Agenda item

The Director of Finance submits the third report in the monitoring cycle for 2023/24 and provides an update on the financial pressures faced by the Council.

The Committee is reccomended to consider the overall position presented within this report and make any observations it sees fit.

The Director of Finance submitted the third report in the monitoring cycle for 2023/24 and provided an update on the financial pressures faced by the Council.

The Committee was recommended to consider the overall position presented within this report and make any observations it saw fit.

As part of the introduction not the item, the Director of Finance noted that:

• This was the third report of the financial year 2023/24.
• The Council was facing particular pressures in education and children’s social care, which was showing an overspend of £12.2m.
• Further to this there were continued pressures in homelessness and waste management.
• The pay award was £2.5m above what was budgeted for.
• The pressures were offset by some areas such as improvements around Adult Social Care (ASC), in which there had been an underspend of £5.8m. 
• Additionally, with regard to capital financing there had been higher interest rates than forecast and cash balances have remained high. 
• Growth in sports memberships had been higher than expected, leading to income of £0.7m, meaning that the budget could be reduced accordingly.
• Two recommendations, one related to additional grant that it is proposed to move to the managed reserve and the second identifies savings that can reduce budgets.

The Chair reminded the Committee that the recommendations in the report were for the Executive, and it was for the Committee to note and comment on the report.

In response to comments and questions from members, the following was stated:

• With regard to a query on the comparative spending on ASC in this budget compared to ten years ago, the Director of Finance noted the distinction between gross (without income) and net (with income) figures.  The Director of Finance would ascertain the exact figures for comparison outside the meeting.
• In response to a query on forecasting, the Director of Finance clarified that forecasting was a best estimate and on the information we have available. predicted. 
• In terms of the ASC budget increasing in 2023/24 despite the downward trend, it was clarified that whilst there had been an underspend, it was not near the level of growth put in, and additionally, the extra income was not known when setting the budget. When the 2024/25 budget was put together, some of the forecast was built in which fed into the growth, so the growth going into the 2024/25 budget would be reduced.  If the improvement work had not been ongoing, the growth figure would have been higher.
• With regard to the allocation of additional funding from the government, funding is not always ringfenced to a specific service for example the business rates national surplus.
• Regarding overspend on Children, Young People and Families, it was confirmed £2m was set aside to provide local provision for residential homes for children.   It was confirmed options were being looked at for the executive to consider at a later point.  In terms of ways to better control the overspend, this was being looked at and an update would be brought to the Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission.
• Annual accounts could not be used for outturn reporting as it included aspects that could not be charged to the Council Taxpayer.  Additionally, direct comparisons could not be made between different budget reports due to changes between years.

AGREED:

1)    That the report and the recommendations to the Executive be noted.

2)    That further information in relation to the queries detailed above be provided to members.

3)    That a report come to a future meeting of the Children, Young People and Education Scrutiny Commission on Provision of Care Packages/Residential Accommodation on CLA – Council provision and the private sector.