Agenda item
Performance and Finance Review Quarter 1, 2009/10
This report summarises Brent Council’s spending, activity and performance in Quarter 1, 2009/10 and highlights key issues and solutions to them. It takes a corporate overview of financial and service performance and provides an analysis of high risk areas. The report is accompanied by appendices providing budget, activity and performance data for each service area, the Local Area Agreement, ring fenced budgets and the capital programme. Vital Signs trend data and graphs are also provided along with the council’s overall budget summary.
Appendices to the report are attached separately.
Minutes:
Phil Newby (Director of Policy and Regeneration) introduced the performance aspect of the report in quarter one of 2009/10. Members heard that overall there had been a decline in performance which was of some concern, with 30% of indicators classified as well below target, as opposed to 26% from the previous quarter. Areas of concern included:-
· Rise in crime, including gun crime
· Fly tipping
· Number of visitors to libraries
· Adults receiving secondary mental health services in employment
· Brent carers
· School places
· Complaints
Phil Newby advised that the perpetuator of a series of hold-ups of betting shops in Brent had been arrested and that gun crime had since dropped, whilst the adults receiving secondary mental health services in employment had been affected by the recession. Members noted that although Brent was second best performer of all London boroughs in terms of complaints dealt with by the Ombudsmen, there continued to be concerns about complaints being escalated from stage one to stage two and from stage two to stage three.
Mick Bowden (Deputy Director of Finance and Corporate Resources) then updated the Select Committee on the financial situation for quarter one of 2009/10. He advised that a net overspend of £4.5 million on the General Fund Revenue budget was forecast as at the end of first quarter, with the two main areas of overspend being Children and Families at £2.8 million and Environment and Culture at £1.6 million. Environment and Culture had been particularly affected by a drop in revenues from parking charges.
During discussion, Councillor H B Patel asked if the rise in the escalation of complaints was due to a lack of training of new staff. Councillor Van Kalwala enquired whether complaints received were particularly common from certain sections of the community or certain areas. He also asked if any measures were being taken with regard to educating residents over changes to Council services. Councillor Van Kalwala also asked if pressures on school places would continue to be an issue. Councillor Butt enquired whether any overspends for 2009/10 would affect the Council’s balances and sought further views with regard to falling revenues. He also asked what measures would be in place to accommodate areas where growing demand was driving costs up.
In reply, Phil Newby advised that complaints tended to be received by certain service areas and were often as a result of changes to front line staff. He emphasised the importance of providing staff with the sufficient training and confidence to be able to handle complaints and the Complaints Team was providing ongoing training with regard to this. It was being reinforced to service areas of the need to resolve complaints at stage one and consideration was being given to removing stage two in order to motivate service areas to resolve complaints at the first stage.
Mick Bowden advised that if there was a £4.5 million overspend at the year end this would mean that the Council’s general fund balance would be £3.1 million, some way below the target balance of £7.5 million and therefore every effort was being made to redress this during the year. An improvement in the budget position of individual service areas was already underway and this should be reflected in the quarter two monitoring report. Members heard that Environment and Culture were in the process of identifying patterns with regard to falling revenues, although this was a difficult exercise to undertake. However, budget estimates for next year had been based on forecasts that the fall in revenue had bottomed out. With regard to rising demand in some service areas, Mick Bowden cited the transformation programme that was underway within Children and Families and the impact of this in addressing the pressures in the service area. In addition the budget position for Adult Social Care was stronger than in previous years, reflecting the work undertaken to manage increased demand. Growth in the number of children requiring primary school places was expected to continue and access to additional funding was being sought.
Phil Newby agreed to a request from the Chair that the findings on Foster Care that were being looked at as part of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme be reported back to a future meeting of the Performance and Finance Select Committee.
Supporting documents:
- PRU Covering report Q1 V2, item 7. PDF 192 KB
- PRU Perf A4 Monitoring sheets, item 7. PDF 1 MB
- PRU Per Vital Signs, item 7. PDF 864 KB