Agenda item

Noted:

(a)  That the provisional revenue outturn for 2015-16 was an over spend of £39K, maintaining General Fund balances at £8.1M. 

(b)  That the provisional capital outturn was expenditure of £44.70m against the capital programme of £76.90m, with £22.0m reprofiled into the 2016-17 financial year.

(c)  That within the Council’s balanced scorecard, 42.9% of indicators were green, 15.4% were red and 17.6% were amber.  The remaining 22 indicators were recorded either as

·  N/A 20.9% - not applicable because

·  It was a volume indicator only;

·  the indicator was to be updated later in the year

·  the value which SBC cannot seek to directly influence or because the issue is complex

·  Unassigned (3.3%) – this relates to the 3 children social care indicators where a RAG status was currently unassigned

(d)  That of the 8 Gold projects as of the end of March 2016; one had been assessed as “Green”, six as “Amber” and one as “Red”.

(e)  That of the eight highlight 5YP outcome reports which had been RAG-rated as at March 2016, the overall status of three had been assessed at ‘Green’, three at ‘Amber’, one at ‘Amber/Green’ and one unassigned.

Approved:

(f)  The revised 2015-16 capital programme to take account of re-profiling of previously approved 2015-16 projects into the 2016-17 programme.

(g)  That an increase of £700k in the ERP capital scheme be approved.

(h)  The revenue carry forwards included within the 2015/16 outturn.

(i)  The Virements and write-offs detailed within the report.

(j)  The introduction of a new £5000.00 fixed penalty charge in relation to the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015; and give delegated authority to the Housing Regulation Team’s Officers to enforce the policy under the powers of the Regulations 2015 in accordance with the Statement of Principles.

The Assistant Director Finance & Audit introduced a report that provided the Cabinet with the provisional financial outturn information for 2015-16 and a summary of the Council’s performance against balanced scorecard indicators, Five Year Plan outcomes and ‘Gold’ projects.

The provisional revenue outturn for the financial year was an overspend of £41k (revised from the £39k stated in the published report), maintaining the General Fund balances at £8.1m.  This was a significant improvement on the in year position reported previously to the Cabinet and reflected the significant work undertaken to contain the financial pressures and deliver the planned budget.  The capital outturn was £44.7m against the programme of £76.9m with £22m agreed to be re-profiled into the 2016-17 financial year.  The provisional outturn in terms of the Housing Revenue Account, savings and performance measures were noted.

The Cabinet welcomed the fact that the overall revenue outturn had been brought back into line with budget despite the challenging financial climate for the Council.  Commissioners asked about the write offs totalling £1.6m; and the potential impact that Brexit could have on future Business Rates and the robustness of capital schemes.  It was responded that provision had been made for write offs and there were therefore no wider budget impact in approving the write off requests in paragraph 11.1 of the report.  The impact of Brexit on local businesses was uncertain and Business Rates revenues would be closely monitored and factored into future budget decisions.  Business cases for capital projects took a long term view about the viability of investment and the strategy aimed to use capital to generate revenue and contribute to savings.

(Councillor Sharif joined the meeting)

Members speaking under Rule 30 raised a number of issues which are summarised as follows:

·  In view of the ‘red’ status of Outcome 5 of the Five Year Plan relating children and young people’s services, Councillor Pantelic asked about the position regarding the joint improvement plan between the Council and Trust.  The Interim Director of Children’s Services stated that the Ofsted deadline for agreeing the plan was 30^th June and she was confident that this deadline would be met.

·  Councillors Pantelic, Swindlehurst and Anderson asked a number of questions about the plans in place to address the overspend in Adult Social Care of £600k and the impact of overspends in the Wellbeing directorate on other areas of the Council.  The Commissioner for Health & Social Care responded that an ambitious transformation programme was in place, the scale of which meant some slippage in delivering savings was likely, particularly as a cautious approach was being taken when reconfiguring services to ensure they met the needs of vulnerable people.  The deliverability of savings elsewhere in the Wellbeing budget had been affected by the transfer of funding to Slough Children’s Services Trust and, where appropriate, savings had been re-profiled into 2016-17.

·  Councillor Anderson asked about the position regarding reserves.  The General Fund reserve was £8.1m and the minimum level was £7.3m, noting that significant financial pressures and volatility meant it would be prudent to retain a reserve above the minimum level.  Councillor Anderson asked why the Cabinet was not considering a report to utilise a large proportion of these reserves for the provision of a temporary ice facility to accommodate users most affected by the nine-month closure for refurbishment.  The background to this matter was discussed, and it was stated that there was no decision currently required to be taken by the Cabinet, however, the Council was still exploring the practical measures to support users during the period of closure and any proposals would be put to Members at the appropriate time.

The Cabinet noted the financial and performance outturn for 2015-16 and agreed the various recommendations relating to the capital programme, write offs, virements and fees and charges.

It was noted that this would be the last Cabinet meeting attended by the Assistant Director Finance & Audit.  Members thanked Mr Holmes for his work for the Council and wished him well in his new role.

Resolved –

The Cabinet noted:

(a)  That the provisional revenue outturn for 2015-16 was an over spend of £41K, maintaining General Fund balances at £8.1M. 

(b)  That the provisional capital outturn was expenditure of £44.70m against the capital programme of £76.90m, with £22.0m re-profiled into the 2016-17 financial year.

(c)  That within the Council’s balanced scorecard, 42.9% of indicators were green, 15.4% were red and 17.6% were amber.  The remaining 22 indicators were recorded either as

·  N/A 20.9% - not applicable because

·  It was a volume indicator only;

·  the indicator was to be updated later in the year

·  the value which SBC cannot seek to directly influence or because the issue is complex

·  Unassigned (3.3%) – this relates to the 3 children social care indicators where a RAG status was currently unassigned

(d)  That of the 8 Gold projects as of the end of March 2016; one had been assessed as “Green”, six as “Amber” and one as “Red”.

(e)  That of the eight highlight 5YP outcome reports which had been RAG-rated as at March 2016, the overall status of three had been assessed at ‘Green’, three at ‘Amber’, one at ‘Amber/Green’ and one unassigned.

The Cabinet agreed:

(f)  The revised 2015-16 capital programme to take account of re-profiling of previously approved 2015-16 projects into the 2016-17 programme.

(g)  That an increase of £700k in the ERP capital scheme be approved.

(h)  The revenue carry forwards included within the 2015/16 outturn.

(i)  The Virements and write-offs detailed within the report.

(j)  The introduction of a new £5000.00 fixed penalty charge in relation to the Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarm (England) Regulations 2015; and delegated authority was given to the Housing Regulation Team’s Officers to enforce the policy under the powers of the 2015 Regulations in accordance with the Statement of Principles.