Colin Sharpe, Chief Finance Officer, will be in attendance to discuss with the Select Committee the arrangements for the Committee to monitor the significant savings decisions included in the 2011/12 General Fund Revenue Budget.
Minutes:
The Chair reminded the Committee that quarterly budget monitoring reports would be received by the Committee, but the monitoring under consideration would identify whether the ambitious savings targets included in the last budget would be realised.
Members noted the savings that had been identified in the budget and progress made in achieving them:-
a) Actions and Reports with Savings from the General Fund Revenue Budget Report approved by Council
|
Action |
Comment |
|
Review of the scheme of Members’ allowances |
The budget assumed a £100,000 saving. |
|
Divisional Directors to review the support provided to the voluntary sector |
No savings had been identified in the budget, but a target had been set of a 5% reduction. Work on this had started on certain areas. |
|
Chief Executive to review budgets for new furniture acquisition, conference attendance, IT and policy support |
The budget assumed a £300,000 saving on conferences and seminars. New control procedures were in place, which had seen a reduction in activity in these areas. The tight procedural controls currently in place were not seen as a long-term situation, but were considered necessary in the interim to encourage savings to be made and ensure equity in approach, ahead of delegation of the savings to Directors. |
|
Commission a further report from the Director of Children’s Services on Early Intervention services, following a more detailed review, identifying how the Council can respond to reduced specific grant on a recurrent basis |
This had been included due to uncertainties over some government funding streams when the budget was set. It was fully expected that the £1 million target would be delivered, but this was not included in the budget. |
The Acting Director of Finance was requested to include evidence of plans, targets, timescales and alternatives where needed in the savings monitoring reports and the quarterly budget monitoring reports to this Committee as appropriate.
b) Key Transformational Projects & Programmes and Other Corporate Efficiency Activities & Controls
|
Project |
Comment |
|
The ODI programme (Support Services Transformation and Procurement) |
£5.9 million budget saving. Work was continuing on reviews of property services, finance, ICT and procurement. A key risk was the loss of work being experienced by property services due to the reduction in capital funding. It was possible that this would mean that the saving could not be achieved in full. £1.4 million had been identified as a saving for this service for the current year and £2.2 million for next year. The review of finance services was almost complete and it was expected that the expected savings would be delivered. The administration and business support review was ongoing. The review of ICT would start soon and was expected to deliver savings. Capita had been appointed in April 2011 to work with the Council to identify savings in procurement. Work was underway on this. |
|
Human Resources Policy / Terms and Conditions changes |
A reduction of £3.3 million had been assumed. A large part of this was the proposed reduction in the working week. Discussions were ongoing about how this could be delivered, but the saving was unlikely to be achieved in the current year and possibly would not be achieved in future years. |
|
Adult Social Care Transformation |
£3.8 million assumed saving. Some of this had been delayed, but it was expected to be offset during the year, (for example, from other funding sources), so there was confidence that an overspend would not occur in 2011/12. |
|
Agency Staff and Consultancy usage and spending |
No set level of saving was included in the budget. The usage and spending continued to decline. This continued to be monitored. |
|
Regulatory Shared Services |
A saving of £600,000 had been assumed in the budget. However, the District Councils had decided to withdraw support, so this would not proceed as intended and would no longer be monitored. |
The Acting Director of Finance would include these points in the next “significant savings” report and future general monitoring reports to this Committee.
Sir Peter Soulsby, City Mayor, acknowledged that he had concerns that some of the savings previously identified would not be achieved. He welcomed the suggestion that this additional monitoring be done, as it was important that the targets set were achieved.
The following points were then made in discussion:-
· Some concern was expressed that the proposal to review Members’ allowances would conflict with the work done by the independent review panel, but it was noted that the City Council was not obliged to accept recommendations made by that panel;
· The savings for Early Intervention services would be identified and would be unlikely to require continued progress trading by the Committee. The proposed report on these would be submitted to this Committee;
· The major risks of making the proposed savings needed to be identified and taken in to account when decisions were taken on where savings would be made;
· All concerned were aware of the importance of providing proper support and resources to services, particularly to financial services as the next budget was prepared;
· The future of the post of Chief Executive needed to be agreed before the review of senior management could be progressed, so that an appropriate structure could be determined; and
· An exact figure for savings made to date could not be given at this time, as some of these savings remained to be quantified.
RESOLVED:
that the actions set out in the report and above be taken a identified.