nnCabinet considered the latest financial update report.

The Lead Member for Finance and Ascot informed Cabinet that the prediction that Covid would cast a long dark shadow over this year’s budget was correct.  The headline at month 4, after some support from Covid and transformation funding, was an overspend of £343K with general reserves just £16K above the minimum. Cabinet can be assured that we are looking at all options to manage and mitigate overspends.

Children’s services, not just in Windsor and Maidenhead but across the Country, had experienced an increase in the number of referrals, the number of children with Education and Health Care Plans and the number of children in care. This had led to a projected overspend of £1,473M.

The report informed that parents experiencing domestic abuse, mental health difficulties or substance misuse were the most common reasons why children come to the attention of children’s social care services. These issues were exacerbated by Covid, an impact that is likely to persist for some years. As a consequence, it was necessary to retain child facing posts adding £300K to budgeted costs.

There had been a small increase of the number of children in care but the increased complexity of need and competition for care places with appropriate providers had pushed up costs. Two years ago, the highest cost placements were £250K a year now they were £500K. Putting that into perspective currently we could only rely upon a 2% Council tax rise or increased income of £1.5 M a year, one third of that could be absorbed by just one high need child.

Actions were being taken to manage costs and a programme to incentivise foster carers was being developed. Local Foster Carers can save £12K per placement a year with the added benefit of children living closer to their support networks.  A more robust process had been introduced to review those children who were in placements to ensure the care they received was matched to their need.

Children’s services were about keeping Children safe to be able to enjoy their lives and fulfil their potential. The UK was amongst the best at achieving this objective and under Cllr. Carroll’s leadership we were amongst those rated to be good at it.

Adult Services were projecting an overspend of £684K the most significant cost was homecare where despite funding from the NHS Frimley CCG of more than £1.2M to facilitate hospital discharges and offer free nursing care an overspend of £516K was forecast.

The Adult Social Care budget was set at the commencement of this financial year based upon the 1,000 residents using services at average costs. At the end of July that number had increased by 14% to 1140 and average costs for both older people’s care and care for those with physical disability rose by 20%. However, Adult Social Care had a track record of delivering against their savings and para 9.9 on page 65 of the report demonstrates success of the project to ensure value for money from community packages for people with learning disabilities with a 7% reduction in average cost whilst maintaining the quality and appropriateness of the care.

Adults Social Care offered £3.6M or nearly 50% of this year’s savings. The savings tracker confirmed £2m would be achieved those savings delayed by Covid were being worked on and many would be delivered including the truly transformational, Mysense, with sensors working in the background in people’s homes, and artificial intelligence constantly looking for subtle changes and notifying caregivers before an issue occurs.

The most significant impact of Covid is in the Place Directorate with its community facing services. In the budget £3M had been allocated to support a shortfall in parking revenues and this was expected to cover the loss. Encouragingly a number of car parks were performing well.

Leisure services had a difficult year, they were closed for 20 weeks, had restricted operations for 30 weeks and were fully open for just 2 weeks. The anticipated contribution to the Council would be £400K less than planned and this despite support from Sales, Fees and Charges which ceased for all services at the end of June.

About £90M of income was derived from Council Tax and Business rates. Currently Collection rates were 0.46% and 7.9% respectively behind target but broadly in line with the other Berkshire Councils. From the beginning of July small businesses restarted paying business rates with support reduced from 100% to 66% so a reduction in the collection rate was anticipated.

The Council has received a final top up of £1.6M to the discretionary additional restriction grant. To aid economic recovery Louise Freeth, Steph James and others suggested that this be used to fund two innovative schemes. The first to support the advantage card, would for a period, provide compensation for businesses that join the scheme, with the expectation of sustainable increased sales but no loss of revenue. The second, to help businesses adapt and sustainably change their operating model to a new normal, grants in the region of £10K or £25K for training, audit and business consultancy are proposed. The details of these grants were still being finalised.

Despite the downsides there were many initiatives underway that would deliver quality services at lower cost, generate increased income and also support our local economy.  The many staff working on these projects deserve our thanks and our recognition.

The Chairman said he endorsed the comments and that the administration would continue to deliver services within the budget envelope.  We remained confident that there would be a year end position within budget as we seek innovation and transformation.

Cllr L Jones questioned the borrowing figures, at appendix F, that informed a debt of £203 million in 2022.  Members had been informed that by 2025 this would be £4 million and the pension deficit would be paid off.  With interest rates rising and reserves at a minimum she questioned she questioned how the debt would be paid back.  The Lead Member replied that the borrowing was on the capital cash flow programme and this was currently being updated, he was not aware of a document saying debt would be cleared in 5 years.

The Chairman informed that the golf course would provide a significant receipt for the tax payer that would help pay off debt, spend on infrastructure, provide affordable housing and a sustainable green site in Berkshire. 

Cllr L Jones replied that in the 2018/19 budget minutes it said that the debt would be paid off by 2025.  The Forward Plan also contained a number of RBWM Property Company report regarding the potential sale of assets and she was concerned that this was to pay of debt rather then having a retention policy.  It would have been good to have more information.  The Chairman informed that additional information would be provided at the appropriate time when the recommendations were brought forward; they may not all be about the sale of land as there could be leases involved.

Cllr Baldwin informed that on page 78, appendix B, there was a savings line regarding increased recycling.  He mentioned he was interested in this as he undertook recycling in in north Maidenhead.  We were a third of a way through the year yet only a quarter of savings had been achieved yet the saving had been marked as on target.  When questioning officers he was informed that this was an error in the report, he asked if there were other misleading information. The Lead Member informed he would follow this up with Cllr Coppinger and report back to Cllr Baldwin.

Cllr Werner addressed Cabinet ad said that there was a massive amount of borrowing.  He questioned that at the Council meeting this week that the lead member said that resident discount car parking would be re-introduced subject to finances, he could not see that this would be feasible given the current state of finances.  Cllr Werner asked when the Lead Member thought this would be possible.  The Chairman replied that he was confident that the budget would be met and that when the budget was set it was only the administration that set a balanced budget.  No alternative budget was put forward.  He looked forward to seeing an alternative budget being put forward next year.

Cllr Werner said that the Chairman had given clear assonances that the budget would be on target by the end of the year and he asked if the Lead Member also felt this way.   The Lead Member for Finance said he was confident that this would happen.  The Chairman also said that the longevity of Covid had to be factored in.

Cllr Larcombe said he had looked at the appendices but could not see anything regarding flooding.  The Lead Member replied that there would be nothing in the savings report and that the administration continued to commit £10 million.

Resolved unanimously: that Cabinet notes the report including the Council’s projected revenue and capital position for 2021/22.