Issue - meetings

Recommendations:

a)     Note the latest position for the County Council’s 2021/22 Revenue Budget, as summarised in paragraph 2.1.2.

b)     Note the position on the GWB (paragraphs 2.4.1 to 2.4.3)

c)      Note the position on the ‘Strategic Capacity – Unallocated’ reserve (paragraphs 2.4.4 to 2.4.7)

d)     Note the position on the County Council’s Treasury Management activities during the third quarter of 2021/22

e)     Note the updated Q3 2022/23 Capital Plan

f)     Recommend to the Chief Executive Officer that using his emergency delegated powers, he:

refer this report to the Audit Committee for their consideration as part of the overall monitoring arrangements for Treasury Management.

Considered –

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

County Councillor Carl Les introduced the Quarter 3 performance monitoring and budget report, confirming the in-depth focus for the performance section of the report as being Best start to life, an area that continued to have a significant number of challenges in the delivery of education and children’s social care during the pandemic.

County Councillor David Chance presented the Executive performance report summary, confirming the performance report provided strong evidence of the Council’s strong performance and leadership despite COVID-19, and continued progress in delivering it’s wide-range of ambitions. 

He went on to provided a brief summary of the strengths and challenges in performance across those ambitions and the priorities set out in the Council Plan which included:

·            The awarding of 32 grants totalling £26K to 30 community groups;

·            The household support fund continued to make best use of the £3.5m allocated by the DWP;

·            Key areas of support to households in need of assistance included direct awards of £275K in shopping vouchers, an increase food supply via the Food bank winter support fund, and an energy top up voucher scheme;

·            The delivery of free public wi-fi in five towns across North Yorkshire, with a further four towns set to receive it in early 2022;

·            Further reductions in the County Council’s carbon footprint, through carbon abatement programmes across the Council’s property portfolio;

·            A reduction in the amount of waste and an increase in recycling, resulting in an ongoing reduction in landfill;

·            Local Government Reorganisation continued to build impetus, with the development of detailed plans;

·            Adult Social Care assessment activity continued to be a significant pressure point, driven largely by the national pathway arrangements for hospital discharges;

·            Ongoing challenges across the care provider market, with a worrying trend of providers handing back care packages;

·            An 8% increase in the cost of residential home care compared to same period last year;

·            A rise in sickness absence across all services with the main cause being COVID – a range of mitigations had been put in place;

County Councillor Carl Les acknowledged the strong performance the County Council continued to deliver, and specifically in regard to the ambition of ‘Leading for North Yorkshire’, County Councillor Don Mackenzie welcomed the update on the delivery of Broadband and free public wi-fi with 18 town centres now being targeted, with a further three to be added.

County Councillor Janet Sanderson introduced the in-depth focus of the performance report on ‘Every child & young person has the best possible start in life’.  She confirmed it was a uncertain picture going forward due to the pandemic recovery and national funding.  She drew particular attention to:

·            A reduced number of contacts at the front door translating to an increase in referrals;

·            An increase in demand for statutory child protection, with more families moving into crisis;

·            A dip in the number of up to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 712