Agenda item

i)             A copy of the latest bi-monthly budget monitoring report as considered by Cabinet on Tuesday 18 October is attached for consideration.

ii)            The Committee at its last meeting considered the budget monitoring report submitted to Cabinet on 13 September which provided progress in delivering savings identified in the 2011-15 Financial Plan in relation to the 2011/12 base budget.  Members noted that there were significant cost pressures faced within Community Services and resolved to request that the Health & Adult Social Care Select Committee consider this at its next meeting to be held on 6 October 2011.

An extract of the minute arising from the meeting is attached for consideration.

iii)           A copy of the Capital Programme Monitoring Report to be considered by the Cabinet Capital Assets Committee on 15 November 2011 is attached for consideration.

Prior to further consideration of the information provided within the agenda, the Chairman raised the issue of statutory and discretionary spend.  The attending Corporate Director confirmed that the way in which the authority delivered the 400 plus services was at the authority’s discretion and that an attempt to differentiate between statutory and discretionary could therefore be misleading and, as a result, unhelpful to members of the Committee.  This was recognised by members.

The Chairman, in presenting the item to the Committee confirmed that the Committee’s priority would hereafter focus on the budget base for the next financial year.  With this in mind, the Chairman and Vice Chairman had held a useful meeting with the Cabinet member for Finance, Chief Finance Officer, Corporate Director for Resources and other officers to discuss progress in relation to the setting of budgets for 20012/13.

Information provided with the agenda for consideration included:

i)             The latest bi-monthly budget monitoring report as considered by Cabinet on 18 October;

ii)            A extract of the minute arising from the Health and Adult Social Care Select Committee meeting held on 6 October 2011 in relation to the Budget Update item; and

iii)           The Capital Programme Monitoring Report to be considered by the Cabinet Capital Assets Committee on 15 November 2011.

With the assumption that members had considered the information provided the Chairman opened up discussion to the floor where the following points were made:

i)          Bi-monthly monitoring report.

Department of Transformation and Resources (DTR)

The 2010/11 outturn report proposed setting aside £0.5m for various projects relating to transformation. This was subsequently transferred to the general fund.  Transformational work however had continued, which included Systems Thinking, SAP, Project Management and Cloud Computing services. The report proposed that this work therefore be funded from general fund reserves.

Chief Executives Office

The £0.5m overspend identified within Legal & Democratic services related to costs associated with the increased demand faced across the Council, including children’s social care and development control.  The removal of the internal legal fees recharge has also resulted in costs, previously shared across all departments, now falling within one service line. 

A review of all vacancies and agency staff within the debt recovery area was being undertaken which was anticipated to result in a balanced budget by financial year end. 

Members also asked some specific questions in relation to DNP and DCS which were answered at the meeting.

ii)         HASC Minute Extract

Since the publication of the minute extract a further meeting of the Committee had been held where members were provided with a clearer understanding of the pressures faced by DCS.  A panel exercise was also undertaken later that same day which also highlighted the issues faced by the Department.

iii)        Capital Programme Monitoring Report

The Committee noted a slippage to the capital programme with approximately £49m to be reprogrammed into 2012/13. 

Completion of the first half of the County Hall refurbishment scheme was expected to be completed in the summer of 2012.  This would include the Customer Access Centre and Library.  County Hall was expected to be fully re-opened by late autumn 2013.

The Chairman thanked both officers and Cabinet members for their attendance.

Resolved:

To note the information provided.