Agenda and minutes

Members of the Council will declare any interest they may have in any item to be considered at this meeting, prior to any discussion taking place on that item.

The other registrable interests of Councillors of Devon County Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes: 

 A list of county councillors who are also district, borough, city, parish or town councillors

No declarations were received, over and above the other registrable interests of Councillors of Devon County Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities.

 A list of county councillors who are also district, borough, city, parish or town councillors

Members of the public may make representations/presentations on any substantive matter listed in the published agenda for this meeting, as set out hereunder, relating to a specific matter or an examination of services or facilities provided or to be provided.

In accordance with the Council’s Public Participation Rules, the Committee received and acknowledged oral representations made by Ms Elliott on a matter to be considered by the Committee that day, namely library provision budget proposals and the benefits of retaining this funding particularly in deprived areas given the wider range of service provided by this to these communities.

The Chairman responded, thanking Ms Elliott for her attendance and presentations which would be taken into account by the Committee during its subsequent deliberations.

Overall Approach

The 2025/26 service area budgets will be scrutinised by the respective Overview and Scrutiny Committees, with the Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Scrutiny Committee considering both its own budget responsibilities as well as any welcomes, concerns and recommendations  raised by the Children’s Scrutiny Committee and the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee and will produce an overarching set of recommendations.

This approach enables all Scrutiny Members to question and challenge, as a critical friend, the budget proposals across services to better understand the implications of the budget proposals across the Council and to make effective recommendations to Cabinet and Council.

The proceedings of all Scrutiny Committees will be livestreamed, publicised through normal channels, and will be open to the public.

The Council must have full regard to and consider the impacts of any proposals, as set out in impact assessments, and any identified risks and mitigating action required.

Public Participation

There will be an opportunity for members of the public to address each Scrutiny Committee meeting and make oral presentations on any matter relating to the proposed budget, in line with the Public participation at committee meetings.

Meeting

At this and other Scrutiny Committees in the current cycle, Members are asked to identify salient issues within each Committee’s areas of responsibility, to examine the general thrust of the budget and make recommendations on an overview of priorities and prospects. 

At this meeting Cabinet Members and Directors will report on  

• the Cabinet’s Target Budget for Services and likely implications of the 2025/26 target for individual areas of service and how those areas have been prioritised; 

• any comparisons between the current year and next year’s proposals for the 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; and  

• impact assessments undertaken in relation to the draft budget. 

In addition, the Chairs of both the Children’s Scrutiny Committee and Health & Adult Care Scrutiny Committee will be invited to comment on their Committee’s deliberations – in the context of any wider corporate issues that might be incorporated into any recommendations from that Committee to the Cabinet and Council. 

Report and Budget 2025/26 Impact Assessment 

Joint Report of the Director of Finance and Public Value, the Chief Executive, Director of Public Health and Communities and Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport (DFP/25/04) on the proposed budget for these Service areas for 2025/26, attached. 

For ease of reference, the Services are listed on the following pages:

Public Health and Communities - Page 16

Corporate Services – Page 28

Climate Change, Environment and Transport – Page 38

NB: An overview of the impact assessments for all service areas entitled Budget Impact Assessment 2025-26 has been made available to all Members of the Council so that Scrutiny Committees have access to all  ...  view the full agenda text for item 203.

(In accordance with Standing Order 25, Councillors Adams, Croad, Davis, Gilbert, Hughes, Randall-Johnson and Saywell attended and spoke to this item at the invitation of the Committee).  

The Committee noted that the proposed budget for the 2025/26 financial year were scrutinised by individual Scrutiny Committees.

The Chairs of the Children’s Scrutiny Committee and the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee presented an overview of resolutions to the Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Committee.  This Committee also considered the draft budget proposals within its own remit, providing an opportunity for Scrutiny Members to comment on proposals for the County Council’s Budget in its entirety. The resulting resolutions from Scrutiny would be reported to Cabinet and Council.

There was an opportunity for individual Scrutiny Committees 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 Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Committee for incorporation into any recommendations to Cabinet and Council.

The Committee then considered the joint Report of the Director of Finance and Public Value, the Chief Executive, Director of Public Health, Communities and Prosperity and Director of Climate Change, Environment and Transport (DFP/25/04), on the provisional financial settlement made by Government and the spending targets set by Cabinet for each service area which included inflation, commitments and any savings. The Report also detailed the proposed medium-term capital programme for the Services and how it was funded.

The Cabinet, at its meeting of 8 January 2025, had set Revenue Budget targets for 2025/26. That Report had presented the proposed service budget targets for 2025/26 totalling £784.1 million, a net increase of £44 million or 5.9% compared to the 2024/25 adjusted budget.

The preparation of the Budget for 2025/26 recognised that inflationary pressures continued to be felt across the economy, local government and partners. Social care was particularly impacted by increases to the national living wage and the increases to National Insurance.  The Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government was due to provide additional funding towards national insurance costs for local authorities own employees but details are yet to be confirmed.  Within the Target Budgets for services it was proposed to allow for £14.2 million for inflationary pressures. The Target Budgets for services reflected an estimated inflationary pressure of £17.7 million due to National Living Wage impacts.

To enable the Council to set a balanced budget, savings, alternative funding and additional income of £21.7 million has been identified.  Overall, there was additional funding of £44 million or 5.9% for services next year.

It was not currently planned to support the proposed budget targets by using general reserve balances, reflecting a strategy of ‘living within our means’.

The Capital Programme for 2025/26 to 2029/30 would be presented to Cabinet at the February 2025 Budget meeting.

The new Government’s first Autumn Statement was published on 30 October 2024 and the Local Government Finance Policy Statement was published on 28 November 2024. Of particular importance was the Government’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 203.