Funding of CAFCASS Cymru

Date of decision / Dyddiad y penderfyniad:
22^nd December 2010

Statement of information / Datganiad gwybodaeth:

The Minister for Health and Social Services, the First Minister and the Minister for Business and Budget have been asked to approve that the budget for the running costs of CAFCASS Cymru is transferred from the Central Services and Administration Main Expenditure Group to the Health and Social Services Main Expenditure Group from 2011-12 onwards.

http://wales.gov.uk/publications/accessinfo/drnewhomepage/healthdrs/2011/4706587/?lang=en

Welsh Government
Draft Budget 2011/12
Assessing for Equality Impacts

CAFCASS CYMRU

2.33 CAFCASS CYMRU provides expert social work advice to Family Proceedings
Courts, the County Courts and the High Court. Since the Draft Budget this Action has
increased by £9.7 million in 2011-12, £9.2 million in 2012-13 and £8.7 million in
2013-14. This is in respect of the transfer of funding in respect of running cost
budgets.

Summary
2.34 Full assessments have been conducted for policy delivery of Health and Social Service policies to ensure that those policies ‘have due regard’ to gender, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender re-assignment and religion or belief whilst considering the DHSS plans dependent on the funding issues generated by the 2011-12 budget.

2.35 This is being reinforced by work with partners, such as the inclusion of reduced inequities in health in Local Government Outcome Agreements.

2.36 In developing Health, Social care and Well-being Strategies to run from April 2011, NHS organisations will be required to reflect to Our Healthy Future and to focus on specific vulnerable groups who receive services jointly from the NHS and local;
government and explain their management arrangements and impact.

NEWS

Welsh Government reveals its pending priorities for the next three years
November 17th, 2010

Substantial cuts to the Welsh health budget over the next three years, especially on capital spending, have enabled the Welsh Government to soften the impact on other spending areas, especially education, economy and transport and heritage.

If the Welsh Government had followed priorities set in England, and ring-fenced health – as called for by the Welsh Conservatives earlier this week – the impact on the education budget in particuar would have been much more savage. As it is First Minister Carwyn Jones has been able to stick to the commitment he made to award education a 1 per cent increase over and above the overall changes to the Welsh budget.

The percentage real-terms cuts to the main departmental budgets over the next three years, shown in Table 1, reveal the headline story in the Welsh budget announced this afternoon. Capital spending takes the biggest hit across the pitch but especially in health and education. However, this has enabled Government Ministers to restrain the revenue impact of the cuts elsewhere. For example within the heritage budget the Welsh Government has limited cuts to arts funding to 4.6 per cent over the next three years compared with a 20 per cent cut in England.

Table 1: Welsh Budget Cuts 2011-12 to 2013-14

In real terms, that is after taking inflation into account, the Welsh Government’s total budget in 2011-12 will fall by £860 million compared with the current 2010-11 financial year, and will be £1.8 billion lower by 2014-15. These reductions follow the in-year cuts of £162m to the Welsh budget which were announced by the UK Government in June. These, of course, are additional to the reductions to non-devolved budgets such as welfare (£18 billion at the UK level), which will also be felt across Wales. As the Welsh Government puts it, “Taken together, these amount to the most significant cuts to public spending in at least a generation and contrast sharply with the previous decade of growth.”

Tables 2 and and 3 summarise the overall budget while the commentary below for each department provides the summary account given in  Welsh Government’s Draft Budget which can be accessed here.

Table 2: Department Revenue Spend 2011-12 to 2013-14

Table 3: Department Capital Spend 2011-12 to 2013-14

Health and Social Services

Health and social services has been protected from any cash  reductions in its budget in 2011-12 and 2012-13 and receive a small  cash rise in 2013-14. This level of protection reflects our commitment  to ensuring the provision of frontline services across Wales.

This protection also provides a solid platform for the NHS to take forward its 5-year service plans following the 2009 reforms. We are  also protecting the social services element of the Health and Social Services budget.

Revenue funding for 2011-12 and 2012-13 remains at the same level as the budget for 2010-11. This means that all unavoidable cost increase (including pay awards inflationary pressures) will need to be self-funded by savings. In 2013-14 the budget increases by £13.8m or 0.2%.

The Capital budget to 2013-14 has decreased by £83.5m or 27.5%, with the largest reduction (-12.6%) occurring in 2011-12.

http://www.clickonwales.org/2010/11/health-cuts-soften-spending-blow-elsewhere/