Agenda item

Context:

·                    To provide Select Committee Members with information on the forecast revenue outturn position of the Authority at the end of reporting period 3 which represents month 9 financial information for the 2015/16 financial year.

·                    The report will also be considered by Select Committees as part of their responsibility to,

•     assess whether effective budget monitoring is taking place,

•     monitor the extent to which budgets are spent in accordance with agreed budget and policy framework,

•     challenge the reasonableness of projected over or underspends, and

•     monitor the achievement of predicted efficiency gains or progress in relation to savings proposals.

Key Issues:

The Select Committee received an update on the revenue and capital monitoring 2015/16 Month 9 outturn forecast statement.

Member Scrutiny:

·         Concern was expressed that Monmouthshire Youth Service had taken on a difficult mandate by being generator of income and providing its core business which was to provide a Youth Service.  Therefore, creating pressure on the service. It was considered that the Select Committee would benefit from receiving an update on its service.

·         In response to a Select Committee Member’s question it was noted that professional fees for 21^st Century Schools provision was funded via capital funding.

·         The Finance Manager would provide the Select Committee with a breakdown of costings in respect of professional fees.

·         In response to a Select Committee Member’s question, the Finance Manager stated that early interventions were put in place to prevent schools going into deficit. With regard to the schools currently in a deficit budget, it was noted that these schools were reducing their budget deficit.

·         A budget had been set in the sum of £83M in respect of the new schools at Caldicot and Monmouth.  However, tenders received had been in excess of this figure.  In order to reduce costs, certain aspects of the tender were being reviewed.

·         It was intended to reduce the number of agency staff working in Social Services with the aim of employing a permanent work force.  The Social Services Directorate had been avidly recruiting for permanent social workers but had not been successful as there was not a large pool of social workers in the current market.  However, the Directorate was looking to appoint newly qualified social workers which would be mentored internally.

·         It was noted that demand was increasing within Children’s Services.

·         The Chief Officer stated that a report regarding recruitment of social workers would be presented to a future meeting of the Select Committee.

Recommendations:

We resolved to support the following recommendations proposed to Cabinet:

·         That Members consider the position concerning the third period of revenue monitoring in 2015/16 (£162,000 overspend), and seek assurance that Chief Officers will continue to work on delivering the £1.6 million Recovery Plan reported to December 2015 Cabinet.

·         That Senior officers follow the requirement of the Protection of Employment Policy which requires that all redundancy and pension costs must be reported to and agreed by Cabinet before final approval.

·         Members consider the position concerning period 3 (Month 9) Capital Monitoring 2015/16 of an estimated £23.8million spend against a net budget of £23.9million, after proposed slippage of £37.7 million, notes the improvement in a need for slippage reported by managers (after excluding 21c schools), and the reservation that this necessitates managers incurring £12.5million expense during the last quarter, when collective they only spent £11.3 million in preceding periods this year.

·         Requests the addition of two wholly funded section 106 funded capital schemes to the capital programme, which managers report will be fully utilised by the end of March 2016:

-           A capital budget of £40,000 to allow for the construction of a Puffin crossing in the vicinity of the development at Saw Mill house funded from S106 contributions from the development at Saw Mill house, Little Mill.

-           A capital budget of £6,800 to continue the implementation of the Monmouth Links Connect 2 walking and cycling network funded from Section 106 contributions received from the development at the Almshouses, St James’ Square Monmouth.