Decision:
To accept the report on the end of
August 2019 review of the Revenue Budget, and:
1)
Note that there is a significant overspend by the
Adults, Health and Well-being Department this year, and as complex details need
to be clarified in this picture in Adults care, the Chief Executive has already
called a meeting of the relevant officers to gain a better understanding and a
clear response programme, as is the case in Child care.
2)
Ask the Cabinet Member
for Children and Young People, together with the Head of Children and Families
Department, to get to the root of the Department's overspend and take steps to
bring the situation within control and within budget by the end of the
financial year and report to the Cabinet on their response plan.
3)
Allow the Environment
Department to earmark (£220k) of the department's underspend following a recent
judicial review of a capital scheme relating to the Llanbedr access Road, due
to reasons beyond the Council's control, by putting it into a specific fund for
this purpose.
4) On Corporate budgets, transfer:
-
(£240k) relating to
capital costs to the capital programme’s financing fund.
-
(£995k) relating to
repair and maintenance to the repair and maintenance fund.
-
net underspend of
(£1,632k) on Corporate Budgets to the Supporting the Financial Strategy Fund to
mitigate the risk of overspending of Council departments in 2019/20.
Minutes:
Presented by Cllr Ioan Thomas
DECISION
To accept the report on the end of
August 2019 review of the Revenue Budget, and:
1)
Note that there is a significant overspend by the
Adults, Health and Well-being Department this year, and as complex details need
to be clarified in this picture in Adults care, the Chief Executive has already
called a meeting of the relevant officers to gain a better understanding and a
clear response programme, as is the case in Child care.
2)
Ask the Cabinet Member for
Children and Young People, together with the Head of Children and Families
Department, to get to the root of the Department's overspend and take steps to
bring the situation within control and within budget by the end of the
financial year and report to the Cabinet on their response plan.
3)
Allow the Environment
Department to earmark (£220k) of the department's underspend following a recent
judicial review of a capital scheme relating to the Llanbedr access Road, due
to reasons beyond the Council's control, by putting it into a specific fund for
this purpose.
4) On Corporate budgets, transfer:
1) (£240k) relating to capital costs to the capital
programme’s financing fund.
2) (£995k) relating to repair and maintenance to the
repair and maintenance fund.
3) net underspend of
(£1,632k) on Corporate Budgets to the Supporting the Financial Strategy Fund to
mitigate the risk of overspending of Council departments in 2019/20.
DISCUSSION
The report was submitted,
noting that it presented the end of August review
for the Council's revenue budget. The review showed a mixed picture and
reported an acceptable level of financial management by a number of the Council’s departments. However, the pressures on some
of the departments was highlighted
following savings to the tune of £32 million since 2015 coupled with an increase
in the demand for services.
Due to the scale of overspend anticipated in the Children (£2.9 million) and Adults
(£1.6 million) departments,
it was concluded that there was a need to get to the root of their inability to keep within their
budgets. It was noted that the demand was higher than expected for the services of both departments, and the Adults department had also failed to realise nearly a million pounds in savings.
In order to attempt to bring the situation under control, the Chief Executive had already held meetings with
the departments in order to start this work, with
the intention of reporting back to the Cabinet in due course.
It was added that the Highways and Municipal Department had overspent by approximately £733k. However, it
did not cause concern as it
included transitional costs that derived
from changing arrangements in the waste field.
It was prudent to transfer the funds available due to the underspend on Corporate budgets
in order to mitigate the risk of overspending of Council departments in 2019/20.
Observations arising
from the discussion
¾
Concern was noted about the
level of overspend in the Children and Adults departments, noting that this was
the result of years of austerity and financial squeeze.
¾
Concern was noted that the
increase in demand was unexpectedly high in the care sector.
¾
It was noted that there was a
clear message for Welsh Government here, following the prioritisation of the
Health Service in 2019/20. The Council needed a better settlement in order to
cope with the impact of inflation and increase in demand.
¾
Although the Council had coped
with the savings and the increase in demand, there was no certainty that Welsh
Government appreciated this.
Supporting documents: