Agenda and minutes

1.  Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors S Davis, for whom Councillor A Mackenzie was substituting.

No declarations of interest were received.

No questions or deputations were received.

To consider for approval the draft Minutes arising from the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting held on 4 January 2022.

The Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board:

RESOLVED:

(i)  To agree the Minutes arising from the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting held on 4 January 2022 as an accurate record.

The report before the Scrutiny Board provided an update on the budget position for 2022/23 and subsequent years and to seek feedback on the budget proposals for Full Cabinet. The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive presented the report.

Members of the Scrutiny Board were informed that the Budget Strategy Group (BSG) had convened four times as part of the Budget and MTFS setting process for 2022/23 – 2024/25.  All of the Scrutiny Boards budget comments were detailed in Appendix B. The budget proposals included an updated three year MTFS and Capital Strategy.  The Budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy 2022/23 – 2024/25 before the Scrutiny Board had also been shared with the Trade Unions.

Page ten of the report detailing Matters for Consideration was included in the last Budget and MTFS report submitted to the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board in January 2022.  As previously reported, no budget savings were proposed for any of the Portfolios.

Members’ attention was drawn to the significant investment across Children’s Services, amounting to in excess of £6M per annum.  Corporate pressures were reflected in the updated budget, which included addressing inflationary pressures and energy price increases.

The updates to the MTFS reported to the Members Seminar resulted in a funding gap for 2024/25 of £9.054M. Since that Members Seminar, a further meeting of the BSG was convened on 12 January 2022 to consider the impact of the provisional finance settlement. Following the BSG meeting of 12 January 2022 the funding gap for 2024/25 stood at £7.995M. The forecast balance on the budget strategy reserve as at March 2025 was £11.076.

Paragraph 3.28 of the report provided detail in summary of the budget proposals, which in summary stated that the budget proposals would provide a balanced budget in 2022/23 and 2023/24; significant additional funding for children’s social care had been allocated; no additional corporate savings were required of any Cabinet portfolios; a forecast balance on the budget strategy reserve of £11.076M by March 2025 and a Council Tax assumption in 2022/23 of 1.0% for social care and 1.99% for the core Council.

Having received the presentation of the report from the Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive, Members of the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board asked a series of questions relating to the report, which in summary included the following matters:

Councillor Holl-Allen queried whether the budget proposals took account of future inflation projections and the ceasing of any grant funded assistance to counter the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.  The Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive confirmed that inflationary forecasts had been built into the budget proposals. Secondly, Covid-19 funding would cease in 2022, but the Council had planned to use this funding over a three year period.

Councillor Tildesley welcomed the Council’s low risk rating against the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) financial resilience for English councils. With regard to Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC), Councillor Tildesley questioned whether the Council had received any  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The meeting is not open to the public during discussion of the following item because the report contains exempt information as defined in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

The meeting was not open to the public during discussion of the following item because the report contained exempt information as defined in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

To consider for approval the draft Private Minutes arising from the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting held on 4 January 2022.

The Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board:

RESOLVED:

(i)  To agree the private minutes arising from the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting held on 4 January 2022.

The Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting

Closed at 6:47p.m.