Agenda item

Resolved to:

·         Accept the report on the end of November 2019 review of the Revenue Budget and consider the latest financial situation regarding the budgets of each department/service.

·         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 and commissioned work in order to gain a better understanding and a clear response programme. To attempt to meet the overspend in future, an additional resource is allocated as part of the bidding system for the 2020/21 budget.

·         To note that the Children's Budget Taskforce has been commissioned by the Chief Executive to address serious financial matters within the Children and Families Department so that it is possible to get to the root of the Department's overspend, with the intention of submitting a report to the Cabinet that will detail on the response plan. To attempt to meet the overspend in future, an additional resource is allocated as part of the bidding system for the 2020/21 budget.

·         On Corporate budgets, that:

¾    (£198k) of additional tax yield on the Council's Tax Premium is added to the £2.7 million that has already been allocated in 2019/20 to be considered for the Housing Strategy.

¾    (£75k) relating to capital costs allocated to a capital programme fund.

¾    (£500k) of Corporate underspend is allocated to fund a lack of grants in the field of sustainable social services.

¾    (£312k) to be spent to fund one-off bids that have been submitted by the Departments for expenditure in 2020/21.

¾    The remainder (£502k) would go towards the Council’s general balances

Presented by Cllr Ioan Thomas 

            DECISION

Resolved to:

·         Accept the report on the end of November 2019 review of the Revenue Budget, and consider the latest financial situation regarding the budgets of each department/service.

·         Note that there is significant overspend by the Adults, Health and Well-being Department this year, as complex details need to be clarified in Adult care, the Chief Executive has already called a meeting of the relevant officers and commissioned work to obtain a better understanding and a clear response programme. To try and address the overspend in future, an additional resource has been allocated as part of the bidding process for the 2020/21 budget.

·         Note that a Children's Budget Taskforce has been commissioned by the Chief Executive to address the complex financial issues of the Children and Families Department in order to get to the root of the overspend, with the intention of presenting a report to the Cabinet which will detail the response plan. To try and address the overspend in future, an additional resource has been allocated as part of the bidding process for the 2020/21 budget.

·         On Corporate budgets, that:

¾     (£198k) yield on Council Tax Premium added to the £2.7 million that has already been allocated in 2019/20 is considered for the Housing Strategy.

¾     (£75k) relating to capital costs be allocated to the capital programme fund.

¾     (£500k) of Corporate underspend be allocated to fund the lack of grant in the area of sustainable social services.

¾     (£312k) be used to fund one-off bids that have been presented by the Departments for the purpose of 2020/21 expenditure.

¾     the balance of (£502k) goes to the Council's general balances.

DISCUSSION

The report was presented, noting that the report highlighted some signs of difficulties with achieving savings. The member expressed that there were some departments that would overspend, and these were discussed individually.

Adults, Health and Well-being Department – the latest forecasts suggested over £1.8 million of overspend by the department. The overspend was partly alleviated to £658k following the receipt of a grant and use of one-off funding.

Children and Supporting Families Department – it was noted that the level of overspend in the department had intensified further to £3.2 million with £2.6 million forecast to be overspent on placements, where the majority of the overspend resulted from out-of-county placements. It was added that a Budget Taskforce had been established to address financial issues in the department, and it was noted that this situation was not uncommon throughout Wales.

Highways Department – overspend continued in the area of waste collection and disposal, adding that transitional costs before moving to new arrangements had led to the overspend.

Attention was drawn to Corporate underspend with favourable forecasts of additional Council Tax yield and Council Tax Premium yield, but despite this there was a continued trend of back-dating transfers from Council Tax to Non-domestic Rates. It was also emphasised that the number claiming Council Tax reductions was at its lowest for the fourth year in succession. It was added that there was a net underspend on Corporate budgets, which meant that the pressure on a number of budgets was not as intense as originally predicted.

The Chief Executive provided a summary of the work that was being undertaken to investigate the overspend in Children and Supporting Families and the Adults Department. To reach a conclusion and identify alternative opportunities in the Children's field would take longer than what was anticipated for the Adults field, but the Head of Finance was making appropriate provision in drawing up the 2020/21 budget.

He reported further that we was not overly concerned about overspend in the Highways Department at present, as there was already a plan in place to ensure that the waste system operated as efficiently as possible in order to bring this overspend under control.