Issue - meetings

Cabinet Member: Finance

Forward Plan Ref: 2015/097

Contact: Kathy Wilcox, Chief Accountant Tel: (01865) 323981

Report by Chief Finance Officer (CA7).

This 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 December 2015. Capital Programme monitoring is included at Part 3.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)                note the report;

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

(c)                approve an increase of £0.935m for the A34 Milton Interchange scheme;

(d)               approve the full budget of £11.165m for the Eastern Arc Phase 1: Access to Headington project and to proceed to detailed design; and

(e)                note the changes to the Capital Programme set out in Annex 7b and 7c.

Approved

Approved

Approved

Approved

Approved

Approve the allocation of the un-ringfenced grant for Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme to the Fire and Rescue Service

The Cabinet considered (CA7) a report focusing on the management of the 2015/16 budget together with an additional recommendation as set out in the addenda.  

Councillor Hards referred to the high variance on the Children, Education & Families Directorate. The increased use of taxis for home to school transport for children with special needs clearly emphasised the need to progress provision of additional special needs facilities as proposed for example in the Didcot valley. He was pleased to see underspends on mainstream transport and education entitlement for disadvantaged two year olds but with regard to the forecast overspend on Children’s Social Care (paragraph 12) he asked whether there was any prospect of a reduction in the number of looked after children and queried the need for increased use of agency staff. He also sought an explanation why the Didcot station car park expansion scheme had slipped and why the Milton Interchange scheme was forecast to overspend.

Responding Councillor Stratford advised that he understood the Didcot Station car park had reverted to its original programme and he would write separately to Councillor Hards with regard to the Milton interchange.  He agreed with concerns regarding use of taxis and the need to expand special school facilities in the south of the county. The increase in numbers of looked after children reflected the sensitivity of officers to their particular needs and he supported the levels of spend to offset any possibility of risk to children. He would look at the use of agency staff.

He confirmed that budgets would continue to be managed aggressively but felt that generally all Directorates were doing a good job to come in either very close to or within budget. Inevitably Children Education & Families faced the biggest challenge but it was imperative that everything that should be done was done to safeguard children at risk. Un-ringfenced reserves were perilously close to maximum level but any impact on school balances would be lessened as more schools attained academy status. He moved the recommendations in the report and addenda.

Councillor Heathcote hoped that negotiations with the Oxfordshire Clinical Commissioning Group for an additional contribution to offset part of the overspend relating to Non-Emergency Patient Transport would continue favourably.

RESOLVED: to

(a)             note the report CA7;

(b)             note the Treasury Management lending list at Annex 4 to the report CA7;

(c)             approve an increase of £0.935m for the A34 Milton Interchange scheme;

(d)             approve the full budget of £11.165m for the Eastern Arc Phase 1: Access to Headington project and to proceed to detailed design;

(e)             note the changes to the Capital Programme set out in Annex 7b and 7c to the report CA7;

(f)              approve the allocation of the un-ringfenced grant for Emergency Services Mobile Communications Programme to the Fire and Rescue Service.