Issue - meetings

            (a)       That the report be noted; and

(b)       That the Social and Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee be asked to consider the significant variances within Adult Social Care, particularly to £0.514m relating to Domiciliary Care provision. 

The Corporate Finance Manager introduced a report to provide Members with the latest Revenue Budget Monitoring 2014/15 (Month 3) for the Council Fund and Housing Revenue Account which was to be submitted to Cabinet on 16 September 2014. 

                        The report reflected the work undertaken to rebase all staffing budgets to reflect the actual new costs arising from the new pay and grading structure following the implementation of the Single Status agreement.  No pay variations were included within this report although this was deemed reasonable due to the fact that the relevant budgetary provision would be allocated to the actual costs being incurred in line with the affordability model used to estimate costs. 

                        For the Council Fund, the projected net in year non pay expenditure was forecast to be £0.603m higher than budget and full details of the projected variances were summarised in appendix 1.  The biggest variance was £0.514m which related to Domiciliary Care provision within the Localities Teams but had been slightly offset by the impact of the increase by Welsh Government in the level of the maximum charge cap from £50 per week to £55 per week.  Section 3.05 detailed the efficiencies and it was currently projected that £8.444m of the £8.840m (96%) would be achieved. 

                        An initial phase of Voluntary Redundancy Programme had identified a number of efficiencies and a second programme commenced on 1 September 2014 to run alongside the next phase of the Management Review. 

                        Section 5 detailed the budget assumptions and risks and the projected balance on the contingency reserve was £2.338m and was summarised at appendix 3. 

                        The HRA was projected to have an overall overspend of £0.038m and a projected closing balance at Month 3 of £1.127m which at 3.75% of total expenditure satisfied the prudent approach of ensuring a minimum level of 3%.  Appendix 4 detailed the reasons for significant variances.              

                          Councillor Robin Guest sought clarification on the significant variance for Social Services of £0.514 and suggested that the issue be referred to the Social and Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee for further consideration. 

                        Councillor Mike Peers referred to the Section on Streetscene on page 91 and sought assurance that the posts which had been vacant for some time would be carefully considered. 

                        In response to a question from Councillor Richard Jones, the Corporate Finance Manager said that any significant variances over £0.025m would be reported separately. 

            RESOLVED:

(a)          That the report be noted; and

(b)       That the Social and Health Care Overview & Scrutiny Committee be asked to consider the significant variances within Adult Social Care, particularly to £0.514m relating to Domiciliary Care provision.