Agenda item

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

Forward Plan Ref: 2020/105

Contact: Louise Tustian, Head of Insight & Corporate Programmes Tel: 07741 607452/Hannah Doney, Head of Corporate Finance Tel: 07584 174654

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

This report sets out Oxfordshire County Council’s (OCC’s) progresstowards Corporate Plan priorities for 2020/21 – October 2020.

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)        note this month’s business management and monitoring report.

(b)        approve COVID expenditure and income virements set out in Annex C-2b and note virements in Annex C -2c

Cabinet considered a report setting out Oxfordshire County Council’s (OCC’s) progress towards Corporate Plan priorities for 2020/21 – October 2020.

Councillor Glynis Phillips, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance, noted that the Council would achieve a balanced budget and congratulated the Finance Team for managing the budget in ever changing circumstances. Councillor Phillips referred to Annex C 5b that clearly set out the grants from Government both ringfenced and non-ringfenced totalling some £62m. She commented that this money was welcome in providing vital services in response to the pandemic, but it should not be underestimated the additional work that went hand in hand with spending this funding and accounting for every single penny.  Councillor Phillips noted that the report highlighted challenges ahead and referred to children’s social care where the report advised that the current increase in demand is expected to flow through into longer term plans for children and families. Councillor Phillips also noted that pressure on the high needs dedicated schools grant continued to rise and that work was underway to analyse activity demand and budget pressures.

Councillor Phillips supported the creation of a new risk area made by separating out the risks to children from that of adults.

Councillor Phillips also highlighted good news in the report such as the enhanced bus services in Banbury.

Finally, Councillor Phillips noted that this report confirmed the assurances given at the last full Council meeting that going forward there would be no service cuts in this this financial year. However, she also noted that the report made it clear that the costs of covid would be felt into subsequent years.

Councillor Judith Heathcoat, Deputy Leader of the Council, introduced the risk and performance management elements of the report. Councillor Heathcoat commented on the largely positive picture of performance that was due in no small part to the Council’s workforce and she thanked them for their service. Councillor Heathcoat detailed that of 27 performance indicators, 12 were green, 14 were amber and one was not collected due to reasons connected with covid. The change from the previous report was in community safety on the timeliness of emergency response that had moved from green to amber which now included a wider range of response. Councillor Heathcoat noted that the indicator was only 3% below the stretch target of attending 80% of incidents within 11 minutes. Councillor Heathcoat also referred to the annual electric blanket testing programme that had resulted in an average 21% failure rate, highlighting the danger of having an electric blanket that was not safe.

Councillor David Bartholomew, Cabinet Member for Finance, introduced the finance element of the report that outlined the forecast revenue budget at the end of October 2020 and an update on the Medium Term Financial Strategy The report included information on the financial impact of COVID-19 for 2020/21 including the latest estimate for additional and exceptional expenditure and income losses which totals £52.3m.

Cabinet members highlighted aspects of services within their portfolios, paying tribute to the work of staff, including:

·       The success of the tree audit;

·       The delivery of the new library in Botley;

·       The work of head teachers and school and council staff that has ensured that attendance figures for pupils in school have been consistently above the national average;

·       The phenomenal response of the staff in adult social care and public health to the demands placed on their service due to the pandemic alongside their everyday work.

·       The work on enhanced digital connectivity.

·       The work to support the voluntary community.

·       The work of the highways team on delivering repair and maintenance programmes and the successful super user scheme.

Cabinet also took the opportunity to thank Adrian Fenwick, Alistair Bastin and the wider IT team for their work in supporting councillors with their digital connection needs during the pandemic, including their work on MS Teams.

RESOLVED:           to:

(a)      note this month’s business management and monitoring report; and

(b)      approve COVID expenditure and income virements set out in Annex C-2b and note virements in Annex C -2c