Issue - meetings

Further to Minute No. 105 of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 17^th December, 2014 consideration was given to a report presented by Pete Hudson, Chief Finance Officer, which provided details of progress on the delivery of the Revenue Budget for 2014/15 based on performance for the first seven months of this financial year.  It was currently forecast that the Council would overspend against its Budget by £2.976m (+1.4%); an improvement of £129k since the last report to Cabinet in October (August monitoring report). 

The current forecast outturn excluded the costs of implementing recommendations from the Jay report and the Ofsted Inspection, and the costs which would be borne by the Council in respect of the Corporate Governance Inspection.

The main reasons for the forecast overspend were:-

·                The continuing service demand and cost pressures for safeguarding vulnerable children across the Borough.

·                Cost pressures arising from some schools converting to academies.

·                Continuing Health Care income pressures and demand pressures for Direct

·                Payments within Older People and Physical and Sensory Disability clients.

The moratorium on non-essential spend implemented on 2nd September was noted and would continue until the end of March, 2015. This would assist with reducing the forecast overspend.  

Continued close management of spend remained essential if the Council was to deliver a balanced outturn and preserve its successful track record in managing both its in year financial performance and its overall financial resilience.

The costs associated with the report undertaken by Professor Jay amounted to £102,000 in 2014/15. This represented only the cost of enagaging Professor Jay and her external staffing support..

Costs associated with the Corporate Governance and Ofsted Inspections were currently being quantified and would be included in the next monitoring report, which was due to be presented to Cabinet on the 4^th February, 2015.

It was hoped that the Council could deliver a balanced budget with the overspends being aligned.  The Council’s revenue reserves would have to fund any additional costs.

Councillor Ellis referred to the costs associated with the inspections and asked for a guestimate, but was informed it was impossible to put a figure on this at this stage as information was still be collated..  The Chief Executive had written to the Secretary of State about the costs to the Council, but had yet to receive a reply.

Councillor Ellis also referred to the Council being responsible for accrued deficits when schools converted to sponsored academies and was informed that Clifton Comprehensive was not included in the Children and Young People’s Services section of the report on Page 13 as the school would not convert to an Academy in 2014/15.

The Deputy Leader pointed out that the predicted overspend of £1 million had been raised with the Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services who had given Clifton Comprehensive until the end of January, 2015 to produce a spending plan to  bring spending in line with the level of funding allocated.  Only once the academy conversion took place would the Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41

-           Director of Finance to report.

Councillor Hoddinott, Deputy Leader, introduced a report by the Strategic Director of Resources and Transformation which provided details of progress on the delivery of the Revenue Budget for 2014/15 based on performance for the first seven months of this financial year.  It was currently forecast that the Council would overspend against its Budget by £2.976m (+1.4%); an improvement of £129k since the last report to Cabinet in October (August monitoring report). 

The current forecast outturn excluded the costs of implementing recommendations from the Jay report and the Ofsted Inspection, and the costs which would be borne by the Council in respect of the Corporate Governance Inspection.

The main reasons for the forecast overspend were:-

·                The continuing service demand and cost pressures for safeguarding vulnerable children across the Borough.

·                Cost pressures arising from some schools converting to academies.

·                Continuing Health Care income pressures and demand pressures for Direct Payments within Older People and Physical and Sensory Disability clients.

The moratorium on non-essential spend implemented on 2nd September was noted and would continue until the end of March, 2015. This would assist with reducing the forecast overspend.  

Continued close management of spend remained essential if the Council was to deliver a balanced outturn and preserve its successful track record in managing both its in year financial performance and its overall financial resilience.

Cabinet Members again referred to the requirement of the Local Authority to pick up the deficits for schools converting to sponsored academies and asked why this was allowed as this could lead to a precedent being set for other schools to follow and was informed that this was a Central Government directive and the designated Strategic Director of Children and Young People’s Services would be adopting a more robust approach when dealing with schools.

Resolved:-  That the current forecast outturn and the continuing financial challenge for the Council to deliver a balanced revenue budget for 2014/15 be noted.