Agenda, decisions and draft minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Mrs W Bowkett, Executive Councillor for Adult Care and Public Health.

An apology for absence was also received from Andrew Crookham, Executive Director – Resouces.

There were no declarations of interest at this point in the meeting.

The Executive Councillor for People Management, Legal and Corporate Property announced the appointment of the new Assistant Director – Property – Jane Sowerby- Warrington and advised that she would be starting later in the month.

RESOLVED

          That the minutes of the meeting held on 1 November 2022 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

(To receive a report from the Executive Director – Resources which provides an update on revenue spending compared with budgets for the financial year which started on 1 April 2022)

That the current position on the revenue budget be noted.

The Assistant Director – Finance introduced a report on Revenue Budget Monitoring 2022/23 – Quarter 2 which summarised the forecasts against the budget for the current financial year.  More detail on the variances reported were set out in the appendices to the report.  It was reported that the current overall position was forecasting an underspend of £1.614m (excluding schools) as at 30 September 2022.  This was a movement of £2.3m from the small overspend that was reported in Quarter 1.

The Assistant Director advised that the current budget had been set to include inflationary increases based on the projections at that time.  Due to the uncertainty at that time, the contingency fund was also increased in anticipation of some of the pressures.  It was noted that the forecast assumed that the pressure created by the pay award had been met by the contingency fund, however, the forecasts did include pressures created by contractor, utility and inflationary price increases.  There had been variances reported in the Place directorate including streetlighting costs due to energy price rises, and the Highways contract with the mid-year price increase to support supply chains which was being offset in part by some Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) permitting income, as well as underspends in other directorates, and additional grants which had been received which were not known about when the budget was set.  These forecasts were expected to be updated in the future, and it was highlighted that the forecast for Home to School Transport was missing, but this was currently being worked on.

The Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board highlighted to the Executive the main points in the Board’s Statement to the Executive and noted that there had been some discussion around the Autumn Statement and the potential for increases to Council Tax.  It was also noted that the full implications for the Adult Social Care budget were not yet known.  It had also been commented that the increase to the National Living Wage would have an effect on a number of council contracts.  There was also recognition that people’s ability to pay their council tax bills could be affected by the current financial situation, but that there was a council tax support system in place.

The overspend in Highways was highlighted, but it was noted that this could potentially be offset by the winter maintenance budget if there was less demand for grit runs carried out over the winter period.  It was noted that the overspend in Children's Services was predominantly due to recruitment issues within the Children’s legal services team, and the need to rely on locum support which was becoming more costly due to a competitive market. 

During discussion by the Executive, the following was highlighted:

·       In relation to inflationary pressures, it was queried what the projections were for the coming year, and if prices were expected to start decreasing.  Officers advised that energy prices were starting to level off, construction prices were also starting to level off, although there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

(To receive a report from the Executive Director – Resources which provides an update on capital spending compared with budgets for the financial year which started on 1 April 2022)

That the position on the capital programme be noted.

The Assistant Director – Finance presented a report titled Capital Budget Monitoring 2022/23 – Quarter 2 to 30 September 2022.  The Executive was advised that the current 2022/23 forecasted position was an underspend of £11.377m (Block schemes £11.913m underspend, Project schemes £0.536m overspend).  It was noted that the majority of this variance being reported as the capital contingency, which had been maintained in anticipation of pressures on the budget including the inflationary pressures previously discussed around construction.  This would be explored further during the budget setting process for 2023/24.   Other variances highlighted included a small overspend forecast for highways maintenance and a small underspend for Fire and Rescue.  The budget setting process would address some of the pressures coming through on the major schemes particularly the North Hykeham Relief Road and the Grantham Southern Relief Road.  The level of the contingency fund going forward would also be examined.

The Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board presented the comments of the meeting of the Board held on 24 November 2022 and highlighted Appendix D of the report and the education transport links to school, and concerns had been raised as to whether the health and safety aspect of children cycling to school on busy roads had been considered in the cost versus benefit analysis of sustainable travel schemes.  The Executive Director – Place gave reassurance that health and safety was a prime consideration, however some of the proposals that came forward were not as straight forward as would be expected.  It was requested whether a written report could be provided to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board which set this out in further detail.  It was also noted that there were a number of Transport Strategies due to be considered by the Highways and Transport Scrutiny Committee the following week, and these did have a focus on walking and cycling.

RESOLVED

That the position on the capital programme be noted.

(To receive a report from the Executive Director – Resources which presents an overview of performance against the Corporate Plan as at 30 September 2022)

1.    That performance for 2022/23 as at 30 September 2022 be noted.

2.    That officers examine the way that the delivery of local priorities in the Corporate Plan are more effectively measured for future reporting.

Consideration was given to a report introduced by the Head of Corporate Performance which presented an overview of performance against the Corporate Plan as at 30 September 2022.  Detailed information on performance could be viewed on the Council’s website.  The full list of activities reported on were set out in Appendix A to the report.  It was reported that all 39 activities were progressing as planned, which was a positive picture considering the challenges being faced by the services.  Progress would continue to be monitored for the remainder of the year.

There were 22 activities that could be reported on for Quarter 2, 73% were achieving or exceeding target.  There were four indicators which were exceeding target, and 12 achieving target.  There were now also three KPI’s which were now achieving target, which were not achieving target in quarter 1.  There were currently six indicators that were not achieving target, and two of these measures related to recycling.  However, as two of the KPI’s exceeding target also related to waste, there was still a positive picture for this area.

It was reported that work was underway with the Executive Director – Place to ensure consistency around waste measures reporting to Executive and the Environment and Economy Scrutiny Committee for Quarter 3, including a glossary of terms to ensure that reporting is clear, including definitions around the reporting of national indicators.

In terms of ‘Days lost to sickness absence’, whilst this was not yet achieving target, a slight reduction in days lost had been seen, but Covid was still having an impact, and without Covid, this measure would be below its target of 7.5 days per FTE.  The authority continued to manage sickness absence through its absence management procedures as well as providing a comprehensive package of health and wellbeing support to staff.

There were two new measures which were now underperforming in Quarter 2 which previously were not, these both related to Ofsted Inspection outcomes, which were ‘Percentage of schools judges good or outstanding’ and ‘Percentage of pupils in outstanding or good schools’, and it was reported at the meeting that the drop in performance was due to Ofsted judgements of three secondaries and one primary academy whose reports were published during the quarter 2 period.  Plans were in place to support the required improvement in these schools.

In relation to the contextual KPI’s, where a target was not set but a RAG rating was given by the Executive Director, it was noted that there were four that were exceeding target.  There were also a number of measures which could not be reported in Quarter 2, which were listed in paragraph 4.6 of the report, these mainly related to national data which had not yet been released.  It was also reported that since the writing of the report, there had been an agreement between the Leader of the Council and the Executive Councillor for Adult Care and Public Health to include a further two measures which related to Adult Social  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.