The People Directorate does this by:
- focusing on learning and quality practice
- integrating services with partners
- providing information and choice
- focusing on getting the basics right
What we do
The People Directorate covers some of the most critical safeguarding, support and education services in Bracknell Forest.
They provide services and support 24 hours a day, all year round to some of Bracknell Forest’s most vulnerable people.
This is while making sure young people get the best education and communities are supported to be independent and resilient.
The People Directorate protects you from harm if you need us, helping you to get support so that you can be physically and emotionally healthy. They work with you to get support so you can be independent and resilient.
How we work
Service context
Our vision is to make sure that all children and young people, families, adults and communities of Bracknell Forest are supported to be safe from harm, resilient, independent and able to contribute to our community.
We achieve this by working collaboratively to deliver the priorities within the corporate plan while focusing on meeting the needs of our most vulnerable residents. There will also be a specific focus on our working arrangements with some key partners as they advance local structural changes within their organisations.
We will advance changes to further strengthen the structure in the People Directorate in order to improve resilience and strengthen our offer to residents and partners.
An additional focus this year will be the assurance of adult social care by the care quality commission as all councils will be assured in the next 24 months.
Key drivers
Nationally, there is an increase in demand for adults and children’s services, housing and welfare support. This is mirrored in Bracknell Forest. This is coupled with an increase in cost of the services which are needed to meet the needs of our residents.
We will continue to work closely with our health colleagues and other partners to understand the needs of our residents and continue to develop key strategies to meet these needs. This includes:
- finalising the all-age integrated carers strategy
- developing a joint dementia strategy
- developing a youth strategy
- developing an all-age integrated autism strategy
It is key that we meet the needs of our children with SEND as we continue to implement our SEND Strategy and advance broader developments as part of our SEND improvement journey. The development of a disability needs assessment will help in long term planning and associated developments.
We will be developing plans to implement national policies such as Working Together to Safeguard Children 2023 and Stable Homes, Built on Love.
Current challenges
Current challenges include:
- increased demand for services
- increased cost of care and support services
- managing the provider landscape - working with providers to make sure that there is sufficient service capacity to meet local needs
- making sure there is sufficiency in the workforce through the workforce strategy and corporate workforce priority
- implementing the Special educational needs and disability (SEND) strategy and improvement plans while demand for these services and support increases
Our services
This information is correct as of April 2024.
The Executive Director for People is Grainne Siggins. The directorate provides the following services:
Adult Social Care
Led by Melanie O’Rourke - Assistant Director
- Adult Community Team
- Intermediate Care Service
- Learning Disability and Autism Services
Children's Social Care
Led by Sonia Johnson - Assistant Director
- First Response and Youth Justice Team
- Life Chances
- Family Safeguarding
- Specialist Services
Commissioning
The Assistant Director post is currently vacant.
- Commissioning
- People Safeguarding
- People Quality Assurance
- Business Intelligence
Early Help and Communities
Led by Audrey Johnson - Assistant Director
- Housing
- Welfare
- Community Safety
- Early Help
Education and Learning
Led by Duane Chappell - Assistant Director
- SEND and Specialist Support Services
- School Standards
- Property Places and Admissions
- Business Relationships
- Information Advice and Support Service
- Early Years
- Virtual School
Mental Health and Out of Hours
Led by Tony Dwyer - Assistant Director
- Community Mental Health Team (CMHT)
- CMHT Older Adults
- Emergency Duty Service
- Forestcare
- Drug and Alcohol Service
Priorities
Key results and indicators
We publish our key results and indicators to show our progress with the Council Plan.
Annual actions
Annual actions set out specific activity to be carried out in the next year.
Budget position
Budget information reflects information approved at council in February 2024. Structure changes will be reflected in reporting from quarter 1.
Revenue budget
The People Directorate has a cash budget of £77.722 million for 2024 to 2025.
The gross budget is higher than this as there are government grants that fund significant amounts of expenditure, most notably:
- schools budget at £124.27 million
- housing benefits at £19.200 million
Savings
The 2024 to 2025 budgets include savings of £2.731 million
The key themes adopted in making the savings were:
- promoting independence - £0.948 million
- managing the market - £0.300 million
- managing external grants - £0.500 million
- children placements reduction - £0.334 million
- early years income - £0.253 million
There were a number of smaller savings such as releasing surplus budgets and renegotiating contracts and use of grant funding that together totalled £0.396 million.
Pressures
The budget includes pressures of £4.301 million.
These pressures can be analysed into the following broad categories:
- demographic growth - £1.463 million
- children transitioning to adults - £0.841 million
- Special Education Needs Team restructure - £0.578 million
- home to school transport and fleet - £0.256 million
- contribution to council statutory education services - £0.265 million
- expenditure to match additional social care grant - £0.753 million
- other small pressures - £0.145 million
Provisional Safety Valve funding
This includes:
- £16 million additional revenue grant from the government spread over the next 6 years to part finance the deficit (approved March 2024)
- capital investment of £13 million for a new special school supporting children and young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health (SEMH) needs (approved January 2024)
- capital investment request to the government for £4 million to develop Special Resource Provision in secondary schools
The commitment to delivering actions in the Safety Valve agreement is council wide.