Agenda and minutes

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The Chair referred Members present to agenda Item 1 as shown on the agenda in respect of filming at this meeting, and Members noted the information contained therein.

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no items of urgent business.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no deputations, petitions, presentations or questions received.

To agree the minutes of the meeting on 11^th January 2018.

The minutes of the meeting on 11^th January were agreed as an accurate record.

To receive and note the minutes of the following Scrutiny Panels and to approve any recommendations contained within:

Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel - 18 December 2017.

Environment and Community Safety -21 December 2017.

Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel – 14 December 2017 (to follow).

Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Panel – 19 December.

The minutes of the following scrutiny panel meetings were agreed as an accurate record: Children and Young People Scrutiny Panel on 18 December 2017; Environment and Community Safety on 21 December 2017: Adults & Health Scrutiny Panel on 14 December 2017 and Housing and Regeneration Scrutiny Panel on 19December.

The Committee considered the Treasury Management Strategy Statement 2018/19 - 2020/21. Thomas Skeen, Head of Pensions introduced the report; OSC was requested to scrutinise and make comments prior to its submission to Corporate Committee and then Full Council for final approval. The following points were raised in discussion of the report.

• The Committee sought assurances around the operational boundary, and whether the current level of headroom was reasonable.
• The Committee sought clarification on cash flow levels and sought assurances that the Council had suitable cash flow available.
• The Committee sought assurances on revenue reserve levels, and whether there was enough flexibility to cover investment losses, should these occur.
• The Committee questioned existing debt levels of £346m and the revenue costs of servicing this debt.
• The Committee queried whether the authority was overly prudent in keeping its overall borrowing levels relatively low and questioned what the implications were of borrowing more.
• The Committee also queried what the Council’s liquidity levels were.  In response, officers advised that the bottom line was £10m, as this figure was mandated by the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive. The Committee also noted that in general, liquidity levels were subject to in-month fluctuations.
• Clarification was sought on the cost associated with servicing debt, it was agreed these would be circulated outside of the meeting. (Action: Thomas Skeen).
• The Chair of the Children and Young People’s Panel sought assurances of the Council’s ethical investment as part of its treasury/pension strategy.  In response, officers advised that the investments strategies for the pension fund and for treasury management purposes differed significantly due to the timescales involved in managing these investments.  The Committee noted that the pension fund’s investments covered a far longer period, whereas the Council’s treasury investments were done with liquidity and access to funds over the short term in mind.
• The Committee sought assurances around what the governance arrangements for the TMSS were, and what would happen if there was a change in capital requirements. In response, officers advised that the TMSS was agreed by Full Council every year and that  any changes in capital requirements would have to be assessed to see if they were within the existing operational and authorisation limits of the current strategy.

The Following comments were agreed by OSC to be passed on to Corporate Committee for their consideration:

• The Committee requested that information regarding the revenue implications of capital decisions be passed on to Corporate Committee and shared with OSC. (Action: Thomas Skeen).

* Clerks Note – revenue implications set out in below table*

• The Committee commented that commented that the TMSS was ‘cautious, but safe’.

• The Committee requested that the half yearly treasury performance update report also be presented to Overview and Scrutiny, this report includes information about capital delivery, and was normally presented to the corporate committee. (Action: Thomas Skeen/Clerk).

• The Committee noted that capital expenditure should be monitored closely, as investment in capital can help to keep revenue costs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Health introduced the Budget Scrutiny Recommendations report.

The Committee were asked to agree a series of recommendations on the budget and MTFS, following their review by the individual scrutiny panels. The final recommendations from OSC would then be taken to Cabinet for consideration along with the final MTFS proposals which would then be put to Council on 26 February for approval. In response to the discussion of the report the following points were noted:

a.    In response to a query  around the number of properties in the borough that were in council tax bands G & H, officers advised that it was around 5500 which was about 5%. The Committee raised a further question around whether using differential council tax rates to subsidise council tax benefit was legal. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that he thought that it would be legal depending on how that change was implemented; such as the introduction of different categories within band levels. However, it was suggested that this would create additional administrative costs and that this was likely to be opposed by the current government. 

b.    In response to a question, officers confirmed that the  implementation of 3% increase in social care precepts would prevent the authority from increasing it the following year. The Cabinet Member advised that there was no information currently available from the government about the long-term possibilities of implementing a year-on-year increase.

c.    In response to a question around the General Fund reserves level, the Cabinet Member advised that the figure was around £14m in April 2017 and that this was impacted by the agreed use of £8.8m of reserves in the MTFS. However, this reduction was offset by a surplus in council tax collections of around £6m which resulted in General Fund reserve of around £12m. It was anticipated that reserves would be around £15m at the beginning of the financial year.

d.    In response to a query around the impact of employing agency staff on the overspend within the Children’s Services budget, the Cabinet Member advised that an improved recruitment and retention package had been implemented to make Haringey a more attractive place to work. However, it was still necessary to employ agency staff to fill gaps in the provision of a statutory service.

e.    The Cabinet Member advised that the costs from adoption and fostering services were monitored regularly by Cabinet.

f.     In response to a question around the new models of care saving, the Cabinet Member acknowledged that there was more work to do to achieve the £1m saving, and that the saving proposal was likely to involve some degree of shared service provision.

g.    In response to a query around the total saving position within P2, officers advised that the MTFS set out an agreed saving of £2.4m for 2018/19, which reflected an agreed reduction of around £800k from 2017/18. In addition, there was a carried forward budget pressure of around £3.5m for 2018/19 which would also need to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

The Committee considered a report on Revised Scrutiny Panel Membership.

RESOLVED

     I.        That Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed the revised membership of the Adults and Health Scrutiny Panel as outlined in section 6.4 of the report.

N/A

The next meeting was noted as taking place on 26^th March 2018.