The report of the Section 151 Officer is attached marked 8.

Contact: James Walton (01743) 258915

12.1   The Finance Governance and Assurance [Section 151] Officer presented the revised Financial Outturn 2016/17 report, copy attached to the signed minutes.  Members noted that during the completion of the draft Statement of Accounts a minor error had been identified. Although the error had no material impact on the final Financial Outturn position as its value was £0.129m, for the sake of accuracy and to maintain correct unambiguous records, Cabinet had received a revised Financial Outturn Report. 

12.2   Members noted that the report set out the final financial position for 2016/17 and showed a slight underspend on the Revenue Account and an underachievement in the Capital Programme.  The Finance and Governance Assurance [Section 151] Officer observed that previously Revenue and Capital outturns were detailed in two separate reports but these had been combined into one report. 

12.3   Members considered table 1 on page 3 of the report, which set out the revised budget, controllable outturn and controllable under/over spend for each Service Area.  All Service Areas apart from Children’s Services achieved an underspend. The outturn position improved by £0.670m since Quarter 3.

12.4   Members noted that the General Fund Balance at 31^st March 2017 was £14,698,000, which was above the anticipated level.  The Finance Governance and Assurance [Section 151] Officer explained that significant levels of savings were required by the Budget Strategy 2017/18 and in future years, he made clear that there was insufficient funding to provide additional contributions into the General Fund Balance to ensure that the Council achieved the risk based target in 2017/18 and the following two years.  He continued that it was important to closely monitor the potential gap between the Risk Based target and General Fund Balance. Should it become apparent that the projected balance was insufficient, this would be reported to Cabinet.

12.5   Members discussed the Children’s Services outturn position and the reasons why anticipated savings were not achieved.  Members noted that in this Service Area small deviations in the numbers of children supported could have a significant impact on the performance against  bhudget. The Finance Governance and Assurance [Section 151] Officer explained that the budget was set to reflect the known factors such as increasing costs, demographics and wage inflation.  It was difficult to predict the number of children coming into the system and the level of care that they would require.  Fewer children did not necessarily result in a reduction of expenditure if they had complex needs.

12.6   Members requested clarification on why Education and Children’s services were combined in the report.  The Finance Governance and Assurance [Section 151] Officer explained that this was a statutory requirement as the Director for Children’s Services had legal responsibility for both areas.  Other, more detailed, lower level reports were available which dealt with these areas separately.  A Member suggested that Children’s Services Management should consider the assumptions that underpinned the budget, and endeavour to improve the accuracy of their predictions. 

12.7   In response to a Member’s query regarding the Corporate Landlord service area, the Finance Governance and Assurance [Section 151] Officer explained that there had been significant reorganisation of this area which had previously been managed by individual Directorates, but was now managed by one Service Area. This had been a significant undertaking and was still not completed. 

12.8   The Finance Governance and Assurance [Section 151] Officer responded to a Member that it was anticipated that the Digital Transformation would not be fully in place by April 2017, and this had been incorporated into the work plan. 

12.9   Members considered the remodelling around Adult Social Care budgets.  They noted that there were large numbers of service users and a significant amount of information which was used in the modelling process but that there were also a large number of  representative variables which the model was not sensitive enough to interpret.  Members were assured that the budget was closely monitored to ensure that it stayed within pre-set tolerance bands. 

12.10   RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.