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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtual meeting

Contact: Wendy Simpson 01392 384383  Email: wendy.simpson@devon.gov.uk

Note: To be conducted in line with the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority and Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020. To see the live stream, please copy and paste this link into your browser: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_N2NlOGZhNzctZjc4MS00ZDdkLTgzMjEtMTBjNjEyNjU1YzU0%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%228da13783-cb68-443f-bb4b-997f77fd5bfb%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22d4c7c921-da4a-44fb-bcd0-72add6d37054%22%2c%22IsBroadcastMeeting%22%3atrue%7d  

Media

Items
Note No. Item

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197.

Minutes

Minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 2010 (previously circulated).

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 2020 be signed as a correct record.

 

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198.

Items Requiring Urgent Attention

Items which in the opinion of the Chair should be considered at the meeting as matters of urgency.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There was no matter raised as a matter of urgency.

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199.

Public Participation

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.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no oral representations from Members of the Public.

 

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200.

Budget 2021/22 and Capital Programme for 2021/22 to 2025/26 pdf icon PDF 364 KB

Overall Approach

 

The 2021/22 budget proposals will be scrutinised with consideration of relevant service area budgets by Scrutiny Committees with the Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Scrutiny Committee considering both its own budget responsibilities as well as any issues raised by the Children’s Scrutiny Committee and the Health and Adult Care Scrutiny Committee, to produce a single set of recommendations from all Scrutiny Committees.

 

This approach enables all Scrutiny Members to question and challenge the budget proposals across services, to better understand the implications of the budget proposals across the Council and to speak with one voice to make effective recommendations to Cabinet and Council.

 

The proceedings of all Scrutiny Committees will be webcast and publicised through normal channels including Twitter and Facebook.

 

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 risks and mitigation action required.

 

Public Participation

 

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

 

This 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 take an overview of priorities and prospects.

 

At this meeting Chief Officers/ Heads of Services will report on

 

·         the Cabinet’s Target Budget for Services and likely implications of the 2021/22 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; and

 

·         impact assessments undertaken in relation to the draft budget.

 

Report and Budget 2021/22 and Impact Assessment

 

Joint Report of the County Treasurer and the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CT/21/03) on the proposed budget for Children’s Services for 2020/21, attached

 

NB: An overview of the impact assessments for all service areas entitled ‘Budget 2021/22 Impact Assessment’ has been made available to all Members of the Council so that Scrutiny Committees have access to all equality impact assessments undertaken as part of the budget’s preparation. Members are asked to consider the contents and retain it for future meetings, accepting that individual assessments may be updated with time.  Members must have full regard to and consider the impact of any proposals in relation to equalities for this (and other) budget meeting prior to making any decisions.  Scrutiny Committees will no doubt wish to be assured that risk assessments and projections  ...  view the full agenda text for item 200.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee noted that the proposed budget for the 2021/22 financial year would be scrutinised by individual Scrutiny Committees.

 

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

 

This would follow the opportunity for individual Scrutiny Committees – 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 Corporate Infrastructure and Regulatory Services Committee for incorporation into any recommendations to Cabinet and Council.

 

The Committee then considered the joint report of the County Treasurer and the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (CT/21/03) on the provisional financial settlement made by Government and the spending targets set by the Cabinet for each service area which included inflation, commitment and service prioritisation reductions. The Report also detailed the proposed medium-term capital programme for Children’s Services and how it was funded.

 

The Cabinet, at its meeting of 9th December 2020, had set Revenue Budget targets for 2021/22. That Report had also updated on the recent Spending Review (SR2020) and presented Budget Targets for 2021/22, which were set out in in full at paragraph 3 of its Report and represented an overall increase of £28.4 millions or 5.2% (based on Revenue Spending Targets for 2021/22 of just over £571 millions).

 

In terms of the Spending Review 2020, this confirmed a one-year spending review, not the three years hoped for, but with the economic and financial impact of the Pandemic this had been reduced to one year.

 

This Report also outlined the key messages from SR2020 that would impact next year’s budget. Some of these included:

 

×        Core Spending Power to increase by 4.5%;

×        A new Social Care grant of £300 millions (nationally);

×        The Council Tax increase that would trigger the need for a referendum was 2%;

×        The option to set an Adult Social Care Precept of up to 3%;

×        Current Social Care grants would continue next year;

×        A public sector pay freeze, except for those earning less than £24,000;

×        The National Living Wage would increase by 2.2% to £8.91 per hour;

×        A grant of £670 million nationally to offset some of the impact of the Pandemic on the Council Tax Base;

×        A Council Tax Income Guarantee Scheme to compensate authorities for 75% of irrecoverable losses in the current year;

×        The current New Homes Bonus scheme would continue;

×        The Fairer Funding Review, 75% Business Rate Retention and Business Rates Reset had been delayed; and

×        COVID funding of £1.55 billions nationally; along with the continuation of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 200.


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