To consider the
report
Decision:
To accept the information,
note the risks arising from the forecast expenditure against the budget, and
support the Cabinet's decisions in the context of the budgets of the Council
and its departments.
Minutes:
Submitted – the
report of the Cabinet Member for Finance requesting that the Committee notes
the position and relevant risks in respect of the Council's budgets and those
of its departments, considers the Cabinet's decisions of 13 October, 2020 and
provides comments as required.
The Cabinet Member
for Finance set out the context for the report, noting the following:-
·
This report again demonstrated the impact of the
pandemic and the pressure on the departments.
·
Appendix 1 to the report was important, as it showed
the receipts received from the Welsh Government per department, and illustrated
the situation clearly to the members.
He noted that the
Cabinet had considered the report at its meeting on 13 October, and had
resolved as follows:-
·
To accept the report on the
end of August 2020 review of the Revenue Budget, and consider the latest
financial position regarding the budgets of each department/service.
·
To note the financial
impact of Covid-19, which is a combination of additional costs, income losses
and slippage in the savings programme, as the Council has given complete
precedence to safeguarding the health and lives of the people of Gwynedd in
response to the crisis, which has meant that it was not possible to continue
with the performance challenging and savings arrangements during the crisis
period.
·
To support the intention of
the Chief Executive and Head of Finance Department to arrange to meet each
Cabinet Member with their Head of Department, to discuss how the procedure of
delivering the proposed savings can be resumed, so that the Council can proceed
with a proportion of the savings programme, despite the crisis.
·
To 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 commissioned work to obtain a better understanding of the
matters and a clear response programme.
·
To 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 aim of presenting a report to the
Cabinet which will detail the response plan.
·
To approve the following
recommendations and financial virements (as outlined
in Appendix 2).
o On Corporate budgets, that:
¾ (£250k) relating to capital costs is transferred to the capital
programme fund.
¾ a net underspend of (£1,127k) on Corporate budgets will go to the
Council's general balances to assist in facing the financial challenge ahead of
the Council, particularly so in light of the Covid-19 crisis.
·
That grant receipts from
the Government to compensate for added expenditure and income losses related to
the Covid-19 crisis are allocated to the relevant departments in accordance
with what is noted in Appendix 1.
During the
discussion, members raised the following matters:-
·
Referring to the table on page 221 of the Agenda,
there was a £1m difference between the total grant applied for from the Welsh Government's
hardship fund and the total grant received, and the member enquired whether
there were further grant monies to be received, or was the Council expected to
bear this difference? In response, it was explained that the Welsh Government
rejected some applications, and deferred before paying some others. For
example, claims for Free School Meal payments had been deferred since August,
and were worth £200,000, with the Council awaiting receipt of the money. It was
added that the Senior Finance Manager and her team were to be commended, since
Gwynedd was amongst the top 6 authorities in terms of the amount they had
managed to draw down from the Government's Covid
Hardship Grant, and was the best in Wales in respect of the amount rejected
i.e. the lowest amount rejected. This Council's method of putting forward the
information had been praised by the Government as an intelligible approach, and
consequently Gwynedd was managing to access the funding more quickly than other
councils. It was also noted that over £400,000 had been spent on laptops to
enable staff to work from home since March, and that they had managed to
recover half of this cost from the fund. This was a considerable success,
bearing in mind that these laptops would be an asset for the Council in future.
·
Again, referring to the table on page 221 of the
agenda, it was noticed that no grant had been received for August, and a member
enquired whether they were right in assuming that the Council was expecting to receive
a grant of £800,000 (i.e. that the deficit between the sum applied for and the
amount to be received would only be around £200,000), or whether there was a
problem with the August application? In
response, it was explained that this was a timing issue, and that the Council
awaited information back from the Welsh Government regarding this application.
The Welsh Government was assessing applications from all the Welsh Councils,
therefore there was a delay between submitting the application, and being
notified that the application had been approved and the money being paid over.
In response to a further question, it was confirmed that they expected to
receive the amount applied for in this case.
·
The Chief Executive's intention to get to grips
again with the Children's Budget Taskforce was welcomed. A member enquired
whether the findings of this work could be used to press on and discuss with
the Government, and with other councils, to see if there was room to re-examine
the budget coming from the Government for this field in particular. In response
it was explained that the Society of Welsh Treasurers had compiled a survey to
try to gather information about the pressure and demands in the children's
field across the 22 local authorities in Wales in order to put this on the
Government's radar. However, without knowing the result of the UK Government's
one year spending review, and what would be the settlement for Wales, the Welsh
Government was not in a position to commit to anything at present.
RESOLVED to accept the information, note the risks
arising from the projected expenditure against the budget, and support the
Cabinet's decisions in respect of the budgets of the Council and its
departments.
Supporting documents: