Agenda item
Strategic Performance and Corporate Revenue and Capital Budget Monitoring Q1 2015/16 (Month 3)
Zena Cooke, Corporate Director of Resources.
Louise Russell, Service Head for Corporate Strategy & Equality.
Minutes:
The Committee received a monitoring report that detailed the financial outturn position of the Council at the end of Quarter 1 for 2015/16 compared to budget, and service performance against targets. This included:
- the projected year-end position for the General Fund Revenue, Housing Revenue Account and Capital Programme;
- Summary of the movement on Reserves; and
- An overview of performance for all of the reportable strategic measures.
As a result of discussions the Committee:
- Noted that the Council had entered into a Retention Agreement with the Secretary of State in November 2012 to allow for usage of those receipts from the sale of Council housing. DCLG rules stipulated that these Right to Buy (RTB) 1-4-1 receipts must be spent on the re-provision of council homes;
- Heard that in light of the summer budget announcement and the need to maximise the 1-4-1 receipts and the stock condition survey that is currently being undertaken, uncommitted elements of the housing revenue account capital programme are being reviewed;
- Noted that following the decision of the Mayor in Cabinet on the 28th July a further report was to be considered in respect of the delivery and procurement options of the new civic centre. However, at this stage it has been assumed that £1.12 million of the residual £2.5 million of resources ear-marked for the project will be spent this year with the further report including the financial requirements of the full project. Finally it was noted that there would be a briefing on the options for the new civic centre the next week;
- Heard that at the end of quarter one 26.93% of council tax have been collected against the target of 24.25%;
- Noted at the end of quarter one 29.82% of non-domestic rates had been collected against a target of 24.9%;
- Was informed that between April-June 2015, 279 over-crowded families had been re-housed against a quarterly target of 234. At the end of quarter one 29.36% of the annual target had been achieved. The outturn was 58% higher than this time last year when 171 families had been re-housed due to overcrowding. The total number of lets was greater than last year, although still low compared to previous years;
- Was advised that the employment rate in Tower Hamlets is 69.7% compared to the London average of 71.7%, a gap between Tower Hamlets and the London average of 2 percentage points. The target of ensuring the gap is less than 2.5 percentage points has been exceeded and this also represents a considerable improvement from this time last year when this gap was 5.9%;
- Heard that the quarter one performance for the Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA) claimant rate shows a 0.3% gap between Tower Hamlets and London; the target of 0.5 percentage point has been exceeded. The JSA claimant rate for Tower Hamlets was 2.4% and the London average was 1.9%. It was noted the trend is positive to this time last year when the gap was 0.8%. It was noted that the number of residents on JSA has reduced from 6643 in June 2014 to 4588 in June 2015;
- Was informed that the number of working days lost to sickness and absence at the end of June 2015 was 8.42 days per FTE post. This is 2.32 days above the end of year target of 6.1 days; and increase of 0.27% compared to last month; and an increase of 15.39% days compared to the same period last year;
- Felt there was a need to look at health related issues and to ensure the proper management of sickness by managers;
- Noted that in 2014-15 the smoking quit rate per 100,000 residents aged 16 or over was 626. The minimum expectation of 833 was missed. The 2014-15 outturn was a deterioration of last performance of 862 per 100,000;
- Heard that the average time between the children entering care and moving in to an adoptive family was 762 days against the minimum expectation of 614 days. It was also noted the 762 days is the rolling year to the end of June so is in line with the previous period based on new definition. It was also noted that the old three year rolling definition would show LBTH at 634 days until the end of June 2015, and the actual figure for quarter one performance is 229 days (i.e. there had been one adoption between April-June that took 229 days from the child entering care until placement with adopters). However, improving adoption importance remains a priority and children services are setting up a new permanence team and increasing the pool of available adopters to support this. Notwithstanding the above mentioned the Committee felt there was a need to mitigate the suffering of these children and welcomed the fact that measures were being taken to address this situation;
- Wanted to know if LBTH had the capacity to take adoptive children from Syrian refugee camps. In response it was noted LBTH are waiting to hear more details on the Government’s proposals and the impact on social care provision.
- Felt there was a need to promote how families could come forward to adopt within their own communities.
- Stated they would like to see figures of homeless persons and the cost to provide accommodation.
- Was concerned about people in jobs without decent pay and wanted to get a true picture of the situation within LBTH. It was noted that the welfare reform task group monitors how LBTH responds to welfare reforms as well as monitoring the level of poverty (e.g. the use of food banks).
- Indicated that it would like more information on capital monitoring and would wish to get the data in plain English so that they could concentrate on the message instead of being distracted by any complicated language.
Supporting documents:
- 150922 OS Covering Report Q1 performance monitoring, item 6.2 PDF 87 KB
- 150908 Cabinet strategic and budget monitoring Q1 - CPAP V4 (Autosaved), item 6.2 PDF 216 KB
- Appendix 1 - Control Budget, item 6.2 PDF 40 KB
- Appendix 2 Workings Summary V1 - Service Area, item 6.2 PDF 61 KB
- Apendix 3 - HRA, item 6.2 PDF 20 KB
- Appendix 4 - Capital, item 6.2 PDF 70 KB
- Appendix 5 Q1 2015-16 STRATEGIC MEASURES CAB v1.9, item 6.2 PDF 300 KB