Agenda item

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

Forward Plan Ref: 2019/205

Contact: Steven Fairhurst Jones, Corporate Performance & Risk Manager Tel: 07932 318890/ Hannah Doney, Head of Corporate Finance Tel: 07584 174654

Report by Corporate Director Customers & Organisational Development and Director of Finance (CA8).

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 31 March 2020. A summary of overall performance and description of change is contained within the report. The report contains four 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 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 

·         Annex D provides a note of the expected costs and loss of income expected relating to Covid-19 in the first quarter of 2020/21

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)         note the contents of this report;

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

(c)         note the provisional revenue outturn for 2019/20 along with the yearend position on general balances and earmarked reserves as set out in Annex C;

(d)         approve the remaining directorate overspend £0.3m after using the unused corporate contingency should be transferred to balances along with the Strategic Measures underspend of £2.8m as set out in paragraph 29;

(e)         agree that the surplus on the On-Street Parking Account at the end of the 2019/20 financial year, so far as not applied to particular eligible purposes in accordance with Section 55(4) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, be carried forward in the account to the 2020/21 financial year as set out in Annex C-4;

(f)          To note the expected costs and loss of income expected relating to Covid-19 in the first quarter of 2020/21 as set out in Annex D.

Cabinet considered a report that 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 31 March 2020. A summary of overall performance and description of change is contained within the report. The report additionally provided a note of the expected costs and loss of income expected relating to Covid-19 in the first quarter of 2020/21.

Dr Liz Sawyers, speaking on behalf of Oxfordshire Liveable Streets, spoke on the challenges presented by the end of lockdown. She referred to government advice to avoid public transport and to drive where walking and cycling are not possible. The upswing in private car usage will present a challenge. Dr Sawyers commented that the Council had the power to protect Oxford business and futures by creating an environment that put people first by protecting public space for social distancing and protecting air quality to prevent exacerbating the impact of covid-19. Dr Sawyers urged the bringing forward of a ‘plus’ version of Connecting Oxford so that it was in place by 1 July. Dr Sawyers added that the ‘Plus’ version was only two bus gates away from the original agreed at Cabinet on 21 January 2020.

Whilst commending the work being undertaken and recognising the pressures the Council were under, Dr Sawyers further urged the Council to work closely with Oxford City and the District Councils to provide public space for city business to restart; to fast track ‘liveable neighbourhood schemes’ and to commit to segregated and continuous cycle lanes along the City’s main arterial routes.

Councillor Glynis Phillips, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance began by thanking staff for going  above and beyond their day to day duties: not just all those front line staff but also other staff still answering casework queries by councillors.

Councillor Phillips commented that she understood there was agreement to move the information about the process of writing the report into a separate annex.

Referring to paragraph 6, which advised of the return to quarterly reporting Councillor Phillips commented that she would welcome a streamlined, slimmed down report just focussing on key issues on a monthly basis. For good governance there was a need to maintain a monthly focus in order to understand how the Council’s response to the virus is impacting on Council services and finance. She commended Annex D as an excellent summary of the effects thus far.

Referring to the risk LR8 at page 21 Councillor Phillips suggested that this be increased to reflect the interim appointment of a non-legally trained Monitoring Officer. The appointment had been made unanimously at Council but it was right to be aware of the increased risk of issues not being identified because of a lack of legal training. She suggested that a timetable for the appointment of a Director of Legal Services, or the appointment of an existing solicitor into the interim position would mitigate the risk.

Councillor Phillips also sought assurances on the following: firstly whether the Council was contemplating using the Care Act easements which are part of the Coronavirus Act 2020; secondly how the Council responded to the question in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government about the impact if a council was forced to use reserves including those specifically earmarked for particular projects to cover the impact of additional spending and finally whether the Council was in danger of issuing a Section 114 notice..

Councillor Judith Heathcoat, Deputy Leader of the Council, indicated that monthly reporting would resume from the start of Quarter 2. Quarter 1 would be reported to the September Cabinet meeting. Councillor David Bartholomew, Cabinet Member for Finance added that in terms of finance there would be monthly reporting from July Cabinet.

With regard to the Interim Monitoring position Councillor Heathcoat replied that officers with legal training were Deputy Monitoring Officers and so there was full legal support for the Interim Monitoring Officer position.

Councillor Heathcoat added that Councillor Phillips would receive a written answer on her query on the use of Care Act easements.

Councillor Bartholomew responding to the point raised about the use of reserves stated that the question from government was on deployable reserves and so earmarked reserves were not available and that was the response to government. In terms of general balances a figure of £4.8m was deployable as identified in the final accounts.

Councillor Bartholomew responding to the question on a S114 Notice stated that the key point was that the government had committed to meeting local authority needs and costs related to coronavirus. The County Council had sufficient reserves and balances to manage cashflow so there was no question of an S114 Notice being issued at the moment.

Councillor Liz Brighouse, speaking as Labour Group and Opposition Leader thanked all staff for the work they were doing during this awful time.

As Chairman of the Performance Scrutiny Committee Councillor Brighouse referred to ongoing work by the Committee on delayed discharges of care and looked forward to work currently being undertaken on this aspect of the response to the coronavirus coming to the Committee.

Councillor Brighouse noted that the Committee had also considered the attainment gap in education. Many of those struggling most are children who should have been in school during lockdown but failed to attend. Despite valiant efforts by school staff to support the children and families, including the provision of foodbanks there were vulnerable children that should be in school who were not. She hoped that so as not to increase the attainment gap children, entitled to be in school would return before consideration was given to specific year groups returning which may have an impact on families with several children in one school, would impact on staff support to vulnerable children at home and virtual learning for Years 2 – 5. Hope points made to central government before they stretch our schools further.

Councillor Brighouse referred to assurances made to her that there would be a performance report to the July meeting of the Committee. If not there would have been no scrutiny in 2020 and it was important to have scrutiny by ordinary members of the council. Councillor Heathcoat confirmed that monthly reporting would begin from the second quarter. She recognised the frustration at the situation and understood that officers were meeting with Councillor Brighouse to determine what it would be possible to bring. However, it was necessary to acknowledge the workload pressures and use of staff resources at this time.

Councillor Heathcoat added her thanks to staff to those already expressed. Councillor Heathcoat introduced the performance and risk elements of the report. She gave a snapshot of the performance stories within the report, including:

·         97% of the councillor priority fund(£1.87m) had been spent on projects supporting local communities.

·         Adult Social care and Public health had met or exceeded most public health targets.

·         90% of children had been given their first preference of primary school.

·         OFRS continued to exceed their response targets and targets for supporting  vulnerable residents.

Councillor Heathcoat explained that the targets for reablement and delayed discharge of care both rated as gray. This was because reporting on these had been suspended as part of the coronavirus response by the council and government.

Councillor David Bartholomew, Cabinet Member for Finance introduced the finance elements of the report noting that it included information on the provisional revenue outturn for 2019/20 along with the year end position on general balances and earmarked reserves. In response to a question from Councillor Hudspeth on the use of general balances for government to address the impact of coronavirus Councillor Bartholomew confirmed that it was about deployable reserves but that further information was awaited.

During discussion Councillor Liam Walker, Cabinet Member for Highways Operations and Delivery paid triburte to the work of the Highways Teams during this time. The work made more difficult due the social distancing requirements. 110miles of roads had been resurfaced including on the A40 and 6506 potholes had been dealt with. This reflected the decision to invest more in our road network and he would continue to ensure the money was spent wisely.

RESOLVED:             to:

(a)         note the contents of this report;

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

(c)          note the provisional revenue outturn for 2019/20 along with the yearend position on general balances and earmarked reserves as set out in Annex C;

(d)         approve the remaining directorate overspend £0.3m after using the unused corporate contingency should be transferred to balances along with the Strategic Measures underspend of £2.8m as set out in paragraph 29;

(e)         agree that the surplus on the On-Street Parking Account at the end of the 2019/20 financial year, so far as not applied to particular eligible purposes in accordance with Section 55(4) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, be carried forward in the account to the 2020/21 financial year as set out in Annex C-4;

(f)          To note the expected costs and loss of income expected relating to Covid-19 in the first quarter of 2020/21 as set out in Annex D.