Agenda item

This report presents the final report arising from the Loans and Grants Scrutiny review attached as Appendix 1, and asks Cabinet to approve the recommendations arising from the review.

The Chair of the Task Group, Councillor Steward, will attend the meeting to present the report and answer any questions.

Resolved:   i)    That Cabinet thank the Task Group for their work.

ii)     That, following the update of the Financial Regulations, a report be presented to Cabinet  in  relation to the consideration and implementation of the Task Groups recommendations and their incorporation within the Regulations.

Reason:     To conclude the Scrutiny Review in line with CYC Scrutiny procedures and protocols.

Members considered the final report of the Loans and Grants Scrutiny Review Task Group which had been appointed to examine a scrutiny topic submitted by Cllrs Healey and Runciman focussed on providing guidance on best practice for monitoring future loans/grants provided by the Council.

Councillor Steward, as Chair of the Task Group, presented the final report and recommendations of the Group, which comprised of Officer instructions and templates to ensure consistency and monitoring of any future grants or loans made by the authority. He thanked Members of the Task Group for their work over a number of months and asked Cabinet to approve implementation of the following recommendations:

i)   An agreed common approach to be put in place for coding all loans and grants on the Council’s finance system to make them easily identifiable.

ii)  In regard to New Service Level Agreements (SLA):

a) Where those agreements make reference to other documents e.g. performance management information, those documents must be attached as an appendix to the agreement.

b) A template together with officer guidance notes to be introduced to support the process of producing an SLA, in line with that shown at Annexes B & C.

iii) In regard to current SLAs, the new process detailed above to be implemented as part of a phased approach, as and when each SLA is reviewed.

iv) All Loans and grants over 50k to be agreed by Cabinet

v) All grants over £100k or those deemed to be of higher risk, to have a legally binding grant funding agreement (GFA) rather than an SLA.

vi) The Council to make greater use of its website to share information on the loans and grants it provides, together with information on how to make loan/grant applications and details of those available to the voluntary sector.

vii) Applications for loans should detail the applicants other attempts to find the appropriate funding

viii) In regard to monitoring arrangement for loans – introduce a six monthly minimum requirement for reporting back on loans to a specified named officer or in the case of higher level loans, to the Cabinet. 

ix) In regard to defaulted loans:

a)    A separate recovery route on the Council Finance system to be set up to enable the Corporate Finance Team to easily identify and actively monitor those loans.

b)    Guidance to be given to ensure an improved understanding of the times allowed between each stage of the loan recovery process.

The Cabinet Member expressed support for the proposals and also thanked the Group for their work. He confirmed that the recommendations would be examined and an update on progress brought back to a future Cabinet meeting. The Director of Customer and Business Support Services referred to the Financial Regulations update currently being undertaken which would incorporate some of the Task Groups recommendations.

The Leader confirmed that Cllr Steward would be kept informed on the Financial Regulation work and that a report would be brought back to a future Cabinet meeting in respect of the recommendations.

Following further discussion it was

Resolved:   i)    That Cabinet thank the Task Group for their work.

ii)        That, following the update of the Financial Regulations, a report be presented to Cabinet  in  relation to the consideration and implementation of the Task Groups recommendations and their incorporation within the Regulations. ¹

Reason:     To conclude the Scrutiny Review in line with CYC Scrutiny procedures and protocols.