To review performance for 2018/19 and the budget outturn for the year.

The cabinet member for corporate services and finance presented the report and highlighted the following: 

·         It was a comprehensive report and appendices.

·         The old administration were thanked for overseeing the corporate plan. 

·         There had been an overall underspend of £600k and these monies had been placed in general reserves.

·         The savings had been delivered but not necessarily in the areas identified

·         Departmental savings needed to be realistic. 

·         Treasury management had underspent by £2m and this underspend had been revised in year.   This area was instrumental in balancing the directorates over and under spends.  

·         Adults and communities had made excellent progress.

·         It was gratifying to see the increase in use of Wellbeing Information and Signposting for Herefordshire (WISH) by 19%

·         Home First had been rated Good by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).   This was a key service in relation to hospital discharges and care in the home.  

·         The children and families pressures continued primarily to be in relation to LAC.

In discussion of the report, the cabinet members commented:

·         It was important to note the delivery of the savings in the adult and wellbeing directorate budget for the last finance year.   Some areas had not delivered their savings due to policy changes but that other areas had over delivered. 

·         The issue of the recruitment and potentially retention of social workers may now need to be revisited via a task and finish group. The director of children and families reported that retention of children’s social workers was not an issue due to work in the past year in developing career pathways and increasing  business support and management.   Market forces supplements had also been implemented.     The directorate were also starting to roll out software which enabled voice recording for visit notes which reduced the social workers typing time.   Recruitment of children’s social workers was the issue.  The directorate would expect some turnover but that work with regional colleagues and individual recruitment agencies was being undertaken to look at this issue.    The key issue was the geography and location of Herefordshire. 

·         Whether the report could be made more readable, especially by children and young people.

Group leaders were invited to express the views of their groups which were as follows:

·         The previous Cabinet had selected the red route for the bypass which was concerning for those residents whose properties were now blighted.    The cabinet member for infrastructure and transport indicated that until any alternative arrangements were considered, if there were residents who had concerns they should contact the council. 

·         There was little detail in appendix 5 of the report to show how the debt write offs had been chased.   It would be helpful for more clarification to be provided as to individual write offs and the processes used.  This area may be of interest to the relevant scrutiny committee.

·         With regard to appendix c (capital expenditure), it was surprising to see that the financial costs were higher by £1m.  The chief finance officer provided clarification that it was a matter of interpretation as this was an indicator of affordability.   It was amount of theoretical borrowing and not actual borrowing.

·         It was pleasing to see there was an underspend and it was a testimony to the way the finances had been managed. 

·         Herefordshire should be proud of the savings made, especially in adults.

·         It was encouraging to see that educational attainment is being maintained.

·         It was noted that in paragraph 33 of the report, there continued to be a problem with regard to referrals to the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH) and would recommend that this area came under greater scrutiny.

That:

(a)  Performance and financial outturn for 2018/19, including debt write off, as set out in appendices A, B, D and F were reviewed and no additional outcomes were identified;

(b)  the treasury management outturn report at appendix C be recommended to Council for approval; and

(c)  delegated authority be given to the Assistant Director People and Performance to produce and publish the final year end performance report