Agenda item

Cabinet Member: Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Finance

Forward Plan Ref: 2019/117

Contact: Steven Fairhurst Jones, Corporate Performance & Risk Manager Tel: 07932 318890/Hannah Doney, Strategic Finance Manager (Assurance & Reporting) Tel: 07584 174654

Report by Corporate Director Customers & Organisational Development and Director of Finance (CA7).

The report sets out Oxfordshire County Council's (OCC's) progress towards Corporate Plan priorities, and provides an update on the delivery of the Medium Term Financial Plan, at 30 November. A summary of overall performance and description of change is contained within the report. The report contains three annexes:

·            Annex A shows our current performance against targets and summarises progress towards overall outcomes set out in our Corporate Plan.

·            Annex B sets out the new Leadership Risk Register which has been developed as part of the Council’s work to strengthen risk and opportunities management.

Annex C sets out the current financial position, providing detailed explanations of significant budget variations and an update on the Medium-Term Financial Plan including the delivery of savings agreed by Council in February 2019.

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)       note the contents of this report;

(b)       note the virements set out in Annex C – 2b;

(c)       approve the creation of a new Redundancy Reserve and approve the transfer of £1m from the Budget Priorities Reserve to the Redundancy Reserve as set out in Annex C.

Cabinet considered a report which set out Oxfordshire County Council's (OCC's) progress towards Corporate Plan priorities, and provided an update on the delivery of the Medium Term Financial Plan, at 30 November, including current performance against targets; the new Leadership Risk Register which had been developed as part of the Council’s work to strengthen risk and opportunities management; and the current financial position, providing detailed explanations of significant budget variations and an update on the Medium-Term Financial Plan including the delivery of savings agreed by Council in February 2019.

Councillor Heathcoat, Deputy Leader of the Council, in moving the recommendations stated that the Business Management Report supported the Council’s vision on transparency and formed part of the suit of documents which highlighted ambitions, priorities and financial performance and confirmed that good progress was being made towards the Corporate Plan priorities.  The report followed each of the Cabinet portfolios.

In relation to her portfolio she reported that trading standards had continued to introduce junior friends against scams, with 60 new pupils pledged, bring the total to 116 and a fire safety day for Oxfordshire schools.

In relation to the amber indicators and the red indicator set in the report which referred to the number of people leaving hospital awaiting Social Care, she asked the Cabinet to note that the report set out the position as at November 2019 and that most of the amber indicators should be green in the final quarter.

Councillor Bartholomew, Cabinet Member for Finance referred to the forecast position of the Revenue Budget as at the end of November 2019 set out in the report which included MTFP savings, reserves and balances.  He thanked Lorna Baxter and her team for their work.

Based on expenditure to the end of November 2019, there was forecast directorate overspend of £3.6 million.  This was partly off-set by net underspend on corporate measures, including interest at £0.3 million, and remained unchanged from the position reported in December.

In relation to Corporate Parenting, a significant increase in demand of high-cost placements had recently been identified and would likely cause an overspend against budget in the current financial year.

80% of the planned savings totalling £36.8 million were on track to being delivered in 2019/20.  The £5.1 million savings that were not expected to be achieved in year were reflected in the directorate forecast outturn position and would be addressed as part of the service and resource planning process.

Councillor Lawrie Stratford reported that delayed discharges of care remained to be a challenge and was still very variable, but it was improving.  Part of that was ensuring that they were working with health partners to improve outcomes.  A number of consultations had been carried out to get people to not use A&E as their first port of call.

Councillor Constance, Cabinet Member for Environment reported that they had seen a 10% increase in the satisfaction levels expressed by residents in the annual survey on highway improvements.

RESOLVED: to:

(a)       note the contents of this report;

(b)       note the virements set out in Annex C – 2b;

(c)        approve the creation of a new Redundancy Reserve and approve the transfer of £1m from the Budget Priorities Reserve to the Redundancy Reserve as set out in Annex C.