Meeting documents

  • Meeting of Finance, Performance and Resources Select Committee, Thursday 25th July 2013 10.00 am (Item 8.)

Richard Ambrose will provide the Committee with a 6 month progress update on implementation of the budget scrutiny recommendations for 2013/14.

Minutes:

Richard Ambrose presented the 6 monthly progress on the 2013 budget recommendations and made the following points:

 

1. Equalities Impact Assessment – in 2012 a new process was introduced including screening the impact on the voluntary sector.  The aim was to strengthen the process and both Angie Sarchet and Martin Phillips became more involved in the process.

It was noted that the process was better than the previous year when it was very poor because there were late conversations and late papers.  In response to the suggestion that it was surprising that not all the recommendations had been implemented Richard Ambrose replied that there was a statutory duty to consider equalities and that 90% of the process works really well.

2. That the effective resident consultation process be further improved, including mechanisms to achieve better response rates – a  consultation had recently been completed with the business community and the aim was to start a wider consultation in September and to feed the results into the draft budget.  Council tax levels and target groups where there is a low response level will be reviewed.  Martin Phillips is leading the process.

3.  Support for the voluntary and community sector – extra funding is available of £250k for the current and the next year.    This will be used partly to help in the bidding process.  A member explained that he considered that the voluntary sector continues to be a wonderful investment.

It was also noted that voluntary organisations welcome long term resource agreements for example for 5 years and that a commitment to a resource grant provides stability.

4.  Presentation of budget papers continues to be improved– the aim is to focus on the key issues and a proposal was to prepare a narrative on key issues to allow more effective questioning. 

In response to a question it was confirmed that the recommendations will be updated before the next meeting on 5 September.

A member reported that at last years’ budget meetings the general view was that not all Cabinet Members had been prepared sufficiently and were unable to answer questions.  This was noted.

5.  Agreed in part.

6.  Cabinet continue to develop contract management and monitoring skills – it was noted that contract framework brings out best practise and that commercial training will be taking place which will be critical in future.

A Member noted that contracts management was a fairly new process for the County Council and a Member asked for an assurance as to how satisfied Finance were that the officers have the necessary skills to manage the contracts.  Richard replied that officers managing platinum contracts meet regularly and had been assessed.

A Member emphasised the importance of getting contracts under control and he noted that central government were unable to do this successfully. 

11.  Bus usage it was suggested that the Environment Select Committee researches bus usage over the Autumn of 2013. 

12.  SEN – the recommendation was that an initial plan is prepared for managing down statementing costs   – it was noted that the policy had recently been updated for Cabinet.

13.  Education – narrowing the gap this had been recognised as an issue by Sue Imbriano and Chris Munday.

14. Visibility of Trading Standards - it was noted that officers from trading Standards attended the member induction sessions and some LAF meetings.

15. Manage the demand in Adult Social Care – it was acknowledged that with an aging population there were huge risks especially with the Dilnot proposals and that many of the self- funders will come into the system in future years. 

16 and 17 – the Public Health Strategy sets out the proposals and it was considered that there had been a very good transition.

19. Council lobbying - this is about what the Leader does with the Finances. Members were advised that Martin Tett gave a presentation at the LGA conference including business rates and sustainability. The issue about council tax freezes continues. 

 

The capital budget is c£100m.  There will be a review of Cabinet portfolios and the business investment group does an initial evaluation.  If schemes could generate extra income they could be reviewed.  Some funding is received through government grants and some will be ring fenced.

Supporting documents: