Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from:

Mr Gary Cooke, Cabinet member for Corporate and Democratic Services.

Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director for Education and Young People’s Services, who was substituted by Gillian Cawley

No declarations of interest were received.

To agree the minutes of the previous meeting as a correct record.

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 27 June 2016 were agreed as an accurate record subject to the following amendment;

Mr Dance, Cabinet member for Economic Development was incorrectly recorded as being in attendance; Mr Holden had attended as his substitute.

The amendment having been noted the chairman signed the minutes.

To receive the initial forecast revenue and capital budget monitoring position for 2016-17.

Cabinet received the first budget monitoring report for 2016-17.

The report reflected the position for each of the Directorates based on the major issues arising from the 2015-16 outturn and presented to Cabinet on 27 June.

The issues had not been addressed in the 2016-17 budget build either  because they came to light after the budget had been agreed or the demand levels on which the budget had been based had increased since the calculations were made.

Andy Wood, Corporate Director of Finance and Procurement spoke to the item:

      i.        He confirmed in response to comments from the Leader that reporting in the future would be streamlined but that key activity data would continue to be reported.  It was intended that the new style of reporting would achieve the following aims:

·         That the time taken to produce quarterly reports to cabinet would be reduced from approximately 70 days to approximately 35-40 days from the end of the relevant period allowing a more responsive approach to budget management.

·         That resources required to prepare and  produce the reports would be reduced

·         That members would be able to more easily identify the key issues for consideration

    ii.        That the first report in the new format would be received by Cabinet in September.

Mr John Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement introduced the item for members; in particular he referred to the following:

      i.        That it was essential to the 2017-18 budget that a balanced, or slightly underspent, 2016-17 budget was delivered.  Therefore he was disappointed to report a £7.9million overspend for the first month. He urged members not to be complacent; he acknowledged that at this time last year the 2015-16 budget was showing an overspend but argued that having already made approximately £0.5billion of savings in recent years delivery of balanced budgets, and identification and realisation of savings had become more difficult.

    ii.        Paragraph 1.4 of the report addressed reporting issues within Directorates, and identified ways in which reporting could help to make forecasting simpler and more accurate.

   iii.        That Specialist Children’s Services continued to experience severe pressures currently reported at £4.5million.  These areas of forecast overspend related largely to the full year effect of increased activity and expenditure experienced in the last half of 2015-16 on residential and fostering and continued pressure on the staffing budgets based on continuing difficulties in recruiting permanent staff. In addition the adoption/permanency budget (principally special guardianship orders) was also experiencing pressure.  Philip Segurola, Director, Specialist Children's Services Social Care, Health and Wellbeing and Peter Oakford, Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services had been invited to attend the Budget Programme Board to further consider how these pressures may be mitigated.

   iv.        Pressures also remained in the following areas:

a.    Unaccompanied asylum seeking children’s budget

b.    Adults Social Care and Health - Learning Disabilities and Mental Health budgets

c.    Growth, Environment and Transport – Young Persons Travel Pass and Waste budgets

    v.        That the Capital Budget was on track with no significant variations to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 179.

To seek endorsement of the Local Growth Fund Round 3 (LGF3) and Large Local Major Scheme (LLMS) bid submissions to Government proposed by the Kent & Medway Economic Partnership & the South East Local Enterprise Partnership.

Cabinet received a report detailing the launch by Government of two new calls for project proposals that would help to unlock economic growth in local areas.

Sarah Nurden, Strategic programme Manager (KMEP) introduced the item for members.  In particular she referred to the following:

1. That there were currently two significant funding opportunities available to the Council:

invited to bid for a share of the third tranche of Local Growth Funding (LGF), worth £1.8 billion across England.

2. Ms Nurden addressed the LGF fund opportunity and reported that:

3. Ms Nurden then turned to the second opportunity, the Large Local Major Scheme (LLMS) and reported the following:

4. Ms Nurden continued; she explained that the purpose of the consideration of both matters by Cabinet was to seek endorsement of the list of bids, confirm that KCC would be willing to act as the accountable body for schemes within its geographical boundaries and that delegation of authority to the Council’s S.151 officer to write a letter of support for the bids and draw down funding should they be successful was supported.

The Leader thanked Ms Nurden for her introduction and her hard work in difficult circumstances.  He expressed disappointment that the federated nature of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 180.