Agenda item - Quarter Two Budget Monitoring Report 2019/20

This report presents the council’s performance against budget for the period 1 April 2019 to 30 September 2019.

In summary, the general fund revenue projected outturn for 2019/20 is a pressure within services net expenditure of £4.5m(compared with £5m previously reported based on the activity of the first quarter).

These pressures can be met from the additional resources (£2.5m revenue budget contingency and £6.5m service-specific Financial Resilience earmarked reserves) set aside to manage the additional level of uncertainty in this first year of the new council.

At this stage the potential use of some of these additional resources is shown within the forecast. The Corporate Directors have provided reports, at appendices C to F, detailing the service pressures and actions they propose in mitigation. These action plans are still in the early stages and a formal application of the additional resources is not considered appropriate until they have had a chance to mature.

This approach could eventually release resources to support the 2020/21 Budget Strategy or Council priorities. However, it should be recognised that at this point the Council retains the operational risk in respect of two remaining quarters in the financial year.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:-

(a) approves the actions set out in paragraphs 89 and 90;

(b) approves the capital adjustments set out in paragraphs 69 and 70;

(c) notes the reports contents and the projected outturn position;

(d) notes the reports from the Corporate Directors;

(e) notes the forecast year end outturn positions for capital, reserves and Housing Revenue Account neighbourhood accounts;

(f) requests that the Corporate Director for Children’s Services sets out in the 2019/20 Budget Monitoring report for the third quarter the budget variances within the directorate and the actions being taken to bring the budget into balance. This includes variances within the High Needs Block of the Dedicated Schools Grant and the actions being taken to address his deficit.

RECOMMENDED that Cabinet recommend that Council approves the capital budget adjustment set out in paragraph 72.

Voting: Unanimous

Portfolio Holder: Finance

REASONS

To comply with the draft CIPFA Financial Management Code of practice.

To facilitate the implementation of a strong and active culture of financial management within the BCP Council by identifying when prompt management intervention and action is needed to avoid an adverse impact on future service delivery or the achievement of future corporate objectives.

All Corporate and Service Directors have confirmed their acknowledgement of the issue raised.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each Member and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'E' to these Minutes in the Minute Book.

Cabinet were advised of the council’s performance against budget for the period 1 April 2019 to 30 September 2019.

In presenting the report the Portfolio Holder for Finance advised that following the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting and conversations with the Portfolio Holder for Children and Families that he wished to propose an additional recommendation at (f) to read:

“requests that the Corporate Director for Children’s Services sets out in the 2019/20 Budget Monitoring report for the third quarter the budget variances within the directorate and the actions being taken to bring the budget into balance. This includes variances within the High Needs Block of the Dedicated Schools Grant and the actions being taken to address this deficit”.

The Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Board addressed Cabinet and advised that the additional recommendation was welcomed, and that at the Boards recent meeting that had been an area of particular concern. In addition the Chairman of the Board advised that concerns had been expressed with regards to paragraph 23 of the report relating to CIL and the administration of receipts and that this had been explained by the s151 officer, and paragraph 26 which highlighted the pressure relating to the seafront. In relation to this the Chairman did however highlight that it was very positive that the investments were performing better than expected.

In relation to the comments of the Overview and Scrutiny Board the Portfolio Holder for Finance advised that it is allowable to use some of the CIL money towards the administration of the process, which can sometimes be quite a burden to pursue legitimate money owed to the Council.

In relation to the comments of the Overview and Scrutiny Board in respect of the pressure relating to the seafront the Portfolio Holder for Tourism advised that this was mainly due to the commencement date of the Poole seafront development having now been moved to next year.

Further to the report Cabinet praised the work of the adult social care team with the tremendous amount of work they have had to carry out particularly in respect of the disaggregation with Dorset which has been a huge task for the directorate.