What has been the priority for the Council’s services for young people and families?

We have consciously tried to maintain front-line services, particularly those supporting vulnerable children and young people. As a result overall funding for young people and families is increasing by £1.2 million (1.2%).

Our overriding concern has been to protect those services for children in the care of the County Council and those for whom we have safeguarding responsibilities and this area will see increases of £4.8 million.

Children’s social care services account for nearly 50% of the department’s total budget, excluding services that are charged to the Dedicated Schools Grant.

As there have been no reductions in children’s social care services, reductions in excess of 10% have been required in some other budget areas within our proposals for budget reductions totalling £5.6 million. We have, however, done our best to minimise job losses by, for example, using other grants and budgets to offset some of the department’s spending and maximising income generation where possible.

A number of the changes will impact on increased costs for Nottinghamshire schools. What is the reasoning behind this?

The Council is faced with making difficult decisions and is looking to rebalance the spend between County Council funded education budgets and Government grant funded budgets that are held centrally. This will not affect individual schools’ budgets or services.

How much money will be saved by these changes?

The savings from the department will be around £5.6 million for 2010/11. Nevertheless, £6.8 million of funding is being redistributed to the department from money saved across the council, meaning an extra £1.2 million of funding for its most critical services such as child protection.

Where is the £6.8million of funding being invested?

The extra money will be going towards:

• £4.8 million for children’s social services to help protect this vulnerable group. The Council is dealing with an increasing number of child protection cases as well as an increase in the number of children that come into its care. This increase in funding will help address these issues.
• £1.2 million for the Building Schools for the Future programme, which will help the Council attract more Government funding for the new secondary school rebuilding and refurbishment programmes. It is hoped that an extra £120 million will be  spent in the county on improved secondary schools,
• £800,000 on home to school transport.

How will savings in services for young people and families be made without affecting our services?

These are savings which should have minimal direct impact on service users.  In some instances we are suggesting that costs should be charged to Government grants, thus releasing savings against our budget:  

• £847,000 in infrastructure changes where no redundancies are involved.
• £1,557,000 by charging a range of budgets to the Schools (Non-ISB) Budget, which is funded by Government grant for educational activities not directly provided by schools, without any reduction in service delivery.
• £314,000 by charging spending on the specialist family support service to the Sure Start grant with no reduction in service delivery.
• £237,000 by using new technology, alternative sources of funding and changes in venues for specialist educational needs training.
• £40,000 by charging some of the specialist education staff costs to the Schools Access Initiative budget.

How will the budget reduction for the Youth Support Service and Connexions impact on local young people?

We have worked hard to keep the impact of the reduction to a minimum for young people. Much of the savings are from efficiency savings such as reducing travel costs, conference and venue hires costs along with deleting some administrative support posts.

The youth service’s equipment store is already significantly under used by youth groups and schools and the Sandhill Lake Adventure Base has limited use during the summer months, unlike the other adventure bases in the county.

The reduction in funding for Connexions represents 5% of the total amount that the Council provides to the service. Connexions is deleting current vacant posts and making back office efficiencies to maintain, at  minimum impact, current services.

How will you minimise the impact on the reduction on the Personal Development for Learners Services and Learning Outside the classroom?

In both these areas savings have been found by reducing back office costs such as IT systems, reducing administrative support and deleting vacant posts to maintain the current services offered.

Will the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) reductions compromise the current programme?

No.  The £152,000 savings have been found by reducing the planned use of consultants in developing the programme for rebuilding and refurbishing  schools which is an example of the Council’s mission to work more efficiently.

The Council will actually be investing an extra £1.2 million for the BSF programme to help attract more Government funding for the new secondary school programme.

What is the reasoning behind deleting the funding for community facilities at Dukeries Community College?

No other schools in the county receive extra funding for community resources from the County Council.

The Council will be reducing its funding by 50% in the first year (2010/11) to minimise the impact on the college whilst it finds other funding sources.

We will be working with the college to help them find funding elsewhere to help maintain these facilities.

The money that we provide is not for the community services but for the running costs (heating, lighting etc) that the college incurs for having these services within their campus.

What will happen to the school clothing assistance budget?

The Council is reducing the eligibility criteria for clothing assistance, which is a one-off payment for school clothing when an eligible child moves from primary to secondary school.

Most local authorities no longer provide the current level of school clothing assistance that we provide.

This is a difficult decision to make but the Council will be working with schools to advise families on alternative ways of purchasing their uniform at an acceptable price.

The Council has still allocated £22,000 for clothing assistance for pupils where there is exceptional hardship.

Why has the funding been deleted for non-school activities at the Sutton Centre and Dukeries College?

These are the only two schools in the county which receive extra funding for non-school activities.

They will continue to receive the same funding that all county’s schools receive for extended services for their out-of-hours activities.

The Council will offer 50% of the current funding for 2010/11 to minimise the impact on the schools whilst they seek funding from elsewhere.

Will the Council still be offering financial support for sports development work within schools?

Although there is a £54,000 reduction in this budget, £64,000 worth of grant funding for sports development work in schools will continue.

A small budget of £7,000 will remain to support schools’ future bids for sports development funding.

What other work than the parent training programme does the Council undertake to reduce persistent absenteeism amongst secondary school pupils?

The Council is aware of the importance of good attendance in improving the life chances of children and young people in Nottinghamshire. It is continuing to focus its energy on tackling poor attendance through targeted work with schools that have high levels of persistent absence and the development of a strategy to work with all schools aimed at improving attendance.

The Council currently undertakes a number of initiatives to reduce absenteeism in secondary schools, including:

• targeting schools where attendance is a problem
• supporting schools to develop their own strategies for increasing attendance
• offering the Lead Schools for Attendance Scheme for secondary schools which encourages schools which have been effective in improving attendance to share their experiences and lessons with other schools.
• working with the Police on truancy patrols across the county.
• carrying out a variety of initiatives to motivate and engage pupils.
• undertaking a variety of courses and life skills programmes through its Youth Service which are designed to re-engage with learning.
• supporting Connexions which offers a service that targets young people that have poor attendance or do not attend school.