication, dialogue and forward planning at this challenging time.

Ministers also agreed to:

· Provide indicative allocations over the same period as the Welsh Assembly Final

Budget

· Give as much notice as possible to any significant changes in funding

· Give as much time as possible to adjust to any changed circumstances

· Encourage other funders to do the same

· Assess the impact of Ministerial budgetary decisions on the third sector

· Ensure active engagement and dialogue with the sector in planning at all levels in

advance of the difficult financial times ahead

· Encourage replication of good practice across Wales

· Encourage discussions with your funding contacts

Since then, Ministers and WCVA have arranged a number of opportunities to discuss

the budget, including Ministerial meetings, Third Sector Partnership Council and

WCVA’s Funding Conference and regional policy events.

We are now writing to give you information about the Draft Budget.

Draft Budget November 2010

Overall, organisations will be aware that the Welsh Assembly Government budget

settlement represents an average real terms revenue reduction of 2.2% per year over

the four year period (i.e. allowing for inflation), and an average real terms capital

reduction of 11.9% per year over the four year period. For the first year, the real terms


revenue reduction is 3%, and the real terms capital reduction is 25% – so the financial


context is challenging across the public sector.

You may be aware that the budget has three levels.

The Main Expenditure Groups (MEGs) are aligned with Ministerial Portfolios and the

2011/12 and onward revenue budget is compared with baseline figures for 2010/11 as

at the Supplementary Budget approved by the Assembly in July, with additional MEG to

MEG transfers.

                                                    £ 000s              2010/11       2011/12      2012/13       2013/14

Health and Social Services                                   5,867,797   5,867,797   5,867,797    5,881,565

Social Justice and Local Government                   4,406,846   4,330,899    4,333,266    4,382,460

Economy and Transport                                         597,490       589,848       584,528      587,237

Children, Education, Lifelong Learning and Skills  1,694,551    1,673,464    1,682,035   1,705,286

Environment, Sustainability and Housing                  383,750       375,409        369,486     371,050

Rural Affairs                                                            126,560      123,722        121,818     122,338

Heritage                                                                   138,962      136,007        134,114     134,726

Public Services and Performance                                48,968        46,705          45,029       42,890

Central Services and Administration                          350,588      334,517        323,451     308,718

These figures show that the Welsh Assembly Government has:

· protected funding for schools and skills by an additional 1% above changes to the

Wales DEL, and protected the education spending within the Revenue Support

Grant in the Social Justice and Local Government MEG in the same way;

· protected the overall health and social services budget from cash reductions in

2011-12 and 2012-13 with a small cash rise in 2013-14;

· In housing, we have targeted support for the most vulnerable in our society by

mitigating the impact of the cuts on housing revenue budgets, most notably

Supporting People;

· extended the same degree of protection to social services as we have to schools,

skills and secondary and community healthcare, which means that funding for

social services allocated to local government in the Revenue Support Grant will

rise by more than 3% across the next three years; and

· confirmed our upfront commitment to maintain investment in universal benefits -

free prescriptions, free school breakfasts, free school milk, concessionary fares

and free swimming. Budgets for these areas will grow by 3.7% over the three

years.

Consideration of potential equality impacts has informed decisions at two levels: the

corporate decisions made by Cabinet on overall allocations between major spending

areas, as well as the decisions made by individual Ministers on the more detailed

allocation of funding within Ministerial portfolios. The process of considering equality

issues does not stop with publication of the Draft Budget. Ministers will be doing further

work where appropriate, to take equality issues into account in detailed spending and

delivery issues within the allocations published in the Draft Budget. In addition, we will

be reminding local authorities and sponsored bodies that they need to give due regard

to equality impact in the decisions they take in spending money allocated by the

Assembly Government.

Third Sector funding

Each Main Expenditure Group is further divided in Spending Programme Areas (SPAs)

and each SPA is divided into Actions.

Most spending on the third sector is not visible within the published budget but sits

within an Action with a wider purpose.

WCVA and WAG will provide a more detailed breakdown of Actions relevant to the

sector next week, but in the meantime, organisations directly funded by the Assembly

Government can contact their funding contact to ascertain the relevant Action within

which they sit.

It will then be possible to compare the Draft Budget with the July Supplementary Budget

to assess any change in capital or revenue. This will not necessarily reflect any change

for individual organisations but it will give a specific context for subsequent discussion

and decisions.

The Draft Budget will now go immediately to the Scrutiny Committees of the National

Assembly of Wales. Equalities issues have been considered in the preparation of the

Draft Budget and these will be considered by the Equality of Opportunity Committee.

The Scrutiny Committees will report back to the Finance committee on December 6

2010 and it is anticipated that the Final Budget will in Plenary on 8 February 2011.

We are also aware that many organisations receive their funding from local authorities,

Local Health Boards or through third party funders and are keen to avoid any delays in

decision making.

Local government will receive its provisional settlement on 23 November and a similar

process will take place with final budgets published in March 2011.

Both Ministers, WCVA and CVCs are monitoring the situation and encouraging good

practice in ensuring sensitive and forward looking decisions.

For example, a number of local authorities are entering into discussions with the sector

in their area about the funding situation, not only to keep organisations informed, but

also to discuss options for service delivery and new ways of working together.

There is similar joint working within health. For example, Hywel Dda Health Board is

working collaboratively with the County Voluntary Councils in its area to ‘co-design’

what the Third Sector role can become as part of the whole health, social care and

wellbeing system.

Finally, both Ministers and WCVA are aware that we are only at the beginning of the

transformation of public services and that the work on citizen voice and innovation will

require strengthening.

We welcome examples of innovative practice which can be fed into the work of the

Innovation and Efficiency Board. These could include Third Sector services that:

· Focus on prevention or early intervention, avoiding or reducing much greater public

expense over a relatively short period of time

· Draw in additional resources (financial and human) to provide more value for people

and communities

· Build capacity in communities to take their own action and enable people to support

each other and promote well-being

· Are indispensable in that no other agency or group of agencies could credibly

provide the service offered

Ministers have asked officials to write with further details of budget proposals affecting

Actions relevant to the sector.

Jane Hutt AM Carl Sargeant AM

Minister for Business and Budget Minister for Social Justice and Local Government

Welsh Assembly Government Welsh Assembly Government

Win Griffiths Graham Benfield OBE

Chair Chief Executive

Wales Council for Voluntary Action Wales Council for Voluntary Action