Agenda item

That the savings set out in Appendix A of the report be included in the Revenue Budget 2014-15 to be approved by Council in February, subject to any further adjustments.

The Assistant Director Finance & Audit introduced a report which updated the Cabinet on the current position on the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) and requested approval for the second tranche of savings proposals that would support the 2014-15 Revenue Budget.

(Councillor Sharif joined the meeting)

The Cabinet were advised of the likely impacts of the Local Government Finance Settlement on the Council’s financial position and noted a number of other significant changes to assumptions in the MTFS model since the last report to Cabinet in November 2013.  These included an increase in the Council Tax base, Revenue Support Grant (assumption increased by £0.2m since the previous report) and a greater potential surplus on the Collection Fund.  However, the figure for retained Business Rates had decreased by circa £1m and this figure was volatile and would monitored closely.  Members commented on Table 1.1 on page 10 of the agenda which highlighted that the Revenue Support Grant would fall from £39.76m in 2013-14 to £23.20m in 2015-16 with further significant reductions anticipated in future years which had been built into the MTFS model.  The Cabinet discussed the challenges this would pose in terms of continuing to protect frontline services as far as possible, and Members commented that the bulk of savings agreed in recent years had been via ‘efficiency and transformation’, however these would become harder to find in the future.  Members also requested a comparator figure of the level of Revenue Support Grant funding since 2010.

(Councillor Parmar joined the meeting)

The Cabinet discussed the increased Directorate pressure in the Children’s social care budget.  The service had reviewed its financial pressures for the year ahead and resulted in a revised figure of £3.4m of additional cost for core budgets with an additional £2.4m to be made available, if required, from one-off funds.  Members were informed that the two elements of the growth item were Looked After Children (LAC) cost pressures and additional staffing costs.  The Council had seen an increase in LAC in recent years and this was expected to continue as Slough’s population was projected to rise.  The staffing cost growth aimed to reduce social workers case loads to an average of 16 and to improve the recruitment and retention of skilled staff.  The Cabinet welcomed the work that had been done to fully understand the growing pressures in Children’s services and recognised the importance of ensuring the appropriate resources were available to manage the increasing pressures on the service in a planned way.

The net impact of the growth pressures and changing MTFS assumptions was to increase the total savings requirement for 2014-15 by £1.2m to a total of £13.4m of which £9.1m had been approved by the Cabinet in November for recommendation to the Council.  Proposals for a second tranche of savings totalling £3m were included in Appendix A to the report.  Members discussed the detail of a number of specific savings proposals including the anticipated increased investment returns of £800k, subject to agreement of the Treasury Management Strategy, and withholding the inflation uplift for libraries.  In view of the growth pressures in Children’s Services arising from the anticipated demographic change in the borough, the Cabinet also considered the potential impact on other service areas such as Special Educational Needs provision.  Following due consideration, the Cabinet agreed to include the second tranche of proposed savings in the Revenue Budget 2014-15 that would be recommended to Council in February 2014.

Resolved –  That the savings set out in Appendix A of the report be included in the Revenue Budget 2014-15 to be approved by Council in February, subject to any further adjustments.