Decision:
To approve the following:
|
£m |
Adult Social Care reserve – Defer recruitment for an additional Financial Assessment and Benefits Officer |
0.150 |
Better Care Fund reserve – utilise carry forward |
2.667 |
Public Health reserve – Uncommitted reserve to meet eligible public health overspend within the General Fund |
0.081 |
TOTAL |
2.898 |
That Cabinet note the following based on the above approvals:
Minutes:
The Lead Member for Finance, Council Assets and Transformation introduced a report that set out the Council’s current and forecast financial performance for the 2024/25 financial year as at the end of the first quarter to 30th June 2024. The report also detailed the management controls and activity to support financial resilience and the longer-term financial sustainability of the Council.
It was recognised that the Council’s financial position remained challenging, however, the 2024/25 budget was currently forecast to balance, subject to approval of the proposed recommendations in the report. The projected outturn was £171.6m against a budget of £160.2m, which would be an overspend of £11.8m. To address this position approval was sought for a package of mitigating actions in Appendix 9 totalling £11.4m to offset this projected overspend and balance the budget. Further details of some of the proposed in-year savings was set out in the Part II Appendix 10 which was considered during Part I of the meeting without disclosing any of the exempt information.
The Cabinet discussed the main areas of overspend which included increased pressures on the adult social care and temporary accommodation budgets. Members welcomed the early identification of the overspends to enable action to be taken. It was recognised that there were significant financial risks and the fact the Council had several years of unaudited accounts meant there remained some uncertainty about the financial baseline. Further work was taking place to review the position since the end of the first quarter and this would be presented to Cabinet later in the year. The new finance team was carrying out a significant amount of work on the backlog of accounts, finance improvement plan, managing the 2024/25 budget and preparing the 2025/26 budget and medium term financial strategy. The Chief Executive highlighted that the challenging financial environment for local government, and particularly Slough, which would put pressure on services and tough decisions would be needed to move the authority towards a sustainable financial position.
The Cabinet thanked officers for the considerable amount of work being undertaken and welcomed the transparent and proactive approach. The recommendations were then approved.
Resolved –
That the following be approved:
|
£m |
Adult Social Care reserve – Defer recruitment for an additional Financial Assessment and Benefits Officer |
0.150 |
Better Care Fund reserve – utilise carry forward |
2.667 |
Public Health reserve – Uncommitted reserve to meet eligible public health overspend within the General Fund |
0.081 |
TOTAL |
2.898 |
That Cabinet note the following based on the above approvals:
Supporting documents: