The Adult Social Care & Health Select Committee was scheduled to meet on 26 November 2025 to discuss the budget proposals for 2026/27, the directorate's performance, and the committee's work programme. The meeting was also scheduled to include a 72 seconds silence to remember those who lost their lives in the Grenfell tragedy¹.

Budget Proposals 2026/27

The committee was scheduled to review and comment on the draft budget proposals for 2026/27. A report pack was prepared for the meeting which included details of the services under the Adult Social Care Directorate, and the specific budget proposals being put forward covering:

• Budget Pressures/Growth of £1.5m in 2026/27
• Savings of £3.5m in 2026/27 and another £3.8m in future years
• No new capital schemes being proposed for the Directorate
• Fees and charges levels for 2026/27

The report pack noted that the council is required to set a balanced budget and is currently expecting a council-wide budget gap of £41.5m in 2026/27 rising to £140m by 2029/30. It stated that Government is implementing a revised funding formula for local government from 2026/27, and the anticipated adverse impact of this alone is expected to be £23.5m in 2026/27 and around £82m by the end of the period 2026/27-2029/30.

The report pack included details of proposed savings including:

• Introducing a self-funder administration fee to recover the cost of arranging care for people who ask the council for help setting-up and monitoring their private arrangements.
• Maximising utilisation of assets through enhanced management of existing voids.
• Remodelling the short breaks offer to help meet the Care Act² needs of adults with learning disabilities more effectively.
• Continuing to review processes and ways of working.
• Creating 65 new units of extra housing at Lots Road to help prevent residents from requiring residential care placements.
• Strategically developing the workforce and adapting vacant social worker roles into care navigators.
• Continuing to work with the NHS to ensure those entitled to NHS-funded care receive it.
• Exploring the use of the Disabled Facilities Grant to fund the costs associated with telecare equipment.
• Using service users' annual reviews to increase the focus on helping people live more independently.
• Further developing the Kingsbridge Road and St Helen's Gardens sites to provide in-borough supported living units for residents in out-of-borough placements.
• Continuing work to support residents in supported living schemes into general needs housing to delay dependency on long-term institutional care.
• Exploring the use of local specialist providers to address hoarding/ housing hazards.
• Reviewing spend on preventative service contracts and identify opportunities to consolidate spend and reduce duplication.
• Reducing the costs associated with missed or late cancellations of homecare appointments, re-designing existing contact centre processes to reduce the need for an agency worker.
• Redirecting some Public Health grant funding from existing activity to different cross council programmes directed at achieving Public Health outcomes.

The report pack also included details of proposed growth of £1.502m to help manage demographic pressures.

The report pack stated that under the Equality Act 2010, the council has a duty to pay due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and advance equality of opportunity with regard to the protected characteristics of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, sexual orientation, religion or belief and sex and to foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. It summarised the equalities implications of each individual proposal, stating that 1 growth and 6 savings are expected to have a positive impact on residents, services and staff, 7 savings have a neutral impact, 1 savings proposal has been assessed by the service area as having a negative impact, and 1 saving has unknown equalities impacts.

Adult Social Care and Health Statutory and Discretionary Spending

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the directorate's budget and statutory and discretionary spend. A report pack was prepared for the meeting which stated that the Adult Social Care and Health directorate portfolio encompasses a wide range of services, that are determined by the Care Act 2014, Mental Health Act 1983, Mental Capacity Act 2005, and Local Government Act 2003. It noted that most activities have some statutory element, making it difficult to delineate clearly between statutory and discretionary spending on a line-by-line basis.

The report pack stated that Adult Social Care has a net budget of £52.42 million and a gross expenditure budget of £92.01 million for 2025/26, and that around £21 million of expenditure is funded through income from the NHS, primarily via the Better Care Fund (BCF). It also stated that the Council's responsibilities focus on commissioning and delivering social care services that maintain independence and sustain the care market, while the Integrated Care Board (ICB) funds and commissions clinical and community health services that support flow through hospitals and reablement pathways.

The report pack stated that the Council has a legal duty to improve the health of its local population and reduce health inequalities, and to enable this, the Council receives a ring-fenced Public Health Grant each year, with its allocation for 2025/26 being £24.8m.

Adult Social Care and Health Performance

The committee was scheduled to receive an update on the Adult Social Care and Health directorate's performance indicators related to service quality. A report pack prepared for the meeting stated that the Adult Social Care and Health directorate has a robust approach to overseeing and managing service quality and performance against targets, and that service managers review performance data at least monthly, and the Senior Management Team also reviews this monthly, in conjunction with monthly finance monitoring reports.

The report pack stated that performance monitoring incorporates local and national indicators to ensure there is a focus on local need and to allow for benchmarking with other councils in London and across England, and that the directorate continuously reviews its performance and budget position, which enables it to respond quickly to any challenges that arise.

The report pack included a table of key performance indicators for the directorate's main contracts, along with the most recently available data from Quarter 1.

Work Programme Report

The committee was scheduled to discuss the work programme and any emerging priorities for the 2025/2026 municipal year. A report pack prepared for the meeting stated that the Adult Social Care and Health Select Committee has a discrete service-based remit to scrutinise the delivery, outputs and performance of council services, the development of departmental policy, strategy and projects, and improved satisfaction for residents and users of services, and to amplify residents' voices. It also stated that the Select Committee also has a statutory role to review external issues of concern and a statutory power to scrutinise the NHS, and healthcare services.

The report pack stated that the next meeting will focus on the local health economy, and that at the last meeting members agreed to place the additional item on the new model Integrated Care Board (ICB) and the implications for the local authority on the agenda for 12 February 2026. It noted that this follows the decision by North West London ICB to merge with North London ICB to create a single organisation from 1 April 2026 and implement a model ICB with responsibilities as a strategic commissioner in the local health economy.

The report pack also stated that the next meeting will also scrutinise neighbourhood health services, and that NHS England recently announced that the bi-borough area of Westminster and the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea would be establishing one of 43 pilot neighbourhood health services which are being set up across the country.

The report pack noted that Select Committee members identified autism and ADHD as a priority issue to scrutinise as part of their work programming at the start of the municipal year, and that the NHS will present a report on autism and ADHD, including timescales for diagnoses and referral pathways at the next meeting on 12 February 2026.