Further to Minute No. 210 of the meeting held on 17 February 2011, the Cabinet considered the report of the Chief Executive and Section 151` Officer on proposals to finalise the 2011/12 Budget within the prioritisation framework agreed by the Council.
The Chair reported on the following corrections to the report, which do not affect the total budget figure:
Paragraph 7.1 Coast and Countryside value should read £306,000
Arts and Cultural Services value should read £497,000; and
Appendix B - Item 7.1.9 Arts and Culture should read £497,000 in 2011/12.
The Chair circulated an amendment to the recommendations in the report in respect of the Sure Start Children’s Centres, Youth Centres and to create a Budget Pressure Reserve.
This was a Key Decision and was included in the Council's Forward Plan of Key Decisions.
RESOLVED:
That the Council be recommended to:
(1) note the progress to date on the Transformation Programme;
(2) approve the Neighbourhoods and Safer/Stronger Communities Review, confirm that their activities be funded to the value of £1.2m and mandate officers to commence a consultation process with partners, key stakeholders, employees and Trade Unions, including the issue of relevant statutory and contractual notifications;
(3) approve the additional savings/budget adjustments outlined in paragraph 3.1 of the report and totalling £0.95m;
(4) approve the further savings proposals relating to management and support costs set out in paragraph 4 of the report and mandate officers to continue/commence the consultation process with suppliers, employees and Trade Unions, with a view to realising the reduction in costs identified, including the issue of relevant statutory and contractual notifications;
(5) note the balance of Management and Support savings yet to be identified and request officers to report back on specific proposals to meet this target;
(6) note the update on Terms and Conditions and the Social Care Funding and give approval to the inclusion of the savings within the final approved budget;
(7) approve the assessment of Tier 2 services in line with the previous resolution of Council and the specific savings proposals set out in Appendix B of the report, subject to the deletion of the savings relating to Targeted Youth and Detached Youth Work, and mandate Officers to continue the consultation process with relevant stakeholders, employees and Trade Unions, with a view to realising the reduction in costs identified;
(8) note the shortfall of £0.30m on the savings achievable from Tier 3 in 2011/12 only, subject to a combined saving target of £1m being applied to all Youth Service activities in 2012/13 with a part year effect of £500,000 in 2011/12 and a redesign of the Youth Service being undertaken to ensure that the savings are met and that our most vulnerable young people are protected whilst still enabling an element of universal service;
(9) approve the cessation of externally funded activity set out in Appendix D of the report due to the reduction in Government funding and mandate Officers to continue the consultation process with relevant stakeholders, employees and Trade Unions, with a view to realising the reduction in costs identified;
(10) approve a savings target of £0.9m in 2011/12 is applied to the Strategic Review of Sure Start Children's Centres and that areas identified for saving be brought forward at the earliest opportunity and not left until the final report stage;
(11) approve that any Children's Centre savings target for future years be kept under review;
(12) approve that the Children's Centres savings target in 2011/12 be underwritten by one-off resources;
(13) approve the creation of a Budget Pressure Reserve totalling £1.6m from one-off resources to be used to underpin potential increased demand or pressure in the budget and primarily in adult and children's social care; and
(14) approve that the value of this Budget Pressure Reserve will be reduced should the 2010/11 underspend be less than £2m and that the Reserve be allocated at the discretion of the Cabinet;
(15) approve the overall budget as detailed in Appendix C of the report, including the use of £4m of one-off resources funded from the re-appropriation of earmarked reserves, subject to:
· the permanent increase of £402,000 for the budgets for items 168 - Targeted Youth Work and 169 - Detached Youth Work
· the addition of £500,000 for 2011/12 only for the combined items 182 - Centre Based Youth Work and 183 - Duke of Edinburgh
· a permanent reduction of £900,000 for item 193 - Sure Start Children's Centres Cost of Service;
(16) note that a significant budget gap remains in 2012/13 and that work must begin immediately to identify options for bridging this gap.