Meeting documents

Venue: Mezzanine Room 1, County Hall, Aylesbury. View directions

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Items
Note No. Item

10am

1.

Apologies for Absence/Changes in Membership

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Minutes:

Apologies were received from Mr M Farrow.

2.

Declarations of Interest

To disclose any Personal or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

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Minutes:

Mr. B Bendyshe-Brown declared an interest in item 6 as he was a trustee of The Princes Centre in Princes Risborough, which provided adult day care services.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 208 KB

To agree the Minutes of the Meeting held on 27 June 2018.

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Minutes:

The minutes from the meeting held on 27 June 2018 were discussed and the following points highlighted:

  • Mr L Jeffries, Director of Customer had provided an update to be appended to the minutes
  • Mr A Smith, Director of Property and Assets would be invited to a future meeting.

ACTION: Mrs Sutherland

 

RESOLVED: The minutes of the meeting held on 27 June 2018 were AGREED as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman.

 

4.

Public Questions

Public Questions is an opportunity for people who live, work or study in the county to put a question to a Scrutiny Committee about any issue that has an impact on their local community or the county as a whole.

 

Members of the public, who have given prior notice, will be invited to put their question in person.

 

The Cabinet Member and responsible officers will then be invited to respond. 

 

Further information and details on how to register can be found through the following link:-

 

http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/about-your-council/scrutiny/getting-involved/

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Minutes:

There were none received.

5.

Chairman's Report

For the Chairman of the Committee to provide an update on recent scrutiny related activity.

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Minutes:

The Chairman gave the following update:

  • The Chairman would take over the role of Chairman for the Planning for Effective Leadership Inquiry, with the first meeting taking place on 12 October 2018.
  • Since the last meeting there had been a number of changes to the scheduling and content of the Select Committee work programme, which would be discussed later in the meeting.

 

6.

Mid-Year Review of Costs and Savings in Adult Social Care and Children's Services

The Committee will receive an update on costs and progress in the delivery of budget savings in both Adult Social Care and Children’s Services.

Members will hear from the Cabinet Member/Deputy Cabinet Member, Finance Director and Executive Director/Director for each Service Area.

 

Contributors:

Mr Warren Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children's Services

Ms Wendy Mallen, Deputy Cabinet Member for Health & Wellbeing

Mr Richard Ambrose, Director of Finance & Procurement

Mr Tolis Vouyioukas, Executive Director for Children’s Services
Ms Jenny McAteer, Director for Quality, Performance & Standards, CHASC
Ms Bev Winter, Finance Director for Communities, Health & Adult Social Care
Ms Elizabeth Williams, Finance Director for Children's Services

Papers:

Report attached.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed Mr Warren Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Mrs Wendy Mallen, Deputy Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, Mr Richard Ambrose, Director of Finance and Procurement, Mr Tolis Vouyioukas, Executive Director for Children’s Services, Ms Bev Winter, Finance Director for Communities, Health and Adult Social Care (CHASC), Ms Elizabeth Williams, Finance Director for Children’s Services and Ms Gillian Quinton, Executive Director for CHASC to the meeting. 

 

Members received an update from the Budget Board and the following items were raised and discussed:

 

  • In response to a question regarding who attended the Budget Board and how often they were held, it was advised that they started on a weekly basis but this had now been changed to fortnightly. The meetings were chaired by the Director of Finance and Procurement and the relevant Executive Director and Service Directors would also be in attendance. 
  • The committee discussed the action plans that were produced following the boards and how these would be monitored.  Mr Ambrose confirmed that an overall action plan had been produced and this would be reviewed at each board meeting. The initial focus was on improving governance and forecasting and most of the original actions were now completed. The budget boards could also undertake deep dives into certain issues and follow up actions would then be followed up within the Business Units. The Committee discussed debt management within the organisation and how this was being addressed.  Mr Ambrose assured the Committee that there was a renewed focus on debt management.  Mr Ambrose confirmed that debt had decreased in the last year by £3million with a specific debt team in place for historic debt. A key difference in the new Debt Management Strategy was that the debt team would take on any outstanding debts after 30 days, as opposed to 90 days previously.

 

 

Adult Social Care:

 

  • The Deputy Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing gave an introduction, summarising the pressures faced by Adult Social Care, both locally and nationally. Emerging issues in Buckinghamshire included increasing complexity of domiciliary care packages, increasing numbers of older clients and an increasing number of self-funding clients running out of money and needing CHASC support.
  • The Executive Director for CHASC highlighted that the struggling financial situation of the NHS was having an impact on Adult Social Care. Whilst Government had recently announced additional funding for the NHS, adequate funding for Adult Social Care was still not being addressed. There would be a Green Paper published in the autumn which would be critical in establishing a sustainable care system that goes across both health and social care.
  • The budget allocated to Adult Social Care already accounted for  40 % of the Council’s total budget, and the Executive Director for CHASC noted that this needed to be managed tightly to avoid impacting on other services.  A transformation programme was currently underway to maintain the budget amid increasing demographic pressures. A detailed monitoring programme was in place which was already showing progress towards delivery of savings.
  • The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

7.

Budget Scrutiny 2018 - 6 month progress report pdf icon PDF 110 KB

The Committee will examine a progress report on the implementation of the recommendations from Budget Scrutiny 2018 after 6 months. Members will have the opportunity to question the Cabinet Member and the Director of Finance and Procurement, before discussing and allocating a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) status for the progress of each recommendation.

 

Contributors:

Mr John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources
Mr Richard Ambrose, Director of Finance & Procurement

 

Papers:

Report attached.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed Mr Martin Tett, Leader of Buckinghamshire County Council, Mr John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources and Mr Richard Ambrose, Director of Finance and Procurement to the meeting.  The Chairman asked to review the progress of the recommendations made by the Committee regarding the 2018/2019 budget.

 

  • Recommendation 1- The Chairman explained that the focus of this recommendation was that the Council should move to a system of monthly accruals accounting as this would give a more accurate picture, than the Council’s current method which relied on forecasting. The Director of Finance and Procurement explained that Cabinet did not believe this was appropriate because accruals accounting was very resource intensive and was more suited to private business, where profit was the driver and where income could be directly matched to services delivered.  An independent review had confirmed that the Council had the right approach but internal budget management processes had been tightened to ensure more accurate forecasting and to enable mitigating action to be taken much earlier.

 

  • Recommendation 2-  A member asked what the current situation was in terms of the budget book.   The Director of Finance and Procurement explained that officers would produce a Budget Book which would split out key elements of the budget and provide figures around average unit costs and numbers of clients etc.  This would not be over-detailed but would enhance transparency. The Leader of the Council noted that Budget Scrutiny at Buckinghamshire County Council was far more rigorous and detailed than most other authorities.  It was noted that the Director of Finance and Procurement’s daily briefings ahead of Budget Scrutiny sessions with each individual Cabinet Member, were very helpful to the Committee.

 

  • Recommendation 4- It was noted that exit interviews could not be made mandatory, however manager’s had been set new DSP objectives which included an improved focus on exit interviews. The Director of HR would be undertaking analysis of exit interviews and would report any trends into CMT.  

 

  • Recommendation 5- It was noted that progress had been made in establishing an Information and Technology Board, which would meet for the first time in September. Business plans from service areas for resource allocation and approval would be considered by the Board going forward.

 

  • Recommendation 8- The Director of Finance and Procurement acknowledged that an independent review had not taken place. However the Business intelligence teams had undertaken a number of benchmarking exercises and a review of forecasting procedures had been completed.  It was noted that most other local authorities with social care responsibilities were experiencing the same budget pressures.  When asked if an independent review would be considered in future, the Leader commented that he would only commission one if it represented good value for money.

 

 

·         Recommendation 9-  The members discussed Home to School transport.  Changes to policy were being considered but it was a very complex area and parents would need to be consulted. Proposals would be considered at Cabinet shortly.

 

·         Recommendations 11 & 12- Members commented that the additional  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

12 pm

8.

Committee Work Programme pdf icon PDF 55 KB

To consider and agree the Finance, Performance and Resources Select Committee Work Programme.

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Minutes:

The Committee noted the forward Work Programme.  The Chairman advised that he would like to keep the item on Modernising Local Government on the programme, although it might get deferred from the November meeting.

12.15pm

9.

Date and Time of Next Meeting

The next meeting will be held on 13th November 2018, 10am in Mezzanine Room 1, County Hall.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

13th November 2018 at 10am in Mezzanine Room 1, County Hall, Aylesbury. There will be a pre-meeting for Committee Members only at 9.30am.