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Ref
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Strategic
Risks
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Pre
Mitigation RAG rating
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Risk
Control / Response and Post Mitigation RAG score
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Post
Mitigation RAG rating
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Strat-5
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RECONCILING
POLICY, PERFORMANCE & RESOURCES
There is ongoing
uncertainty in relation to future funding allocations and the
impact of national reforms, particularly across Children’s
Services and Adult Social Care. Ongoing high inflation/cost of
living is leading to higher demand for Council services and has
increased the direct cost of providing services. Together with
increased need related to demographic changes these factors create
a risk of insufficient resources being available to sustain service
delivery to meet the changing needs of the local community.
Our revenue budget for 2025/26 includes a draw from reserves to
provide a balanced budget alongside implementing savings. Total
strategic reserves are projected to be £5.2m by 2030, which
excludes any additional draws required to balance budgets in
2025/26 or beyond. This compares with a cumulative deficit of
£111.1m by 2028/29. The Fair Funding Review 2.0 has had a
significant negative impact on the funding available for East
Sussex over the next three years. Our Core Spending Power increase
over the settlement period, as indicated by the Provisional
Financial Settlement is expected to be 11%, below the national
average of 15%.This includes assumed Council Tax increases of 5%
per annum. Additionally, there are risks and uncertainties
regarding the capital programme over the current Medium Term
Financial Plan (MTFP) period and beyond, which could impact on the
ability to deliver the Council’s priorities and set a
balanced budget. Funding uncertainty (including capital grants,
receipts and developer contributions), inflation, supply chain
issues and high interest rates could all constrain our ability to
implement our Capital Strategy and increase the pressure on the
revenue budget via increased borrowing costs.
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We
employ a robust Reconciling Policy, Performance and Resources
(RPPR) process for business planning, which ensures a strategic
corporate response to resource reductions, demographic change, and
regional and national economic challenges; and directs resources to
priority areas. We take a commissioning approach to evaluating need
and we consider all methods of service delivery. We work with
partner organisations to deliver services and manage demand, making
best use of our collective resources. We take a 'One Council'
approach to delivering our priorities and set out our targets and
objectives in the Council Plan. We monitor our progress and report
it quarterly.
The Council reviews and updates its 20-year Capital Strategy
annually as part of the RPPR process, which sets the framework in
which the capital programme is planned and allows the Council to
prioritise investment to support its objectives. The development
and delivery of the capital programme is overseen by a Capital
Strategic Asset Board (CSAB), which is a cross departmental group,
who also hear from Departmental Capital Board/Sub Boards who
oversee priority areas.
Our plans take account of known risks and pressures, including
social, economic, policy and demographic changes and financial
risks. However, we continue to operate in changing and uncertain
contexts. Current and forecast economic conditions continue to
shape a very challenging financial outlook both for the Council
itself and many of the county’s residents and businesses.
Alongside this we continue to face ongoing challenges as a result
of the persistent legacy of Covid, the increased cost of living and
other national and international factors. We will continue to use
the latest information available on these challenges to inform our
business planning. The resilience and governance review undertaken
by CIPFA in the summer confirmed we have effective processes and
governance structures in place. We have implemented actions to
address the recommendations made by CIPFA to further strengthen our
resilience.
We will also continually review our performance targets,
priorities, service offers and financial plans, and will update
these as required. As part of this we will continue to take action
wherever we can to mitigate financial and service delivery
pressures – making best use of new technology, investing in
our workforce, seeking efficiencies, and checking that our services
are effective and provide value for money.
We lobby, individually and in conjunction with our networks and
partners, for a sustainable funding regime for local government in
general and for children’s social care and adult social care
specifically, to meet the needs of the residents of East
Sussex. However, in order to address the deficit in funding
expected for 2026/27 we have had to apply for Exceptional Financial
Support, submitting an indicative request for up to £70m of
capitalisation to MHCLG. This includes a £12.5m contingency,
which has been earmarked to cover emergent financial pressures, as
well as investment aimed at bringing the Council back into
financial balance over the MTFP period.
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Strat-12
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CYBER
ATTACK
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has highlighted the
enduring and significant threat to UK infrastructure. From
ransomware attacks to AI-enabled intrusion, malicious actors are
looking to maximise their disruptive and destructive efforts in an
increasingly connected world.
Cyber-attacks are growing more frequent, sophisticated, and
damaging when they succeed. Ransomware remains the most significant
cyberthreat to the UK, primarily driven by financially motivated
organised crime groups.
The UK’s Strategic Defence Review acknowledges daily
cyber-attacks as a persistent threat and emphasises a shift towards
digital warfare capabilities. Amid a rise of state aligned groups,
whilst the UK is not disproportionately targeted, there is an
increase in aggressive cyber activity and ongoing geopolitical
challenges. There is an accelerated need to keep pace with the
dynamic threat landscape.
Furthermore, while AI presents huge opportunities, it is also
transforming the threat landscape. Cyber criminals are adapting
their business models to embrace this rapidly developing technology
- using AI to increase the volume and impact of cyber attacks
against citizens and organisations. Meanwhile the proliferation of
advanced cyber intrusion tools is lowering the barrier for entry to
criminals and states alike.
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Most
attacks leverage software flaws, gaps in boundary defences or
social engineering-based insertion methods (such as legitimate
looking emails which trigger viral payloads or impersonation of
Service Desk support). These are becoming harder to identify and
filter and rely on user security vigilance in tandem with technical
controls.
IT&D use modern security tools to assure our security posture:
Monitoring network activity and identifying security threats;
Keeping software up to date with regular patching regimes;
Continually monitoring evolving threats and re-evaluating the
ability of our toolset to provide adequate defence against them;
Ongoing communication with the security industry to find the most
suitable tools and systems to secure our infrastructure.
IT&D continues to invest in new tools, which use pre-emptive
technology to identify threats and patterns of abnormal
behaviour.
Services hosted in ISO 27001 accredited Orbis Data Centres.
The Council plans to undertake an assessment against the Cyber
Assurance Framework in order to determine whether further actions
to strengthen the Council’s cyber security could be put in
place, subject to the Council’s resource constraints.
As well as mitigations against attack, the following measures are
currently in place to minimise the impact should there be a
successful attack:
• Behavioural analysis systems defend against hostile
activity
• Resilient systems enhanced with immutable backups enable
quick recovery
• Robust protocols for response escalation and
communication
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Strat-22
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DELIVERY
OF ORACLE IMPLEMENTATION
There
is a risk that the overall implementation of Oracle (across phases
1 to 3) may not achieve the outcomes planned which results
in:
•higher
delivery costs
•longer
timescales
•a
reduced quality of back office services from a substandard
technical implementation
•risk
of not meeting statutory or contractual requirements such as
payments of Pay as You Earn (PAYE) / National Insurance (NI),
pensions, suppliers and employees
•general
organisational issues
•an
inadequate control environment
•lack of user buy-in and adoption due to a lack of
organisational readiness impacting on core business
processes
•additional
pressure on business as usual capacity from high resource demands
during delivery
•risk
to employee wellbeing from high workloads and delivery
timescale
Failure
to implement would result in the use of an unsupported and
unlicenced system (or subject to ransom charges on some level of
support) as the SAP system passes its expiry date and would miss
out on efficiencies that can be gained through the new
system.
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Phases
1 and 2 of the implementation, covering Enterprise Performance
Management, Finance, Procurement, Oracle Helpdesk and Recruitment,
are now live and have successfully exited the period of 'hypercare'
(effectively the warranty period for the build quality of the
system). These areas of Oracle functionality are now in Business As
Usual (BAU) and the operational risks are therefore being managed
on a day to day basis through the functional areas and through the
Oracle system support team, with the support from the Oracle
programme where required. This includes keeping documentation and
training materials up to date, managing the Oracle quarterly
updates and resolving any queries or issues that may arise, as for
any other BAU type activity.
Phase 3 (payroll, and employee and manager self-service) is
currently in its testing and planning stage. An earliest
realistically achievable go-live date for this phase is currently
being considered, the delivery of which will include appropriate
governance (including risk identification and mitigation, as well
as audit), technical implementation, organisational readiness and
plans for post go-live support.
To complete the phase 3 implementation, it is necessary to ensure
that sufficient programme resource is in place, and this is
therefore kept under constant review. In addition, a positive
ongoing working relationship with our implementation partner,
Infosys, needs to be in place and Infosys need to have the
necessary capacity and capability within their teams in order to
deliver to the timeframes and quality level required. The programme
lead and other key stakeholders therefore have regular
conversations with Infosys senior staff and escalate issues where
necessary. This includes gaining confirmations from Infosys on the
resources available for the ESCC programme.
It is also necessary for the organisation to prioritise programme
activity at key points in time and this is also therefore kept
under constant review through regular engagement with
DMTs.
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Strat-15
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CLIMATE
Mitigation: the Council needs to play its part in meeting
both the international agreement to keep the average global
temperature increase under 1.5°C above pre-industrialisation
levels, as well as the legally binding national target to reach
‘net zero’ by 2050.
Adaptation: the Council needs to adapt relevant services to
the predicted impacts of climate change in East Sussex, including
more frequent and intense flooding, drought, episodes of extreme
heat, and accelerated coastal erosion. If services are not
sufficiently adapted to climate change this will lead to an
increase in heat related deaths (particularly amongst the elderly),
damage to essential infrastructure, property damage from flooding,
and disruption to supply chains and service delivery.
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Climate change
mitigation: the Council has
a science-based target to reduce Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions.
The focus is on buildings, as they contributed 79% of carbon
emissions in 2020/21. Currently, there is not sufficient funding
available for the Council to be able to keep pace with the
science-based target.
The target for 2025/26 is for the delivery of a further 10 capital
schemes, as part of business-as-usual asset management work. In Q1
and Q3 a total of 13 capital schemes were completed. There is a
pipeline of a further 12 capital schemes that may be completed by
the end of 2025/26.
Climate change adaptation: the Council is working to ensure
that all relevant Council service areas will integrate adaptation
into their service planning by 2030 (within the constraint of the
resources available). In addition, the Council has some direct
responsibilities for county-wide climate change adaptation, for
example as the Lead Local Flood Authority.
The target for 2025/26 is to develop service-based guidance and
tools on integrating climate adaptation and trial these with 3
services. There is a delay in identifying the initial 3 services,
consequently the target for 2025/26 is unlikely to be
met.
The corporate Climate Emergency Board oversees progress for both
mitigation and adaptation.
Ultimately there is not sufficient funding available for the
Council to be able to keep pace with the science-based target to
halve emissions every five years. Although grant funding will be
sought to mitigate against this, it is unlikely to be sufficient.
The council will continue to work on what it can to reduce
emissions with the funding it has available, including working with
its supply chain on Scope 3 emissions. A Scrutiny review will
consider the target for the CO2 arising from County Council
operations measure, as recommended by Cabinet 16 December
2025.
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Strat-20
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PLACEMENTS FOR
CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE IN OUR CARE
Inability to
secure sufficient high quality placements for children in our care,
suitable accommodation for care experienced young people and
respite provision, leading to significant financial pressure and
poorer outcomes for children/young people.
The risk of the failure of one or more key providers in the
independent sector is an increasing concern, set against necessary
regulatory tightening of profit which might further impact the
market.
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A
number of strategies have been put in place to manage demand. Work
being undertaken includes:
-
Delivery of the Family Hub programme - providing earlier support
and intervention, Information, Advice and Guidance, Start for
Life
-
Comprehensive Early Help offer in place - helping to manage demand
at Level 3, reducing escalation.
-
Robust caseload management
- Focus on reduction in Child Protection Plans, through delivery of
Connected Coaches/Connected Families Intervention Practitioners
(CFIP) interventions
- Help’ teams, Multi-agency Child Protection Teams, Family
Network and Kinship support. Careful consideration of transfer of
Care Proceedings to Looked After Children Service after initial
hearing.
-
Enhancing Family Network approach - Family Group Conference offered
to all families pre proceedings, full exploration of kinship carers
opportunities/Special Guardianship Orders.
-
Placement and Commissioning team - holding providers to account,
utilise frameworks, scrutiny, and challenge re of all provider
process.
-
Participation in South East Regional Commission Cooperative - aims
to improve quality/efficiency for children in care through
increasing collaboration, enhancing regional commissioning,
improved market shaping-building in some protections re market
failure.
-
Strengthening marketing of foster care, increase in rates for East
Sussex foster carers, partnership with Brighton & Hove and West
Sussex County Council. Delivery of Mockingbird programme -
improving retention of carers.
-
Focus on securing health contributions to Looked After Children
placements - challenging ‘Continuing Care’ (CC)
outcomes where appropriate and development of frameworks for
integrated commissioning beyond CC.
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Strat-19
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SCHOOLS
AND INCLUSION, SPECIAL EDUCATIONAL NEEDS AND DISABILITIES
(ISEND)
For
Children with Special Educational Needs. Inability to secure
statutory provision due to lack of availability of specialist
placement within the county and increasing demand for placements in
this sector. This would put the Council at risk of judicial review
and/or negative Local Government Ombudsman judgements for failing
to meet our duties within the Children and Families Act 2014, with
associated financial penalties and reputational damage.
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A
number of strategies have been put in place to mitigate this risk.
Work being undertaken includes:
- Effective use of forecasting data to pre-empt issues.
- Work with statutory partners to develop contingency plans.
- Work with the market to increase provision where needed.
- Expanding internal interim offer for children.
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Strat-1
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ROADS
Extreme weather events over recent years, including the last
winter, have caused significant damage to many of the
county’s roads, adding to the backlog of maintenance in the
County Council’s Asset Plan: and increasing the risk to the
Council’s ability to stem the rate of deterioration and
maintain road condition.
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The
changing climate is now influencing the rate of road deterioration,
with more extreme events such as warmer wetter winters; and drier
summers punctuated by unseasonal heavy downpours (drying and
shrinking the substructure of roads). Additional funding over the
last few years has helped maintain road condition, however, the
latest condition and funding modelling showed the potential for
continued deterioration over the next 10 years.
The highway’s maintenance budget for 2025/26 only includes
government grant. In previous years we have increased spend through
borrowing. We no longer have the flexibility to borrow because of
the broader revenue pressure on Council services. This means the
level of funding available is below the £25 million needed
each year to keep our roads in a steady condition. This funding
shortfall, alongside rising costs, presents a considerable
challenge in maintaining current standards across the whole
network. As a result, we are now taking a more targeted approach to
managing network condition—prioritising routes of highest
importance to ensure we maintain a safe and resilient core
network.
This means making difficult decisions about where limited resources
can have the greatest impact. In East Sussex, we are focusing on A
and B roads and key non-principal routes that form part of our
resilient network, because they are vital for emergency services,
public transport, and the local economy. Mitigations include
encouraging road users to report potholes so we can intervene as
soon as possible in accordance with our policies; closely managing
the operational performance of the highway contractor; and lobbying
Government for additional investment as, without it, it will be
increasingly difficult to manage the risks of further
decline.
New technologies and materials are being trialled to improve
efficiency and resilience. Our new Asset Management System,
introduced in September 2025, is enhancing how we plan and
prioritise maintenance, using better data to model funding needs
and target investment for greatest impact. It also strengthens
transparency and accountability in decision-making. We are also
future-proofing assets, such as street lighting, to adapt to
changing technologies and deliver long-term value.
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Strat-4
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HEALTH
Failure
to secure maximum value from partnership working with the National
Health Service (NHS). If not achieved, there will be impact on
social care, public health and health outcomes and increased social
care operational and cost pressures, as well as shared Integrated
Care System objectives for jointly managing patient flow through
our System.
An increase in activity and complexity in the presentation of
patients through our acute hospital sites, has resulted in an
increase in the NCTR (No Criteria to Reside) numbers and presents a
system risk in respect of adequate patient flow.
Integrated Care Board (ICB) operating costs and programme funding
were required to reduce by 50% by Q3 2025/26 as per a national
mandate. For NHS Sussex this means a reduction of 53% which
presents a risk to the way ESCC works with the NHS to jointly
commission services locally and get the best value out of the
collective resources available for our population, including
potential transfers of current Continuing Healthcare, SEND and
safeguarding functions, all of which would need primary legislation
to enact (and would therefore be post cost reductions).It could
also have implications for the Sussex Integrated Care System (ICS)
which would impact on alignment with the Mayoral County Combined
Authority Devolution plans.
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The
system is working collaboratively to improve hospital discharge and
reduce delayed stays for patients with complex care needs.
Additional funding in place to support Winter Pressures, this is
seen through funding an additional 10 D2RA beds and 5 SPOT beds,
this is in place until the end of January 2026 and will be reviewed
at that point. Funding initiatives include keeping patients active
in hospital, creating care coordination hubs, deploying two Social
Work Teams for ‘discharge to recover and assess’ beds,
and commissioning a scheme to support self-funded care. MADE events
have been in place prior to Christmas, these efforts have led to a
sustained decrease in the number of patients with no clinical need
to remain in hospital (NCTR), though continued success depends on
adequate community bed capacity and suitable post-hospital support
for increasingly complex needs. The Additional Discharge Funding is
now fully integrated into the Better Care Fund pooled budget (no
longer ring-fenced). It covers Home First pathways and Discharge to
Assess beds, with capacity balanced through a multi-agency
approach. A small portion of the fund is reserved to maintain
flexibility and support patient flow, especially over
winter.
Collaborative work is underway to create multi-disciplinary
neighbourhood teams serving populations of 30,000–50,000,
building on joint leadership in each Integrated Community Team
(ICT) area. These ‘one-team’ approaches aim to deliver
more proactive, coordinated care for people with complex needs and
reduce unplanned hospital admissions, especially over winter.
Participation in the National Neighbourhood Health Implementation
Programme (NNHIP) — starting in Hastings and Rother —
will accelerate local ICT and proactive care plans, supporting the
shift from hospital-based to community-focused care and more
sustainable use of existing resources overall.
After a delay national agreement has now been reached to fund the
reform of ICBs and reduced operational costs by 50%. To support
this, NHS England has agreed that NHS Sussex will merge with NHS
Surrey to form a single Integrated Care Board (ICB) from 1 April
2026, with further restructure taking place to deliver reduced
running costs in 26/27. The new ICB will serve 3 million people
(including 1.7 million in Sussex). To prepare, the two ICBs now
share a Chair and Chief Executive Officer, and a single shared
Board has been appointed. The four upper tier Local Authorities
across Surrey and Sussex have agreed to be represented collectively
on the new single clustered ICB Board through four senior roles
(Chief Executive, DASC, DCS, and DPH). ESCC also continues to work
with ICB and local NHS partners to adapt joint planning and
commissioning, with the aim of preserving the collaboration within
reducing ICB capacity to deliver the best outcomes for our
population within the available collective resources. The possible
impact on specific functions currently carried out by ICBs, such as
Continuing Healthcare, SEND and safeguarding, is still
awaited
In a further reform the Government’s 10-Year Health Plan
(July 2025) announced proposals to abolish Integrated Care
Partnerships (ICPs) required under the current Health and Care Act
2022 - in Sussex this is the Sussex Health and Care Assembly. To
maintain local focus amid a move to a larger Surrey and Sussex NHS
planning area, the four LAs have proposed keeping the Sussex
Assembly on an informal, non-statutory basis to support population
health and align with the future Sussex CMA footprint.
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WORKFORCE
An
inability to attract and retain the high calibre staff needed in
key services and roles could lead to a reduction in the expertise
and capacity required to deliver statutory services to our
residents, including to prevent harm to children, young people and
vulnerable adults at the required level and standards, impacting on
the achievement of the Council’s strategic
objectives.
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A
number of strategies have been put in place to support our
recruitment and retention aims. Work being undertaken
includes:
- ongoing use of apprenticeships, traineeships, intern arrangements
and more flexible work arrangements etc as a way of bringing in new
talent to the Council.
- an assessment of the changes to the new Growth and Skills Levy,
particularly in terms of the flexibilities that have been launched
with a view to making training more accessible
- ongoing review of our new recruitment website ‘East Sussex
County Council Careers’ to ensure the content remains
engaging and interesting and attracts individuals to apply for our
jobs.
- new webpages added to the recruitment site on a pilot basis for
future ‘job family’ content
- continued delivery of mentoring to young people in care by Adecco
(the Councils Agency supplier) as part of their social value
offer.
- HR support to ASCH workstream for ‘under 30s’
- continued delivery of inclusive recruitment training to
managers
- ongoing promotion of guidance to managers on making reasonable
adjustments for disabled candidates.
- guidance on the use of volunteers as a route into the workplace
is being developed and is currently being shared with departments.
The intention is for such opportunities to support people who are
out of work to come back into the workplace through gaining
confidence and experience of work
- a review of the current leadership development offer following
the delivery of our two leadership development programmes:
‘Ladder to Leadership’ and ‘Head of Service
Masterclasses’.
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Strat-23
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Local
Government Reorganisation and Devolution
Both
the formation of a combined county authority for Sussex and the
proposed transition from a two tier local authority arrangement to
a unitary government model for East Sussex will have a significant
effect on our workforce. These are likely to lead to additional
workloads for staff over the next few years. The timescales for
implementation are challenging and will place considerable
additional pressures on teams. This could result in resources being
diverted from the ongoing delivery of services and a consequential
deterioration in service delivery
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Through
our RPPR process we will continue to review the resources required
to support Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation and will
continue to lobby Government for additional funding to help support
the significant additional workload this will place on the Council.
We will also continue our work on supporting staff through change
and will ensure all staff are aware of the full range of support
available to them.
Additional mitigations will be implemented as the impact on both
the Council and our local area becomes clearer.
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Strat-18
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DATA
BREACH
A breach of security/confidentiality leading to destruction, loss,
alteration, unauthorised disclosure of, or access to, personal
data. This includes breaches that are the result of both accidental
and deliberate causes. A personal data breach is a security
incident that has affected the confidentiality, integrity or
availability of personal data regardless of whether information has
been accessed, altered or disclosed via electronic or manual means.
While AI presents huge opportunities, if used inappropriately the
risk of data breach is heightened.
Risks to individuals, reputational damage, fines from the
Information Commissioner’s Officer (ICO), compensation
claims.
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Policy
and guidance procedures in place to support practice.
Data Protection Officer (DPO), Caldicott Guardians and Information
Governance Officers monitor breach reporting and put in place
mechanisms to minimise recurrence.
Staff training to develop awareness. E-learning and policy delivery
mechanism expanded to enhance skills and increase awareness of
responsibilities under General Data Protection Regulation
legislation.
Technical security measures operated by Information Technology and
Digital (IT&D), including access control and segregation of
duties.
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Strat-6
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LOCAL ECONOMIC
GROWTH
The devolution of
powers, responsibilities, functions and funding through a Mayoral
Combined County Authority (MCCA) for Sussex will lead to
significant changes, impacts and opportunities for East Sussex
County Council (ESCC) in enabling and supporting the local economic
growth for our residents, businesses and visitors.
Possible consequences if the devolution is not managed successfully
include:
• Ineffective structures and mechanisms to position and make
the case for local economic growth in East Sussex
• Inability to access future investment opportunities if East
Sussex priorities are not reflected in MCCA plans/strategies
• Lack of pipeline of investment proposals in East Sussex
resulting in low levels of investment in East Sussex
• Loss of an effective East Sussex ‘business
voice’ (provided through Team East Sussex and sub boards) in
determining MCCA priorities
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In
July 2025 the Government approved the Sussex and Brighton Mayoral
Combined County Authority (MCCA), to cover East Sussex, West Sussex
and Brighton and Hove, to be established in 2026.
At this stage the details are unclear as to how the devolved
functions will operate between the new MCCA and existing upper tier
authorities (and then subsequently the unitary authorities, as a
result of Local Government Reorganisation in East Sussex). A small
MCCA team has been established to work alongside strategic partners
in the lead up and formation of the new Authority – a first
set of Devolution policy sessions have been delivered in December
2025. Our risk control/response will be adjusted as information
becomes available to consider the wider impact / opportunity this
will have on the local economy through the development of
Sussex-wide strategies and the resulting growth programmes.
As part of our initial response to mitigate these risks we are
undertaking the following:
• We are currently developing an investment plan to accompany
the ‘East Sussex Prosperity to 2050’ economic growth
strategy to articulate our investment propositions and asks to the
new devolved MCCA and Government, whilst also addressing how the
strategy contributes to delivering the Government’s emerging
Industrial Strategy and Sector Plans.
• Through the East Sussex Growth Hub service, we are able to
keep abreast of the needs of the businesses in East Sussex, which
will influence the priorities set by the MCCA
• We will ensure that, through Team East Sussex, the business
voice will heavily influence emerging MCCA priorities and
plans.
The Council is already working with Sussex partners on a joint
plans, as directed by Government. We have jointly developed the Get
Sussex Working Plan with WSCC and BHCC, and as a consequence will
be in a good position to develop the anticipated Strategic Skills
Plan which is likely to be an early deliverable through the MCCA.
We have also worked with the Sussex Chamber of Commerce in
developing the 1st Local Skills Improvement Plan (LSIP), and will
be working with them to develop the 2nd LSIP.
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Strat-21
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Care
Act reviews and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguarding (DoLS)
assessments
Demand
exceeding capacity for annual Care Act reviews and Deprivation of
Liberty Safeguarding (DoLS) assessments
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These
are known issues for virtually all local authorities with social
care responsibilities as this activity falls within our duties
under the Care Act 2014 and Mental Capacity Act 2005.
As of Q3 25/26:
We are
meeting our target for adult reviews (outturn is 3 days against a
target of 6 or fewer days) and carer reviews (outturn is -1 day
against a target of 6 or fewer days, meaning reviews started on
average one day before their proposed start date). We are also
meeting our target for the number of people with a Deprivation of
Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) episode awaiting allocation of a Best
Interest Assessor (outturn is 250 people against a target for 650
or fewer people).
Mitigations and
actions:
• We are
continuing to increase the number of reviews completed year-on-year
to help meet increasing demand, and to prioritise reviews according
to people’s needs. As of Nov 2025, 69.4% of adult Care Act
reviews were completed against a target of 66.6%.
• We have
oversight of performance at all levels of the Council to ensure
visibility, accountability and grip. Weekly and monthly reporting
is sent to Operational Managers at all levels, and then scrutinised
by the Waiting Times Steering Group and the Improvement and
Assurance Board on a regular basis.
• Since
October, we have piloted the delegation portal with our strategic
partner Care for the Carers, making it easier and quicker for them
to process carer reviews. This pilot is now BAU and will be
monitored by commissioners and operational services.
• Young
carers reviews are undertaken by Imago Community, ensuring a timely
assessment and review for this cohort.
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