Agenda item

(a)       That the creation of the Finance and Business Planning Cycle diagrammatic model be welcomed and supported; and

(b)       That a workshop be held before the end of March to consider how the Council and particularly the Overview & Scrutiny Committees might best use the performance information for organisational planning and monitoring.

The Corporate Business & Communications Executive Officer presented a report illustrating the financial and business planning cycle and providing details of the range of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) available to Overview & Scrutiny Committees to draw upon for performance reporting.  Both items had been requested by the Committee.

The Committee was provided with a diagrammatic model of the financial and business planning cycle depicting three specific elements - financial, delivery and performance, and controls and external context.  This was accompanied by a presentation to explain the development of the model and how it worked.

In thanking the officer and teams involved, Councillor Jones valued the level of detail and suggested more consistency in the use of headings.  On timescales, he commented that the full set of portfolio plans and Council Plan should come first in order to inform the setting of Council Tax.

The Chief Executive spoke about the complex budget process and the need for business plans to be continuous, particularly to adapt to Government-led changes during the year - as reflected in the Chairman’s written representations to Welsh Government (WG).  He said that the development of the model, which would evolve over time, was useful in clarifying the process and timescales.

During discussion, the Executive Officer explained that portfolio plans contained benchmarking information and were therefore set after the Council Plan.  Councillor Shotton referred to the Council Plan as a long-term strategy document.

Whilst recognising the complex process and hard work done by officers, Councillor Heesom expressed a view that there was no effective way of openly evaluating portfolio expenditure.

The Chief Officer (Governance) said that the points raised were accommodated within the three-stage budget process in which service expenditure levels supported by resilience statements were shared before considering all service proposals.  The approach allowed time to focus on portfolio plans subject to any additional options which could be raised by Members at the County Council meeting later in the month.

In response to concerns from Councillor Heesom on financial management, the Chief Executive and Councillor Shotton gave an assurance that the Wales Audit Office resilience reports had reflected the Council’s positive performance on efficiencies, cost-effectiveness and financial management.  The potential significant increase in Council Tax would be a decision for Members taking account of the lack of alternative options.

Councillor Jones said that there were still opportunities for the Administration to identify a ‘Plan B’ to pull upon to bridge the remaining financial gap, to avoid a higher increase in Council Tax.

Councillor Shotton referred to the forthcoming budget discussion at County Council and the need to maintain pressure on WG for fairer funding to avoid the increased burden for Council Tax on Flintshire residents.  After extensive discussions over recent months, the vast majority of Members had agreed that there were no other options remaining that were acceptable to the Council.

On the second part of the report, information on the KPIs across services was shared including some which were under development.  The Chief Executive acknowledged Councillor Jones’ points earlier in the meeting and suggested that the data could be collated for consideration at a workshop before the end of March to enable Overview & Scrutiny Committees to decide which measures were of most value.  This was agreed by the Committee.

RESOLVED:

(a)       That the creation of the Finance and Business Planning Cycle diagrammatic model be welcomed and supported; and

(b)       That a workshop be held before the end of March to consider how the Council and particularly the Overview & Scrutiny Committees might best use the performance information for organisational planning and monitoring.