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‘I really welcomed the opportunity to demonstrate to the Scrutiny Management Committee the great work that HSC is doing.’ This was the view of HSC’s President, Deputy Soulsby, speaking immediately after the public hearing yesterday morning.
During the 2 hour public hearing, the President and senior staff of HSC outlined the significant work that had been carried out in 2016 and its plans for the future.
Deputy Soulsby added:
‘HSC was able to outline to the SMC panel how we managed to get a grip on finances in 2016 through stronger financial reporting and controls.’
The HSC President demonstrated to the panel the measures that were put in place to reduce agency spend through new contracts, new ways of working and greater stability.
Deputy Soulsby expressed concerns over future budgets, both in terms of any potential reductions in central support transferred to Policy & Resources under the 3/5/5% savings programme and whether the Committee would be able to re-invest savings it made over the coming years in order to develop community services in prevention and early intervention. She pointed out that in the 2017 Budget Policy & Resources had indicated that £2m would need to be saved in 2018, but that the BDO Benchmarking report made it clear that re-investment was necessary to enable the service to become more sustainable. Without that she had concerns that this would impact on the service in the same way as the FTP had done.
Whilst looking back on its achievements in 2016, HSC was also keen to show how it was looking to the future.
