Agenda item

This report sets out the Draft Capital and Revenue Budgets for 2024/25. In accordance with the Constitution, Cabinet is required to develop ‘initial budget proposals’ approximately three months before finalising the budget and setting Council Tax levels at the end of February 2024. The Draft Budget is based on the principles set out in the Medium Term Financial Outlook 2023-2028 (MTFO) considered by the Cabinet on 26 September 2023. This report also provides the comments of the other Overview and Scrutiny Committees on the Draft Budget proposals, for this committee to consider.

The Head of Revenue Accounts introduced the report, he highlighted since the report had previously been considered by the Committee in November and the other Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s in December. Following this, the government announced the provisional finance settlement on 19 December 2023 and additional funding in January 2024 including £500m through the local care grant. The additional income from this grant to Medway would be confirmed on 7 February, however the budget includes a provision for £2m.

Work was ongoing to reduce the gap and final budget proposals would be considered by Cabinet in February. Comments by the other Overview and Scrutiny Committees were at appendix one to the report, though no specific recommendations had been made.

The following issues were discussed:

Children Services budget gap - concern was expressed at the £22m budget gap in Children Services and the £36m gap for the Council as a whole. The Chief Operating Officer explained that significant work had taken place and final budget proposals would be published on Monday 5th February in advance of the forthcoming Cabinet meeting.

Social Care – in response to a question why the Council was considering providing direct care when this had been previously considered and rejected, the Chief Operating Officer advised using the private sector had been a lower cost than employing staff in the past, however, this was no longer the case. One option to reduce cost was to consider in house provision of care, another option was to promote independent living.

Children Services agency staff – it was asked whether the work to reduce reliance on agency staff had resulted in any savings to the council. The Chief Operating Officer stated the proposed pay offer was to correct pay which had not kept pace with inflation and pay in the local government sector. This would improve staff retention and reduce reliance on agency staff.

The Chief Organisational Cultural Officer added agency staff in children services were not only locums but also project teams which attracted a higher cost than locums. Children Services was focused on developing its permanent workforce and reducing reliance on those project teams.

Regeneration, Culture and Environment Department – it was asked whether the £500,000 budgeted for opening of splashes and £340,000 investment in street wardens was affordable, the Head of Revenue Accounts noted that further work had been undertaken on the budget and final budget proposals would be published on Monday.

Fees increases – in response to a question whether there would be an increase in parking and leisure fees, the Head of Revenue Accounts noted that parking fees were low compared to the rest of Kent and difficult decisions would need to be made to meet the budget gap.

Single Person Discount - in response to a question whether additional staff were required to complete the proactive work related to the single person discount, the Chief Operating Officer explained the Business Support Department had been reduced in recent years and was a lean department, consequently, to complete the additional workload more staff would be required.

Low Income Family Tracker – it was asked how many residents the been supported through the low-income family tracker, the Chief Operating Officer undertook to provide the information to the Committee outside of the meeting.

Decision

The Committee commented on the proposals outlined in the Draft Capital and Revenue Budgets in so far as they relate to the services within the remit of this committee, and considered the comments from the individual Overview and Scrutiny Committees, as set out in Appendix 1, and determined which of these are forwarded to Cabinet, contributing to the overall comments that the Business Support and Digital Overview and Scrutiny Committee fed back to Cabinet.