Agenda item

Cabinet Portfolio:                 Corporate Services and Finance

Strategic Directorate:           Finance and Customer Services

To receive the outturn report for the 2017-18 financial year.

Consideration was given to a report which outlined the final revenue and capital outturn position for the 2017/18 financial year.

It was noted that the Revenue Budget 2017/18 was approved by Council on 8 March 2017. A budget of £221.560m (including Public Health) was set for General Fund services; this excludes schools budgets and Housing Revenue Account (HRA). The final outturn position was a £3.237m underspend. The original budget proposed a planned use of reserves of £10.467m, therefore only £7.230m will be utilised leaving £3.237m which will be available to support the budget in later years. A summary of the outturn position for each Directorate is shown in the table in Section 3.1 below. The Council continues to face demand pressures, in particular, in respect of social care. The total overspends on Social Care were £7.737m on Children’s and £4.059m on Adults. The Council’s General Fund minimum balance reserve remains at £11.269m. The reserve is held to protect the Council against unforeseen events and realisation of contingent liabilities. The Housing Revenue Account (HRA) had an underspend of £2.353m. The schools outturn position which is funded by the ring-fenced Dedicated Schools Grant had an underspend of £0.097m The Capital Outturn shows an underspend of £13.359m against the estimated spend for 2017/18 included within the Capital Programme

Members expressed concerns that the outturn position hid the significant overspends in social care services for children and adults and sought assurances in respect of the work being undertaken to analyse and reduce spending in these areas and associated spending in Legal Services.

A specific query was raised in respect of the Thermal Improvement Scheme funded through the Housing Revenue Account and whether the final report on the works undertaken had been completed and outcomes shared. As the service was not present at the meeting, it was agreed that a response would be sought and provided in writing to Members.

Assurances were offered to Members that the Workforce Management Board, a committee of senior officers from across the authority, were robustly challenging appointments to vacant posts and contributing to the reduction in spend in respect of agency, interims and consultancy staff. It was further explained that analysis was taking place of the way in which Legal Services provided support to Children and Young People’s Services for court proceedings relating to bringing children into care to ensure that the approach adopted was still necessary and providing best value.

Further concerns were expressed in respect of the financial position for social care services for children and adults and assurances were sought that previously agreed savings had been delivered. It was explained that discussions were ongoing and the review of the budget was being led by the Leader of the Council and Chief Executive. Specific reviews that had been previously committed to were reported to be delivering required savings and the aim would continue to be to balance the budget. It was also confirmed that services analyse information from comparable authorities to benchmark and review practices to reduce costs where possible. The significant increase in demand for social care services for children arising from the complex abuse inquiry was cited as the principle cause of overspending in Children and Young People’s Services by the Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Finance. He further indicated that the Council could not let children and young people down and that there were also legacy issues that had led to increase spend. Despite line-by-line analysis of each budget, the increase in demand was the main cause of pressure and that would continue to be the case until demand reduced.

Members concluded that the financial position was of concern and the next report on the agenda providing the first budget update of the 2018-19 financial year was a source of further concern.

Resolved:-

That the Financial Outturn 2017-18 be noted.