Decision details

Full Cabinet was informed of the financial position as at 31st December 2018 (Period 9) against Revenue and Capital budgets and the latest Red, Amber, Green (RAG) ratings for the delivery of the current Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) savings 2018/19 to 2020/21, as detailed in Appendix A to the report. The report also summarised the reports to the individual Cabinet portfolio meetings during February and March 2019.

In introducing the report the Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive advised Members that with regard to the revenue budget – forecast out-turn position there was a forecast favourable variance for Core Council of (£0.372 million), and an adverse variance of £1.356 million for the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG), to arrive at an overall adverse variance of £0.984 million. This was summarised by Cabinet Portfolio in Appendix A (Table 2) of the report which highlighted the key variances. The Core Council revenue budget forecast consisted of a favourable variance of (£0.372 million) for the Resources and Delivering Value portfolio.

The Director highlighted the work that had been undertaken regarding the constant review of the Children, Education and Skills portfolio as detailed in the report, including the development of financial recovery plans. The report also detailed that longer term options would also need to be considered given the scale of underlying demand.

In relation to the Capital Budget – forecast out – turn position, the Director reported that the Capital Programme budget was currently £49.938 million for 2018/19 (excluding the HRA capital programme). Actual expenditure to the end of September was £16.525 million. There was a forecast favourable variance of (£13.711 million), however (£11.877 million) of that was approved for rephasing into future years as part of the Corporate Capital Programme reported to Full Cabinet in January.

The Director reported on the MTF Strategy RAG status savings 2018/19 to 2020/21 and the reserves/contingency forecast.

RESOLVED:

That the current financial position be noted and that no further actions were required to address budget variances at this time.