Issue - meetings

(1)       Mr Shipton presented the regular report to this Committee on the forecast outturn against budget for the Communities portfolio based on the third quarterly monitoring report and subsequent exception report to Cabinet.  Officers answered questions from Members on this report.

(2)       Regarding the overspend on the Coroners’ Service, Mr Bainbridge stated that he had met with a senior official in the Ministry of Justice.  It was hoped that the Coroners’ bill would alleviate some of the problems which had lead to an overspend.  He stated that the Local Government Association were of the view that this service should be directly funded by central government. 

(3)       Mr Shipton clarified that the £612k net overspend on central costs related to one off costs in the central budget. 

(4)       In relation to a question, Ms Slaven undertook to provide Members with a briefing note on the decision making process for allocating monies from the Youth Opportunities Fund.

(5)       In response to a comment on vacancy management, Ms Honey explained that the Directorate did not have a blanket approach to this and acknowledged that in some areas, such as the youth service, it was crucial to maintain staffing levels and this approach stipulated that there should be no impact on frontline service delivery. She emphasised that vacancy management was about extending the period between someone leaving a post and a new person being recruited.

(6)       Ms Slaven undertook to provide Members with a briefing note on the Youth Service’s succession planning, including trainee youth workers and apprenticeships.

(7)       RESOLVED that the projected outturn figures for the directorate for 2008/09, based on the third quarterly monitoring report to Cabinet, be noted.