Agenda item

To receive the 2022/23 Budget Monitoring Q2 report and identify any recommendations to Cabinet.

It was reported that at its meeting held on 7 December 2022, the Cabinet considered the 2022/23 Budget Monitoring report for Quarter 2 and referred the report to the Budget and Corporate Scrutiny Management Board for consideration and comment.

In total, the overall projected outturn position for the General Fund in 2022/23 was an overspend of £1.927m. Whilst the projected overspend had reduced since the previous quarter, it was still important to reduce the use of reserves in 2022/23. The recent pay award to Council staff, inflation, Adult Social Care placement costs and shortfalls in income from garages and markets were identified as main contributors for the overspend. Significant costs had also arisen from project work as a result of the governance review. Vacancy controls had been put in place since October 2022 and officers were actively trying to reduce the use of reserves as much as possible. A further report detailing Q3 monitoring would be received by Cabinet in February 2023.

In response to questions from members, it was confirmed that directorates that underspend can utilise the remaining funds in following years, if approved by Leadership Team. If the unspent funds were not used, the first step would to be ensure that the general reserves fund was prioritised. The Head of Finance highlighted details around delayed and future savings in the report and agreed to provide members with figures for the target savings of the current financial year. Members noted that the majority of the planned proposed savings were in place before the cost of living crisis and, therefore, inflation precautions within the budget were underestimated. Future budgets would consider higher inflation rates.

Discussions ensued regarding the significant overspend by Sandwell’s Children’s Trust (SCT). It was stated that many of the current issues faced by SCT were not directly within their control but, instead, impacted by external factors. A national shortage of social workers meant that retention and recruitment was difficult due to competition with other authorities. Supplements had been introduced to both new and existing staff to assist recruitment and retention; this was a significant drain on financial resources but was necessary to ensure critical safeguarding posts were filled. Limited availability of residential placements for children had also caused significant cost to the Council as rates had increased in-line with demand.

Frequent meetings between the Council and SCT were in place to monitor the performance and finances of the Trust. Despite difficulties, the recent value for money review found that governance arrangements at SCT had improved and relationships were much stronger. The recent Ofsted inspection was deemed positive.

In response to further questions, the following answers were provided:-

·      The possibility of in-house residential places was being investigated.

·      Officers would confirm if the Government’s published reports around the reformation of children’s services at local and national levels had been reviewed.

·      Social workers were currently allocated 16.5 cases on average, meeting the target of a maximum of 18 cases per social worker.

·      More information would be provided to members on how we were currently looking after our social workers.

Reserves would not be used to balance the budget next year.

The Board thanked officers for their attendance and had no specific recommendations for the Cabinet to consider on the budget at this point.