Issue - meetings

1.       That the projected revenue budget (Annex 1 – Section A) and the Capital programme direction (Section B) be noted.

2.       That government grant changes be reflected in directorate budgets (Section C).

3.       That the one-off corporate contribution to the funding of personalisation in Adult Social Care, as highlighted by the Leader in June 2012 (paragraph 68, Section A) be approved.

Reasons for Decisions

To comply with the agreed strategy of providing a monthly budget monitoring report to cabinet for approval and action as necessary.

[The decisions on this item can be called in by the Council Overview and Scrutiny Committee]

The Leader of the Council introduced the report and said that the council set a tough revenue budget that incorporated a number of risks, which were anticipated in the inclusion of contingencies.

He said that there were increasing demand pressures for services with both adults and children’s social care but that the contingencies prudently set aside were more than sufficient to cover these growing pressures this year and would lead to a forecast year end underspending of £5.5m.

However, it was important to look to the future and Strategic Directors were looking to see how these pressures can be managed or alternative savings found so that the Medium Term Financial Plan remained on track.

He reported that the great success of the council’s participation in the Olympics over the summer was all achieved within the budget set aside, and there was no recourse to the contingency set aside for this.

He said that one of the Council’s most important objectives was to empower more of our adult service users through personalisation and to progress this policy more rapidly, he proposed a one-off £1m corporate contribution to the Adult Social Care service, which would be funded through the unused provision for increased interest rates within the capital financing budget.

On Staffing, he said that Directorates were continuing to actively manage their staffing budgets, through holding vacancies to achieve savings and the appropriate use of temporary workers. Currently, 92% of staff were on contracts which was considered to be right for a healthy organisation. This had led to an underspending of £6.4m for the seven months to the end of October, and this was expected to fall to £5.1m by the end of the year as staff were recruited to our essential services. The number of occupied posts in August had increased to 7,266 while 209 posts were being recruited at the end of the month.

Finally, he said that the Cabinet was determined to deliver the Council’s capital programme, especially in building new classrooms and was on track to deliver this and at a lower cost this year due to improved procurement (and partnership working with Hampshire CC).

Management actions were in place to reduce overspend, however winter demand may play a factor in delivery and the Cabinet acknowledged that it would be tough to come within Budget by the end of the financial year.

RESOLVED:

1.      That the projected revenue budget (Annex 1 – Section A) and the Capital programme direction (Section B) be noted.

2.      That government grant changes be reflected in directorate budgets (Section C)

3.      That the one-off corporate contribution to the funding of personalisation in Adult Social Care, as highlighted by the Leader in June 2012 (paragraph 68, Section A) be approved.

Reasons for Decisions

To comply with the agreed strategy of providing a monthly budget monitoring report to cabinet for approval and action as necessary.