Agenda item

To consider a report by the Director of Public Health.

The Board received 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 opening revenue budget for Public Health Dorset in 2020/2021 was

£28.748M, based on a combined Grant Allocation of £33.838M. Both Dorset Council and BCP were forecasting breakeven against their retained grant. COVID-19 had had a significant impact on Public Health Dorset and both local authorities. Financial impacts continued to be challenging to gauge owing to additional costs due to COVID and the reduction in services paid on an activity model where activity had declined substantially. After allowing for known cost pressures, the current provisional forecast for 20/21 was £1.4M

underspend.

 

How the COVID-19 local outbreak management plans were being applied and by whom were described, with the additional funding from the Test and Trace Grant being noted. With some additional costs to the shared service in supporting this work now being met through the Contain Outbreak Management Fun, Reserves stood at £617k for Prevention at Scale and £293k uncommitted funds. Grant allocations for public health in 21/22 were as yet unknown, although it had been indicated that the previous year’s increase would be maintained. In applying the 2020/21 underspend and a reduced provisional budget for the shared service for 21/22 of £28,133k, recommended contributions from each local authority were set out in Appendix 2 to the report.

 

The Board asked to be assured that what was being proposed by PHD accorded with was being proposed by the two Council’s Medium Term Financial Plans (MTFP) so that financial strategies were as aligned as they might be to ensure a holistic approach was maintained. The Director confirmed that this would be the case and that any future finance paper would include a representation of this. How any underspend would be managed and allocated was also raised to ensure prevention services could be managed effectively and maintain its level of effectiveness.

 

As previously, whilst it was acknowledged that the continued interventions needed to address the issues associated with Covid-19 were unprecedented and represented a unique challenge both in financial and practical terms, the

Board recognised, and understood, that the available funding was being used as efficiently as it could be and appropriately prioritised to continue to optimise outcomes.

 

Resolved

1)That the use of £338k of the anticipated 2020/21 underspend as a

contingency to support restarting health improvement services in 2021/22 be agreed.

2)That the use of the remaining £1M anticipated 2020/21 underspend to

reduce each local authority’s financial contribution for 2021/22 as a oneoff be agreed. This would mean a reduction of £532k in BCP’s contribution and £468k for Dorset Council.

3)That a provisional budget for the shared service for 21/22 of £28,133k be approved

4)That Appendix 2, which will form the financial annex to the shared

services partnership agreement for 2021/22, be approved.

That the proposal to extend the current Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset

Alcohol and Drugs Strategy 2016-2020 for a minimum of another year be agreed.

 

Reasons for Decisions

The public health grant is 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.

 

The public health shared service delivers public health services across Dorset

Council (DC) and BCP Council. The service works 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 provides a range of other services with public health impact and retains a portion of the grant to support this in different ways.

 

At the November meeting the Board approved a continued shared service

partnership agreement. This included the requirement to develop and agree a

financial annex through the Joint Public Health Board in advance of each

financial year, setting out the agreed contributions to the public health service.

 

This will support better financial planning and use of the public health Grant to

improve outcomes in partner Councils, as well as through the shared service.