Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Finance

Forward Plan Ref: 2015/066

Contact: Katy Jurczyszyn, Senior Financial Adviser (Capital & MTFP) Tel: (01865) 323975

Report by Chief Finance Officer (CA6).

The report focuses on the management of the 2015/16 budget.   Parts 1 and 2 include projections for revenue, reserves and balances as at the end of October 2015. Capital Programme monitoring is included at Part 3.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)            note the report;

(b)            approve the virement requests set out in Annex 2a;

(c)            approve the supplementary estimate set out in Annex 2e of £0.6m relating to the cost of the Transport Safeguarding Assurance Framework project;

(d)            note the Treasury Management lending list at Annex 4;

(e)            in relation to reserves:

                           i.          approve the temporary use of Environment & Economy reserves as set out in paragraph 76;

                         ii.          approve the transfer of £0.3m to a new Commercial Reserve to support the development of the Children, Education & Families trading arm as set out in paragraph 9; and

(f)             approve the changes to the Capital Programme set out in annex 7c.

Recommendations agreed.

Cabinet considered a report that focussed on the management of the 2015/16 budget. Parts 1 and 2 included projections for revenue, reserves and balances as at the end of October 2015. Capital Programme monitoring was included at Part 3.

Councillor Nick Hards, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance made detailed comments on the report. This included reference to the recruitment freeze on non-essential staff, as he did not accept that the Council any longer had workers that were not essential. Referring to the children, education and families overspend he highlighted the increasing pressures on social workers and queried the impact of reduced back office support and also highlighted the increasing cost of home to school transport. On social and community services, Councillor Hards raised concerns over the sustainability in relation to care home placements. He further noted the pressures in environment & economy.

Councillor Stratford responded to the comments made and in referring to the phrase non-essential staff accepted that the wording was unfortunate and commended the work of all staff during a difficult time. The increase in children needing intervention and the implications of the recruitment freeze on social worker workloads would be carefully monitored. Cabinet Members also responded to the comments made.

RESOLVED:             to:

(a)          note the report;

(b)          approve the virement requests set out in Annex 2a;

(c)          approve the supplementary estimate set out in Annex 2e of £0.6m relating to the cost of the Transport Safeguarding Assurance Framework project;

(d)          note the Treasury Management lending list at Annex 4;

(e)          in relation to reserves:

                      i.        approve the temporary use of Environment & Economy reserves as set out in paragraph 76;

                    ii.        approve the transfer of £0.3m to a new Commercial Reserve to support the development of the Children, Education & Families trading arm as set out in paragraph 9; and

(f)           approve the changes to the Capital Programme set out in annex 7c.