Invitees:

Cabinet and CMB

All Scrutiny Chairs

Randal Hemingway - Head of Finance and ICT

Deborah Exton, Group Manager Finance

Darren Mepham – Chief Executive

The Corporate Director Resources reported on an update on the Council’s financial position as at 31 December 2015.  She stated that the overall projected position as at 31 December 2015 was a net under spend of £1.165m.  She highlighted the status of the budget monitoring proposals which showed 76% of the proposals being green, nine proposals totalling £1.230m are currently red with nine proposals totalling £1.481m being amber. 

The Corporate Director Resources also reported on the monitoring of the capital programme which for 2015-16 totals £40.088m of which £24.794m is the Council’s resources with the remaining £15.294m coming from external grants.  She also informed the Committee on the review of earmarked reserves where Directorates had up until 15 December 2015 drawn down £288k of funding from their Directorate specific earmarked reserves and £940k from Corporate Reserves including the Major Claims Reserve and the Change Fund. 

The Committee expressed concern at the under spend of £218k in Schools Based SEN.  The Corporate Director Education and Transformation informed the Committee that the under spend had occurred as a result of the need to hold vacancies to meet the savings required in the MTFS.  She stated that difficulties had been encountered in recruiting one-to-one support for pupils.  She also stated that the Welsh Language Standards had introduced a requirement to employ Welsh speaking support staff and discussions had taken place with the Vale of Glamorgan, Cardiff, Merthyr Tydfil and RCT Councils in relation to having an arrangement for Welsh speaking support staff in an attempt to avoid a large turnover in staff. 

The Committee questioned whether the over spend of £142k in School Improvement related to one school.  The Corporate Director Education and Transformation informed the Committee additional funding had to be allocated to Coleg Cymunedol y Dderwen due to it being placed in special measures.  Funding had also been allocated to other schools in terms of capacity and leadership and an additional head teacher allocated to Cornelly primary to cover sickness.  Funding for School Improvement had been received from Schools Challenge and the Central South Consortium. 

The Committee expressed concern at the over spend of £170k on Home to School / College Transport and that the service should be placed in one Directorate and separate to the two existing Directorates to which the functions sat.  The Committee referred to recent communications received by parents in relation to their child’s eligibility to qualify for Home to School / College Transport only for it to be later withdrawn.  The Corporate Director Education and Transformation informed the Committee that the service had suffered a legacy of inconsistencies in management with some inconsistencies in the application of Home to School / College Transport which had affected approximately 150 pupils.  The Corporate Director Education and Transformation stated that the software package in use by the Transport Team had thrown up some anomalies.  The Corporate Director Education and Transformation commented on the difficulties that had been encountered in managing the service when the budget for the service is held in another Directorate.  She stated that she would be holding discussions shortly with the Corporate Director Communities and the two Heads of Service to resolve issues.    

The Committee questioned the reason for the over spend of £200k on fleet and whether it was attributed to the outsourcing of ground maintenance.  The Corporate Director communities informed the Committee that the savings on the fleet joint venture with the police had yet to be fully realised.  However there was a net saving of £132k on ground maintenance. 

In response to a question from the Committee the Corporate Director Social Services and Wellbeing stated that she would confirm the position on liability in the event of Halo litigating.

Conclusions

The Committee considered that a sufficient period of time had been provided to address the historic issues relating to Home to School Transport.  It was recommended that a service review be undertaken independently or by the Chief Executive to address these ongoing issues and deliver the necessary savings and efficiencies.

The Committee requested additional information regarding the possibility of procuring of Special Educational Needs services for one-to-one educational requirements from other Local Authorities.

Concerns were raised that the income generation target of £1.5m for 3 new initiatives in 2016/17 was similar to that of the budget reductions identified in the financial indicators.  It was hoped that there would be more than 3 income generation initiatives this year to mitigate the saving being made in the MTFS.  The Committee requested additional information regarding the initiatives that were being planned and the likelihood that they would achieve the necessary budget savings.

Concerns were raised regarding the savings identified for Fleet Services and queried if there was any merit in outsourcing this service.  The Committee requested additional information regarding the benefits of outsourcing any of Fleet Services and the potential impact on the quality of services should this occur.