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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Suite - County Hall

Contact: Stephanie Lewis 01392 382486  Email: stephanie.lewis@devon.gov.uk

Note: Due to Covid restrictions and social distancing measures, members of the press and public must contact the Clerk to book a place should they wish to attend this meeting in person. It will however be live streamed and you can watch by copying and pasting this link into your browser - https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MjEwYzIxYzEtYTVlZS00ODAwLWFhNDAtNTMxMDg5NjRjYmM1%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%228da13783-cb68-443f-bb4b-997f77fd5bfb%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22092932fc-d274-4b6c-91b5-90e690141c3b%22%2c%22IsBroadcastMeeting%22%3atrue%7d&btype=a&role=a 

Media

Items
Note No. Item

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18.

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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19.

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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20.

Budget 2022/23 and Capital Programme for 2022/23 to 2026/27 pdf icon PDF 410 KB

Overall Approach

 

The 2022/23 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 an overarching set of recommendations.

 

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 make effective recommendations to Cabinet and Council.

 

The proceedings of all Scrutiny Committees will be livestreamed and publicised through normal channels.

 

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 2022/23 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 2022/23 Impact Assessment

 

Joint Report of the Director of Finance and Chief Officer for Children’s Services (DF/22/01) on the proposed budget for Children’s Services for 2022/23, attached.

 

NB: An overview of the impact assessments for all service areas entitled ‘Budget 2022/23 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 which is available at https://www.devon.gov.uk/impact/budget22-23/

 

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 are adequate and that the evidence supports the assumptions made in the  ...  view the full agenda text for item 20.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee noted that the proposed budget for the 2022/23 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 will 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 Director of Finance and the Chief Officer for Children’s Services (DF/22/01) on the provisional financial settlement made by Government and the spending targets set by the Cabinet for each service area which included inflation, commitments and any 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 8th December 2021, had set Revenue Budget targets for 2022/23. That Report outlined the targets in paragraph 2 which represented an overall increase of £48.7 million or 8.4%. The increased Revenue Spending Targets for 2022/23 now totalled just over £629 millions.

 

As detailed within budget monitoring reports, significant pressures had been and were continuing to be experienced within Devon and across the country. The unprecedented set of circumstances faced by the country had led to demand growth, cost base increases and acute labour shortages. Adult Care and Health and Children’s services in particular were continuing to experience in year operational pressures and many of the current year pressures were translating into budget pressures for 2022/23.

 

It was proposed to further support time limited pressures, invest to save programmes and to provide the critical services with time to manage demand and transform further by utilising some of the Council’s reserves.

 

The Capital Programme for 2022/23 to 2026/27 would be presented to Cabinet at the February Budget meeting.

 

At the Cabinet meeting on the 12th January, an update was given following the Provisional Local Government Settlement 2022/23 which was received on the 16th December 2021. The 2022/23 local government finance settlement was for one year only and was based on the Spending Review 2021 (SR21) funding levels. As part of SR21, the Chancellor had announced an additional £1.6bn per annum (2022/23 to 2024/25) for local government and the majority of this amount had been included in the Core Spending Power figures.

 

The council tax referendum limit would be 2% for local authorities, with social care authorities allowed an additional 1% social care precept.

 

Devon’s Core Funding  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.


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