Issue - meetings

The Revenue and Capital Budget monitoring report is attached showing the expected year-end position predicted at the end of August 2017.

Andrew Pate, Strategic Director of Resources introduced the item. He stated that the key issue is that the overspend is being closely monitored and actions are being taken. He also pointed to the recent report to full Council on efficiencies which is relevant.

Panel members made the following points and asked the following questions on the report:

Responding to a query about the 3 month vacancy freeze, the Strategic Director explained that this means a 3 month gap in the spend. He further explained that there are some exceptions to this policy such as some posts in social care and those funded through capital. Councillor Rayment asked if this causes a lottery in that some departments will have higher staff turnover, the Strategic Director explained that there are variations but that departments can apply to be exempt from the policy.

Councillor O Brien stated that she fully understood the overspend in the social care area but queried the Finance and Efficiency portfolio where an overspend is shown and some areas where targets have not been achieved – she asked why this had happened. The Strategic Director explained that the majority of the overspend has been in Human Resources (HR) and there has been a complete review and redesign of the service and rebasing of the budget for next year and this has resulted in staff consultation and major restructuring within the service with two teams from two divisions being combined as part of this. This followed a Peer Review. The new arrangements have been benchmarked and future HR costs will be well below the average. There are other moves to save money in this area such as pulling back HR provided to other parties such as schools. The reasons for the in year overspend are that (1) some costs were previously part funded from reserves, to allow for the extra work arising from staff reductions within the organisation, (2) base budget inaccuracies which are now being corrected and (3) losses made on support for schools.

The Strategic Director also reassured the Panel that this HR overspend had not been taken lightly, action had been taken, but there is a need to fund HR at an appropriate level. He further explained that previous management savings targets elsewhere in the Resources department had been fully delivered but one of those savings was funded from capital so did not fully achieve the expected revenue impact. Councillor O Brien asked if the revenue/capital issue could not have been anticipated and asked if it is clear that the budget will be achieved. The Strategic Director explained this was a small part of a wider saving but that based budget legacy issues, such as this, have been reviewed ready for next year’s budget.

Councillor Barrett stated that he has concerns that virements can be abused and asked for information regarding how much money is vired across headings and who has the authority to authorize this. The Strategic Director explained that there is a budget management scheme  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41