To review performance for 2019/20 and the budget outturn.

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

 

·         It covered the first full year of the coalition budget

·         There had been a number of challenges in changing the priorities and in addition there had been two major flooding events and the shared experience of a coronavirus.

·         Staff were thanked for their work over the year which included the additional work which had been required in connection with the flooding and coronavirus.

·         There was a slight underspend as at 31 March 2020 of £570k.

·         Council borrowing had decreased by nearly £10m and investments had increased.

·         All directorates had delivered their revenue savings target and were on target to deliver this year’s savings.

·         71% of the performance measures over the previous year had shown improvement or remained steady compared to last year. 

·         52% of the actions from our delivery plan had been are identified as complete or having been progressed within their planned timescales.

·         Bad debts written off amounted to 0.3% of the council's overall revenue budget.

 

As part of the discussion on the item, the following points were made about each cabinet member portfolio area:

 

Health and adult wellbeing

·         The positive performance built on three years of focused practice development and culture change within the adults and community directorate.

·         The strength-based model of practice had been of interest to both Welsh and English authorities.   This model had supported increasing numbers of people and enabled residents to build on their own strengths.

·         There was an enhanced level of support for staff.

·         There had been a 30% reduction in complaints

·         There was no waiting list for adult social care assessments.

·         Herefordshire was ranked 8^th nationally for resident’s quality of life and was in the top quartile for residents in receipt of care who have as much social care as they would like.

·         The TalkCommunity programme had been successful and this had been acknowledged during the two flooding events and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

Environment, economy and skills

·         There was new funding for external programmes, e.g. Marches renewable energy project which would assist with meeting environmental targets.

·         Extra funding had been receiving for extending walking and cycling projects.

·         Six new fully electric cars had been purchased.

·         There had been energy efficiency projects across the council estate.

·         The student accommodation on station approach would be completed soon.

·         Work on the shell store and cyber centre was continuing.

Housing, regulatory services, and community safety

·         Environmental health officers would be supporting track and trace.

·         Strategic housing had delivered 213 affordable homes against a target of 210.  

·         A soft market test had been completed on the housing delivery project and a specification was in the process of being written to enable the commissioning of a consultant.

·         The new allocation scheme for HomePoint had gone live on 22 June.

·         Work was in progress on the housing strategy, tenancy strategy and temporary accommodation strategies .

·         The supplementary planning document for affordable housing was currently out for consultation.

·         Empty property work had been suspended due to the coronavirus.

Infrastructure and transport

·         The economy and place directorate had delivered a balanced budget but there had been a challenge in the planning department.

·         There was an ongoing problem with the flood damage incurred in the county.    The council had been led to believe that Bellwin would cover these costs and there were ongoing discussions with government to ensure that the council received the funding.     

Children and families

·         The children and young people’s partnership plan had been agreed which had been developed in consultation with children and young people.

·         Work on mental health would be continuing and there would be a need to take into account the impact of the lockdown. 

·         There were now mental health support teams in secondary schools.

·         The edge of care service was now in operation

·         Specific accommodation for young people had been purchased.

·         There had been some stabilisation in children’s safeguarding and social work practice continued to improve.  

·         Recruitment and retention would be key to enable good practice to continue.

·         The new children and young people’s partnership arrangements were now operational and would build on the previous arrangements.

·         Education performance in early years and primary schools were now in the top quartile but work would further work was required in the secondary schools.

·         There had been an overspend in the children and families directorate but this was due to placement costs.   There had been an improvement in placement costs in the last quarter of the financial year.

 

Commissioning, procurement and assets

·         Cultural services had adapted to the new working arrangements due to the coronavirus.

·         Property services had taken over the maintenance of the College Road campus.

·         Work was underway on the Procurement- Local and social value project

·         The waste team had managed to keep all services running despite the pressure of two floods and the coronavirus.  The team had worked beyond their normal hours to ensure that no waste collections were missed.

 

Group Leaders

 

The group leaders made the following comments:

 

·         The outturn was a credit to the council

·         There would be decisions to be made if government did not provide the funding under Bellwin.   However, it was confirmed that there was active engagement with the MPs. 

·         Not all the waste sites were open and this was causing residents anxiety.   It was confirmed that there were plans to open all the waste sites.

·         If there was a resurgence of the coronavirus and if government funding was questionable, then it would be very difficult to deal with the crisis and would put local government in a difficult position.  

·         It was acknowledged that it had been a challenging year and the overall underspend was welcomed.   The financial position would be affected by coronavirus.

·         There was concern that the looked after children (LAC) and the number of children on a child protection plan remained high which would continue the budget pressure in the children and families directorate.  There was a request for a review of the threshold to ensure that it was correct.   It was confirmed the threshold would be looked at and that whilst there had been less opportunity for contact with vulnerable children and young people, the schools and directorate had kept contact. 

·         The progress on the shell store, cyber centre and expansion of the Hereford Enterprise Zone were encouraging.

·         The southern link road would be important to the projects in the Hereford Enterprise Zone but the funding had been lost.   It was confirmed that the administration did not lose the money, it had been withdrawn because they were not in a position to progress the project as no business case had been prepared which could be submitted to the Department for Transport (DfT).    A review of the project was currently underway. 

·         The strength based approach in adults and wellbeing directorate was welcomed.

·         The council signing up to the citizen’s advice bureau protocol in respect of council tax debt was good news.

·         The active travel measures would open up towns for those people who were shielding or clinical vulnerable.

Scrutiny chairpersons

The scrutiny chairpersons made the following comments:

·         It was frustrating that there had no little progress with regard to oral health as there had been a spotlight review in 2018 which had made recommendations.   It was also 5 years since the oral health plan was put in place. 

·         The strength based approach was working well, delivering care at the right time, at the right level and properly monitored.

·         Delayed transfer of care (DToC) had decreased.

·         It was pleasing to note an increase in the use of the WISH website. 

 

RESOLVED that: 

 

(a)     Cabinet reviewed  performance and financial outturn for 2019/20, as set out in appendices A, B, D, E, F and G, and did not identify any additional actions to be considered to achieve future improvement; and

(b)     The treasury management outturn report at appendix C be recommended to Council for approval.