Agenda item

The Committee received a report which set out the Quarter 1 budget monitoring position. The report was introduced by Frances Palopoli, Head of Corporate Financial Strategy & Monitoring as set out in the agenda pack at page 95 of the agenda pack. The Committee noted that the report set out that the current overspend was around £5m. Non-Covid areas of spend were showing overspends but it was early in the year and directors were looking at mitigating these areas of spend.  The following arose during the discussion of the report:

a.    The Committee sought reassurance slippages in the Adults budget and confidence in the savings for this area. Officers advised that the overspend in Q1 was around £1m and that finance were doing detailed work with the Director on containing the overspend and the viability of savings. This work was being done across Council directorates.

b.    The Committee queried whether the Council’s financial forecasting was robust enough, given overspend projections. In response, officers advised that Covid had a significant effect on forecasting. The Council had made the assumption that the government would mitigate the costs of Covid and that this had been the case for 2020/21. Officers suggested that in an organisation the size of Haringey there would always be unforeseen eventualities, but officers were confident that everything that could be done was being done. There was a contingency built in to the GF budget which allowed the Council to offset some of the budget pressures that would inevitably arise.

c.    The Committee commented that this time last year there was a circa £20m budget gap and queried what the current in-year position was. In response, officers advised that the current Covid-related pressure was forecast at £32.9m but that they were expecting that the government would offset this through additional grant funding as per the previous year.

d.    Concerns were raised about the overspend within the Dedicated Schools Grant and whether there was an action plan in place to deal with the overspend. In response, finance officers advised that they were working with the Directors to contain overspends. The DSG was a ringfenced grant which did not show in General Fund. Haringey, along with most local authorities had seen continued annual deficits in this area. The DfE was in negotiations with local authorities about their relevant individual positions and it was noted that as part of this process, authorities would be expected to draw up an action plan to address the budget pressures. Officers set out that the Council would continue to pressure the government to provide a realistic funding envelope.

e.    The Committee requested that a breakdown of slippages in Children’s and adults be provided to the Committee in writing. (Action: Frances Palopoli).

f.     In response to a question, officers advised that they were confident as they could be that the government would offset Covid related spend in the current year and that they would continue to review this. Officers advised that had taken all of the actions they reasonably could to mitigate pressures across all budget streams.

RESOLVED

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

1. Noted the financial forecasts provided at Quarter1 and the assumptions surrounding them.
2. Noted that Directors are seeking actions to bring the current non-Covid 19 forecasts down.
3. Noted that statutory comments are included in the original report to Cabinet.