Issue - meetings

Cllr R C Evans

Key Decision identified as 2019/20 Outturn Report and Initial Trends for 2020/21 in the Notice of Key Decisions published on 20 May 2020.

Councillor R C Evans, Cabinet Member for Finance, Commercial Services and the Economy presented the report of the Director: Finance & Human Resources, Chief Finance Officer.

Cabinet Members noted that despite the significant financial impacts relating to the flooding of Ironbridge Gorge and the start of the coronavirus (CV-19) pandemic, the Council had ended the year in a positive financial position. The Council had not had to make any use of unplanned reserves in 2019/20 and had retained a prudent level of balances. This would support the Council in the current uncertain time.

The gross revenue budget for 2019/20 was £398m and the net budget was £121m.  The revenue outturn position was within budget with a final net underspend of £0.146m (which was equivalent to only -0.12% of net budget) after the proposed transfers to reserves and balances had been made.  This position had been achieved after delivering £6.1m of budget savings in 2019/20, on top of the £117m made in the previous 10 years giving a total of £123m - equivalent to around £1,500pa for every home in the Borough.

The funding outlook for the medium term was very uncertain. The Government had confirmed that, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the planned review of local government finance system would not be implemented.  However, there had been no confirmation of the funding levels for 2021/22, and it was anticipated that the Council would need to identify £4.6m savings in 2020/21 and around £18.4m of further savings in 2021/22 and 2022/23.

The key areas of pressures during 2019/20 were noted. It was reported that:

• Children’s Safeguarding & Early Help ended the year with a service overspend of £3.7m.  Spend during the year was higher than the budget as there was an increasing number of more expensive specialist placements for looked after children with complex and severe behavioural or emotional health needs over the course of the year.   The Council had invested additional funding of £4.958m into the Children’s Safeguarding & Family Support budget over the next year highlighting the very high priority placed by the Council on safeguarding children.  A cost improvement plan was in place which was monitored on a regular basis by senior managers and Cabinet Members.

• Adult Social Care ended the year with a service overspend of £2.6m.  As reported throughout the year, the cost of purchasing care packages from external providers and high demand led to a pressure of £4.9m.  This was mitigated by additional income totalling £1.7m from CCG funding and client contributions.  As part of the 2020/21 budget strategy, the Council had committed additional investment totalling £3.926m into the Adult Social Care budget over the next three years.  The Service also had a Cost Improvement Plan in place to deliver better outcomes and efficiencies

The Capital Outturn position 2019/20 was noted; capital spend ended the year at £41.84m against an approved estimate of £53.17m which  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3