Issue - meetings

Cllr Lynden Stowe, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Change, provided an update on the year-end forecast for the 2022/23 County

Council’s Revenue and Capital Budgets and reported on the Council’s performance and risk during Quarter 3 of 2022/23

Having considered all of the information, Cabinet noted the report and

RESOLVED to:

1. Consider this report of the Council’s performance and risks and identifies any areas of concern requiring further analysis, assurance or action.

2. Note the forecast revenue year end position based on February 2023 (Period 11) forecasts for the 2022/23 financial year, which is an overspend of £3.835 million all of which relates to non-Covid-19 expenditure. The Covid-19 related expenditure and income outturn is forecast to be a balanced position.

3. Note delivery of the £7.388 million of savings against a target of £10.987 million in 2022/23 or 67.24% of target as detailed in Section B.

4. Note the forecast capital year end position as at the end of January 2023, forecast made in February 2023 (P11) of £128.571 million against the current budget of £147.758 million.

5. Approve the £1.939 million increase to the capital programme as detailed in Section C.

5.1       Cllr Lynden Stowe, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Change, provided an update on the year-end forecast for the 2022/23 County Council’s Revenue and Capital Budgets and reported on the Council’s performance and risk during Quarter 3 of 2022/23

5.2       The current forecast of the year end revenue position was an overspend of £3.835 million against the revenue budget of £521.330 million, based on forecasts in February 2023 (Period 11) after utilising grants for Covid-19 expenditure. The largest variances were the £10.948 million forecast overspend in Children and Families, and £523k forecast overspend in Community Safety – partially offset by the £7.427 million underspend in Technical & Countywide. Recommendation 5 of the report included an additional £1.9m for the capital programme.

5.3       This was the first formal performance report to Cabinet in the new format, which would now be seen quarterly and wasbased around the Council Strategy. This included the strategic risk monitoring report showing the high level risks.

5.4       Overall, there was an improving picture, with 50 out of 77 Corporate Performance measures with a target on track. This was the third quarter showing improvement - up from 58.3% in Quarter 4 2021/22.

5.5       Some particular successes were highlighted:

• in Children’s social care, despite increasing numbers of children and young people needing support, the Council was continuing to improve the quality of support it was providing
• HMICFRS had confirmed their support for the improvements made by Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, following their recent re-inspection.
• In Adult Social Care, despite a very challenging winter, 94% of contacts to the helpdesk were dealt with within 1 day and waiting times for a care package to be put in place reduced from 4.8 weeks to 3 weeks.
• On climate change, the Council was showing leadership by continuing to exceed its targets for reducing the Council’s own carbon emissions.

Having considered all of the information, Cabinet noted the report and

RESOLVED to:

1. Consider this report of the Council’s performance and risks and identifies any areas of concern requiring further analysis, assurance or action.

2. Note the forecast revenue year end position based on February 2023 (Period 11) forecasts for the 2022/23 financial year, which is an overspend of £3.835 million all of which relates to non-Covid-19 expenditure. The Covid-19 related expenditure and income outturn is forecast to be a balanced position.

3. Note delivery of the £7.388 million of savings against a target of £10.987 million in 2022/23 or 67.24% of target as detailed in Section B.

4. Note the forecast capital year end position as at the end of January 2023, forecast made in February 2023 (P11) of £128.571 million against the current budget of £147.758 million.

5. Approve the £1.939 million increase to the capital programme as detailed in Section C.