To provide Cabinet with assurance on the robustness of budgetary control and monitoring across the Council, to highlight key financial risks within directorates and identify mitigation to bring the authority within its overall approved budget.

Consideration was given to the report of the Chief Officer - Finance which provided Cabinet with assurance on the robustness of budgetary control and monitoring across the Council.  The report also highlighted the key financial risks within directorates and identified the mitigation measures being implemented to bring the Council within its overall approved budget.  The Chief Officer - Finance drew attention to the following points:

i.        The Council continued to forecast an overspend for the year; this was approximately £3.3m at September 2013, compared to £3.9m in August 2013.

ii.       There had been significant improvement in Adult Wellbeing; with a projected overspend of £3.4m at September 2013, compared to £4.3m in August 2013.  However, there were additional net pressures in other directorates of £0.3m.

The Cabinet Member Health and Wellbeing commented on the progress made in Adult Wellbeing, with the £0.9m improvement having been achieved through a combination of £0.3m from the Economy, Communities and Corporate Directorate and £0.6m coming from reducing demand, reorganising packages and bringing staff back into the Council from Wye Valley NHS Trust.  He said that he was encouraged by the work on ‘virtual wards’ which was helping people to stay at home rather than going into hospital or onwards to residential homes.  He also said that, although issues were still being worked through in terms of data accuracy, it appeared that matters were moving in the right direction.

In response to questions from Members in attendance:

1.       The Cabinet Member Health and Wellbeing advised that the budget made provision for winter pressures, however nobody could predict the severity of the weather during the winter months.

2.       With reference to paragraph 7.3 of the report about the ‘Additional action … to bring forward additional savings proposals from across the Council’, it was reported that a series of meetings was to take place in the coming week involving the Leader, Cabinet Members and the Chief Officer - Finance to go through budgets line by line with the purpose of being clear about what was achievable, what was at risk and what plans were in place to support those areas at risk.  The Leader emphasised that it was important to avoid overspends in the coming year.  He also said that he would report back to Group Leaders following these meetings.

3.       The Cabinet Member Health and Wellbeing advised that a number of pieces of commissioning work were going on at present, alongside a range of other activities, with the aim of achieving a budget for next year that could be adhered to but would also facilitate greater competition in the market and choice for service users.

The Leader added that the Cabinet was taking a more robust approach to the budget setting for 2014/15 than might have been the case in previous years.

RESOLVED:  That

(a)     Cabinet notes the projected overspend of £3.3m for 2013/14, an improvement on the August position of £0.6m, the potential impact on reserves and the 2014/15 budget;

(b)     Cabinet supports the continuing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48