Agenda item

To consider a report by the Director of Public Health.

With the aid of a visual presentation, Members were provided with an update on the use of each Council’s grant for public health, including the budget for the shared service, Public Health Dorset, and the other elements of grant used within each Council outside of the public health shared service. The report described how the funding was being applied and to what services and in what proportion.

The revenue budget for Public Health Dorset in 2019/20 opened at

£27.705M, based on an indicative Grant Allocation of £32.525M. There

had been movement in from reserves and realignment of the retained

elements, giving a shared service budget of £27.716M. Forecast outturn

for 2019/20 showed a £321k underspend. Dorset Council retained £617k of their 19/20 ring-fenced grant, with forecast outturn £617k. BCP retained £4.355M of their 19/20 ring-fenced grant.

The Spending Round 2019 had announced a real-terms increase to the overall public health grant in 2020/21. Whilst no further detail had yet been shared as to what this meant for local authority allocations, it was hoped this would be published imminently. Until then, each Council and the Shared

Service were working on the basis of the same grants and retained elements being available as 2019/20, leading to a £56k reduction in the Shared Service

budget.

As members, at their last meeting, had also agreed to look at how the uncommitted shared service public health reserves was used, it was now being proposed that, after taking anticipated underspend into account, £870k

from reserves should be split pro-rata to population, with £426k being returned to Dorset Council and £444k returned to BCP. This would remain ring-fenced in line with the grant conditions and how it was used would be reported at the next Board meeting in May.

It was confirmed that the quality of services being provided was being monitored effectively to ensure standards were maintained and enhanced where practicable. The Board were assured that any concern expressed at how funding for children’s needs were being met could be allayed by the processes in place to ensure safeguarding was prioritized in that regard.

Moreover, how the drugs and alcohol service commissioned by BCP - which sat outside the ringfenced funding - was performing, should be made available to the Board, as applicable. The Director confirmed that the new Business model now provided for a more transparent mechanism for attainting the information with how funding was categorised and applied now being readily available. Furthermore, any revised Partnership agreement would further address this issue.

The Board recognised that the available funding was being used as efficiently as it could be and was being prioritised so as to optimise the benefits to Public Health Dorset in achieving its objectives.

Resolved

1) That the shared service 19/20 forecast outturn; the use of 19/20 retained public health grant in Dorset Council and

BCP council respectively and the draft 2020/21 budget and update on grant allocation be noted and duly acknowledged.

2) That the return of £426k to Dorset Council and £444k to BCP Council from Public Health Dorset reserves, to support non-recurrent spend in line with the public heath grant conditions be approved.

Reasons for Decisions

1)The public health grant was ring-fenced and all spend against it must comply with the necessary grant conditions and be signed off by both the Chief Executive or Section 151 Officer and the Director of Public Health for each local authority.

2) The public health shared service delivered public health services across Dorset Council (DC) and BCP Council. The service worked closely with both Councils and partners to deliver the mandatory public health functions and services, and a range of health and wellbeing initiatives. Each Council also provided a range of other services with public health impact and retained a portion of the grant to support this in different ways.