To note and approve the annual earmarked reserves review.

Earmarked reserves are established to hold revenue balances to fund future year commitments over and above the annual budget requirement. They generally arise where funding exceeds expenditure, usually due to the timing of receipts being ahead of incurring expenditure. As a matter of good practice a review is undertaken each year to establish the continued need for reserves held for earmarked purposes to ensure resources can be used to best effect whilst maintaining a prudent level of reserves to meet future anticipated commitments.

That

The following changes be made to the reserve balances held, as shown in appendix 1:

i.              Establish a new earmarked reserve of £150k, utilising funds held in the financial resilience reserve, to fund the investigation of different models of delivering council housing; and

ii.            Establish a new ear marked reserve of £550k, utilising funds held in the financial resilience reserve, to fund the initial implementation in 2019/20 of an enhanced edge of care service for young people and support a high quality children’s social care service.

To determine movements in reserves. Cabinet may determine to utilise some earmarked reserves for a different purpose; however should that mean those funds are subsequently required for their original purpose an alternative method of funding would need to be secured. Not all earmarked funds may be redirected for use – for example funding received from external sources for a specified purpose may not be able to be redirected if doing so would amount to a breach of funding conditions.