Decisions

The Cabinet Members agree that:

1.1  A scheme is incorporated as a fully approved item into the capital programme for full approval, in advance of budget setting to allow procurement to progress.

1.2  An uplift of £1,025,000 to the current capital programme for 2019/20, funded by service supported borrowing, which is managed within existing budgets. This report seeks additionality to the current capital programme.

1.3  Fully approve total budget uplift of £1,025,000.

The Head of Audit and Assurance presented the report and drew attention to the performance dashboard on agenda page 70. Members noted that only 32% of the plan was substantially complete at the half-way point of the year and the reasons given for this in paragraph 4.2.2 of the report.

A Member noted the reference in paragraph 4.2.4 to assistance obtained from Devon Audit Partnership to help manage the shortfall of available audit days because of a staff vacancy and asked whether there was progress to formalising a working relationship between the Devon Partnership and One West. The Head of One West explained that there was a memorandum of understanding between the two partnerships, which facilitated the sharing of resources. There was also an exchange of best practice and audit methodologies. There were ongoing discussions about recruitment options for the future to maximise efficiencies.

A Member noted that the Committee had been promised a presentation on risks to contracted-out services in the wake of the collapse of Carillion. The Head of One West replied that on company vetting and contract monitoring would be given at the next meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED to note the progress made against the Internal Audit Plan for 2018/19.

The Interim Director – Finance presented the report.

The average rate of return on investments for 2018/19 was detailed in Appendix 3.

The Council’s Capital Financing Requirement at 31^st March 2018 was £247.1m with a projected total of £434m by the end of 2018/19 based on the capital programme approved at February 2018 Council. Cash balances are being used to finance capital spending in preference to borrowing. This makes sense while interest rates on cash on deposit are so low. Appendix 6 shows that there was a favourable variance in relation to capital financing April-September.

In response to questions from Members the Interim Director – Finance stated:

·  The Central Library refurbishment was still in the capital programme, though the project was on hold and was being reviewed.

·  The cost of repaying or rescheduling loans whose interest rates had reverted to the variable rate of 4.5% was currently greater than the cost of continuing with them.

·  The period up to Brexit and beyond could well be turbulent. The Council will monitor developments and changes in interest rates with advice from Arlingclose and seek to diversify its borrowing and to borrow at the lowest rates available.

A Member noted that the Bank of England’s response to the result of the European Referendum had been to reduce base rates; he suggested that this might happen after Brexit and might provide the Council with an opportunity to reschedule its loans at a low cost The Interim Director – Finance assured the Member that the Finance team were monitoring developments closely. The aim was always to borrow at the most advantageous rate possible.

RESOLVED to note:

1.  the Treasury Management Report to 30^th September 2018, prepared in accordance with the CIPFA Treasury Code of Practice;

2.  the Treasury Management Indicators to 30^th September 2018.

In line with DFE guidance amendments are to be made to the funding formula that supports the distribution of resources to schools.

The Cabinet Member agrees that:

A) The minimum per pupil funding level for secondary schools will increase to £4,800 and the minimum per pupil funding level for primary schools will increase to £3,500. The DFE have also introduced a new minimum level of £5,100 for KS4 only schools.

This means that those schools that will receive a minimum per pupil funding allocation less than these levels under a fully implemented NFF would have their minimum per pupil funding brought up to these levels in 2019-20. However, as the DFE have capped NFF allocations to the LA, the total funding allocated does not fully support these suggested minimum per pupil funding values. It is therefore anticipated that the minimum per pupil funding values used in our local formula will need to be scaled back to avoid any overspend in the schools block funding allocated to the LA.

B) The DFE will introduce a new funding floor factor to enable local authorities to reflect the NFF calculation of a minimum overall 1% per pupil increase in per pupil funding in 2019-20 compared to the 2017-18 per pupil funding baselines provided by the DFE. This effectively overrides the MFG.

The Minimum per pupil Funding guarantee (MFG) in the local formula for 2019-20 will be over written by the introduction of a funding floor factor above.

Local authorities will however continue to have the flexibility to set a local MFG between minus 1.5% and plus 0.5% per pupil for 2019-20.

The LA are proposing an MFG of a 0% change in pupil funding in 2019-20 compared to 2018-19 in view of the introduction of the new funding floor factor.

C) The DFE have enabled local authorities to mirror the sparsity taper in local formula that has been used in the NFF funding formula calculations. The LA believe this should be followed to maintain the integrity of the Local Formula in line with the NFF

D) Local authorities will no longer be able to set a primary weighting for low prior attainment because all results will have been assessed under the new framework and there is therefore no longer a need to use a weighting. The DFE have also have reduced the primary low prior attainment NFF factor value to £1,022 to balance the increase in the cohort.

E) The DFE will allow Local authorities to set a cap on gains so that schools gain the greater of either 3% of their 2018 to 2019 baseline, or 20% of their remaining gains. The LA is proposing to remove the cap on gains for 2019-20 to allow the funds available to flow through to schools during the transition to the NFF.

F) The English as an additional language (EAL) factor is allocated for pupils identified in the October census with a first language other than English for up to three years after they enter the statutory school system.

Local authorities can choose to use indicators based on one, two, or three years, and there can be separate unit values for primary and secondary

B&NES has used the indicator based on one year and propose to change this to the indicator based on three years as the DFE have used this indicator in the national funding formula.