CABINET
MONDAY 16 MARCH 2009 AT 2.00 PM / Agenda Item No:
12
COUNTY COUNCIL REVENUE AND CAPITAL BUDGET MONITOR 2008/09
Report of the Director of Finance, Information and Commercial Services
Author: Lorraine Allen, Group Manager, Financial Planning & Strategy Tel: 01992 555313
Executive Member: David Lloyd
1. Purpose of the Report
1.1 To inform Cabinet of the projected outturn for Revenue and Capital Budgets in respect of 2008/09.
2. Summary
2.1 The monitoring position at the end of December 2008 shows a revenue underspend of £0.335m (0.05 %) against the latest approved budget of £617.831 million. At the end of December the balance remaining in contingency / special provision stands at £11.779m.
2.2 The principal reasons for the variation in the forecast revenue outturn are listed in Table 2 (Para 1.2), whilst a summary analysis across service is shown in Appendix A.
2.3 Table 5 (Para 4.1) and Appendix B provide an analysis of the projected capital underspend of £42.95m.
2.4 The reported 2008/09 prudential indicators are included as Appendix C.
3. Recommendations
There are no virement requests contained in this report. Cabinet is asked to consider any recommendations from the Policy and Resources Cabinet Panel and note the projected outturn for Revenue and Capital Budgets in respect of 2008/09.
1. REVENUE BUDGET VARIANCES
1.1 Table 1 below summarises the variances by service using the criteria previously laid down in Financial Regulations 2000.
Table 1: Budget Variances 2008/09
Overspends / PlannedUnder-
Spends / Unplanned Under-spends / Net Variances
£000 / £000 / £000 / £000
CSF Education Non-Schools / 496 / (728) / (232)
CSF Children’s Services / 2,935 / (1,994) / (480) / 461
CSF Cultural Services / (200) / (200)
Adult Care Services / 3,193 / (2,390) / (737) / 66
Environment / 2,300 / (700) / 1,600
Fire & Rescue / 274 / 274
Trading Standards / (25) / (25)
Emergency Planning / 0
Coroners / 0
Registration / 0
Resources Portfolio (Corporate) / 85 / 85
Central Items / (2364) / (2364)
Totals at 30/09/08 / 9,283 / (5,337) / (4,281) / (335)
1.2 The following table shows those variances of £75,000 or more against the latest budget. Detailed explanations for these variances are listed in sections 1.3 to 1.7.
Table 2: Variances Exceeding £75,000
Service / Description / ParaRef. / Forecast
Over/ (Under spend)
£000
CSF / Unaccompanied Asylum Seekers / 1.3.1 / (130)
Music schools tuition / 1.3.2 / (200)
SEN home to school transport / 1.3.3 / 71
SEN teams / 1.3.4 / 185
Disabled children’s services / 1.3.5 / (757)
Children with disabilities residential homes / 1.3.6 / 356
Mainstream home to school transport / 1.3.7 / (528)
Attendance & Pupil Support / 1.3.8 / 138
Children Looked After / S17 transport / 1.3.9 / (65)
Contact with Children Looked After / S17 children / 1.3.10 / 780
Social Care area pay & non pay / 1.3.11 / 917
Independent placements (social care) / 1.3.12 / 119
Adoption service / 1.3.13 / 238
Fostering / 1.3.14 / (1,051)
Supported lodgings / 1.3.15 / (80)
Leaving Care Housing / 1.3.16 / (392)
Family Placement teams / 1.3.17 / 183
Childcare litigation: SLA / 1.3.18 / 338
Childcare litigation: legal fees / 1.3.19 / 25
CSF learning & development / 1.3.20 / 52
Libraries pay / 1.3.21 / (200)
Adult Care Services / Net purchasing budget for older people / 1.4.1 / (2,140)
Purchasing budgets for people with a learning disability / 1.4.2 / 2,553
Non-Residential Charging (Income) / 1.4.3 / 0
In House services / 1.4.4 / 230
Purchasing budgets for people with a physical disability / 1.4.5 / 280
Staffing budgets for Area Teams / 1.4.6 / (540)
Strategic Centre and Support Services / 1.4.7 / (250)
In House Day Residential and Day Care services / 1.4.8 / 130
Environment / Structural Maintenance / 1.5.1 / 200
Routine Maintenance / 1.5.2 / 400
Winter Maintenance / 1.5.3 / 600
Lighting / 1.5.4 / 800
Traffic Management and Safety / 1.5.5 / (100)
Passenger Transport / 1.5.6 / (600)
Transport Planning Policy and Strategy / 1.5.7 / 100
Strategy & Planning / 1.5.8 / 0
Waste Management / 1.5.9 / 150
Fire & Rescue / Firefighter Pay / 1.6.1 / 75
Fuel Costs / 1.6.2 / 199
Central Items / Capital Financing/Interest on Balances / 1.7.1 / (2,300)
Forecast Underspend >£75K Variances / (214)
All Services
/ < £75k Variances / (121)/
Total Forecast Underspend
/ (335)1.3 CHILDREN, SCHOOLS & FAMILIES (CSF)
1.3.1 Unaccompanied asylum seekers - £130,000 additional income not budgeted for
As previously reported, the transfer of responsibility for unaccompanied asylum seekers grant from the Home Office to the UK Border Agency means that information on expected payments will be available earlier in future and will be accounted for in-year. There are arrears of £94,000 from the Home Office which relate to 2007/08 claims only agreed earlier this year that will be accounted for in this financial year, along with the 2008/09 grant, resulting in a one-off underspend. In addition, due to various successful challenges, MECSS is likely to get another £36,000 more in relation to 2007/08 than was estimated at year-end.
1.3.2 Music Schools Tuition - £200,000 or 13.3% planned underspend
As previously reported, a saving of £200,000 will be achieved this year by
· Careful management of the salaried team;
· A review of management responsibilities;
· A review of Leadership and Administration vacancies; and
· Piloting of new administrative processes from September.
This is an on-going saving and has been reflected in the preparation of the 2009/10 budget.
1.3.3 SEN Home to school transport – £71,000 or 1.2% overspend
This budget was previously projected to underspend by £100,000, reflecting savings arising from replanning and rationalisation of routes in the areas reviewed. In the early part of the year the risk that the reviews during the rest of the year would not deliver all of the assumed savings was also reported and the revised projection now reflects the outcome of these reviews.
1.3.4 SEN Service - £185,000 or 16.1% overspend
As previously reported, the SEN Service has needed to employ consultants on a temporary basis (pending appointments now made following its structural review) in order to maintain the delivery of a very complex statutory function of the Local Authority. In addition a consultant is providing maternity cover for a key post.
Although these may be regarded as one-off circumstances, at the same time the number of appeals occurring within the service has been increasing over the last 2 years, with an increase in complexity. The service has been handling this increased activity through increased workloads for existing staff and the use of outside consultants.
1.3.5 Disabled children’s services - £757,000 or 12.2% underspend
Planned £407,000; unplanned £350,000.
There are a number of reasons underlying the projected underspend as follows:
· £350,000 is due to the accrual of expenditure at the close of the previous financial year, which has not materialised. This is a one-off item and will not be on-going;
· Management action in setting up the Complex Care and Equity Panels has resulted in improved control of expenditure, including increased financial contributions towards the care packages from the Primary Care Trust; and
· The recently completed financial review of up to 1,100 individual care packages has established the true current number and cost of packages which has brought down the projected expenditure.
Overall, as financial and management scrutiny has increased, so the projected outturn begins to show a clearer picture.
1.3.6 Children with disabilities residential homes - £356,000 or 19.1% overspend
As previously reported, savings built into these budgets for 2007/08 onwards will not be achieved this financial year. £267,000 of the projected 2008/09 overspend of £356,000 relates to this.
The review of residential services commissioned in October 2007 to consider how services should be delivered in the future meant that the achievement of efficiencies from re-commissioning was pushed back.
As previously reported, the remainder of the projected overspend is due to the cost of additional staffing required to cover for a number of long term staff absences, including maternity leave and long term sickness, as well as the cost of covering any vacancies by more expensive agency staff pending the outcome of the review. The resolution of a number of staffing issues means that the projected overspend has decreased by £61,000 in the last quarter.
1.3.7 Mainstream home to school transport - £528,000 or 5.3% planned underspend
An expected underspend of £400,000 on home to school transport was previously reported, due to a combination of
· The full year effect of savings generated from area reviews in 2007/08;
· The number of pupils entitled to free transport declining in the autumn term; and
· In addition to these, the on-going cost of extended rights for free transport is less than anticipated.
The underspend is now projected to be £528,000. This is due largely to
· Income from assisted places continuing to exceed expectations - £37,000; and
· A fall in the number of bus passes issued (2,252 at the end of the autumn term compared with 2,464 at the end of the summer term) - £77,000.
1.3.8 Attendance & Pupil Support - £138,000 or 12.3% overspend
The Attendance & Pupil Support service has been the focus of a range of efficiencies over the last few years and has a budget significantly below that of comparative authorities. However, a recent review of the statutory duties concluded that the Authority was at risk of not meeting the minimum standards. The previously reported overspend reflected the level of Education Welfare staffing that is required. This budget pressure has been reflected in the 2009/10 budget. This latest outturn prediction now also incorporates an underspend on the pupil support workers budget, which is carrying a number of vacancies.
1.3.9 Transport for Children Looked After / Section 17 - £65,000 or 5.0% planned underspend
As previously reported, these budgets are projected to underspend in the current year as the number of families receiving regular school transport has reduced from last year, through a combination of management action and fewer care proceedings.
1.3.10 Children Looked After, Section 17 and Contact – £780,000 or 35.3% overspend
These budgets are shown together as they currently each contain an element of contact expenditure. The collective projection across these budgets, as previously reported in previous months, is an overspend of £780,000. This overspend comprises two elements:
· £550,000 reflects the level of sessional contact spend via Manpower whilst recruiting to the in-house service. Once the service is fully recruited to we will see a significant reduction in spend. These budgets will be restructured in the next financial year so that the Contact service is shown as a discrete budget area;
· £230,000 relates to the implementation of the Public Law Outline in April 2008. This means that assessments and tests of parents and their children are now required prior to issuing care proceedings, with the cost met solely by CSF, when previously they would have taken place during care proceedings, when the costs could be met via legal aid or split with other agencies. Although this change in the law was known, October was the first month in which we were required to meet such costs. The £230,000 is in respect of just 9 families. There is a risk that the council will be required to fund more assessments during the remainder of the year, but it is impossible to tell how many and at what cost. Provision has not been made in the forecast for any further such assessments.
1.3.11 Social Care Area Pay and Non Pay - £917,000 or 5.0% overspend
The projected overspend in this area has reduced by £630,000 in the last quarter, for a variety of reasons:
As previously reported, it has been necessary to employ a number of “superusers” to help support the implementation of the new ICS system across the social care and disability teams. Due to vacancies held in both superuser and the administrative staff budgets, whilst the support service review continues, the underspend on the administrative budget can now absorb fully the additional cost of the superusers. This has reduced the overall overspend by £179,000. The pressure caused by the requirement for superusers for another two years has been reflected in the 2009/10 budget.
· It as been possible to operate with a certain number of vacancies within client services / EDTs, and this has reduced the overspend by a further £95,000.
· Since the last monitor report confirmation has been received that £200,000 of expenditure relating to relocating teams to the new offices at Stevenage will be met from the “The Way We Work” budget, which has brought down the projected overspend on the pay budget by a further £200,000.
There is now a predicted overspend of £100,000 on non-pay budgets.
As previously reported, the remainder of the overspend is due to the use of agency social workers covering for vacancies and other absences in Fieldwork teams. it is not possible to release agency staff leaving social work posts uncovered, as this would reduce capacity to a critical level. This would create a situation where a safe service could not be provided to children. Additional risks associated with leaving social work posts vacant include a rising number of children whose needs escalate to the point where they need to be looked after, leading to additional associated expenditure.
Qualified social work vacancies are reducing and the level of overspend previously predicted included savings identified and where possible the conversion of agency posts to permanent appointments. The previous prediction made assumptions about staff turnover and agency levels for the periods October to December and January to March. The actual level of need for agency staff during October to December has now been confirmed as lower than had been forecast. This combined with reduced assumptions for the remainder of the year now mean that the predicted overspend in Fieldwork teams has reduced by £256,000.