, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
The Scottish model.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 8
[Inaudible.]
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
They can comment on it if they wish.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
Councils are using reserves prudently at the moment, and if there was one benefit that came out of COVID, it enabled local authorities to accumulate a few more reserves. They've been using them now the last couple of years; we see that. But I think the one…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
Yes. Do you want me to go on?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
In your consultation response, you talk about non-pay inflationary cost pressures. Can you provide more detail about these? Are certain services being hit harder and how are local authorities adjusting to the higher prices? I think we might have touched on…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
Okay. Thanks. I'll move on.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
Anthony, on that, is there any update that you could give us on the 2023-24 pay deal and what we might expect from a pay award for 2024-25?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
No; it's a fair comment. Moving on to inflation and pay, you estimate around £267 million for pressures in 2024-25. How will that impact on local authority services, and what does it mean to the workforce of 2024-25, and probably for future years as well?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
Thanks again for your points, and well received. Just reflecting now a little bit on business rates and how that might affect some of the areas within your authorities, the Welsh Government says it will spend £384 million in the next term on support for…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
Yes. Okay.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
Yes, and I think that's the key. There is an imbalance of resilience across the local government family, which needs to be looked at for the sustainability of all 22 authorities, not those who are more wealthy than others. So that's a bigger point. Wales…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
I think we've got the evidence.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 7
Thank you, and good to see you all. Thank you for your very candid responses. I know how authentic they are, and I feel for you. I don't think, in my years as a leader, I experienced the year that probably you're facing this year, although it was tough. And I…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 6
Yes. Thank you.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 6
One last point from me, and it's this, focusing now on the health and social care workforce, I just wondered if there'd been any significant improvement in recruitment and retention, so you can start addressing this issue where we've been having to use so…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 6
Thank you for that. The last question—. Oh, sorry.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 6
Thanks for that. Moving on to ADSS, probably more so, you identified contributing factors to the challenges faced by the social care sector in Wales, including issues with continuing healthcare, which you say local authorities are having to fund in the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 6
Yes, yes.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 6
Thanks for that. Any points on the COVID?
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 6
Thank you for that. I know in your submission you talked about the impact of COVID-19. Can you explain how that remains to be a financial pressure, because a lot of us are starting to think, 'Oh, hang on, this is a bit of an excuse now all of the time'? Does…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 6
No, that's a really good point. I don't know if anybody else wants to add to that, but—.
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 6
A quarter of an hour. Right, I'll rush through. Apologies if I ask questions that, actually, probably you've answered in some ways as we've moved through, but, for the record, I'll be going through some of them again. When we look back at last year's budget…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 6
Is there any indication of how moneys might roll forward in the same way? Because if you've got, now, new moneys so that you can address some of the issues, you can start putting interventions in place, you need to know you can sustain those. So, what's the…
, Finance Committee
Scrutiny of the Welsh Government Draft Budget 2024-25: Evidence session 6
We all welcome the additional money into health, but hearing what you're saying and what I perceive myself, do you think there is an opportunity lost to address the whole picture of health, including social care, where perhaps not so much money went to…
