Meeting documents

Details of Cabinet Member interests in District, Town and Parish Councils will be displayed in the meeting room. The Statutory Register of Member’s Interests can be inspected via the Community Governance team.

The Chair will allow members of the public to present a petition on any matter within the Cabinet’s remit. Questions or statements about any matter on the agenda for this meeting may be taken at the time when each matter is considered.

To consider the report

DECISION

The Cabinet:

1. Considered and commented on the information contained within this report.

2. Considered the proposed management actions already in place are adequate to improve performance to the desired level.

3. Agreed this report and any appendices as the latest position for Somerset County Council against its Council Vision.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED: As set out in the officer report

REASON FOR DECISION: As set out in the officer report

To consider the report

DECISION

The Cabinet:

1. Noted the projected revenue budget outturn position for 2018/19 (being an underspend of £1.067m), the current Aged Debt Analysis, the position regarding reserves and the projected delivery of the Medium Term Financial Plan savings.

2. Approved one-off use of £1.382m from the corporate contingency as set out above in the summary section and in paragraphs 3.20 and 3.44.

3. Noted the plans to improve the Councils financial resilience by increasing the General Fund balance from £7.796m to £11.637m.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED: As set out in the officer report

REASON FOR DECISION: As set out in the officer report

To consider the report

DECISION

The Cabinet noted the contents of this report.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED: As set out in the officer report

REASON FOR DECISION: As set out in the officer report

To consider the report

DECISION

The Cabinet noted the recommendations of the Scrutiny for Policies, Adults and Health Committee and agreed:

1.     In partnership with other stakeholders including Group Leaders and Somerset MP’s, that the Council takes a leading role in proactively lobbying central government about the urgent need for sustainable long-term funding for adult social care in Somerset.

2.     That the Cabinet is aware of the future risk to adult social care funding, particularly the future capacity to deliver further savings and the impact this will have on preventative services.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED: As set out in the officer report

REASON FOR DECISION: As set out in the officer report

To consider the report

DECISION

The Cabinet agreed all of the following recommendations and also recommended these recommendations to Full Council for approval to:

1.     Agree a gross revenue budget of £780.181m and a net revenue budget in 2019/20 of £327.967m

2.     Agree the application of up to £2.791m in 2019/20 of capital receipts to fund the revenue costs associated with reforming services, subject to further development and review of business cases.

3.     Delegate authority to the S151 Officer, in consultation with the Chief Executive and the Director for Corporate Affairs to review all business cases before agreeing to the use of capital receipts or the Invest to Save reserve.

4.     Agree the replenishment of depleted reserves as follows:

a.     Create Invest to Save earmarked reserve of £2.852m to ensure resources are available to support further service reform;

b.    Addition of £2.000m to the General Fund, from the base budget provision, to bring the balance up towards a reasonable level for a Council of this size, and;

c.     Contribute an additional £3.389m to repay the Buildings Maintenance Insurance Scheme (BMIS) and Repairs & Maintenance Fund deficit reserves as the schemes have now ended;

d.    Addition of £0.540m to the Insurance Fund to partially replenish the fund to enable it to support likely claims against the Council.

5.     Agree the actions required to manage the gap to be reduced to £15.112m in 2019/20:

·       the reversal of previously identified savings and technical adjustments totalling £18.154m as set out in paragraph 4.5 and Appendix A

·       approve the revised Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) statement and policy (Appendix B), which delivers a saving in 2019/20 of £3.714m;

·       the reduction of the corporate contingency by £0.575m to £7.226m for 2019/20;

·       the use of the additional one-off Adult Social Care grant of £2.498m to meet the requirements set out by Government for this grant;

·       the use of the additional one-off Social Care grant of £4.267m for social care pressures, and;

·       approve the removal of the staff unpaid leave saving of £0.454m following rejection of the proposal by the Unions.

6.     Consider the proposed treatment of the minor funding changes following receipt of the Final Financial Settlement received on 29 January 2019 and the potential use of these additional resources as set out in Table 2 of this report.

7.     Agree the proposals for change (as set out in Appendices D and E1-E5 – subject to any amendments agreed by recommendation 6 above) necessary to set a balanced budget for 2019/20, totalling £8.512m, and delegated the implementation to the relevant director(s) following due process.

8.     Agree that due regards have been taken to any equalities implications identified and risk implications prior to any decision being taken in relation to the recommendations in this report, noting the initial equalities impacts as set out in Appendix C.

9.     Agree that the savings target relating to Waste Disposal costs (£225k) is endorsed to the Somerset Waste Board to consider agreeing to make savings to this value as part of setting its 2019/20 budget.  ...  view the full decision text for item 9.

To consider the report

DECISION

Cabinet agreed:

1.     To recommended the Capital Strategy 2019/20-2021/22, and the prudential indicators contained within, to the Council for consideration and approval at their meeting on 20 February 2019 (as set out in Appendix 1).

2.     to recommend to Full Council to delegate authority to the Section 151 Officer, in consultation with the Leader, Deputy Leader, Opposition Spokesperson for Resources, Monitoring Officer and County Solicitor, to design the governance arrangements and remit of the non-treasury investments for recommendation to, and approval by, the Cabinet and the Council before the end of July 2019.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED: As set out in the officer report

REASON FOR DECISION: As set out in the officer report

To consider the report

DECISION

The Cabinet endorsed the following recommendations and recommended approval by Council on 20th February 2019:

·       To adopt the Treasury Borrowing Strategy (as shown in Section 2 of the report).

·       To approve the Treasury Investment Strategy (as shown in Section 3 of the report) and proposed Lending Counterparty Criteria (attached at Appendix B to the report).

·       To adopt the Prudential Treasury Indicators in section 4.

The Cabinet noted the current Treasury Management Practices (TMPs) attached at Appendix D to the report.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED: As set out in the officer report

REASON FOR DECISION: As set out in the officer report

To consider the report

DECISION

The Cabinet agreed:

·       The proposals set out in Appendix 1 to improve Somerset’s early help approach.

·       The delegation of the award of the commissioning/grant fund to the Director of Children’s Services.  

·       The submission of a business case for support from the Invest to Save fund, or Capital Receipts Flexibilities as determined by the Director of Finance, in June 2019, enabling development work of the electronic early help module to support partners in delivering early help.

·       The delegation of the approval of business cases to the Director of Children’s Services and Director of Corporate Affairs for the implementation of the electronic early help module (See Appendix 1 Section 2).

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED: As set out in the officer report

REASON FOR DECISION: As set out in the officer report

The Chair may raise any items of urgent business.