Agenda item

Corporate Plan, Medium Term Financial Strategy, Workforce Plan 2015/16 to 2017/18

(Report of the Chief Executive  - To be  introduced by the  Leader of the Council)

This report sets out the next steps in relation to the Council’s budget, Corporate Plan and Workforce Planning for the next three years.  Specifically it seeks agreement to move to consultation on the Medium Term Financial Strategy, Corporate Plan and associated documents, as well as starting an engagement programme with staff on the Workforce Plan.

 

Minutes:

The Leader introduced the report and began by explaining that the council were required to make £70m savings, following a reduction in central government funding and further to the representations made by the Unions, shared concerns about the negative impact on the community and vulnerable groups. The Leader reminded the meeting about the amount of savings already made by the council in the last four years and the difficulty now in making savings that would not have an effect on communities.

 

The Leader continued to thank staff for their significant effort in compiling a three year picture of the budget as this will aid the council in being clear in the future about what it can do and allow a serious debate on the proposals going forward.

 

The Leader explained: the thinking behind having a three year budget as opposed to a one year budget, the importance of being clear on what the council was trying to achieve, having a vision and, reducing the cost base and further allowing transformation of what the council does for the betterment of residents. This included focusing on: working better on preventing  costs  occurring, helping families experiencing problems earlier, helping older people  to stay at home  in supported living arrangements  with independence,  focusing on making the economy more competitive,  and  providing young people with the tools to succeed in life. Although the council would have a less budget it would need to be sharply focused to achieve these aims.

 

The Leader spoke about being confident for the future of the borough  and referred to the  improved results in GCSE’s which was nationally recognised, award winning parks, and lower crime. The borough could also be proud of its active communities and ‘building a stronger Haringey together’, meant coming together with partners and communities to achieve this aim.

 

Although there were budget reductions, the borough would be seeking to bring in £1billion of investment to increase housing and new jobs, as growth was essential in to sustaining the council’s future. The Leader re-iterated that the role of the council was not to manage decline but to come forward with a vision, ideals and sense of purpose to make the borough better.

 

The Cabinet Member for Resources and Culture continued introducing the report, by informing the meeting about the preceding two months of public consultation with residents and councillors about the future spend priorities for the borough. He placed on record some answers to the questions that had been asked in the consultation process:

 

·         The sum of £70m was based on information received by the council about the central government reductions and although this was an estimate the council would continue to evaluate this figure but it may also mean the savings task figure going up.

 

·         Increasing council tax by 2% would only accumulate £600k a year in additional funds which would not solve the savings issue. Increasing the council tax to higher percentage would require a referendum and the costs of completing this exercise would outweigh the savings to be accrued.

 

·         Council reserves could not be used to fill the savings gap as the purpose of this fund was to protect the council against risk and allow the council to take forward investments that would, in the long term, save the council money.

 

The Cabinet Member for Resources and Culture continued to speak about generating income for the borough and grasping opportunities that allowed this together with maximising the council’s assets. He further advised that the local authority will look different in the future and will be smaller meaning a 22% reduction in staff.  Having a different council would mean having an agile workforce that was able to move and work across the authority and support residents.

 

The Cabinet Member for Children and Families set out the thinking behind priority one of the corporate plan, which was  enabling children  to have the best start in life and this meant a remodelling of Children’s  Services to provide early help , building up families  and in turn communities .  An appraisal of the current provision of Children’s Centre’s and Youth Service and their support to the wider community was set out. Further key aims of this  priority outlined were: developing a strategy  for providing pathways  to children  leaving  school , supporting young people  with their social wellbeing and  helping them manage their themselves  and their health and education , engaging with hard to reach groups and young people at risk of gang involvement.

 

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Regeneration further set out the reasons for investing in Tottenham and emphasised the council having a strong leadership role in the borough to allow partnership working, investment and transformation in the area in turn providing work opportunities and transport access to job opportunities in London.  He further spoke about residents making Haringey their home, the new lettings agency, and integrating housing services so residents are not passed from one department to another. In response to the recommendation from the employee side about the  ALMO, there was a cross party Member group , newly established, looking at the future of the ALMO and  by  the summer of 2015, will have some proposals  on what the best housing delivery is  for the council.

 

The Cabinet Member for Environment described the types of barriers being placed on local authorities by Central Government which would have an impact on local initiatives. He referred to the recent government changes allowing CCTV cameras not to be used on parking and this would have an impact on keeping the roads safer. He spoke about striving for the best outcomes  for residents  with a reduced budget, ensuring clean streets traffic management  to allow quality of life and tackling  fly tipping, maintaining  the green flag parks  to a high standard and using FPN’s where necessary. The Cabinet Member continued to highlight the community led and community partnership projects making a difference to the borough.

 

The Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing spoke about the effects of the budget reductions on Adult’s Service, responding to demographic changes, meeting the requirements of the care act and ensuring older people were able to access their rights. All these factors culminated in considering how the Adults services will fundamentally deliver services to older people.

 

The Leader invited questions from Members attending the meeting:

 

In response to Cllr Elliott’s question on whether the savings in Children’s services were workable given the recent overspend in this service area, the Cabinet Member for Children and Families felt that the saving could be achieved. She referred to the recent reduction in children in care which,  for the first time in 10 years, was under 500 ,also  the approval of 19 Haringey borough based foster carers  with a total of  37 foster carers  expected be  recruited and approved by the end of the financial year.  The service had rightly provided high attention to the OFSTED inspection at the beginning of the year which could likely be attributed to the focus on the overspend but this would be overcome as the year progressed.

 

 

Cllr Elliott contended that  residents  judge their council by the state of the streets and was  concerned that reducing street sweeping and cleansing in the  high streets may make those streets a less attractive place to shop, resulting in loss of trade to local businesses. Cllr Elliott asked how confident the Cabinet were that community led action plans will reduce littering and fly-tipping. In response to this, the Leader explained that the proposal around lowering the unit cost of street cleansing services was associated with value for money and financially coming into line with higher performing boroughs by changing focus to outcomes instead of outputs. Contractors will still remain held to the resident perception targets, this will not change. The Cabinet Member for Environment spoke about the recent initiatives on clean streets and, the focus on outcomes and refreshed approach to the definition of ‘clean’.  The contractor will also be aware of their reputation in keeping the streets clean. He felt that streets were generally clean in the borough with the exception of some pinch point areas in Wood Green.

 

The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee addressed the Cabinet and thanked them for their engagement with the scrutiny budget process. He further thanked senior officers for attending meetings and giving their time to the scrutiny process. He was confident that the budget consultation was transparent process and felt assured the council would be working together to do its best for residents.

 

The Leader referred to the recommendations and Cabinet:

 

RESOLVED

 

Corporate plan – attached at Appendix 1:

 

i.          That the offer to residents, partners and staff proposed to accompany the Corporate Plan for consultation be noted;

 

ii.         That the corporate plan Building a stronger Haringey Together is now issued for consultation with residents, business, partners and staff, and return to Cabinet for decision in February 2015.

 

Medium Term Financial Strategy – attached at Appendix 2:

 

iii.        That the budget proposals and financial planning assumptions set out in Appendix 2 to the report be noted and further  note that they will be refined and updated after the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement is published in mid December;

 

iv.        That draft revenue proposals set out in Annex 2 be approved and that these are issued for consultation with residents, businesses, partners and staff before being considered again by Cabinet in February 2015 and then recommended to the Council at its meeting in February 2015 for the Council’s MTFS 2015/16 – 2017/18;

 

v.         That  the intention to consider proposed changes to Fees and Charges in February 2015 including those requiring approval by the Regulatory Committee (Section 9) be noted;

 

vi.        Cabinet approved draft capital proposals for 2015/16 only for those schemes requiring corporate resources and grant, to be considered again by Cabinet in February 2015 and then to be recommended to the Council at its meeting in February 2015 (section 11 and Annex 3);

 

vii.       That the draft Housing Revenue Account (HRA) MTFS 2015-18 as set out in Annex 5 and the HRA Capital Programme 2015/16 as set out in Annex 4 be approved;

 

viii.      That proposals for reviewing tenants’ service charges  be considered by Cabinet in February 2015;

 

ix.        Cabinet approved the proposed housing rent increases set out in section 13 which will be subject to consultation;

 

x.         That the proposed changes to the draft Dedicated Schools Budget (DSB) set out in section 16 be approved.

 

Workforce Plan – attached at Appendix 3:

 

xi.        That the Workforce Plan, which sets out the approach to creating the right workforce for the future, minimising redundancies and enhancing overall skill levels be noted.

 

Equalities impact assessments – attached at Appendix 4:

 

xii.       That draft equality impact assessments which are being published for consultation alongside all budget proposals referred to at 3.1.2b above be noted.

 

Alternative options considered

 

There is a need to reduce the Council’s budget by £70million over the next 3 years.  The scale of this challenge, on top of cumulative previous savings amounting to more than £100million over the previous three years mean a transformational approach is required.  The key principles which have informed the overall approach set out in the appendices to this report are:

 

Our focus should be on outcomes, not services, to ensure the Council’s budget is most effectively spent, on the things that really matter to residents.

 

We must have a long term view on delivery of outcomes and resources, both budget and staff, to ensure the most effective approach and best value for money.

 

Residents should be at the heart of all our plans.

 

Alternative options considered included a traditional corporate plan, not clearly related to budget; a budget focussed in detail on only 2015/16 and publishing simple proposals for consultation with staff on budget proposals rather than a joined up suite of documents each setting out a three year strategy.  However, the scale of change required mean that this approach would risk a misalignment between the priorities set out in the corporate plan and the budget, and therefore poor value for money and risk to the achievement of objectives.

 

The Administration made a clear commitment to freezing Council Tax for the duration of the current electoral term in their 2014 manifesto. Consideration has also been given to increasing the Council Tax to contribute to the estimated budget shortfall. If a rise in Council Tax above 2% were proposed, this would require a referendum. Additionally, given that any increase would result in the loss of Council Tax Freeze Grant the benefit of raising Council Tax against the loss of that grant is not considered worthwhile. A 2% Council Tax rise, which is the maximum that could be implemented without requiring a referendum, would generate c£1.6m additional income but would also, result in the loss of c£1m CT freeze grant, resulting in only a net £0.6m benefit. This brings in to question the worth of such an increase and therefore the proposal is not being taken forward.

 

Reasons for decision

 

The Council has a legal duty to set a balanced budget. This report sets out the strategic financial issues for the three year financial planning period to 2017/18, and updates on the process for setting the Council’s 2015/16 Budget.

 

Supporting documents: