Issue - meetings

The Committee looked at the following reports on the Part 1 agenda for the Executive’s meeting on 11^th January 2017.

(5) Draft 2017/18 Budget and Update on the Council’s Financial Strategy 2018/19 to 2020/21

Report FSD17005

Members considered the initial draft Budget for 2017/18 with Report FSD17005 also including details of the second year of the four year local government financial settlement (2016/17 to 2019/20), an update on the new social care precept, other changes reflected in the Autumn Statement 2016, and the Provisional Local Government Financial Settlement 2017/18.

There continued to be outstanding issues and areas of uncertainty and any further updates would be included in the 2017/18 Council Tax report to the Executive meeting on 8^th February 2017. The report would also include comments on the draft budget from PDS Committees.

In considering risks it was noted that in addition to using savings and investment, New Homes Bonus funds and the Council’s Contingency had been used for the first time to support revenue. Containing costs also meant that the Council started from a low cost base. Increased inflation would present a significant risk in future as would any new Government burdens. However, there continued to be a significant level of contingency (albeit reduced) to deal with risks.

Reference was made to the Adult Social Care precept when setting the level of Council tax 2017/18 and savings of £1.5m per annum which can be expected from the forthcoming triennial valuation of the Council’s Pension Fund. The actuary had also confirmed the benefits of gifting the Mears scheme to the Pension Fund. On behalf of Members, the Chairman thanked the Director of Finance for hard work behind the scenes.

Concerning inflation and contract price increases, it was suggested that a number of contracts included inflation at unrealistic levels. Concern was also expressed that the Council’s Pension Fund was not fully funded and as such remained an outstanding debt for the Council.

RESOLVED that the report and recommendations to the Executive be noted.

(6)  Children's Services Improvement Plan Update and Phase Three Spending Plan

Report CS17089

An update was provided on progress with the Children’s Services Improvement Areas. This included advice that the new Deputy Chief Executive had reviewed the initial Phase 3 spending Plan and had re-profiled the resource requirements to be funded from the Phase 3 allocation. Accordingly, Report CS17089 sought Executive approval for £141k (part year 2016/17) and £795k (full year 2017/18) to be released based on the re-profiled requirements.

Providing laptops for children’s social care staff would also enable staff to remain in the field and reduce downtime returning to the office to access I.T. It was proposed to use one-off funding of £150k from the Council’s Technology Fund to purchase the laptops and other associated hardware.

After discussion, it was reported that the proposals in the report excludes the additional funding of £300k per annum requested as part of the original Phase 3 proposal. The original funding identified has  ...  view the full minutes text for item 397