Agenda item

(Could Members please bring their copy of the draft budget circulated on 21 January 2008)

(Report by Mr P Carter, Leader, Mr A King, Deputy, Deputy Leader, Mr N Chard, Cabinet Member for Finance, Mr G Gibbens, Cabinet Member for Health, Mr P Gilroy, Chief Executive and Mr A Wood, Head of Financial Management)

1.         The Committee considered the Chief Executive’s Directorate Draft Budget proposals as set out in the Draft Budget 2008-09 and the Draft Medium Term Plan 2008-2011 and also the report which was circulated specifically relating to the key areas of these documents for the Chief Executives Department. 

2.         Mr Carter, Mr Chard, Mr Gilroy, Mr Wood and Mr Wale answered questions from Members which included the following issues:-

(a)       Public Health Budget

3.         In a response to a question from Mr Smyth, Mr Wood explained that there was funding for LINks (Local Involvement Networks) in the Area Based Grant and the increase in public health in the Medium Term Plan was shown on page 105 as a base budget adjustment. Mr Gilroy clarified that £492,000 would be received from Government to establish a contract for the LINks and the administration had put £300,000 in the budget for signposting Health Watch.

(b)       European Affairs Group

4.         In response to a question from Mr Smyth, Mr King confirmed that the funding for the European Affairs Group included all international activities such as those relating to China and the USA that KCC were currently aware of.

(c)        Dedicated School Grant

5.         Mr Wood in response to a question from Mr Smyth explained that a proportion of the dedicated school grant went to the Corporate Centre to cover the support that it gave the Children, Families and Education Directorate, and therefore schools in a variety of ways.  This was at the same rate as last year.

(d)       Strengthening Communications

6.         In response to a question from Mr Smyth, Mr Wood explained that the £175,000 pressure for strengthening and enhancing communication on page 106 in the Medium Term Plan related to the line on Corporate Communications on page 39 of the Budget book which showed an increase in budget from 07/08 to 08/09.

(e)       Gateways

7.         In response to a question from Mr Simmonds, Mr Gilroy explained that the Gateways Programme was being evaluated as it was rolled out and that it was developed as a 50/50 split between KCC and the district councils with involvement from 40 other partners.

8.         Mr Gilroy offered produce a report for the March meeting on Gateways setting out data on their effectiveness and the way that they were evaluated.  He also issued an invitation to Members to contact him if they would like to visit one of the Gateways and be shown around.

(f)         Localism

9.         In response to a question from Mrs Dean relating to the £345,000 in the draft budget for supporting localism, Mr Carter referred to the enhanced Local Strategic Partnerships (LSP’s) and the Local Area Agreement and emphasised the importance of making sure that there was real partnership working and in order to do that it was necessary to have appropriate officer support.  There would be fundamental review of localism and how it was supported.

Mr Wale referred to the visits that the Leader had made to each District Council to discuss localism with their Chief Executive and Leader.  He expressed the view that the localism agenda could continue to be delivered by Local Boards or a derivative of them such as Neighbourhood Forums or other ways that District Councils would be happy with.  

(g)       Reserves

11.       In response to a question from Mrs Dean on the adequacy of the levels of reserves, Mr Chard referred Members to the last sentence in Appendix F, page 133 of the Medium Term Plan and stated that the Director of Finance was not recommending any changes in the level of general reserves and the reasons for this were set out in the Medium Term Plan.

(h)        Development of Savings for Corporate Support

12.       In a response to a question from Ms Harrison, Mr Wood stated that year upon year it became harder to deliver the 3% efficiency savings.  What had been done in Corporate Support was to look at a range of savings in line with the request put to the Policy Overview Committee in November.  It had been decided that to assist the process of identifying savings, a peer review of each of the budget areas would be carried out with a peer from another service area looking at an area within Corporate Services with the Financial Support Unit providing data.  The process had worked very well and helped to shape savings across the Directorate.  The peer review also looked at possibilities of income generation within business units.

13.       Mr Gilroy referred to Mr Wild’s success with income generation in Legal Services.  In the current year he was on track to generate £1m of income.

15.       Mr Gilroy explained in more detail about the peer reviews that had been carried out across the authority as part of the building of the budget and invited Members to come and see him if they would like him to explain  this in more detail.  He also reminded Members that a full “root and branch” review of the authority had been carried out during the restructuring three years ago.

16.       RESOLVED:-

(1)       that the Budget 2008-09 and the Medium Term Plan 2008-09 to 2010-11 for the Chief Executives Directorate be noted along with the responses made to the questions from Members;

(2)       that it be noted that a report giving data for the effectiveness of Gateways would be submitted to the March meeting of the Committee.