Agenda item

A report from the Cabinet Member for Finance and Housing is attached.

Appendix A attached

Appendix B attached

Appendix C attached

Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, Cabinet Member for Finance and Housing presented the Corporate Financial Monitoring Report – April 2017 to June 2017. The report informs Members of the Council’s financial position for the period April 2017 to June 2017 and projects the estimated outturn at the end of 2017/18.

The report also included Prudential Indicators in accordance with CIPFA’s Prudential Code.

Set out in the report was a projected overspend of £3.651m which represents approximately 2.70% of the total net budget of £135.330m. 

Due to the extremely difficult financial situation that the Council faced in 2016/17 the Senior Leadership Team agreed and drew up an action plan with some immediate additional spending controls over & above usual controls. These will continue in 2017/18.

These include:

·         Recruitment freeze on staff and new agency placements (exceptions to be signed off by SLT);

·         Release of all existing casual / agency staff (exceptions to be signed off by           SLT);

·         Cease overtime / additional hours (exceptions to be signed off by SLT);

·         Enter into no new training commitments, and review existing arrangements           (exceptions to be signed off by SLT);

·         Re-launch Work Life Balance options around reduced hours / purchase of leave;

·         Cease spend on discretionary budgets; stationery, office equipment etc;

·         Cease spend on IT / Communications (exceptions to be signed off by SLT);

·         Any spend greater than £250 to be signed off by Executive Director;

·         Any new contractual commitments greater than £5,000 (lifetime value of contract) to be signed off by SLT;

·         Consider “in year” budget options – e.g. previously unidentified efficiencies,           review of non-key services.

These were communicated to staff in 2016/17 and compliance with these will continue to be monitored throughout the year.  It is expected that these actions will not only help to reduce the financial burden facing the Council within the current year but also for the coming years.

In addition to these measures, Executive Directors have been tasked with preparing “turnaround” plans as a matter of urgency for their Departments, to ensure that levels of expenditure are controlled and sustainable going forward.

Service specific monitoring was set out at section 4 of the report and highlighted demand pressures within the 3 directorates and what action was being taken in response to these.

Members were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments and the following points were raised:-

• Councillor Hankey referred to the civic halls and the review that was being undertaken. He asked when the review would be completed as it seemed to have been going on for years.

It was explained that some services required ongoing reviews to ensure that they were fit for purpose.

• Council Hankey asked whether the 10 measures that had been put in place had had the desired impact.

Councillor O’Brien reported that the measures had helped to save £285,000 so the effects of the measures were being felt.

• Councillor Harris asked whether the Council were using agency staff to fill vacant posts.

It was explained that the Council had its own agency for admin staff and other work but would use specialist agency workers if required.

• Councillor Jamie Walker referred to the cost of children’s agency placements and the adolescent support centre and asked when an update would be available on this.

It was explained that there were separate accounts for Children’s Services but it could be that this was an individual case that had been court ordered to a specific location.

• Councillor Smith asked how realistic the savings forecasts were.

Councillor O’Brien stated that the Council had to realistic about the challenges it faced and this had to be the same for all departments. If targets were not going to be met this needed to be known as early as possible.

Councillor O’Brien also stated that the Council had to recognise that services still have to run. Different ways of working need to be explored and the Council will need to be more commercially minded.

It was agreed:

That the report be noted