Agenda item

Revenue & Capital Monitoring Quarter 3

Report of the Director of Finance and Assurance.

Minutes:

The Sub-Committee received a report of the Director of Finance and Assurance, which had been previously considered at Cabinet on 13 February 2014.   The report set out the Council’s revenue and capital monitoring position for Quarter 3 as at 31 December 2014.

 

The Director stated that there was an overall forecast overspend in each of the Directorates amounting to £1.903m and this figure had increased by £0.02m since Quarter 2.  Directorates were facing challenging times and were continuing to take action to mitigate these pressures, which were monitored and reported in a timely way.

 

A Member asked whether the Department for Education (DfE) took into account the increase in pupil numbers and increase in pupils with special needs, when allocating schools funding.  The Director of Finance and Assurance advised that the Schools Revenue Funding Settlement from the DfE did take into account the numbers of pupils and provided additional funding to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils.

 

The Member queried the £0.115m legacy of outstanding debts from the CCG.  The Director stated that the Council would continue to negotiate for the settlement of these outstanding debts.

 

A Member queried the £3.268m carry-forward figure.  The Director advised that any under spends on revenue budgets could be designated as reserve funds and carried forward with the agreement of the relevant Portfolio Holder.  He added that the under spend had been identified at the 2012/13 year-end, which was after the budget setting process.

 

The Member also queried the figures relating to bad debt provisions.  The Director stated that these figures had remained consistent for a number of years and that some debts might not be written off at the end of the year.  The figures included provision for items such as employee claims, insurance and legal costs.

 

A Member asked whether anticipated parking income, which was projected to be £1.3m by the end of 2014 was still on track.  The Director undertook to check current figures and to forward the information to the Sub-Committee. The Member also queried the increase in the costs of administering an additional 20,000 Penalty Charge Notices (PCNs) and under achieved summons income due to fewer summonses being issued.  The Director advised that no virement had been done in this case. 

 

The Member queried the £0.5m figure which had not yet been built into the forecast, arising from cases referred on to Adult Services from the CCG.  The Director advised that half of these cases were historical cases of continuing care.  The Health and Wellbeing Board was looking at what proportion of the CCG’s funding should be apportioned to the Council.  There would need to be further discussions regarding how best to use funds in the Business Risk Reserve to offset this.

 

A Member queried the forecast overspend in the Library and Leisure Services.  The Director stated that the figures related to the period prior to the implementation of the joint Libraries and Leisure Contract.

 

A Member stated that, at a previous meeting, he had queried the budget overspend in the Mayoralty and asked to know the current position regarding this.  The Director advised that it was his understanding that the Mayor’s engagement events were not easily predictable as the Mayoralty had to be responsive to requests from the public.  However, the recent implementation of a civic calendar of events for the Mayor would help reduce costs.

 

The Chair queried the speed at which savings had been made in the Supporting People service.  She also queried the adverse variance in the figures relating to Public Health.  The Director stated that the health budget was ring-fenced but that the Council had inherited a complicated contract from the NHS and most London authorities were in a similar position.  He undertook to circulate further details regarding the early savings in the Supporting People service to the Sub-Committee.

 

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Supporting documents: