To present performance management information on the Council’s Corporate Plan for 2016/17 and updates on current projects.
Contact:D Buckridge 388065 Laura Lock 388086 Graham Oliver 388604
Decision:
i. Considered and commented on progress made against Key Activities and Corporate Indicators in the Corporate Plan and current projects, as summarised in Appendix A and detailed in Appendices B and C of the report; and
ii. Considered and commented on the Council’s financial performance as at the end of June 2016.
Minutes:
The Cabinet considered a report by the Corporate Team Manager and Head of Resources (a copy of which is appended in the Minute Book), presented by the Head of Resources, which commented on progress against the Key Actions and Corporate Indicators listed in the Council’s Corporate Plan for 2016/17 for the period 1 April to 30 June 2016. The report also incorporated progress on the current projects being undertaken at the Council; Financial Performance Monitoring Suite information as at the end June 2016 and an update on the Commercial Investment Strategy including details of the investments to date and the level of returns expected to be generated.
The Cabinet were informed, regarding the year end forecast outturn revenue position for 2016/17, of the net revenue spend of £17.3m resulting in a saving against budget of £570,000. The main reasons for the variance were detailed within Appendix D of the Officer’s report.
As part of the budget setting process for 2016/17, £2.3m of new Zero Based Budget savings were approved. A review of the position of these savings to date had been carried out and a Red, Amber, Green (RAG) rating given. The RAG status for all individual projects were summarised in Appendix E.
There were currently two areas of significant risk for the Council being the IMD Shared Service and Homelessness. For all the shared services arrangements the financial target set was 15% saving across the original combined budget. For the ICT service this was £887,000 in 2016/17. To date £380,000 (43%) had been achieved through the new staff structure and work was underway to identify other areas for savings. However, there was a risk that this would not be fully achieved.
Homelessness acceptances in the final quarter of 2015/16 increased and this had continued into 2016/17. For the majority of 2015/16 there were on average 10 households/individuals in bed and breakfast accommodation which had since increased to 25-30 households/individuals. There were a number of factors that contributed to the increase in homelessness and work to counter this impact was ongoing with Officers in the short term working on a number of options including working with Housing Associations to find properties for impacted customers and in the longer term assessment of the options to generate more affordable housing and temporary accommodation in the District.
The Councils final 2016/17 net capital programme was £11m and Appendix D detailed the capital programme budget, spend to date and projected outturn position. Spend to date was £1.3m and the projected outturn was £10.0m, an underspend of £1m.
In considering the comments from the Overview and Scrutiny (Performance and Customers) Panel the Cabinet were informed that a report regarding consider longer term options to address the homelessness issue was being prepared for Member consideration.
The Cabinet agreed with the Overview and Scrutiny Panel regarding the need for further clarification as to why Performance Indicators 6 and 16 were annual measures and not quarterly measures.
Regarding Performance Indicator 20, the Cabinet acknowledged that it would be rational to only include food businesses that were open for business.
The Cabinet expressed concern in respect of the underspend within the Capital Programme and the consequential impact on the Minimum Revenue Provision. The Cabinet agreed that there was a role for Executive Councillors to ensure that only Capital Bids were progressed, where there were assurances that the project was likely to come to fruition as per the timescales within the bid documentation.
The Cabinet further requested that the Chairman of Finance and Governance Board ensure that new Capital bids for 2017/18 were only approved if there was absolute assurance that the capital project would be committed during the financial year and also provide an explanation as to how the current programme would be delivered within this financial year and any actions being taken, as appropriate, to remedy the situation. Whereupon it was
RESOLVED
i. that the Cabinet considered and commented on progress made against Key Activities and Corporate Indicators in the Corporate Plan and current projects, as summarised in Appendix A and detailed in Appendices B and C of the report; and
ii. considered and commented on the Council’s financial performance as at the end of June 2016.
Supporting documents: