Agenda and minutes

Minutes of the meeting held on 10 January 2017, previously circulated.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 10 January 2017 be signed as a correct record. 

Overall Approach

In line with previous practice, the 2017/18 budget proposals will again be scrutinised collectively, with a joint session of Scrutiny Committees to be held on 30 January 2017, following preliminary consideration by individual Scrutiny Committees.

The joint session will, as before, enable all Scrutiny Members to critique, question and challenge the budget proposals across services, to better understand the implications of the budget proposals across the Council and to make more effective recommendations to Cabinet and the Council.  Additionally there will be an opportunity for members of the public to address that meeting and make oral representations/presentations on any matter relating to the proposed budget.

The Council must have full regard to and consider the impact of any proposals in relation to equalities prior to making any decisions, as set out in equality impact assessments, and any identified significant risks and mitigation action required. 

This Meeting

At this and other Scrutiny Committees in the current cycle, Members are asked, in advance of the Joint Scrutiny meeting, to identify salient issues within each Committee’s  areas of responsibility, to examine the general thrust of the budget and take an overview of priorities and prospects as a means of informing discussion at the Joint Scrutiny meeting.           

At these meetings Chief Officers will report, inter alia, on:

·         the Cabinet’s Target Budget for services/suite of services;

·         how that compares to the target figure for 2016/17;

·         the likely implications of the 2017/18 target for individual areas of service (e.g. in percentage terms compared to current levels) and how those areas have been prioritised;

·         any comparisons between the current year and next year’s proposals for the major service areas, to illustrate the scale of change within those activities and how the budget has been allocated across services in those years (to illustrate changes of emphasis or priority);

·         any “alternative delivery models” or other initiatives contemplated for given services and how it is thought that these may reduce costs;

·         impact assessments undertaken in relation to the draft budget.

Questions

As in previous years, a dedicated electronic mailbox facility is available to Members to ask questions of fact or on the interpretation of budget papers, in advance of the Joint Scrutiny meeting, until 24 January 2017, details of which have been circulated previously. 

Report and Budget 2017/18 Impact Assessment

The Joint Report of the County Treasurer, Chief Officer for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity, and Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste (CT/17/03) on the proposed budget for Place Services for 2017/18 is attached.

[NB:

An overview of the impact assessments for all service areas entitled ‘Budget 2017/18 Impact Assessment’ has also been made available to all Members of the Council in order that Scrutiny Committees may have access to all necessary equality impact assessments undertaken as part of the budget’s preparation.  The document will also be available at:

https://new.devon.gov.uk/impact/published/budget-setting-201718/

Members are requested to familiarise themselves with its contents, retaining it for future meetings accepting that this is a dynamic process and individual assessments  ...  view the full agenda text for item 40.

(Councillor Hart (Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member, Policy and Corporate) attended in accordance with Standing Order 25(1) and spoke to this item at the invitation of the Committee).

The Committee noted that, in line with previous practice, the proposed budget for the 2017/18 financial year would be scrutinised collectively, with a joint meeting of Scrutiny Committees to be held on 30 January 2017, providing an opportunity for Members to comment on proposals for the Council’s Budget in its entirety.  This would follow the opportunity for individual Scrutiny Committees – as at this meeting – to have an initial overview of the budget proposals and examine them to identify any specific issues or areas of interest that might be considered at the joint meeting referred to above for incorporation into any recommendations to Cabinet and Council.

The Committee then considered the Joint Report of the County Treasurer, the Chief Officer for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity and the Chief Officer for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste (CT/17/03) on the provisional financial settlement made by Government within the current and anticipated public sector funding regime and the spending targets set by the Cabinet for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity and Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste Services which included inflation, commitment and service prioritisation reductions.

The Report also contained the detailed budget proposals for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity, and Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste prepared in line with those targets, reflecting the different pressures and influences faced by services.

The proposed budget for Communities, Public Health, Environment and Prosperity of £35,203,000 incorporated inflation and commitments of £2,468,000 and required budget savings of £576,000; and the proposed budget for Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste of £56,406,000 incorporated inflation and commitments of £3,496,000 and required budget savings of £5,527,000.

The Public Health draft budget had previously been considered by the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee on 19 January 2017.

Members noted that overall, service inflation and commitments for the Council for the year were estimated at £43,026,000 and that to manage those combined pressures and set a budget within Government provisional targets, total savings of £22,229,000 would need to be found in the 2017/18 budget.  The announcement by Government on the final settlement and Council Tax Regulations was expected shortly.

The Committee were reminded that its consideration of the draft budgets of Communities, Environment and Prosperity and Highways, Infrastructure Development and Waste was just part of the process of setting the County Council’s budget which, following this meeting and the further joint scrutiny session on 30 January 2017 would culminate in the Cabinet on 10 February 2017 formulating budgets for consideration by the County Council on 16 February 2017. 

Chief Officers,in commenting on the likely implications of the 2017/18 target for individual areas of service, confirmed that demand on these areas to undertake transformation change whilst continuing to provide services remained testing.  Strategies used to achieve the target budget included income generation, review of policies and statutory  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.