Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Members.

Apologies were received from Cllrs M Iyengar, P Miles and C Rigby.

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications. 

Notice had been received from the relevant Group Leaders (or nominated representatives) of the following changes in membership for this meeting:

Cllr L Northover substituting for Cllr C Rigby

Cllr M White substituting for Cllr M Iyengar

Councillors are required to comply with the requirements of the Localism Act 2011 and the Council's Code of Conduct regarding Disclosable Pecuniary Interests.

Councillors are also required to disclose any other interests where a Councillor is a member of an external body or organisation where that membership involves a position of control or significant influence, including bodies to which the Council has made the appointment in line with the Council's Code of Conduct.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

None

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution. Further information on the requirements for submitting these is available to view at the following link:-

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/documents/s2305/Public%20Items%20-%20Meeting%20Procedure%20Rules.pdf 

The deadline for the submission of public questions is Monday 6 January 2020.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is 12.00 noon, Friday 10 January 2020.

The deadline for the submission of a petition is 12.00 noon, Friday 10 January 2020..

No pubic statements or petitions were received.

One public question was submitted by Mr John Sprackling. This was received after the published deadline for questions, with the Chairman’s consent it was agreed that the question would be put during consideration of the relevant section of the Budget Scrutiny item. The question referred to item 40 of the report, attached at Appendix ‘A’ to these minutes and was put as follows:

Is this is related to Note 12 of the Accounts for Seascape South Ltd for the year to 31 March 2019 posted on the Companies House website on 27/12/19 which reads...

12. Directors & Employees The Company does not employ any staff direct but seconds labour from the BCP Council. Total seconded labour costs for the year were £175,000 (2018: £196,000).

The number of staff as a full-time equivalent were:

                       2019  2018 

Operations      2.3     2.9 

Administrative 0.0     0.0 

Total                2.3     2.9  

Further to the O&S Board meeting of 18 December at which budget scrutiny took place, to consider an update report which provides detail and risk analysis on the savings and efficiencies identified to date, and as outlined in Figure 1 of the 20 December Medium Term Financial Plan Cabinet report for the following areas:

·         Adult Social Care

·         Children’s Services

·         Regeneration and Economy

·         Environment and Community

·         Corporate Services

All Cabinet members are invited to attend to update on savings in the above areas as appropriate.

The Chairman of the O&S Board has requested a written report on the above, which is expected to follow this agenda.

The Chief Executive made a statement advising the Board that some issues were still under negotiation and therefore needed to be treated as non-public at this time.

The Chairman reminded the Board of its decision at the last meeting to request further detail and a risk analysis of the savings and efficiencies identified. An outline of this information had been circulated to the Board prior to the meeting. The Portfolio Holder for Finance introduced the report and advised that the numbers in the current report and that provided to the Board in December would not match as changes to savings had been made in the intervening period. The Portfolio Holder also thanked the finance team for providing the breakdown of the savings information.

Assumed savings - A member of the Board questioned the deliverability of savings which were amber rated and commented that they would have preferred more detail in order to be assured that the savings were deliverable. The Portfolio Holder advised that the report format was historical in terms of the level of detail and the other Cabinet members were in attendance to provide more detail if required. It was noted that the Amber ratings could encompass a wide spectrum and were an indication that action was ongoing but not yet completed.

In response to a question the Portfolio Holder advised that he felt the figures within the report were currently the best that could be prudently provided and were sufficient to deliver required savings and provide a balanced budget.

The Board noted that LGR forecast savings of approximately £44m and the current savings were significantly less than this. The Portfolio Holder advised that BCP had driven out savings of approximately £19.5m from the current year and further detailed savings were contained within the report. A similar number would be driven through transformation savings.

In response to a question the Portfolio Holder gave assurance that the figures provided to the meeting were in line with those already reported within previous papers, it was noted that transformation savings would form part of the 2021/22 budget.

Resources – The leader advised that the amber at line 2 referred to duplicate contracts which were due to finish at the end of the year and minor staffing changes.

Children’s – The Portfolio Holder provided the Board with further detail on the staffing savings which was at amber, this included savings from residual Dorset County Council Posts and service redesigns. The Board questioned the difference between the savings figure provided in December and the current figures, it was explained that the December figure reflected budget pressures from preceding councils which didn’t materialise. In response to a question on the High Needs Block of the Dedicated Schools Grant the Portfolio Holder advised that it didn’t fall within this process but would be considered by the Schools Forum that week. Work was also ongoing with the Department for Education to address this.

Adult Social Care – In response to a question the Portfolio Holder for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 98.