Agenda item

Context:

The purpose of this report is to provide Members with information on the revenue outturn position of the Authority at the end of reporting period 4 which represents the financial outturn position for the 2016/17 financial year.

Recommendations Proposed To Cabinet:

·         That Members consider a net revenue outturn unspend of £884,000, an improvement of £805,000 on quarter 3 outturn predictions.

·         Members consider a capital outturn spend of £40.03m against a revised budget of £40.98million, after proposed slippage of £17.5 million, resulting in a net underspend of £951k.

·         Consider and approve the £17.5m capital slippage recommended (detailed in appendix 2), paying attention to those schemes described in para 3.3.6 where slippage has been requested by the service manager but is not being recommended to slip (£198k).

·         Considers the use of reserves proposed in para 3.4.1,

·         Supports the apportionment of general underspend in supplementing reserve levels as described in para 3.4.3 below, i.e.:

Priority Investment Fund £570k

            Redundancy & Pension Reserve £114k

            IT Transformation Reserve £100k

            Capital Receipts Generation Reserve £100k

            Total £884k

·         Members note that the low level of earmarked reserves will severely reduce the flexibility the Council has in meeting the challenges of scare resources going forward.

·         Members note the significant reduction in the overall school balance at the end of 2016/17 and supports the continuing work with schools to ensure that the Council’s Fairer Funding scheme requirements are met and that the overall schools balance remains positive in 2017/18.

Member Scrutiny:

The Committee was reminded that there were requests to Cabinet for funds for extra support for teams last year and it was questioned if that amount was included and if so, how it balanced out against mandates in this financial year; was the figure added to last year’s outturn.  In response, it was explained that there were pressures on the authority from Welsh Government e.g. the government’s new manifesto is seeking to increase the capital threshold for persons having long term residential placements to £50,000 (previously set at £24,000) over the next 3-4 years.  This financial year the capital threshold is increased to £30,000.  An extra grant has been received which starts in 2017/18 therefore there is no retrospective funding.

A Member queried the reason why there were more people in residential care.  It was responded that there has been a pressure in the south of the county where some people who were previously self-funding have run out of money and have dropped below the threshold (£24,000 in 2016/17).  There is then a statutory duty to consider them for funding. It was explained that there is a rigorous financial assessment form to try and identify if there has been any deprivation of capital.  If there is any property a legal charge is attached to the dwelling which then has to be sold to fund their care.

It was further queried, if this remains the trend, how residential care can be sustained.  It was explained that there is sufficient provision within the county including in house provision at Severn View Residential Home in the south of the county and private providers.  It was added that despite the demographics of increasing numbers of age 85+ residents, use of residential care has remained static.  It was noted that there is an increase in numbers of people with advanced dementia and in these circumstances a care home is the most appropriate placement. 

The availability of residential care in the north of county was questioned and it was responded that there is sufficiency in the whole county.  The authority purchases approximately 10% of the places available and supply meets demand.  It is forecast that as the capital threshold increases, a higher proportion of care home placements will be purchased, as more people become the responsibility of the authority and a different relationship with the care home sector will develop.

A Member questioned, with the changed capital threshold, if the Welsh Government will provide assistance as the changes will place more demand on the budget. It was explained that there is a Welsh Government grant from the current financial year 2017/18 and persons dropping below the £30,000 threshold are reported to Welsh Government to trigger funding.  In response to a further question about whether or not the grant will cover demand, it was commented that demand could be more than the grant funding and the activity data to support this point will be provided by tracking the people dropping below the capital threshold amount and the true cost to the authority.  The opinion was provided that, on past experience, it was unlikely that the true cost of demand would be covered in full.

A Member referred to the increase in young people on the Autistic Spectrum now feeding through to adult services and questioned if there is sufficient provision.  In response, it was explained that budget is set aside to provide for people with learning disabilities which includes those on the Autistic Spectrum.  It was added that for the next three years, Welsh Government has invested in the Gwent region to establish an Integrated Autism Service for all ages. Monmouthshire is hosting the service for the region.  It was suggested that this could be a topic for consideration at a future meeting.