Agenda and draft minutes

To receive details of any apologies or substitutions for the meeting.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Jon Hubbard, Gordon King and Tony Jackson.

Councillor Tony Jackson had arranged for Councillor Jacqui Lay to attend the meeting in his absence.

Councillor Gordon King noted that he would be substituted at a later point in the meeting for Councillor Clare Cape.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 29 May 2024.

The minutes of the meeting held on 29 May 2024 were presented for consideration, it was;

Resolved:

To approve and sign as a true and correct record of the minutes of the meeting held on 29 May 2024.

To receive any declarations of disclosable interests or dispensations granted by the Standards Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive any announcements through the Chair.

The Chairman announced that there had been a premeeting with officers relating to Scrutiny and that a lot of good ideas had been suggested. Consequently, a series of meetings would take place with Select Committee Chairmen and officers to discuss the ideas.

The Council welcomes contributions from members of the public.

Statements

If you would like to make a statement at this meeting on any item on this agenda, please register to do so at least 10 minutes prior to the meeting. Up to 3 speakers are permitted to speak for up to 3 minutes each on any agenda item. Please contact the officer named on the front of the agenda for any further clarification.

Questions

To receive any questions from members of the public or members of the Council received in accordance with the constitution.

Those wishing to ask questions are required to give notice of any such questions in writing to the officer named on the front of this agenda no later than 5pm on Tuesday 16 May in order to be guaranteed of a written response. In order to receive a verbal response, questions must be submitted no later than 5pm on Thursday 18 May. Please contact the officer named on the front of this agenda for further advice. Questions may be asked without notice if the Chairman decides that the matter is urgent.

Details of any questions received will be circulated to Committee members prior to the meeting and made available at the meeting and on the Council’s website.

There were no questions or statements submitted by members of the public.

The report was considered by the Financial Planning Task Group on 9 July 2024 and Cabinet on 15 July 2024. A report of the Financial Planning Task Group’s discussions is also attached later within the agenda.

The Chairman noted that on page 19 of the agenda pack was a report setting out the year end revenue position for the Council as of 31 March 2024 for the financial year 2023-24. The report provided detail of the final position for services and details of variances against budgets following the quarter three budget monitoring reported to Cabinet on 6 February 2024. The report was considered by Financial Planning on 9th July and Cabinet on 15th July.

Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member for Finance, Development Management and Strategic Planning stated that in the previous year the Council had underspent by £14.371million. It was outlined that in Quarter 3 there had been a proposal for £8.66million to be moved to the High Needs Reserves Block, which had been a one-off payment and had left therefore left a net underspend of £5.7million or 1.2% of the net budget.

Regarding savings, out of an ambitious target of £26million, 90% of the proposed savings had been made, which was a great example of the control of accounts and spending achieved by officers.

Clarity was provided that the £5.7million underspend would be redirected to other pressing priorities, the biggest of which being Highways. Therefore, the £5.7million of underspend would be added to another £5million, meaning that an extra additional £10.7million spend on Highways had been committed, with £10million already allocated in the last year, therefore taking the total funding up to £20.7million, which represented a 50% total increase in spend. It was stated that though roads would be disrupted from works, this was necessary to bring the roads back into an acceptable condition.

Cllr Pip Ridout, Chairman of the Financial Planning Task Group endorsed the report and placed emphasis on the need for individual members to challenge the report and to conduct scrutiny.

The following comments were received by Select Committee Chairmen of the Committee with clarity sought regarding whether there was concern regarding the significant overspend in adult social care. The officer agreed that adult social care was an area for concern as small changes could lead to significant impacts. The officer outlined there was as real need to understand each element of the under and overspends to ensure that the correct assumptions were included in the budget setting process in the future. It was also suggested that some of the underspends had been produced through non-delivery and there was a need to understand such aspects.

The following comments were received by Members of the Committee with clarity provided that the Council was still on track to open properties in early 2025 to support young people over 18-years old and that a matching process had started to ensure that the children were identified and appropriate for the homes they would be moved into. Regarding the challenge of recruitment of foster carers, it was detailed that this was a challenge nationally and that in Wiltshire the number in care was lower than the national average, therefore meaning for less of a demand. Furthermore, in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

The report was considered by the Financial Planning Task Group on 9 July 2024 and Cabinet on 15 July 2024. A report of the Financial Planning Task Group’s discussions is also attached later within the agenda.

The Chairman noted that on page 57 of the agenda pack was a report setting out the year end position of the Capital Programme for the council for the financial year 2023/24. The report included the movements from the original budget, final scheme slippage and how the programme has been funded. The report provided an update on the significant programmes that had been delivered and those that had been reprogrammed into future years. The report was considered by Financial Planning on 9th July and Cabinet on 15th July.

Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member for Finance, Development Management and Strategic Planning outlined that in the previous year £163million had been spent on capital projects, which was £30million more than the previous years. This had previously presented a challenge of starting with a large capital programme and only spending a small percentage of the budget. It was stated that this had not been the case this year with demonstrable progress made in the ability to forecast and then spend and that though some projects had been moved to the subsequent year, some projects had also been brought forward.

It was outlined that 82% of the overall projected spend had been spent, with such areas as Housing Revenue spending 93% of its original projected spend as well as People spending 94%. It was also noted that no additional borrowing or debt had been taken out within the last year with a lot of projects not requiring net resource to be put in. Furthermore, it was outlined that a lot of the projects proposed would save revenue in the future.

Cllr Pip Ridout, Chairman of the Financial Planning Task Group raised that on 10 September a training session would take place for all Committee Members, if not all Councillors regarding HRA. Additionally, it was stated that the capital programme had been refined and adapted to provide the best possible reports and that it was positive that no borrowing had taken place given the current costs.

The following comments were received by Members of the Committee including a discussion on the use of internal borrowing and the costs involved when going to market to borrow. The importance of conducting medium to long term assessments on cash balances was noted, with there being may interlinking features between capital investment and treasury management. The importance of profiling was stressed when making decisions and how there was a desire not to borrow early and incur costs.

Regarding Ageing and Living Well, it was questioned why £0.601million had been moved to future years, with clarity provided that the Council had received a Disabled Facilities Grant from government to aid adaptions to homes and that there had been an underspend due to the identification of areas and people who would benefit from the work. The balance had been accrued to make sure that it could be used to ensure the best outcomes with the Council pushing boundaries to ensure that the maximum benefit was achieved.

Detail was sought regarding the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

The report was considered by the Financial Planning Task Group on 9 July 2024 and Cabinet on 15 July 2024. A report of the Financial Planning Task Group’s discussions is also attached later within the agenda.

The Chairman noted that on page 109 of the agenda pack was the Annual Outturn Report reviewing the council’s Treasury Management activities for the year. The report was considered by Financial Planning on 9th July and Cabinet on 15th July. The report would be considered by Full Council on the next meeting set to take place on 24 July 2024.

Cllr Nick Botterill, Cabinet Member for Finance, Development Management and Strategic Planning stated that the Council was making money work in the most effective way and drew attention to the balance between internal and external borrowings which provided for capacity in areas within the balance sheet and revenue areas. Emphasis was also placed on the importance of having good treasury management, with it suggested that Wiltshire Council had got this right.

The following comments were received by Members of the Committee, with a discussion taking place on the change of interest rates, with it outlined that at some stage the Council would need to borrow, and that it would be important to forecast and borrow at a time when interest rates had sufficiently fallen. It was outlined that the optimal time to borrow would have to be calculated. Assurance was provided that the finance team in place had great understanding of treasury management as well as when to borrow.

Clarity was provided regarding the “Lender Option, Borrower Option” (LOBO) loans referenced in the report, with it outlined that there had been a loan for £4million paid off with reference made to the consideration of not burdening future Council taxpayers. Reference was made to the appendix included within the report which set out all of the borrowings.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,

Resolved:

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee agreed:

1. To note that the contents of this report are in line with the Treasury Management Strategy 2023-24.

To receive an update from the Financial Planning Task Group.

The Chairman noted that on page 135 of the agenda Pack, was a report which provided an update on the activity of the Financial Planning Task Group. The Task Group met on 9th July to consider the three reports that discussed earlier in the agenda and a summary of the Group’s discussions was included in the report.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,

Resolved:

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee agreed:

1. To note the update on the Task Group’s activity provided.
2. To note the Task Group’s forward work programme.

To receive updates on recent activity on the following Task Groups:

• Evolve Programme Task Group
• Stone Circle Task Group
• Transformation Task Group

A report was received on the Task Groups and Panels established by the Management Committee.

Evolve Programme Task Group

Cllr Ruth Hopkinson outlined that the Task Group had not expected to have continued for as long as it had, however the reason for this had been that some of the issues raised by the work had been complex and impacted every aspect of Council work. Praise was directed towards officers who had been exemplary in taking on challenges and responsibility. Overall, the Task Group had been well managed and that there would be an interim report brought to the September Committee meeting.

An observation was made regarding the impact of Evolve on the Wiltshire Pension Fund team, to which the s.151 Officer outlined that there had been issues across the board with reporting, particularly on pensions payroll reporting. This was now working, however sometimes there was source issues with the data. Actions which could be taken to make improvements had been highlighted.

Stone Circle Governance Task Group

Cllr Ruth Hopkinson, Task Group Chairman drew attention to the Terms of Reference for the Task Group, with it noted that there had been a close distinction between what was operational and what was overview and scrutiny. One area encountered during examination was that there had been a poor understanding of what Stone Circle was as well as the management and governance arrangements; therefore, a lot of time had been spent to provide clarity. It was hoped that once the information was available this should be of use to all Councillors to enhance understanding. The Task Group had reached the conclusion of their work with a report set to be written which would be brought to the September Committee meeting.

Transformation Task Group

Cllr Chris Williams, Task Group Chairman outlined that the Task Group had had its first meeting on 19 June 2024 to start to look at the transformation process. The Group aimed to look at how decisions were made as well as what guidelines were available to support officer with a focus on residents and how they would benefit from investments from the transformation programme. The next meeting of the Group would be on 31 July with Members welcome to join the Task Group.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,

Resolved:

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee agreed:

1. To note the update on the Task Group activity provided.
2. To approve the membership and terms of reference of the Transformation Task Group.

To receive updates from the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the Select Committees in respect of the topics under scrutiny in their areas, including any recommendations for endorsement by the Management Committee.

The Committee considered the forward work programmes for each select Committee, as well as updates from the Chairman for each Select Committee.

Cllr Jacqui Lay, Vice-Chairman of the Children’s Select Committee provided a verbal update which included that the Committee was conducting a large amount of work with an awareness that some items would need to be recommendations for the new Council as there was a desire not to have any partially completed pieces of work. Following a meeting with the Executive, the following items had been added to the Forward Work Plan:

• Children’s oral health and access to NHS Dentistry
• Early Years, childcare and entitlement strategy
• A one-year review of Safety Valve programme due in January 2025. 
• SEND Strategy and SEND improvement plan
• Information on the Wiltshire Learning Alliance.

Emphasis was placed on Children’s oral health, which had received increasing media interest, particularly from BBC Wiltshire which would be including a segment within their programme.

The Chairman thanked Cllr Lay and the Select Committee for the exemplary work which they were renowned for as well as the in-depth Scrutiny which they had conducted.

Cllr Johnny Kidney, Chairman of the Health Select Committee provided a verbal update which covered that the most recent meeting of the Committee had taken place on 17 July with detail provided on which items had been discussed. Looking forward it was outlined that over the summer there would be meetings with ICB and Council Officers to fine tune the Forward Work Plan to ensure that the Committee had a positive final year.

Cllr Jerry Kunkler, Chairman of the Environment Select Committee, provided a verbal update which covered that the last meeting of the Committee had taken place on 18 July with an overview of the items which had been discussed including the Culture and Leisure Strategy. It was noted that the next meeting would take place on 3 September, with detail provided regarding which updates would be brought to the Committee. Gratitude was placed towards Cllr Jonathon Seed for Chairing the Speed Limit Assessment Task Group.

At the conclusion of discussion, it was,

Resolved:

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee agreed:

1. To note the updates on select committee activity and approve the Overview and Scrutiny Forward Work Programme.

To confirm the date of the next meeting as 12 September 2024.

The date of the next meeting was confirmed as 12 September 2024.

Any other items of business which the Chairman agrees to consider as a matter of urgency.

There were no urgent items.