Issue - meetings

(a) That the Education and Youth Portfolio’s options to reduce budgets be noted; and

(b) That the proposals for the delegated schools’ budget be noted.

            Introducing the report, the Corporate Finance Manager explained that this would be presented for consideration to all Overview & Scrutiny Committees.  Regular updates on the Council’s challenging budget position for 2024/25 had been provided to Members since last summer with the Welsh Government (WG) settlement announced on the 20^th of December.  He reflected on the Council’s disappointing uplift of 2.2% compared with the Welsh average of 3.1% and to the summary of the key headlines which were reported to Cabinet on the 16 January which included the remaining gap of £12.946m. As a result, all portfolios had been asked to revisit and look at potential ways of reducing budgets or removing costs pressures to contribute towards meeting that gap.  The report provided details of the additional proposals for the Education & Youth portfolio and the current proposals for Delegated Schools Budgets.

            The Chief Officer (Education & Youth) commented on the two elements which had to be considered, the Education & Youth portfolio budget and the Delegated Schools Budgets, with point 1.05 in the report providing information on the proposed budget reductions.  She thanked her Senior Managers for the work that they had undertaken scrutinising every line of their budgets saying that it was not an easy task to identify efficiencies whilst protecting the integrity of the service and enabling the portfolio to fulfil its statutory responsibilities. She referred to the RAG ratings for these services and highlighted the Youth Service which was showing as Amber.

            The Chair invited questions and comments from the Committee on the budget proposals for the Education & Youth Portfolio.

Education & Youth Portfolio Budget Reductions

            Councillor Andrew Parkhurst said that he believed that because of the financial difficulties the WG budget has presented the Council with each Portfolio had been asked to identify 7.5% of savings in order that Members could then decide which of those potential savings could be accepted or rejected and that Members would have a choice and make an informed decision.  He said that there was a potential saving of £303,000 identified within the Education & Youth Portfolio excluding schools, but this did not equate to a 7.5% saving and he asked officers to clarify this.  He also referred to the 8-month outturn for this financial year where there had been £367,000 of savings and asked how this had been identified as this was more than the savings proposed for the 2024/25 budget.

            The Chief Officer advised that the total efficiencies identified did not equate to 7.5% of the overall budget for the Portfolio but explained that each Portfolio was asked to find up to 7.5% of efficiencies and that this was an aspiring target.  Any further efficiencies above those identified would risk delivery of statutory services and risk the Council not being able to meet its statutory functions.

            In relation to the £367,000 identified in-year efficiencies, the Chief Officer advised that this had come from a moratorium on the reduction or stopping of spend in each Portfolio.  One of the reasons for this efficiency was around  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42