Agenda and draft minutes

John Crook and Clare Werrett.

None.

None.

Cabinet Member Ben Callard introduced the report with Jonathan Davies, and they answered the members’ questions with Will Mclean and Deb Hill-Howells.

Questions:

Six primary schools have deficits of more than £100,000 and only one appears to have reduced its deficit during the year. Are the school recovery plans proving effective, and why are some schools continuing to struggle while others hold significant surpluses?

School deficits have been recognised as a significant financial risk for several years and recovery plans were always expected to take a number of years to achieve results. The largest factor affecting school budgets is staffing costs, which make up the majority of school expenditure. Where pupil numbers are lower, schools receive less funding, but many staffing costs remain fixed because classes still require teaching staff regardless of whether there are 20, 25 or 30 pupils. Education and finance officers are working with schools to support the delivery of recovery plans. However, it is disappointing that some deficits are continuing to increase rather than showing a clear downward trend. Schools, governing bodies, education officers and finance teams all have a role in ensuring that spending decisions are prudent and contribute to financial recovery.

The financial position is also being affected by wider pressures. Additional Learning Needs (ALN) are creating significant costs across schools, with schools often providing support beyond what can be funded centrally by the local authority. Staffing pressures and workforce volatility are adding further costs, while a small number of schools have experienced exceptional circumstances, including prolonged absences of senior staff, which have generated additional expenditure. In some cases, recovery plans may involve an initial increase in deficits before improvements are realised because of the timing of staffing changes.

Are school deficits largely explained by common pressures such as ALN, or are there school-specific factors that explain why some schools are performing differently from others?

Additional Learning Needs pressures are a significant common factor affecting many schools and are contributing to rising expenditure. Staffing pressures are also being experienced across the school system and are placing budgets under increasing strain. However, common pressures do not explain all of the variation between schools. Some schools are facing particular local circumstances, including exceptional staffing issues and other factors that have increased costs. As a result, there is no single explanation for the differences in financial performance between schools.

Further detailed examination is therefore needed to understand why some schools facing similar pressures are managing to maintain balanced budgets or surpluses while others are experiencing significant and growing deficits. Identifying the relative importance of county-wide pressures and school-specific factors will be an important part of understanding the causes of the largest deficits and the effectiveness of recovery plans.

What are the current council tax and business rates collection rates compared with last year, and how are these expected to progress in the coming year?

Council tax collection remains a live financial risk for 2026/27. The issue is not solely about collection performance, but also the combined impact  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Richard Jones delivered a presentation, introduced the report and answered the members’ questions with Matthew Gatehouse, Will Mclean, Craig O’Connor, Deb Hill-Howells and Jane Rodgers.

Questions:

The Community and Corporate Plan involves a significant amount of work and reporting. To what extent does the plan actually shape the council's activities and decision-making, rather than simply describing what is already happening across Monmouthshire?

The Community and Corporate Plan is intended to set the strategic direction of the council rather than simply record activity. It is developed at the beginning of the council term and approved by Council, translating the ambitions and priorities of elected members into objectives and actions that guide the organisation's work. The plan provides the framework that shapes the council's priorities, its areas of focus and the activities that are undertaken to deliver those priorities. It therefore acts as a key mechanism for directing the organisation's work and resources.

However, the council does not operate in a static environment. New opportunities, challenges, risks and funding streams emerge during the life of the plan, while others may disappear. As a result, the plan is not followed rigidly and is supplemented by further decisions and reports that are brought to Council, Cabinet or individual Cabinet Members when new priorities or actions need to be introduced. The plan therefore provides the overall direction of travel for the organisation, while allowing flexibility to respond to changing circumstances and emerging issues over the course of the council term.

The report describes performance as being “on track”, showing “good progress” or containing “important strengths”. What objective evidence is there that residents would actually recognise improvements in the services they receive, particularly in the areas that residents most commonly raise, such as roads, waste services, schools and getting issues resolved? Is there a risk that the council's self-assessment is more positive than residents' experience?y

The assessment draws on a wide range of evidence, not just the council's own performance information. It includes feedback from residents and service users, findings from the National Resident Survey, service-specific feedback mechanisms and evidence from external assessments and inspections. The report also seeks to reflect challenges as well as successes. For example, while it highlights strong recycling performance and rates that exceed national targets, it also acknowledges continuing difficulties in areas such as highway maintenance and identifies these as areas requiring further improvement.

A key aim of the current year's approach is to strengthen the use of resident feedback in the assessment process. The draft report will be shared with the Let's Talk resident forum to obtain further views and challenge the findings. This is intended to help ensure that the assessment reflects residents' experiences as well as internal performance measures. In terms of overall performance, none of the strategic objectives have deteriorated compared with the previous year. Each objective has either maintained its previous assessment level or improved. However, the report recognises that progress is mixed within each objective and identifies specific areas where improvement is still required. One  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To scrutinise the overview of the current strategic risks facing the authority and suggest any further topics for scrutiny.

To note and refer any questions arising – to be sent to officers for a response.

• How is information about the risks associated with extreme heat and high temperatures being communicated and managed across council services?
• What are the implications of the delay to the Replacement Local Development Plan (RLDP)?
• Are the council's contingency arrangements sufficiently robust to deal with cyber-attacks or hostile action affecting critical infrastructure?
• Is the council becoming too comfortable with carrying high levels of strategic risk?

The Chair noted that these questions would be recorded and passed to officers for responses outside the meeting.

Noted.

Members were reminded that a Special meeting has been added on 13^th October. On the Action List the cost of out of county placements has been sent to members.

The minutes were confirmed.

8th September 2026 at 10.00am