Agenda item

Thes report set out the forecast Revenue and Capital outturn position for Buckinghamshire Council for the financial year 2023/24 as at Quarter 2. The Council was continuing to experience significant financial pressures due to continued increase in demand and complexity of need in key services, such as Adults Social Care and Children’s Social Care. The forecast revenue outturn position at Quarter 2 was an adverse variance of £8.6m, (2% of Portfolio budgets), an increase of £0.3m from the Quarter 1 reported position of £8.3m. This was primarily due to pressures in Health and Wellbeing and Education and Children’s Services from demand and market insufficiency issues, coupled with pressures in Housing & Homelessness & Regulatory Services in Temporary Accommodation budgets and Transport budgets.  Within the overall position there was an adverse variance of £15.2m (3%) in Portfolios (£14.0m last quarter) offset by a £6.6m (£5.7m last quarter) favourable variance in Corporate & Funding.

Following the Quarter 1 position, detailed Portfolio Action Plans had been implemented to address pressures, with a view to urgently bringing budgets back into line. The Quarter 2 position reflected positive variances across several portfolios linked to the delivery of the action plans, however, the financial position had deteriorated overall due to increasing pressures within Education & Children’s Services which were detailed in the report. Capital spending was forecast to be 99.5% of budget, a variance of £0.6m.

RESOLVED that Cabinet note the report and the risks and opportunities contained within it and also note the actions being taken to mitigate pressures as set out in para 3.9 of the report.

This report set out the forecast Revenue and Capital outturn position for Buckinghamshire Council for the financial year 2023/24 as at Quarter 2. The Council was continuing to experience significant financial pressures due to continued increase in demand and complexity of need in key services, such as Adults Social Care and Children’s Social Care. The forecast revenue outturn position at Quarter 2 was an adverse variance of £8.6m, (2% of Portfolio budgets), an increase of £0.3m from the Quarter 1 reported position of £8.3m. This was primarily due to pressures in Health and Wellbeing and Education and Children’s Services from demand and market insufficiency issues, coupled with pressures in Housing & Homelessness & Regulatory Services in Temporary Accommodation budgets and Transport budgets.  Within the overall position there was an adverse variance of £15.2m (3%) in Portfolios (£14.0m last quarter) offset by a £6.6m (£5.7m last quarter) favourable variance in Corporate & Funding.

The £15.2m (£14.0m last quarter) adverse variance in Portfolios included:

i.                    £3.4m pressure (£3.9m last quarter) in Health and Wellbeing due to growth in client numbers, and increased cost of care packages, particularly in Residential, Nursing and Supported Living.

ii.                   £9.8m pressure (£3.9m last quarter) in Education & Children’s Services predominantly due to the national insufficiency of placements for children looked after leading to a shortage of available placements and very high unit costs of those placements that could be accessed.

iii.                 £1.1m adverse variance (£1.5m last quarter) in Housing & Homelessness & Regulatory Services in Temporary Accommodation budgets due to increased demand, particularly for nightly paid accommodation.

iv.                 £1.3m adverse variance (£3.2m last quarter) in Transport Services. This was predominantly in Transport costs £1.3m pressure (£0.8m last quarter) due to increased contract costs in Home to School Transport with provider pressure to increase costs on letting of new contracts.

v.                   The position also reflected a forecast shortfall on Energy from Waste income of £4.8m due to the reduction in market energy prices.

Following the Quarter 1 position, detailed Portfolio Action Plans had been implemented to address pressures, with a view to urgently bringing budgets back into line. The Quarter 2 position reflected positive variances across several portfolios linked to the delivery of the action plans, however, the financial position had deteriorated overall due to increasing pressures within Education & Children’s Services which were detailed in the report. Mitigations of £1.3m had been identified linked to additional electricity income from the EfW plant, relating to a prudent estimate of income projections for 2022-23. Capital spending was forecast to be 99.5% of budget, a variance of £0.6m.

Unsecured debt over 90 days had seen an increase of £5.1m in comparison to Q1, rising from £9m to £14.1m in Q2. This had been scrutinised closely at a recent Select Committee meeting. For Q2 current overall invoice payment performance was 96.1% paid on-time.

Cabinet Members noted that budget pressures were being faced nationally. The Section 151 Officer referred to the risks in the budget as already reported by the Cabinet Member (home to school transport, children’s services (particularly placement costs), temporary accommodation and adult services and commented that the current pressures could be met by contingency budgets. The Cabinet Member reported that the Council was on track to meet its savings targets.

RESOLVED that Cabinet note the report and the risks and opportunities contained within it and also note the actions being taken to mitigate pressures as set out in para 3.9 of the report.