Agenda item 4 - MTFS (Final) Cab 070213 , item 9. PDF 1 MB

for non Academy Schools. These amounts have been included within the MTFS.
• Public Health ring fenced grant of £21.126 million for 2013/14 and £21.793 million for
2014/15 has subsequently been confirmed.
Following the announcement of Council Tax Freeze Grant for 2013/14, the Council is again
proposing to freeze Council Tax levels in 2013/14. Full details of the proposed Council Tax
and actual Tax base are provided in section H of the MTFS.
In the 2010 Spending Review, the Government provided £7.2bn additional funding to local
authorities to protect social care services. Around half of this money was to be transferred to
local authorities from the NHS. Local authorities and the NHS were to agree between them
how the money would be used to benefit both parties and promote integration. A Plan was
produced and agreed between the Council and NHSG. In the recent White Paper, Caring for
Our Future: shared ambitions for care and support, the Government committed to providing an
additional £300m over the last two years of this Spending Review period. The Council will
receive £9.0 million in 2013/14 and similar levels should also be received in 2014/15. These
amounts are included within the budget funding figures.
In addition to the above the New Homes Bonus Scheme pays a non ring fenced grant
equivalent to the national average for the Council Tax band of each new home built, and
empty property brought back into use, in the local authority area. At the outset of the scheme it
was determined that this would be paid for six years. In two-tier areas the scheme splits the
bonus 80:20 between the lower and upper-tier authorities, so the Council receives 20% of
each District Council allocation. Figures have now been confirmed for Year 3 of the scheme
(2013/14), and the Council will be awarded a grant of £1.819 million, which includes the
previous two years allocations.
27 Finally, from April 2013, the Department for Works and Pensions (DWP) will no longer make
Community Care Grants and Crisis Loans direct to claimants. Instead this responsibility will
cease and the Council will be expected to design a different provision that is suitable and
appropriate to meet crisis needs of the local community. Funding will be provided in the form
of a non ring fenced grant from the DWP, and it has been confirmed that the funding will be
£1.121 million in 2013/14, with a provisional figure of £1.105 million in 2014/15.
Community Care Grants were awarded by DWP for a range of expenses, and were intended
to support vulnerable people to return to or remain in the community or to ease exceptional
pressures on families. Crisis Loans were paid by DWP to meet immediate short term needs in
an emergency when a person has insufficient resources to prevent a serious risk to the health
and safety of themselves or their families. The Council does not need to replicate this
provision, and is currently reviewing a number of options which would provide a suitable
scheme with the focus being on ensuring that local people are responded to in a way which
provides support at the time of crisis, and which develops their skills to help themselves in the
future to reduce the likelihood of reoccurring crises.
28 A significant unknown factor in relation to the 2013/14 budget, and future budgets, was the
funding of Academy Schools, which is being removed from Formula Grant. During 2012/13 the
DfE issued a number of consultation papers “On the 'minded to' decision for the academies
funding transfer for 2011-12 and 2012-13” and “School Funding Reform - next steps”.
These consultations looked at the options for recouping academy funding from local authorities
and making funding for schools fairer. The Council responded to both consultations.
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