To submit the report of the Head of Finance.
Minutes:
The report of the Cabinet Member for Finance
was submitted in which he noted that the final financial situation of the
Council departments for 2016/17 was good given the challenging financial
climate. He thanked the finance officers for their detailed work and their
support for the departments.
The Senior Finance Manager focused on the content of the report which
would be submitted to the Cabinet in its meeting that afternoon. Attention was
drawn to the recommendation for the Cabinet:
"1.1. To approve and note
the final financial position of the Council’s departments
for 2016/17.
1.2
To approve the amounts to be carried forward (the
“Revised Over/ (Under) Spend” column of the summary in Appendix 1), namely:
DEPARTMENT |
£’000 |
Adults, Health
and Well-being |
(100) |
Children and
Families |
0 |
Education |
(48) |
Economy and
Community |
(19) |
Highways and
Municipal |
0 |
Environment (formerly Regulatory) |
(38) |
Gwynedd Consultancy |
(96) |
Corporate Management Team & Legal |
(45) |
Finance |
(67) |
Corporate
Support |
(56) |
1.3
To approve the
following recommendations and virements (as outlined
in Appendix 2)
·
Use (£46k),
namely the underspend in excess of £100k in Adults,
Health and Well-being to contribute towards the shortfall in another
department.
·
Clear the
overspend in the Children and Families Department so that they can move forward
to face the challenges of 2017/18, and to finance this by re-directing the
Adults, Health and Well-being Department underspend (£46k) and Corporate
underspend (£151k).
·
Clear the overspend in the Highways and Municipal Department so
that they can move forward to face the 2017/18 challenge, and to finance this
by re-directing Corporate underspend (£88k).
·
Use the £939k
underspend on Corporate Budgets for 2016/17 as follows:
- £151k to clear the overspend in the
Children and Families Department
- £88k to clear the overspend in the
Highways and Municipal Department
- £700k to be earmarked in a reserve
to contribute towards the Financial Strategy for the future.
1.4 Approve the virements from the specific
reserves and release the provisions as outlined in Appendix 3 following a
comprehensive review of reserves and provisions.
1.5 Convey to the Departments that the Cabinet
will only clear overspend in very exceptional circumstances in the future, and
that departments will be expected to carry forward any future overspend (in
line with the procedure for carrying underspend forward)."
The Head of
Finance Department stated that the revised statutory financial statements for 2016/17 would be submitted for approval by
the Committee on 13 July but that this outturn report provided a clearer
financial picture. He noted that there was some uncertainty about the level of
Welsh Government grant funding for 2018/19 and beyond. He reported that a
review of all the Council's funds had been made at the close of this year's
accounts and £1,060m of resources had been collected. He explained that setting
aside £1.76m in a specific fund would give the Council time to plan in order to
respond appropriately in the autumn following confirmation of the level of
Welsh Government grand funding.
During the ensuing
discussion, the following main observations were made by the members:
·
Congratulations were extended to the departments
for their stringent financial management. Would the departments be expected to
continue to underspend?
·
Was the
overspend in the Children and Supporting Families department a result of
matters beyond the Department's control and was the underspend in the Adults,
Health and Well-being department the result of inability to provide services?
·
Could the annual trends
be included in the report?
·
The Council was unable to compete with private
companies in relation to fees charged for commercial waste disposal;
·
Did the Council's move
toward enabling older people to continue to live in their own homes mean that
there was an overspend on domiciliary care?
·
Was the overspend on waste
services the result of the fine the Council received in relation to storing
materials at the Tywyn Depot?
·
The committee had raised
concerns in the past about overspend in the maritime service and the Education
and Economy Scrutiny Committee should be asked to consider extending their
scrutiny work on reviewing the management and governance of Hafan
Pwllheli to include all harbours;
·
Concern that the
Consultancy Department was underspending considering the increasing risk from
flooding. The money should be spent on carrying out more risk management work;
·
The need to ensure that
any underspend was not the result of failure to provide services and that it
was a valid underspend.
The officers responded to the observations as follows:
·
A number of departments had underspent on a
one-time basis following achieving early efficiency savings. It was highlighted
that the underspend was a small percentage considering the size of the budget
and that the departments' 2017/18 budgets had been adjusted to reflect the
income generated in 2016/17, etc.;
·
Overspend in the Children and Supporting Families
and underspend in the Adults, Health and Well-being department was not the
result of an inability to provide services;
·
The Children and Supporting Families had overspent
mainly on location services. The Department had received a permanent bid of
£50k and a one-off bid of £210k for 2017/18 in acknowledgement of the pressure
on the services;
·
The Adults, Health and Well-being Department had
underspent as it had received money from Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board which was owing to it
from a few years previous. It was noted that this was a one-off situation.
·
Information submitted in the report had to be
selected; if the members wished to receive information about trends, an area
would have to be selected for detailed consideration;
·
Private companies could select from which areas
they collected commercial waste and the Council would serve the areas that did
not receive a service from private companies. The Council provided this service
with the aim of retrieving costs;
·
The Council's move
toward enabling older individuals to live in their own homes was a factor. The
change in emphasis and delivering savings plans showed a trend in terms of
additional pressure on domiciliary care services.
·
It was not the waste
services that had been fined but the Highways Maintenance service. The fine had
been included within the Highways expenditure figures.
·
The underspend of the Consultancy Department would be carried forward to 2017/18. It
was emphasised that the Department operated commercially.
RESOLVED:
(i)
To note the
situation and the relevant risks in the context of the Council’s budgets and
its departments.
(ii)
Recommend that the
Cabinet accept the report and approve the recommendations.
(iii)
Ask that the
Education and Economy Scrutiny Committee consider expanding its scrutiny work
on reviewing the management and governance arrangements of Hafan
Pwllheli to include all harbours.
Supporting documents: