Agenda item

Further to Minute No. 189 of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 10^th April, 2013, consideration was given to a report presented by Stuart Booth, Director of Finance, which provided details of progress on the delivery of the Revenue Budget for 2012/13 based on performance for the first eleven months of the financial year. It was currently forecast that the Council would overspend against its Budget by £0.601m (+0.3%); an improvement of £0.677m on the January report which showed a forecast overspend of £1.278m (+0.6%). The main reasons for the forecast overspend related to:-

·                The continuing service demand and cost pressures in looking after vulnerable children across the Borough.

·                Additional, one-off property costs relating to the continued rationalisation of the Council’s asset portfolio as part of the efficiency drive to reduce operational costs.

It was expected that this forecast overspend would further reduce in the final month of 2012/13 financial year following Cabinet’s instruction, endorsed by Scrutiny, that future spend should be on essential items only. For the remainder of the financial year spend must only be in respect of ensuring that vulnerable children and adults were safeguarded, be contractually committed, where to not spend would be a false economy, or to ensure compliance with health and safety requirements.    

Continued, concerted management action would also be required to ensure that the Council was able to deliver a balanced outturn and preserve its successful track record in managing both its in year financial performance and its overall financial resilience.

A discussion and question and answer session ensued and the following issues were raised and subsequently clarified:-

·                Definition and determination of essential spend and the need for this to be consistent across the Authority, the statutory obligations and as to what it actually entailed.

·                Overspend position for Children and Young People’s Services and the Invest to Save Bid for out of authority foster placements to mitigate key pressures.

·                Need for more clarity and narrative on the savings to ascertain whether the position was positive or negative year on year.

·                Continuation of the Multi-Agency Support Panel in Children and Young People’s Services in order to support a move towards a balanced budget.

·                Timetable for early sight of monitoring reports by this Select Commission.

·                Key pressures in Asset Management as a result of accommodation costs and property sales.

·                Forecasted underspend on the Housing Revenue Account and the impact and significant risks arising from the social sector size criteria rules.

·                Close monitoring of the financial management arrangements and the risk that this poses from the social sector size criteria rules.

·                Potential overspend arising from the pressures of winter maintenance  and the basing of this on an average winter.

·                Parking income targets and the reasons for the overspend through the target not being achieved.

·                The need for adequate and robust budget challenge.

·                Non-contractual overtime and the impact of this with the reduction of staff.

·                Credit to Waste Management in savings arising from contract renegotiations from changes to collection arrangements.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the recommendations made to Cabinet be noted.

(2)  That the any comments made be forwarded onto the Cabinet for further deliberation.

(3)  That a report be submitted to a future meeting on the progress and impact of the Invest to Save Bid for out of authority foster placements in Children and Young People’s Services.

(4)  That further information be provided on the reasons for the parking income target not being achieved, thus resulting in an overspend.