Agenda item

-        Rotherham Council Budget 2013/14

 

-        Public Health Spending Plan and Commissioning Intentions

 

-        RMBC Commissioning Priorities

 

Council’s Budget 2013/14

In accordance with Minute No. S74, Stuart Booth, Director of Financial Services, gave the following powerpoint presentation:-

 

Meeting the Financial Challenge – An overview of the Council’s Budget 2013/14 and beyond

-          The scale of financial challenges/risks facing local government was set to continue for at least until 2017 (possibly a decade)

-          Increasing financial risk transferred to local councils through the Local Government Finance and Welform Changes and restrictions on finances

-          Sustainable medium/long term financial planning was now even more critical

-          The lack of financial certainty e.g. the next Spending Review was only to be announced in late June, 2013, and the likelihood of further finance reform/restrictions made financial planning extremely difficult

 

What this meant for Rotherham

-          Never faced such financial challenges before…

–           2010/11       £5m (emergency budget)

–           2011/12       £30m

–           2012/13       £20m

–           2013/14       £20m

–           2014/15       £20m+?

–           2015/16       £??m

-          Localisation could have significant, adverse impact on future Council resources

 

Approach Taken

-          Established a clear set of budget principles

-          Started early in redesigning services and budget…..reduced head count in last 2 years by over 1,000 and had pushed back the financial ‘cliff edge’ into later years (2015/16?)

-          Strategic re-positioning and re-integration of its partnerships e.g. RBT and 2010 Rotherham allowing further savings to be made

-          Focus on reducing the ‘back office’ to a minimum level – over 15% reduction in last 2 years

-          Concentrated on reducing management posts which had reduced by 26% at Director level and 43% from next tier - overall management reduction of 19%; while front line reduction has only been 8%.

 

Rotherham’s 2013/14 Budget Challenge

-          Initial Funding Gap in MTFS             £14.1m

-          Additional challenges (October):

o  Specific grants rolled into Formula Grant at reduced levels (net)

                                                                        +£2.9m

o  Freezing Council Tax                      +£2.2m

o  CTRS 8.5% max pass through to working age claimants

                                                                        +£1.0m

-          Revised Funding Gap                      £20.2m

 

Meeting the Challenge

-          By working together with a clear set of budget principles, we have managed to meet the budget challenge while protecting front line services and those most in need in the Borough, and minimising job losses ..........

-          Over 70% (c£14M) of savings proposals  did not affect front line service delivery  - key examples being:

·           Reviewing inflationary assumptions (£4M) and MTFS assumptions (£0.9m)

·           Further back office streamlining (£2.2M)

·           Rationalising customer access (£0.5M)

·           Realising benefits from improved cash flow management (£2.4M)

·           Maximising opportunities through joint working on Public Health/NHS (£0.8M)

·           Working with partner organisations to improve efficiency (£1M)

·           Maximise income from other sources (£0.8M)

-          The remaining savings would come from:

·           Front Line Services:

·           Children and Young Peoples                             £1.776M

·           Neighbourhoods and Adult Social Care                       £2.974M

·           EDS (excl Customer contact)                              £1.000M

·       Staff savings to be agreed with TUs                     £0.300M

·       Critical Friend Reviews of Front line services    £0.341M

-          Further job losses expected to be contained at 50 to 60 FTEs

-          Accepted  the Council Tax Freeze Scheme – to protect low income families who were vulnerable in the Borough

-          Designed Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS) to protect vulnerable groups by retaining income disregards, allowances and premiums and by taking up the Government’s Transitional Grant Support Scheme.

-          Used reform of Council Tax discounts and exemptions to minimise cost of CTRS to working age claimants – likely cost £1.56 per week in a Band A property 

-          Maintaining Financial Resilience through:

•            Sustainable budgeting

•            Effective, medium term management of reserves to meet future significant risks – circa £7M General Reserve

 

RMBC Revenue Expenditure 2013/14

			Summary
Directorate	Gross Expenditure	Gross Income	Net Expenditure
CYPS	276,238,494	-230,824,494	45,414,000
EDS	80,133,120	-29,462,201	50,670,920
NAS	125,248,989	-50,291,989	74,957,000
Resources	156,392,212	-129,777,697	26,614,516
Central	35,417,273	-11,599,708	23,817,565
	673,430,087	-451,956,689	221,474,000

 

RMBC Directorate’s Net Revenue Budget 2013/14
£221.474m

-          Children and Young Peoples Services £45.4M

-          Environment and Development Services £34.8M

-          Neighbourhoods and Adult Services £75M

-          Resources £24M

-          Levies etc. £19.2M

-          Other Services £23.1M

 

RMBC Income 2013/14

-          Dedicated Schools Grant 27.7%

-          Formula Grant 20.85%

-          Council Tax Reduction Scheme Transitional Grant 0.07%

-          Fees, Charges and other Grants 39.84% (includes Public Health grant £13.78M)

-          Collection Fund Surplus 0.21%

-          Council Tax 11.62%

-          Council Tax Freeze Grant 0.14%

 

Future Years – Financial Challenge

-          Significant reductions in resources were anticipated for 2014/15 nationally - a reduction of 8.6% was planned - in Rotherham 9.1%

-          Next Spending Review to be announced …by end June 2013

-          Chancellors view……..austerity programme needed to be extended until (at least) 2018 – Autumn Statement

-          Further restrictions on finances may come forward – e.g. more stringent Council Tax referenda principles for those not accepting Council Tax Freeze grant have been muted

-          Further reform of Local Government Finance bringing about a further transfer of risk to Local Government Finances

-          Impact of localisation of Business Rates – first year?

-          Other likely Formula Funding changes e.g. Education, Social Care

-          Impact on local economy of Welfare Reform changes e.g. Council Tax Reform Scheme, Bedroom Tax etc. including need to annually review Council Tax Reform Scheme; loss of Transitional Grant (£0.5m); introduction of Universal Credits

-          Impact of Triennial Revaluation of  LG Pension Fund – April 2014

-          Pressure to prioritise local economic growth initiatives to stimulate the local  economy

 

Discussion ensued on the presentation with the following issues raised/clarified:-

 

·           The impact of the Bedroom Tax was not known as yet

·           Evidence had shown that incoming Governments did not reverse the spending plans of the previous Government

·           High Needs Block in CYPS (Special Educational Needs, Behavioural Support Services etc.) had been identified as under pressure in the region of £.5M.  This could be further challenged when assessments of children had been carried out as part of the new academic year

 

Stuart was thanked for his presentation.

 

Public Health

Dr. John Radford presented the 2013/14 Spending Plan and the Plan for Developing 2014/15 Commissioning Intentions as follows:-

 

2013/14 Spending Plan

-          Total Income £13,983,338

-          Public Health Grant £13,790,300

-          Other Income £193,038

 

Planned Spending

-          Total £13,983,338

-          Contracted Services £11,996,638

-          Advice Functions £1,112,706

-          In-House Services £322,420

-          Running Costs £551,573

 

Breakdown of Planned Spending

-          Drug and Alcohol advice 2%

-          Drug and Alcohol Contracts 30%

-          Health Improvement Contracts 23%

-          Health Improvement advice 2%

-          Health Improvement services 1%

-          Health Protection Contracts 27%

-          Health Protection advice 1%

-          Other Contracts 5%

-          Other 9%

·      Healthcare Public Health Contracts 1%

·      Healthcare Public Health Advice 2%

·      Creative Media Services 1%

·      Director of Public Health 1%

·      Running Costs 4%

 

Running Costs - £551,573

-          Pay 25%

-          Non-pay 26%

-          Central Charges/Overheads 49%

 

Discussion ensued on the presentation with the following issues raised/clarified:-

 

·           The Department of Health Grant had to be separately accounted for by the Council

·           Need to review how contracts were placed and the way Services were delivered for 2014/15

·           In 2014/15 needed to balance drug and alcohol spend – currently the majority of spend was currently on Drug Treatment Services and whether that needed realigning more towards prevention services and the very small amount currently spent on Alcohol Services

·           NHS Health Checks were very important and could make a significant impact on identifying people with existing conditions.  Performance was very good but people were not systematically identified and offered a Health Check

·           There had been quite a wide range of work going on over the Authority as a whole in connection with Roma/Slovakian health issues.  Rotherham had lead on a Yorkshire and Humber-wide funded pilot programme for Roma health champions which had just finished.  A report would be produced on what the benefits had been and what had not worked so well.  At the moment there was no identified funding.  It was included in the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment as a priority

 

John was thanked for his presentation.

 

RMBC Commissioning Priorities

Chrissy Wright, Strategic Commissioning Manager, presented a report setting out the proposals for the 2013/14 Council commissioning priorities that met the identified priorities for the Council’s Directorates, Children, Young People and Families Partnership and Adult Partnership and aligned to the Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

 

The focus of the commissioning priorities were as follows:-

 

Children and Young People Services – Starting Well and Developing Well

Adult Services – Living and Working Well and Aging and Dying Well

 

For 2013/14 all commissioning activity and reviews not included in the priorities would be set out in Strategic Commissioning work plans.  The plans would grow with new activities and change as work progressed.

 

Discussion ensued on the report with the following issue raised/clarified:-

 

-          Work on the Dementia Strategy was underway but was a very complex area of work

 

Discussion ensued on the need to ensure alignment for commissioning, rationalise how and what was commissioned and how to create efficiencies in the system as well as learning from the successes there currently was in terms of commissioning.  It was suggested that a steering group be established to ensure linkage of activity to achieve the different objectives.

 

Resolved:-  (1)  That representatives from the Health and Well Being Steering Group are asked identify a set of overarching principles to establish better alignment and coherence of  commissioning activities.

 

 

(2)  That Kate Green be congratulated on her efforts in organising the Heart Town Run in Clifton Park.