Agenda item

RESOLVED:

1.    That the Council’s overall revenue and capital budget positions as at 31 July 2018 be noted.

2.    That the management actions proposed  to achieve a further £25m in-year savings, bringing the total additional savings to £40m be noted.

3.    That the adjustments to reduce and reprofile the service capital programme for 2018-21, outlined in paragraphs 58 to 61 of the submitted report and annexed to these minutes, be approved.

4.    That the draw down of £170,000 carry forwards, as given below, be approved:

            a.        Communications to draw down the £70,000 agreed carry forward, allocated to a budget engagement activity that has been undertaken.

            b.        Legal Services forecasts a +£0.2m overspend mainly because of the high cost of childcare cases. This may increase further due to the high volumes. Legal Services to draw down the £100,000 carry forward agreed to fund the delayed case from the last financial year.

Reason for Decisions:

This report is presented to comply with the agreed policy 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 Corporate Overview Select Committee]

The Leader of the Council introduced the budget and finance monitoring report to the end of July 2018. He explained the changes in presentation of the papers and annexes, which explained clearly the magnitude of the task the Council faced. In reality every County Council in the country was faced with the same harsh reality, and a shortfall of funding to cover over £1bn of pressures nationally.  This had been reported far and wide and included an article in the New York Times last week.

He went on to say that he could not emphasise enough that unless all members, officers and partners create the environment to transform what we do and at pace, the Council will not be able to serve its residents in the best way it could within a fixed budget envelope.

The Council was experiencing a 6.5% rise in need of essential services, but the income that the Council received from Council Tax and other sources of funding could only currently rise by 2.4%.  As the main part of the budget was seeing no increase from government grants, it clearly demonstrated the need for the Council to implement a major transformation strategy.  It was this transformation strategy that would help to provide services within the Council’s financial means so that it could meet its duties to residents.

He also explained that over the summer period the Cabinet and Corporate Leadership Team had been working hard to identify additional operational savings in 2018/19 in order to ease the burden on 2019/20 and future years. Whilst the report clearly laid out that the £66m savings were on track to be delivered, it was critical to reduce operational costs the Council faced over the next three years budgets. He was delighted to say that a start had been made and thanked the Cabinet and Corporate Leadership Team for agreeing the areas to reduce forecast spend this year by a further £40m, which was laid out in Annex 4 to the report.

The Cabinet Member for Children explained how national media focus was on adult social care problems but children’s’ services were experiencing the same issues. She highlighted the imperative need to drive forward the transformation plan following an adverse Ofsted judgement.   She also explained the service overspends.

The Cabinet Member for All-Age Learning spoke of how she had been talking for over a year about the problems the Council had experienced regarding Special Educational Needs and Disabilities and that transformation required practice and cultural changes.  She explained some of the service overspends and how the number of children with an Education and Health Care Plan had risen 55% since 2010 and that work was being undertaken to ensure cost sharing with health was equitable.

Other Cabinet Members were given the opportunity to highlight key points and issues from their portfolios.

The Leader of the Council concluded that the Council were on track to make £66m revenue savings and highlighted the additional savings described in Annex 4 to the report.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the Council’s overall revenue and capital budget positions as at 31 July 2018 be noted.

2.    That the management actions proposed  to achieve a further £25m in-year savings, bringing the total additional savings to £40m be noted.

3.    That the adjustments to reduce and reprofile the service capital programme for 2018-21, outlined in paragraphs 58 to 61 of the submitted report and annexed to these minutes, be approved.

4.    That the draw down of £170,000 carry forwards, as given below, be approved:

            a.        Communications to draw down the £70,000 agreed carry forward, allocated to a budget engagement activity that has been undertaken.

            b.        Legal Services forecasts a +£0.2m overspend mainly because of the high cost of childcare cases. This may increase further due to the high volumes. Legal Services to draw down the £100,000 carry forward agreed to fund the delayed cases from the last financial year.

Reason for Decisions:

This report was presented to comply with the agreed policy of providing a monthly budget monitoring report to Cabinet for approval and action as necessary.