Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Mr Watkins. Mrs Cole was present and Mrs Chandler was in attendance virtually.

No declarations of interest were received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting on 21 March 2024 were a correct record and that they be signed by the Chair. 

Cath Head (Head of Finance Operations) was in attendance for this item.

1. Peter Oakford, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Corporate and Traded Services introduced the report which detailed the overall Revenue and Capital budget outturn position as of 31 March 2024. The revenue overspend was +£12.4m, which included roll forward requests of £2.8m.  Within the overall outturn position, there remained significant overspends in Adult Social Care of +£32.6m and Children’s, Young People and Education of +£26.6m (with possible minor variations to the figures during the final stages of the year end processes and external audit). Mr Oakford noted the proposal to fund the £12m underlying overspend from the budget stabilisation smoothing reserves; however, it was noted that any draw down from the reserves weakened the council’s financial resilience and any further overspends needed to be mitigated to ensure future sustainability.

Mr Oakford noted that the Capital programme spend for 2023-2024 was +£216.4m which represented 52.9% of the approved budget. This was a £192.7m underspend against the budget, which was split between a +£5.5m real variance and -£198.2m slippage/re-phasing variance. Recommendations to roll forward the rephasing into future years was detailed within the report.

The first quarterly report for 2024-2025 was due to be presented to the September Cabinet.

2. Mr Gough noted the considerable amount of work that had been done to reduce the overspend figure and thanked both Cabinet Members and Officers for implementing the spending controls introduced in the latter part of 2023 and reducing the projected £50m overspend. However, the Council was still presented with a £12.4m overspend which emphasised the scale of pressures within the policy areas of Adults, Children’s services, particularly in relation to care placement costs, and SEN transport. Focus needed to remain on delivering the savings programmes and ensuring the growth rate of activity within those areas of spend did not impinge on other parts of the Council. Whilst Securing Kent’s Future provided an effective framework, there remained a great deal of work to be done.

3. Further to comments and questions from Members it was noted:

·         Members reiterated the Leader’s comments concerning the excellent work of officers and paid thanks to all those involved in reducing the overspend. However, whatever the result of the upcoming general election, it seemed very likely that austerity needed to remain in Kent.

·         In regard to Children’s Services, there continued to be a number of reforms, particularly in relation to SEND services and this work was being done in collaboration with the Department for Education (DfE) and NHS England. These changes were paramount to both improving the quality of SEND services through effectively targeting resources; and ensuring that spend was brought into balance with the funds available to reduce the burden on the Council Tax Payer. A report on those SEND transformation projects would be presented to a future meeting of Cabinet. In regard to the Schools High Needs Block funding, the Council entered into the Safety Valve Agreement which reduced the cumulative deficit arising  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

Matthew Wagner (Chief Analyst, Strategy, Policy, Relationships & Corporate Assurance) was in attendance for this item.

1.    Mr Wagner outlined the report for Quarter 4 (Q4) which set out the performance data up to the end of March 2024. Mr Wagner said that out of the 38 KPIs contained within the Quarterly Performance Report (QPR), 17 achieved or exceeded target (rated Green), 11 achieved or exceeded the floor standard but did not meet the target (rated Amber), and 10 did not meet floor standard (rated Red). The direction of travel analysis indicated 9 with a positive trend (2 more than the previous Quarter); 20 were stable or with no clear trend (one more than the previous Quarter), and 9 were showing a negative trend (2 fewer than the previous Quarter). Mr Wagner addressed the KPIs assessed as Red and the projected direction of travel, along with the proposed indicators for 2024/25.

2.    Further to comments and questions from Members it was noted:

·         In response to the (Red) Governance and Law KPI regarding the % of Freedom of Information Act (FoI) requests completed within 20 days – A Member training event was held to enable greater understanding of the challenges surrounding FoIs which was well received. The principal challenge remained however in managing the increased volume of FOIs received with the same level of resource.

·         In response to the (Red) Governance and Law KPI regarding KPI concerning % of Data Protection Act (DPA) Subject Access requests completed within statutory timescales – the direction of travel continued to be on a declining trend; however, it was noted that there remained significant challenge in meeting the statutory timescales due to the inaccessibility of electronic files, with a majority of records (69,000) held in paper archive form. It was an extremely onerous task and was one of the principal reasons for delay. Mr Jeffrey paid tribute to the officers for their continued hard work despite increased demand.

·         In response to the (Red) Customer Services KPI regarding the % of complaints responded to within timescale – it was noted that there had been a 10% increase in the number of complaints received compared to the previous year and this was again being managed with the same level of resource.

·         In relation to the (Green) Growth, Economic Development and Communities KPI regardingthe Number of homes brought back to market through No Use Empty (NUE) – tribute was paid to Mr Grimshaw and the team for their excellent work in bringing both commercial and residential properties back into use which generated revenue through taxes.

·         In response to the (Red) Education & Wider Early Help KPI concerning the % of Education, Health Care Plans (EHCPs) issued within 20 weeks – the indicator was expected to remain below the target while the service balanced completion of the backlog of older cases for those children and their families who had been waiting the longest. Prior to the internal changes made in April 2023, the oldest case identified was 119 weeks;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52.