Agenda item

BUDGET UPDATE (VERBAL UPDATE)

Minutes:

The Deputy Chief Executive provided the Committee with an update on work being undertaken across the Education, Care and Health Services Department to address the budget overspend for Care Services Portfolio for 2017/18.

 

The Deputy Chief Executive reminded the Committee that at its meeting on 4th July 2017, Members were advised that the Care Services Portfolio was overspent by £978,000 and that this was projected to have a full year effect of £3,127,000 unless further management action was taken.  At that time the Committee gave a mandate to Officers to work to bring the overspend down.  The Deputy Chief Executive highlighted that Officers within the Department were working within the context of the pressure of an additional £1.5 million efficiency target and the Head of ECHS Finance confirmed that efficiency savings had been profiled throughout the year.

 

The Deputy Chief Executive explained that regular internal budget meetings were held and an action plan with 14 key actions had been developed in order to manage the overspend.  Time had been spent reviewing processes for areas such has hospital discharge and care pathways.  Two budget meetings had now taken place and at these meetings there had been detailed scrutiny of the budget.  Some progress in terms of reducing the overspend was now being seen. 

 

The Head of ECHS Finance explained that due to the way budget monitoring was now resourced, budget monitoring reports were provided to the Council’s Executive on a quarterly basis, although more regular internal budget monitoring was undertaken within the Department.  Through these budget monitoring process management actions had been put in place and a firmer view of the impact of this action could be made following the next formal budget monitoring report in October 2017.

 

The Deputy Chief Executive highlighted that Care Services were demand-led and that it was impossible to predict what the winter months would bring in terms of the level of demand placed on services.  However, the Deputy Chief Executive confirmed that he now felt far more comfortable with the processes and scrutiny that had now been put in place to manage any budget pressures and that action plan had been put in place to deliver savings of £1.2 million.  In response to a question surrounding one-off Government grants, the Deputy Chief Executive stressed the importance of ensuring that where one-off injections of funding were received from Government the funding was targeted at the intended recipients.

 

A Member expressed concern that it had not been possible for the Committee to have been provided with a headline budget position for July 2017 as Members needed assurances that the overspend was reducing.  The Head of ECHS Finance explained that there was not the resources to undertake full monthly budget monitoring and following a review of the Finance division reporting to PDS Committees and the Council’s Executive was not as regular as in the past.  Current internal processes for budget monitoring included scrutiny of ‘hotspots’ such as adult social care.  The Deputy Chief Executive reported that he also received a detailed monthly budget update although this was not a ‘formal’ budget monitoring report.

 

The Committee recognised that a reduction in the frequency of budget monitoring was a consequence of past budgetary decisions that had been taken by Members.  Members felt that it was important that Officers provided feedback in relation to whether expectations for savings were reasonable and it was suggested that it may be beneficial for the Committee to be provided with information concerning whether savings targets were realistic and the impact that any agreed savings had on the delivery of service.

 

A Member suggested that there needed to be a review of the resourcing for monthly monitoring of the Care Services Portfolio budget.  Following discussion it was proposed by Councillor Jeffreys, seconded by Councillor Onslow and agreed that the Care Services PDS Committee should formally receive monthly dashboard budget monitoring reports.

 

RESOLVED that:

 

1)  The update be noted; and,

 

2)  That the Care Services PDS Committee receive monthly dashboard budget monitoring reports