Issue - meetings

Zena Cooke (Corporate Director for Finance), Cath Head (Head of Finance) and Emma Feakins (Chief Accountant) were in attendance for this item.

1)    Mr Oakford, (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Corporate and Traded Services) introduced the report which set out the revenue and capital budget monitoring position as at June 2023-2024.

From the previous financial position that was provided in August 2023, the Council’s revenue position had moved from an overspend of £43.7m to £37.3m before management action and additional grant.

The 2023-24 forecast presented a serious and significant risk to the Council’s financial stability if not addressed as a matter of urgency, with significant forecast overspends in Children, Young People and Education totalling 28.5m and in Adult Social Care and Health totalling £25.8m before management action.

Work continued to be done to identify and implement further management action to be taken immediately in the current year, including one-off savings, and over the medium term. The details of this were contained within the report and in the “Securing Kent’s Future” budget recovery plan.

It was anticipated that the draft 2024-25 budget and Medium-Term plan proposals, due to be published at the end of October 2023, would show a significant gap for 2024-25 between forecast funding and spending. The recovery plan aimed to address this gap and further actions were yet to be finalised.

Mr Oakford advised that progress would be closely monitored throughout the remainder of the year and corrective action would be taken as necessary. It was crucial that the Council continued to limit its actions and focus on essential activity and priorities until the financial position was stabilised.

The outcome of analysis, related actions and progress to date in reducing the forecast overspend was set out in the report; however, Mr Oakford emphasised that the utilisation of analytics and cost drivers was key in curtailing the growth of spend that would flow into the 2024-25 budget.

2)    Mrs Cooke reiterated the need for concerted corrective action in order to achieve a stable financial position and the avoidance of non-essential spend where possible to address the 2024-25 gap.

3)    Mr Watts said that there was a requirement for the Council, through the management action work, to continue to meet its minimum statutory duties.

4)    RESOLVED to agree the recommendations as outlined in the report.