Agenda item

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and

discussion, the Executive resolved:

a)    To note the Service Directorate Revenue forecast overspend of £8.4m for the year.

b)    To note the total Council Revenue forecast overspend of £2.3m for the year.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Finance, Procurement and Performance, Cllr Liz Leyshon, to introduce the report.

Cllr Leyshon highlighted that the Month 3 report gave the council room to breathe, but this month’s report has shown deterioration and that there is no room for complacency.

Cllr Leyshon then handed over to Nicola Hix, Service Director for Finance and Procurement, who explained the forecast overspend as of 31^st July 2024 and the work needed to mitigate, and then went through each service area in detail and highlighted the comments from Scrutiny.

Maria Christofi, Interim Chief Finance Officer (S151 Officer), also highlighted that the £35m of savings shown in green still need to be delivered.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present. Questions and points raised included: good commissioning work ongoing in Adults to keep cost of care down; the increasing number of children coming into care, particularly at age 10-15 and with additional difficulties such as exposure to serious violence and exploitation; the need for more foster carers to reduce spend on residential care; the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficit; the education for life strategy; the pressures in the Communities directorate including Open Spaced and the Coroners Service; that this is a national problem that requires a national solution; chronic and urgent funding issues; the things that are within and outside of the council’s control; the ‘Barnet graph of doom’; the possibility of savings relating to hospital discharge planning; the use of reserves and capitalisation in the budget; the need to mitigate overspends; that every council has different factors impacting their budget; overspends relating to external placements in Children’s Social Care; the Joint Targeted Area Inspection; the need to support groups that work with youth in Somerset and the potential for LCNs to be involved in this work; the need to work collectively and have a one council approach to the financial challenges.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and highlighted the shortage of foster carers and the need for them in Somerset. The committee proceeded to vote on the recommendations, which were agreed unanimously.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and

discussion, the Executive resolved:

a)    To note the Service Directorate Revenue forecast overspend of £8.4m for the year.

b)    To note the total Council Revenue forecast overspend of £2.3m for the year.