Cabinet considered the report regarding the latest financial update for 2021/2022.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Ascot informed Cabinet that this was the first finance monitoring report for 2021/22.  Last year’s budget was overtaken by the consequences of the COVID 19 pandemic but turned out better than many would have expected and we established a Covid reserve of £3.8M and increased provisions by about £3.5M.

The 2021/22 budget build was undertaken at a time of extreme uncertainty.  The headline in the report was a £244K overspend that reduces reserves to £6.816M and just £100K above the minimum.

The monitoring report was not a snapshot of the Councils financial position at the end of May but, based upon the information available at that time, a forecast of the year end outturn. Forecasting was an inexact science so sensibly and in the interests of transparency, where there are risks, these a were identified in the report. A risk is the possibility, not a certainty that something unwelcome could happen and Directors and service leads are focused on eliminating or at least mitigating risks.

In AfC there were two new high-cost placements but the decision to move the demography fund and two grants to AfC provides a buffer of £340K to cover future placement risks. Covid increased demand for domestic abuse support and other statutory services, costing an additional £300K. As a result of the removal of a public bus service and risks around savings from the retendering of bus services a pressure of £254K was reported in Home to school transport. The increased requirement for AfC was £659K.

It was believed that there would be requests for some children to repeat an academic year, is unprecedented, and number of parents opting to educate their children at home could add to costs. Cllr. Carroll may choose to comment on these points.

ASC is projecting an overspend of £618K; there are many moving parts but the major drivers are an increase in older people needing care and those requiring support for Mental Health issues, the cost of care has also increased.

The transformation team continue to work hard and now COVID 19 restrictions have been lifted, projects designed to reduce cost and improve the quality of life of care users are underway which will assist in meeting savings targets. Re-ablement focusses resource on people when they leave hospital, so they quickly regain their life skills and independence and are able remain in their homes and manage their own lives.  A great scheme that improves people’s quality of life and reduces cost.

The installation of technology in people’s homes has commenced. Sensors raise an alert if it appears a person has fallen or become immobile. Sensors on kitchen appliances monitor when they have been used. So, eating and drinking habits of elderly people may be tracked. This information is monitored and interventions made when necessary. So, prevention not cure.

When setting the budget, A major challenge for our Director of Recourses and Head of Finance was lost income in Parking, Commercial properties and Leisure Centres these budgets are supported by Covid funding but for this year only.

In commercial estates there was a projected £1.5M loss, the team was managing their tenant base and looking to re-let empty properties. Given that new tenants will probably seek a rent-free period he did not expect any change this year but it is crucial for next when the one-off funding will have been used and he would ask the Prop Co to provide Cabinet with a recovery plan.

£1m of income was factored into this year’s budget from leisure and  there was a warning that this might be reduced to £600K. The Director of Place had agreed to meet with First Leisure to discuss their recovery plans. We have an incredible leisure offer with one of the most modern leisure centres in the country. Families are not holidaying abroad and as Covid restrictions ease we should capitalise on the summer period and work to increase attendance and our wider membership base. Finance reports also indicated a gap of nearly £600K for 2022/23.

The Deputy Chairman of Cabinet, Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Health and Mental Health informed Cabinet that he wished to thank the Cabinet Member for his very clear context from which he described the situation with Children's Services and Adult Social Care and Health and Public Health more broadly.  The word unprecedented was very aptly, and recently we are seeing across Children Services and on social care, some challenges, particularly which are COVID related, the consequences or complications of COVID are beginning to present.  When we think about children's services and education, there is going to be an ongoing challenge to ensure that children can catch up and that any attainment gap or achievement gap is closed. And there's nothing more important than life chances and opportunities for younger people.

He reported that our services continued to be incredibly resilient, and robust despite the ongoing pressures and challenges of the pandemic.   It was testament to the staff what a great job they were doing.  Children's services remained largely on track and with Adult Social Care the comprehensiveness of the service in terms of responding to those pressures has been more than comparable and commendable.   Both services were committed to providing services for residents and transformation to make sue we have values for money and excellent provision.

The Deputy Leader of the Council, Corporate & Resident Services, Culture & Heritage and Windsor said she would like to comment on the positive variance in libraries and resident services, because they have worked incredibly hard, also the registrar's have had a tremendous year, because they had to cancel weddings, rebook weddings several times, to very distressed people.  Given their hard work they had a positive surplus £150,000.

Mr Hill thanked the Cabinet Member for a clear report and asked the folloing questions.

·       At paragraph 6.4 CAbinet state that you have lost rental income from Sienna Court, which is held vacant for Denhead’s Nicholson redevelopment. Can you quantify how much that annual loss is, is it the £75k pressure stated, and if so have they paid RBWM for that loss?

·       At paragraph 9.7 you state that there have been early successes in reviewing Learning Disability cases to identify savings. In broad terms, can you give any examples of how this being achieved without reducing care or support?

·       Paragraph 9.7 page 12 you say you have identified the “top 20”  bad debts. What is the ballpark figure for the total of that bad debt so far identified?

·       At paragraph 10.4 you state that “the one-off Covid-19 budget of £200k to support Libraries and residents’ services in 2021/22 is “not expected to be fully required”. I’m a little baffled. Why could that money not be used, at least in 2021/22, to maintain pre-covid opening hours of libraries?

·       Paragraph 11.11 states that the post-pandemic effect of reduced commuting means that this may “impact this income stream on a permanent basis”. If that’s true then why are you still planning to build Vicus Way carpark at a cost of around £11m, when the business case is now known to fundamentally weakened?

·       Why is the loss of the weekly bin collection saving absolutely nothing? And why do you categorise this as an amber risk instead of a red risk when you state that it is “likely” that no savings will be delivered?

The Chairman informed Mr Hill that he was asking a lot of detailed questions that would better be responded to in writing.  He asked Mr Hill to send in his remaining questions and a response would be provided.  Cllr Price later asked if the responses to Mr Hills could be published in the public domain; if there were no objection they would be.

Cllr Jones addressed Cabinet and said we have been seeing an increasing percentage of the council's total spend going on at the Adults and the Children's directorates, which are statutory services. The pressures presented was squeezing other departments, especially areas such as bins, highways, museum and planning, we are told this trend will continue for the foreseeable future.   So apart from transformation that takes time to imbed what was planned to address the situation.

Cllr Jones also asked how bigger risks the impact of higher interest rates on our forecast boring costs was as they hit, as our boring hits £250 million by the end of this year.

The Cabinet Member responded that there was no squeezing other departments.  Grants had been transferred to AFC so they could mange their accounts and services.   Transformation had been ongoing and was progressing.   There was a need to increase income and the administration were working on this.  Interest rates remained a risk where we had contracts that needed renewal within year.  It was noted that interest rates for the year were budgeted for.  With regards to Adult Social Care members continued to lobby Government and an announcement was expected.

Cllr Larcombe asked with regards to appendix D the gross borrowing forecast question. The forecast was only looking at eight months ahead, could it be that we need a forecast that looks further ahead.  It was agreed that this could be included in future reports.

Cllr Price asked about inflation rates, she understand that being higher than anticipated when we set our budget, will that have implications for this year, or fall into future years. She also said that every year, we appear to have under resourced Adult Social Care and children's services. And we always end up with an overspend.

The Deputy Chairman of Cabinet, Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Health and Mental Health responded that in the last two years there had not been an overspend as mentioned.  More resilience had been put into the services and transformation continued to provide better outcomes and value for money.  There were national pressures and local services were doing an excellent job.

Resolved unanimously:  that That Cabinet:

i)      Notes the report including the Council’s projected revenue and capital position for 2021/22.