Issue - meetings

The report presents the financial monitoring information for the Authority for the financial year 2024/25, using information available as at the end of September 2024.

Cllr Mark Elliott, Cabinet Member for Resources, introduced the report, moved the officer recommendation and made the following points:

·  Despite efforts to better understand the pressures causing the projected overspends and working with departments on mitigation plans to bring the spending back in line, the projected overspend is now £5.54m.

·  the vast majority of the overspend is due to the huge pressures on Children’s Services and Home to School Transport, where there is a predicted £5.51m overspend. There are also pressures in other areas, the corporate estate has issues around the holding costs on vacant buildings, for example, and there are staffing pressures in Waste Management, but these are relatively small compared to the Children’s Services overspend figures, and following the regular meetings with senior staff from those departments, there is a plan to bring them back into line.

·  The issues in Children’s Services are more deep-rooted and more widely systemic. There is a need to build in-house provision to take back the care of our most vulnerable, most high-need, children from for-profit, private equity owned providers, and we are pursuing that, but that is not a provision we can build quickly. It is also important to work effectively with NHS colleagues to ensure that the split between Social Care and NHS funding is fair and equitable.  A further pressure within Children’s Services which wasn’t as evident in Quarter 1, but which is now showing a significant problem is Home to School transport. The issue is the fact that we use private companies to provide this service, and the market is failing to provide sensible competition, meaning that prices have gone up astronomically. Three or four years ago we were spending £6m on home to school transport, this year that figure is likely to be over £11m, against a budget of £9m. We need to radically rethink how this service works if we are going to stop this unmanageable increase every year.

·  There has been a strong start to the year on parking income due to high visitor numbers, and higher interest rates and lower than expected debt charges have helped to mitigate some of the pressures.

·  Regarding capital spend, an underspend of £23m on a £200m budget is predicted.  Most of that being due to slippage of schemes into future years.  £10.7m of borrowing requirement for our property company Aequus is expected now to come in 2025/26 instead of 2024/25.

·  Compared to many councils we are in a solid position; our reserves are good, and we are well managed.  The focus of our attention over the coming months should be to get Children’s Services back on track.

Cllr Paul May seconded the motion and made the following points:

·  Unfortunately, the impact of the pandemic is still being felt in the nature and complexity of the issues that have resulted in the growth of demand on the Children’s Services.

·  The SEND issues are not just a local problem.  The new government has received a National Audit report which has identified  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64