Issue - meetings

Recommendations

That the Executive

(i)             Notes the outturn position again the 21024/25 Revenue Budget, as summarised in paragraph 2.2.1.

(ii)            Notes the outturn position against the 2024/25 Housing Revenue Account budget as detailed in section 2.3

(iii)           Approves up to £480k of Strategic Capacity Reserve to fund digital EHCP system (paragraph 2.5.2)

(iv)           Approves the transfer of uncommitted reserve balances to Strategic Capacity (paragraph 2.6.1)

(v)            Agrees to transfer the revenue net underspend of £2,590k to Capital Supply Chain Reserve (paragraph 2.6.2)

(vi)           Note the performance of the Treasury Management operation during 2024/25 and the position on Prudential Indicators.

(vii)          To note the position on capital outturn as detailed in Appendices A to D

(viii)        To recommend to the Council the proposed carry forward to 2024/25 of the net capital underspend totalling £8.0m as set out in paragraph 4.4.2.

(ix)           To recommend the release of £2.6m from the Capital Receipts Unapplied Reserve to address the funding gap in relation to the Towns Deal Fund Station Gateway scheme as set out in paragraph 4.3.2; and

(x)            To approve the financing of capital expenditure as detailed in paragraph 4.5.1.

Considered – A joint report of the Chief Executive and Corporate Director Resources bringing together key aspects of the Council’s performance on a quarterly basis.

The Executive Member for Corporate Services, Councillor Heather Phillips, introduced the report which covered the period 1 January 2025 to 31 March 2025 and drew Members’ attention to the following:

·         The Council was meeting its strategy targets within Planning and an improvement plan was in place

The Leader welcomed Members of Scrutiny Board to the meeting. In response to questions to Executive Members from Scrutiny Chairs and Member Champions the following was confirmed:

·         Vacancies within the Planning team were being addressed.  Under the improvement plan the council would be undertaking more pre-application work which would reduce the time taken to determine an application after it was submitted as applications would be of a better quality.  This would improve income and enable more planners to be employed.  A single planning system known as Uniform was being implemented over the next 12 to 18 months to replace the different legacy council systems.  This would enable resources to be moved to address capacity issues and also ensure an improved performance management regime and improved information.

·         The amount of residual waste generated and collected per household had decreased compared to the same quarter last year, and the amount of recycling, composting and reuse of materials had increased.  The increased use of landfill was down to insufficient capacity at the treatment plant when it was shut down and the only option was to send materials to landfill.  There were financial penalties for the treatment plant operator when it did not meet performance targets and the council continued to work with them to improve performance.

·         Reablement packages were offered for a period of 6 weeks to enable individuals to regain their independence at home. Where help was still needed after 6 weeks the likelihood was that long-term help was required, the 90 day period was a measure of how successful reablement was.  Long term support at home was considered better for the individual and taxpayer than a residential bed.

·         Referrals to children’s social care had plateaued at 0.5%, which was still a minor increase and this figure reflected the highest ever level of initial referrals.  The council was responding to increased demand and there was a change nationally following the Family First programme and the memorandum of understanding leading to significant improvements in social care.

·         The practice in North Yorkshire was to keep children within their own family setting, and rates of children in care were significantly lower than the national rates.  In North Yorkshire the rate was currently 44 per 10,000, compared with 65 for our statistical neighbours, 70 nationally and 80 regionally.

·         Many factors were leading to an increase in the number of child protection plans including social media, the impact of isolation and covid, cost of living and unrest around the world.  The council was continually seeking to recruit social workers and was not dependent on agency staff  ...  view the full minutes text for item 685