Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Finance

Forward Plan Ref: 2014/018

Contact: Stephanie Skivington, Corporate Finance Manager Tel: (01865) 323995

Report by Chief Finance Officer (CA7).

The report focuses on the delivery of the Directorate Business Strategies that were agreed as part of the Service and Resource Planning Process for 2014/15 – 2017/18.  Parts 1 and 2 include projections for revenue, reserves and balances as at the end of May 2014.   Capital Programme monitoring and update is included at Part 3 and Part 4 sets out a change to un-ringfenced grant funding in 2014/15.  Changes to Fees and Charges are included at Part 5. 

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)            note the report;

(b)            approve the virement requests and changes related to unringfenced grants set out in Annex 2a and Part 4;

(c)            approve the supplementary estimate request in Annex 2e;

(d)            note the Treasury Management lending list at Annex 3;

(e)            approve the updated Capital Programme at Annex 8 and the associated changes to the programme in Annex 7c;

(f)             approve the contribution of £1.7m of developer contributions funding to the Cheney Academy to expand the school by an additional class in each year;

(g)            authorise the Director for Children, Education & Families and the Chief Finance Officer to enter into a funding agreement with Cheney Academy to transfer £1.7m of developer funding in stages;

(h)            approve the use of the £1.120m grant to implement the Universal Infant Free School Meal programme and the addition of the scheme to the Capital Programme;

(i)              approve the fees and charges as set out in Part 5 and Annex 9.

Cabinet had before them a report that focussed on the delivery of the Directorate Business Strategies that were agreed as part of the Service and Resource Planning Process for 2014/15 – 2017/18. Parts 1 and 2 included projections for revenue, reserves and balances as at the end of May 2014. Capital Programme monitoring and update is included at Part 3 and Part 4 sets out a change to un-ringfenced grant funding in 2014/15. Changes to Fees and Charges are included at Part 5.

Councillor Hards, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance highlighted the  main problem areas: the Children, Education & Families (CEF) budget and the Social & Community Services (S&CS) budget. Although accepting that it was early in the year he doubted if all the hoped for savings would be realised and was worried that staff savings in the CEO and E&E budgets would be used to meet the targets. He expressed concern for staff and referred to a duty of care owed to all staff.

Councillor Hards highlighted one or two of the pressures on costs in CEF. Including the home to school transport; the trend in the number of independent foster agency support days. He added that the forecast overspend in the All Rights Exhausted  budget, where the achievement of a £150k saving is in doubt, might provoke complaints but he was satisfied with the explanation provided to him by Kathy Wilcox on the nature of the process and its inherent uncertainty. It might however be necessary to look for those savings elsewhere. Councillor Hudspeth agreed that that was the challenge throughout the budget process and it was a difficult thing to manage.

Cabinet Members responded to the individual points made and in particular the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care stressed that staff were valued and she appreciated the work of the staff in Adult Social Care. The Cabinet Member for Children, Education & Families noted that home to school transport was expected to deliver savings. Councillor Fatemian in introducing the contents of the report thanked Councillor Hards for some of his comments and endorsed comments about the value placed on staff. He stated that it was early in the year and was showing the worst case scenario. He agreed that there wwere some underlying concerns and that it would be a challenge to see how those pressures were resolved.

RESOLVED:           to:

(a)            note the report;

(b)            approve the virement requests and changes related to unringfenced grants set out in Annex 2a and Part 4;

(c)            approve the supplementary estimate request in Annex 2e;

(d)            note the Treasury Management lending list at Annex 3;

(e)            approve the updated Capital Programme at Annex 8 and the associated changes to the programme in Annex 7c;

(f)              approve the contribution of £1.7m of developer contributions funding to the Cheney Academy to expand the school by an additional class in each year;

(g)            authorise the Director for Children, Education & Families and the Chief Finance Officer to enter into a funding agreement with Cheney Academy to transfer £1.7m of developer funding in stages;

(h)            approve the use of the £1.120m grant to implement the Universal Infant Free School Meal programme and the addition of the scheme to the Capital Programme;

(i)              approve the fees and charges as set out in Part 5 and Annex 9.