Issue - meetings

The Chief Operating Officer to present a report which provides a year end analysis of the council’s overall finance and performance position on 2022-23, including progress in delivering the savings programme.

Resolved:  (i)      That the year-end position be noted.

(ii)     That the finance and performance information be noted.

Reason:     To ensure that significant financial issues can be properly dealt with.

The Chief Finance Officer presented a report which provided a year end analysis of the council’s overall finance and performance position on 2022-23, including progress in delivering the savings programme.

The report highlighted the ongoing pressures faced by the council across all service areas, especially children’s and adults’ social care budgets, as well as increased interest rates and the challenge of inflationary pressures in particular.  The provisional out-turn position was a net overspend of £4.8m, funded from contingency and earmarked reserves. An overview of the outturn was provided in Table 1 at paragraph 7 of the report and key variances within each directorate were summarised in Annex 1.

Performance in general had remained high despite the many challenges of the past four years, and continued to compare well against similar local authority areas.  Strategic indicators with an improving direction of travel were summarised in paragraph 13 of the report; those with a worsening direction were summarised in paragraph 14.  Detailed information was provided in Annex 2.

In response to questions, it was confirmed that the financial position remained serious and the overspend was forecast to increase in the context of national funding issues.  The Executive Member for Finance, Performance, Major Projects & Equalities noted she was preparing next year’s budget proposals and was grateful to officers for supporting plans to present these in a transparent way.

Resolved:  (i)      That the year-end position be noted.

(ii)     That the finance and performance information be noted.

Reason:     To ensure that significant financial issues can be properly dealt with.