The Croydon Council Cabinet met on 23 July 2025, approving responses to scrutiny recommendations, noting the provisional financial performance report for 2024-25, and approving the publication of the Adult Social Care and Health Local Account. The Cabinet reviewed the council's financial performance, highlighting both overspends and underspends in various departments, and discussed strategies for financial recovery and sustainability.

Financial Performance Report

The Cabinet reviewed and approved the 2024-25 Provisional Outturn Financial Performance Report, which provided an overview of the council's financial status across its General Fund, Housing Revenue Account (HRA), and Capital Programme. The report highlighted a provisional overspend of £29.2 million in the General Fund revenue budget, which was reduced to a £0.7 million underspend through the use of one-off mitigations, including transformation earmarked reserves, risk contingency budgets, corporate earmarked reserves, business risk earmarked reserves, and capitalisation directions¹. The HRA revenue budget showed a provisional overspend of £6.3 million. The General Fund capital programme had a provisional underspend of £16.2 million, while the HRA capital programme had a provisional underspend of £21.2 million.

The report noted that significant savings of £21.821 million are required for 2025-26, including reductions in budgets that delivered underspends in 2024-25, which will not be recurrent. All service directorates were directed to reduce net expenditure through the in-year Financial Recovery Plan. The Cabinet also acknowledged unfunded cost pressures related to increased demand and market prices, requiring government intervention through policy changes or funding increases. The report highlighted that the council's historic borrowing and debt burden continue to critically impact the sustainability of its revenue budget, with ongoing discussions with the MHCLG regarding further financial support.

Scrutiny Stage 2 Responses

The Cabinet approved the responses and action plans outlined in the Scrutiny Stage 2 Report - 23 July 2025, addressing recommendations from the Homes Sub-Committee and the Streets & Environment Sub-Committee. These responses included action plans for implementing agreed recommendations and explanations for rejecting certain recommendations.

One key recommendation from the Homes Sub-Committee was to publish contract performance data more frequently and enhance communication about service improvements, potentially through a monthly newsletter for tenants. However, this recommendation was rejected because contractor performance is already reported to the resident meeting Performance Management Group, and a quarterly resident's publication, Open House, is available online and in hard copy.

Another recommendation, HS.33.24/25, was to provide greater clarity on how safety measures are calculated. The Cabinet accepted this recommendation, agreeing to offer training to sub-committee members on the criteria used by the Housing Regulator for Tenant Satisfaction Measures (TSM) safety measures.

The Sub-Committee also recommended holding evening surgeries, particularly focused on estates, to better engage with residents and address their concerns. This was rejected in favour of roadshows, which have been more successful.

Regarding Healthy School Streets Schemes, the Sub-Committee recommended that the forthcoming Healthy School Streets Policy should consider the impact of any proposed schemes on neighbouring streets and areas. The Cabinet noted that this was already in progress through the Sustainable Travel to School Strategy. However, the recommendation to continue monitoring the impact of Healthy School Streets beyond the Experimental Order period and publish this data on the council website was rejected due to funding constraints.

Adult Social Care and Health Local Account

The Cabinet approved the Adult Social Care and Health Local Account 24-25, a public-facing document outlining key activities and achievements in Adult Social Care and Health. The report includes updates on the Adults Living Independently Transformation Programme and the refresh of the Adult Social Care and Health Strategy. The Local Account highlights success stories of residents receiving social care support and becoming more independent through reablement², community support, and personal assistants.

The report also addresses progress on actions from the previous Local Account, such as developing community micro-enterprises, piloting resident feedback mechanisms, reviewing technology-enabled care, expanding the reablement offer, implementing integrated discharge assessments, reviewing day services for people living with dementia, and developing the workforce. The report identifies strengths, such as partnership working, innovative commissioning models, and a dedicated workforce, as well as challenges, including increased demand for services and the need to address inequities in accessing services.

Councillor Yvette Hopley, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, emphasised the importance of collaboration with health services and resident involvement in decision-making. The refreshed Adult Social Care and Health Strategy aims to set out a vision to 2030, aligning with the Mayor's Business Plan and Future Croydon strategy.

Scrutiny Stage 1

The Cabinet agreed to receive the recommendations arising from the meetings of the Children & Young People Sub-Committee, the Scrutiny & Overview Committee, and the Streets & Environment Sub-Committee. A substantive response to these recommendations will be provided at the Cabinet meeting on 24 September 2025.

The Children & Young People Sub-Committee recommended that the council and the Croydon Safeguarding Children Partnership pursue a more equitable funding model. The Scrutiny & Overview Committee recommended including additional narrative in future versions of the Strategic Assessment to demonstrate the link to priorities, exploring options for publishing data related to the work of the Family Justice Service, and exploring whether the Town Centre Taskforce model could be replicated within other hotspots in the borough. The Streets & Environment Sub-Committee recommended that the council develop robust metrics to compare the performance of Planning and Planning Enforcement services against similar local authorities.