Issue - meetings

(CSP: MEC & MEC1)

Purpose: To inform Members of the latest financial performance of the Council.

Resolved that the latest financial performance of the Council be noted.

This decision is not subject to call in as:

·      report is to note only

therefore it will be implemented immediately.

The Executive considered a report (Agenda Item 6) which informed Members of the latest financial performance of the Council.

At Quarter Three, the forecast revenue position was an overspend of £0.6m, which was an increase of £0.1m from Quarter Two. However, the overspend position had decreased significantly from Month 8 and this was as expected due to the recruitment freeze and a reduction in expenditure across the Council.

The Communities Directorate was forecasting an overspend of £0.9m at Quarter Three, which was a similar position to that at Quarter Two. The overspend was primarily the result of a £1.3m pressure within Children and Family Services, forecast overspends within Education of £0.4m and Prevention & Developing Community Resilience £0.1m, offset by savings within Adult Social Care and Care Commissioning, Housing & Safeguarding of £0.9m split approximately equally. The Directorate was looking to mitigate this forecast overspend position further and was reviewing all spending plans to see what could be delivered in the remainder of the financial year.

The Environment Directorate was forecasting an underspend of £305k compared to a £373k underspend at Quarter Two. This was primarily due to additional income from parking and development control and a saving in winter service costs. There had however been a reduction in income mainly due to the slippage of the planning application for the Sandleford Development and the associated fee.

The Resources Directorate was forecasting an overspend of £13k, compared to a £50k overspend at Quarter Two. There were a number of forecast changes by Service, mainly reductions in Customer Service and ICT offsetting increases within HR and Legal.

Of the £5.9m savings programme for 2015/16, £806k (14%) of initiatives were being reported as red (9% Q2), none were being reported as amber (1% Q2) and £5.1m (86%) green. The level of red savings was higher than in previous years which might be an indication that savings were getting harder to deliver year on year.

Councillor Alan Macro enquired whether the increase in the forecasted expenditure on agency staff in Children’s Services was a result of the failure of the Social Work Academy, commenting that use of agency staff was a concern due to the discontinuity it led to for service users. Councillor Lynne Doherty advised that the academy was working and expenditure on agency staff had decreased overall since quarter one, however there had been a slowdown in that decrease since the last quarter was reported. The Council was still working hard to improve recruitment and retention of social workers.

Councillor Macro also asked for the reason that expenditure on Discretionary Housing Payments had decreased. Councillor Hillary Cole advised that there was a lack of demand for the funds, despite making people aware of their availability.

Councillor Macro expressed that he was disappointed to learn that a delay in the implementation of the Youth Services restructure was causing further budgetary pressure. Councillor Doherty advised that full in-year savings could not be achieved due to redundancies and notice periods that were required.

Councillor Macro finally  ...  view the full minutes text for item 55