Agenda item

To consider a report by Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill, Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets (copy enclosed) detailing the latest financial position and progress against the agreed budget strategy.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)       note the budgets set for 2019/20 and progress against the agreed budget strategy, and

(b)       approve the recommended use of the Schools Maintenance Grant which has been awarded to the Council by the Welsh Government, as recommended by the Strategic Investment Group and detailed in Appendix 5, 6 & 7 to the report.

Councillor Julian Thompson-Hill presented the report detailing the latest financial position and progress against the agreed budget strategy.  He provided a summary of the Council’s financial position as follows –

·        the net revenue budget for 2019/20 was £198.538m (£194.418m in 2018/19)

·        an overspend of £1.379m was forecast for service and corporate budgets

·        detailed required savings and efficiencies of £5.672m including corporate savings identified in 2018/19 (£0.5m), schools savings of 2% (£1.32m) and service efficiencies and savings (£3.852m)

·        highlighted current risks and variances relating to individual service areas, particularly with regard to overspends in Community Support Services and Education and Children’s Services despite an increase to the base budgets, and

·        provided a general update on the Capital Plan, Housing Revenue Account and Housing Capital Plan.

Cabinet was also asked to approve the use of the Schools Maintenance Grant as recommended by the Strategic Investment Group.

Cabinet discussed the following matters in further detail –

·         with regard to school transport, legislative changes coming into force in the new year required that non-concessionary transport had disabled access and, given that concessions were already offered to children, serious concerns were raised in terms of being able to meet that provision.  It was noted that the regional Transport Advisory Group would be writing to the Minister for Economy and Transport highlighting those concerns and Councillor Brian Jones also agreed to write to the Minister separately on behalf of the Council in that regard

·         members welcomed the Schools Maintenance Grant awarded to the Council by the Welsh Government and changes which allowed funding to be directed to essential works and areas of greatest need and Cabinet endorsed the approach that no funding be allocated to schools within the 21st Century Band A programme or schools likely to benefit under Band B and recommendations of the Strategic Investment Group

·         some discussion focused on children’s social care, specifically placement costs, and the Director: Communities reported upon a Welsh Government Working Group to further consider that issue and commissioning of high quality providers – it was recognised that placements costs differed in areas of the UK with more populated areas having greater purchasing power.  Councillor Huw Hilditch-Roberts confirmed that the Council was doing all it could to address costs and he had confidence in the current commissioning process.  He explained the difficulties of creating specialist provision locally given the wealth of different needs and the priority was to commission placements to best meet the needs of children which meant out of county placements in specialist cases which incurred high placement costs

·         Councillor Bobby Feeley highlighted the continuing pressures in Adult and Social Care with the remaining service reserve being applied to help meet the current overspend which would not be available in future years and she asked that more funding be allocated to the service.

The relevant Cabinet Lead Members and officers responded to various questions from non-Cabinet members as follows –

·         with regard to school balances robust financial recovery plans were in place for schools in deficit and close monitoring was undertaken; all schools in deficit were progressing as expected against their recovery plans and an update would be reported to the next Corporate Governance Committee.  School balances were continually monitored and there was a mechanism for schools to be called before Scrutiny or Corporate Governance Committee if warranted

·         the Welsh Government had announced they would be launching a revised free swimming initiative which resulted in a 25% reduction in the level of funding received by the Council in the current financial year and a 50% reduction from April 2020 – unfortunately that meant that the Council had to review its swimming programme and reduce the amount of free swimming activity offered; a press release in that regard would be issued shortly

·         a Brexit Officer Group had been established and there was also a lead officer on Brexit and a Brexit risk register and the issue was also discussed regularly by the Senior Leadership Team in terms of mitigating any impact on the Council and its operations.  Specifically with regard to school meals discussions had taken place with catering supply companies and school meals service who would adjust the menu for the period necessary to ensure all children received a nutritious meal at school

·         in terms of tribunal costs arising from child placement appeals it was explained that the Council may incur its own legal cost but it was rare that they would be asked to pay others costs; whether or not any of those individual cases related specifically to any specific action taken in the past it would be necessary to review each individual case to ascertain the reasons for the case being brought

·         explained changes to the foul drainage connection works required in respect of the new site for Ysgol Llanfair given that the initial detail provided regarding access to the highway as advised by Welsh Water was incorrect and therefore an easement for the access to the foul drain was required – the matter had been taken up directly with Welsh Water in light of the delay and cost incurred

·         the proposals for Band B of the 21st Century Schools Programme were nearing completion and would be submitted to a future Cabinet meeting.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)       note the budgets set for 2019/20 and progress against the agreed budget strategy, and

(b)       approve the recommended use of the Schools Maintenance Grant which has been awarded to the Council by the Welsh Government, as recommended by the Strategic Investment Group and detailed in Appendix 5, 6 & 7 to the report.