Issue - meetings

The Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services presented a report on the Council’s General Fund revenue budget monitoring position for the 2018/19 financial year as at 30 November (Month 8), together with details of a proposed virement to the Children’s and Disabilities services to fund the creation of 19 new permanent posts in order to maintain reasonable caseloads for social workers and reduce the reliance on agency staff.

The forecast outturn position for the General Fund showed a similar position to that at the end of October 2018, with a projected year-end overspend of £3.857m against the budget of £145.368m.  The Cabinet Member referred to the significant pressures within the People and Resilience directorate and confirmed that the projection took into account a £2.5m reduction in spend based on the delivery of the People and Resilience Action Plan that had been developed in response to the pressures. 

In response to a question regarding the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement for 2019/20, the Cabinet Member for Finance, Performance and Core Services commented that the Government’s austerity programme continued to have a detrimental impact on areas such as Barking and Dagenham while marginal, Conservative-led Councils in the shire districts were being treated much more favourably.

The Cabinet resolved to:

(i)  Note the current forecast outturn position for 2018/19 of the Council’s General Fund revenue budget, as detailed in section 2 and Appendix A to the report; and

(ii)  Approve a virement of £1.37m from the Central Expenses budget to increase the staffing budget for Children’s and Disabilities services, as detailed in paragraph 3.27 of the report.