Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Chief Executive and Director of Finance and Business Services.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Executive, Director of Finance and Business Services and Head of Performance, Customer Services and Capacity setting out the Council’s three quarter year financial and performance position.

The Council had an ambitious savings target of £21.7 million for 2012/13 with an extremely challenging delivery plan.

The strength of action taken in the third quarter of the financial year had led to an improvement of £0.7 million in the projected overall position since the mid year review. This would result in an increase in the Council’s general reserves level from £12.5 million to £13.2 million.

In response to a question regarding the problems highlighted in the report about attracting and recruiting personnel into front line social worker posts, Lorraine Butcher confirmed that the Council had experienced some difficulties but the Council’s long term aim was to arrest the reliance on agency workers. She was also able to confirm that no children’s social workers had been made redundant since Local Government Review.

In response to a question about whether the under spend of £2.2 million under the heading ‘early intervention and prevention’ within Children and Families, had been deliberate, Tony Crane informed the committee that the under spend had resulted from the re-engineering some services in response to budget pressures.

In answer to a query about individual and strategic commissioning arrangements and the fact that strategic commissioning was overspent and Care4rce under spent, Lorraine Butcher explained, that clients with personalised budgets  were not able  use these funds  with internal providers.

Vivienne Quayle undertook to provide an answer outside of the meeting in relation to a question concerning how much of the £500 000 overspend referred to in the third quarter performance report related to the recycling bulking contract as opposed to the other cost pressures relating to green waste and non achievement of land fill reduction targets.

In response to a further question regarding car parking income, Vivienne Quayle informed the committee that the variance in figures related to the difference between the budgeted and actual figures and was not in fact a loss.

In connection with the performance report, Lorraine Butcher explained that some of the issues identified in connection with indicator NI56/60 were covered in the safeguarding peer review contained elsewhere in the agenda. However, in relation to indicator NI 145, Lorraine explained that the Council did not have sufficient accommodation and that the Council had therefore started a process to address the under provision.

RESOLVED – That the report be received and noted.