Venue: Remotely via MS Teams
Contact: Scrutiny Officer - 01792 637732
Media
Items
No. |
Item |
55. |
Disclosure of Personal and Prejudicial Interests
Minutes:
Ben Smith disclosed a personal interest in Item 6.
|
56. |
Prohibition of Whipped Votes and Declaration of Party Whips
Minutes:
In accordance with the Local Government (Wales) Measure
2011, no declarations of Whipped Votes or Party Whips were
declared.
|
57. |
Minutes of Previous Meeting(s) PDF 330 KB
To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree
as an accurate record.
Minutes:
The Panel considered letters and minutes from previous
meetings and agreed the minutes of the meeting on 15 December 2021 as an
accurate record of the meeting.
|
58. |
Public Questions
Questions must be submitted in writing, no later than noon
on the working day prior to the meeting.
Questions must relate to items on the agenda. Questions will be dealt
with in a 10-minute period.
Minutes:
There were no public questions
|
59. |
Budget Proposals 2022/23 - 2025/26
Invited to attend:
Ben Smith – Chief Finance Officer / S.151 Officer
Cllr Rob Stewart -
Cabinet Member for Economy, Finance and Strategy
Link to relevant Cabinet
papers
Minutes:
The Leader and the Chief Finance Officer attended the meeting to present
the report and answer questions. It was noted that:
- The Welsh Government budget and settlement
announcements are late again this year.
- This is not yet a fully formed budget, further
developments and policy announcements are likely to come all the way
through to March 2022.
- S1.6 - The three-year outline envelope from
the Welsh Government, whilst only a broad indication, is nevertheless very
welcome and helpful for medium term budget planning purposes.
- The Panel
queried table 1, note 7, regarding the removal /
future use of Capital Equalisation Reserve (CER). Officers explained this
format sets out a balanced position between years.
- S3.6 - Following the welcome uplift in funding
received from the Welsh Government (£33.9m), it is
envisaged that all directorates as a whole (excluding Finance) will
receive an overall increase in cash budgets for next year of at least 7%.
- S4.3 - even with savings, Directorate budgets
will still grow overall by about £80m over 4 years.
- S4.4 - Assumption that future funding from
Welsh Government increases by 3.5% in 2023/24, 2.4% in 2024/25 and 2%
thereafter.
- Highest inflation rates in over a decade, with
inflation likely to go higher still. Uncertainty surrounding Brexit and
continued pandemic.
- S4.11 – Capital block grant allocation: £2M
shortfall illustrated in Table 4.
- S4.18 - appropriate use of the Capital
Equalisation Reserve will be recommended for use
in determining the final shape of the overall budget.
- S5 - noted substantial cash increase in school
delegated budgets.
- Table 5 – Review of Planned Savings 2022/23 –
Members noted this should read as thousands rather than millions.
- Table 6 indicates modest Workforce savings
proposals.
- Panel Members raised queries over potential
Council tax increases. Officers explained that the Council Tax yield is
currently 1-2%, that no decisions yet taken, merely a function of sum
needed to balance first cut of budget.
- Assumed Council Tax spending up 3.5% on
average (Welsh Government CTSS figure)
- S7 – Consultation process
- Table 9 – modest
proposals in terms of staffing savings. One post (Chief Officer) is still
at formal risk of redundancy as a result of
Council decision taken in November 2021.
- Certainty of future years
settlements useful.
- Significant underspend achieved in last 2
years and likely again this year.
- The Leader highlighted positive outturn at end
of 2021.
- Members queried the position of the Fire
Authority in relation to the
Estimated Fire Authority Levy increase
of 3 - 3.5%.
- S6.2 – Panel Members queried pay and grading
reviews, and costs of staff reduction. Officers explained that there is a
backlog of grading appeals, yet to come through, but compared to the
Budget are very modest in scale. It was noted that hardly any posts are at
risk of redundancy as a result of budget.
- The Leader explained that the UK
Government/Treasury has included Covid monies in the Welsh Government
settlement.
- Panel Members queried the Capital Equalisation
Reserve (referring to S4.17 and S4.18). Officers explained that the CER is being used to bridge some pressures and smooth some
timing differences over several years.
- Panel Members queried likely calculations
relating to note 18 (following the introduction of the new
Social Care Levy, currently reflected as an increase to National Insurance
rates). Officers explained it will be a few
years before figures can be certain both as to sums
raised by HM Treasury by the new tax and sums received and spent
ultimately by Councils.
|
60. |
Q2 Performance Monitoring Report 2021/22 PDF 310 KB
Invited to attend:
Cllr Andrew Stevens – Cabinet Member for Business,
Improvement and Performance
Richard Rowlands – Strategic Delivery & Performance
Manager
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Strategic Delivery & Performance Manager presented an overview
of the report to Panel Members. It was noted that:
- The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has brought huge
challenges and changes to the Council, its services and workforce. The
Council has never undertaken such change in such a short timescale and in
such challenging circumstances.
- Performance is judged
using the results measured by Corporate Plan performance indicators and is
usually compared to agreed targets. Targets for 2021/22 have not been set
due to the ongoing impact from COVID-19 and the associated lockdowns.
- The Q2 2021/22 outturn shows that 15 out of 26
(58%) comparable Corporate Plan performance indicators showed improvement
or stayed the same compared to Q2 2020/21.
- Officers highlighted that the new social
services performance framework had contributed to new indicators, and as
such no comparable data to report. Baselines are therefore not available
until next year.
- The report reflected the national shortage in workforce
capacity in social services, particularly in childcare work and adult
domiciliary care.
- In relation to the Safeguarding indicators,
although there has been an increase in the number of children supported,
there has been a reduction in the number of Child Protection Cases and
Looked After Children.
- The Panel commented on the challenges faced,
in particular, by the Social Services department, implementing the new
WCCIS (Welsh Community Care Information System).
- Officers highlighted performance data relating
to planning applications, explaining that this year has seen a significant
increase in the number of planning applications received which, combined
with staff vacancies, has meant an inevitable but relatively small drop in
performance compared to Q2 last year. </AI7>
- The Panel acknowledged that full performance
data is not yet available due to continued impact of the pandemic, and
would revisit this report in more detail next year. </AI8><TRAILER_SECTION>
|
61. |
Work Programme PDF 217 KB
Minutes:
The Panel noted the Work Plan.
|
62. |
Letters PDF 326 KB
Additional documents:
|
|
Letter to Cabinet Member PDF 325 KB
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