Agenda item

(To receive a report by Michelle Grady, Assistant Director – Finance, which invites the Board to consider a report on the Revenue Budget Monitoring Report 2021/22 - Quarter 2 to 30 September 2021 which is due to be considered by the Executive on the 7 December 2021. The views of the Board will be reported to the Executive as part of their consideration of this item)

During this item, Councillor Mrs J Brockway declared a personal interest as a member of her family accessed the Home to School Transport Service.

Consideration was given to a report by the Assistant Director – Finance, which invited the Board to consider the Revenue Budget Monitoring 2021/22 Quarter 2 report which was due to be considered by the Executive on 07 December 2021.

The Board was advised that the Council was forecasting an underspend of £5.760m (excluding schools and Covid-19), which mainly related to grants that had been received by the Council, particularly the grant of £1.4m for Domestic Abuse Services, as well as a net gain of £2m on the pool for business rates, both of which had not been accounted for when the budget had been set originally.

The impact of Covid-19 on the Council’s Revenue Budget was set out in Appendix K to the report and Appendix I set out the total number of grants that had been received from the government which related to the support for Covid-19 and Appendix L showed that all budget savings were on target to be delivered for 2021/22.

Members considered the report and during the discussion the following points were noted:

·       The extra funding of £1.445m for Domestic Abuse services was welcomed,  with the sharp increase in the number of reports of domestic violence particularly during the Covid-19 pandemic.

·       It was confirmed that a Domestic Abuse Strategy was being drafted by officers which would be brought through the Public Protection and Communities Scrutiny Committee on 14 December 2021 before approval by the Executive Councillor for Children's Services, Community Safety and Procurement. The strategy would focus on supporting victims and signposting to support.

·       The lack of provision for male domestic abuse victims across the country was emphasised. The Chairman of the Environment and Economy Scrutiny Committee highlighted that he would raise questions to the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) on the policy of domestic violence at the meeting of the Police and Crime Panel on 26 November 2021. The Chief Executive further highlighted the work being undertaken with the PCC in terms of victim support and that she would investigate what support was provided to male domestic abuse victims. It was agreed that a briefing note on this issue would be circulated to the Board.

·       The budget setting process for 2021/22, which started back in October 2020, had been more difficult due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the budget approved in February 2021 had since been impacted by the Covid grants received from the Government. There was a need to maximise the grants received to the benefit of local tax payers and recycle the underspends for use elsewhere. 

·       The Public Health underspend of £1.283m had arisen due to redirecting resources into supporting the Covid-19 pandemic and these costs had been covered by the Covid grant which was causing an underspend in the core activity, such as track and trace and outbreak management.  For the 2021/22 financial year, Public Health and Wellbeing had received £50m of Covid grants in addition to its core budget. At the time when the budget was set in February 2021, it was expected that this core activity would be required to continue and was therefore budgeted for. The announcements about the additional Covid grants came after the Council’s budget had been set. For example, it was at the end of March 2021 when the Council received notification that it would receive £160,000 in support grants per month for four months, which then turned into a £1.3m grant continuing to the end of March 2022. The late notification made it very difficult to plan for in terms of utilising the money while ensuring there were exit strategies for all these grants so that the Council did not incur any ongoing financial pressure.

·       The Resources underspend of £1.820m was partly due to the new Domestic Abuse grant of £1.445m, and reduced staffing costs due to Business Support staff being redeployed to work on Covid-19 activity and therefore some of the staffing costs had been covered by the Covid grant.

·       Members commended the Home School transport service which was considered exemplary and essential for families to ensure children and young people could access their education.

RESOLVED:

1.      That the recommendations as set out in the Executive report be supported;

2.      That a summary of the comments made be reported to the Executive for its consideration.