Meeting documents

The Committee will examine a progress report on the implementation of the recommendations from Budget Scrutiny 2018 after 12 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 and Procurement

Papers:

Budget Scrutiny 2018 – 12 month Recommendation Monitoring report

The Chairman welcomed Mr John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources and Mr Alistair Rush, Interim Deputy Director of Finance.  The Committee asked questions on the 12 month progress report on the recommendations of Budget Scrutiny 2018 and the following main points were noted:

• Recommendation 1 – An independent review had confirmed that the Council’s current approach to financial management was sound and on par with local government peers.  Whilst the Council was not adopting accruals accounting, monthly reporting in advance of the financial year was presented to Corporate Management Team (CMT) on a forecast basis, reflecting that services are demand led.  Mr. Rush advised that there had been a concerted push to make financial reporting more timely, relevant, reliable and transparent, so that decision makers could focus on making the right decision rather than querying if the financial information was accurate.
• The Chairman commented that he welcomed the review and whilst he understood that no other County Council did accruals accounting, he would be surprised if the new Unitary Council did not adopt this approach.  The Cabinet Member advised that he believed that the effectiveness of the Council’s overall financial monitoring had improved.
• Recommendation 2 – It was noted that the Chairman was meeting with the Leader and the Section 151 Officer to discuss how to improve visibility of the budget information to ensure that the public and Members could understand the Council’s spending.  Members still supported the idea of a Budget Book for the public.
• Recommendation 4 – It was noted that 70% of leavers had completed an exit interview in the past 12 months.  The Cabinet Member reminded the Committee that Viewpoint staff feedback surveys were also carried out quarterly.  These were completed anonymously and provided CMT with regular feedback during this time of change.
• Recommendation 5 – It was noted that the Smarter Bucks Strategy had been agreed by Cabinet and was being implemented, although some elements, for example, upgrades for SAP, had been put on hold in light of Unitary changes.  Other areas of the strategy had to be implemented regardless due to risks around security and the robustness of IT systems.
• Recommendation 8 – Mr Rush explained that an internal review of forecasting processes had taken place and improvements in areas of activity and demand data and timely recording of financial commitments had been identified.  The introduction of the new iCares system should lead to further improvements in data quality and the automatic collation of data was also being explored.
• A Member asked if unpleasant budget surprises would now be unlikely as a result of this work and Mr Rush commented that this was the desired outcome and many officers were working very diligently and with open minds to the way they should approach financial analysis. 
• Recommendation 9 – A Member asked if the Home to School transport savings identified for 2019/20 would be realised.  In response, Mr Rush acknowledged that risks remained and all 2019/20 savings needed to be monitored closely. 
• Recommendation 11 – A Member commented that he hoped that a fully gully survey had been undertaken and that a proper scheduled maintenance programme would be introduced as a result.

The Chairman thanked the Cabinet Member and the Interim Deputy Director of Finance for attending the meeting.  It was agreed that the Chairman and the Committee and Governance Manager would compile RAG ratings for each recommendation based on Members’ comments and this would then be circulated to the Committee via email for comment.

ACTION: Chairman/Committee & Governance Manager