Statement of Accounts 2017/18
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SOMERSET COUNTY COUNCIL STATEMENT OF ACCOUNTS 2017/18 AUDITED & APPROVED ACCOUNTS Peter Lewis Interim Director of Finance County Hall, Taunton, Somerset TA1 4DY WWW.SOMERSET.GOV.UK Contents Note Page No. Narrative Report from the Chief Finance Officer 1 Statement of Responsibilities 11 Independent Auditor’s Report to Members of Somerset County 12 Council Annual Governance Statement 2017/18 17 Statement of Accounting Policies 42 Primary statements: Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement 62 Movement in Reserves Statement 63 Balance Sheet 65 Cash Flow Statement 67 Notes to the core financial statements: 1 Accounting Standards that have been issued but have not yet been 68 adopted 2 Critical judgements in applying Accounting Policies 69 3 Assumptions made about the future and other major sources of 71 estimation uncertainty 4 Events after the Balance Sheet Date 73 5 Expenditure & Funding Analysis 74 6 Note to the Expenditure & Funding Analysis 75 7 Expenditure and Income Analysed by Nature 77 8 Segmental Reporting 78 9 Adjustments between Accounting Basis and Funding Basis under 80 Regulation 10 Transfers to/from Earmarked Reserves 82 11 Other Operating Expenditure 83 12 Financing and Investment Income and Expenditure 83 13 Taxation and Non Specific Grant Income 83 14 Surplus or deficit on revaluation of fixed assets 84 15 Trading Operations 84 16 Pooled Budgets 85 17 Members’ Allowances 88 18 Senior Officers' Remuneration 88 19 Termination Benefits 91 20 Fees for External Audit Services 91 21 Dedicated Schools Grant 92 22 Grant Income 93 23 Partnerships and Related Party Transactions 94 24 Property Plant and Equipment 95 25 Intangible Non Current Assets 99 26 Impairment Losses 99 27 Assets Held for Sale 100 28 Surplus Assets – Fair Value Measurement 100 29 Leases 103 30 Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) and Similar Contracts 107 31 Heritage Assets – Summary of transactions 109 32 Heritage Assets – Further information on the Authority’s Museum 109 collections 33 Financial Instruments: - Categories of Financial Instrument 113 - Items of Income, Gains and Losses 114 - Fair Values of Assets and Liabilities 115 - Short-term and Long-term Investments 116 - Long-term debtors 116 - Short-term borrowing 117 - Long-term borrowing 117 34 Nature and extent of risks arising from financial instruments 117 35 Inventories 121 36 Short term debtors and payments in advance 121 37 Short term creditors 122 38 Other long term liabilities 122 39 Provisions 123 40 Revenue and Capital Grants/Contributions Receipt in Advance 124 41 Usable Reserves 125 42 Unusable Reserves 126 43 Cash and Cash Equivalents 131 44 Cash Flow – Operating activities 131 45 Cash Flow – Investing activities 132 46 Cash Flow – Financing activities 132 47 Capital Expenditure and Capital Financing 133 48 Contingent Liabilities 134 49 Trust Funds 134 50 Pension Schemes 135 Group Accounts 142 Pension Fund 143 Glossary of Terms 179 Narrative Report from the Chief Finance Officer This section highlights some of the most important matters reported in the accounts and comments on the authority’s financial performance and its economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources over the financial year. Introduction Somerset Context Somerset is a beautiful county with many assets including a strong and significant heritage and vast areas of countryside and moors. Somerset’s population is classified as around 52% urban and 48% rural, making it one of the ten most rural counties in England. In particular, the district of West Somerset has the sixth lowest population density of any local authority in England. One third of people live in one of the county’s four largest towns: Taunton, Yeovil, Bridgwater and Frome. The population of Somerset is approximately 545,000 with an age profile that is weighted slightly towards people of older age; more than 1 in 5 of the residents of the county are over the age of 65. Somerset’s employment rate remains higher than the national level (75.9% compared to 73.9%) with 78.9% of Somerset’s residents aged 16-64 being classified as economically active. This is higher than the national average of 77.7% although average annual earnings in Somerset consistently lag behind the UK level. People Context Somerset County Council employed 3,381 people in full and part time contracts on 31st March 2018 which is a significant reduction on the previous year due to the transfer of employees to a new Learning Disabilities provider. Employees are a valued significant resource within the authority and employee’s costs account for 33% of the total gross expenditure. The authority’s workforce profile can be seen in the charts below. 1200 Gender Breakdown 1000 800 600 400 200 0 16‐24 25‐34 35‐44 45‐54 55‐64 65+ Male 28% Female 72% Financial Context Nationally, 2017/18 was a relatively stable year for the Local Government sector with no significant changes in funding mechanisms or responsibilities. The main focus therefore remained on mitigating the continued austerity measures which have reduced the Authority’s core Revenue Support Grant by nearly 38%. In November 2016 we agreed our Capital Investment Programme for 2017/18 of £107.599m and in February 2017, we agreed our revenue budget for 2017/18 at £311.8 million which resulted in a band-D council tax of £1,192.16. 1 The diagrams below show where our money came from. It is important to note that the contribution from the local community through the Council Tax represents just 28% of our revenue funding needs. Revenue Capital Developments for the year Childrens’ Services Ofsted re-inspected Somerset Services for children in need of help and protection in November 2017. The report was published in January 2018 and provided an overall outcome of ‘Requires Improvement to be Good’ in all service areas, other than Adoption which was judged to be ‘Good’. Ofsted, in their report said “Since the last inspection in 2015, when Somerset children’s services were judged as inadequate overall, the local authority has made steady progress in improving the quality of services that children and young people receive. Senior leaders have worked effectively with an improvement partner, and they have created a culture of openness and willingness to learn that supports further improvement.” The Ofsted report can be found here: http://democracy.somerset.gov.uk/documents/s6779/Ofsted%20For%20info%20doc.pdf Work continues to address the areas for improvement and recommendations have been incorporated into Programme 6 of the Children and Young People’s Plan for 2018/19 and progress is reported frequently to Scrutiny for Policies, Children and Families. 2 Better Care Fund In 2015/16 the Better Care Fund was established by the Government to provide funds to local areas to support the integration of health and social care and to seek to achieve the National Conditions and Local Objectives. It is a requirement of the Better Care Fund that NHS Somerset Clinical Commissioning Group and Somerset County Council establish a pooled fund for this purpose, which has been achieved in 2017/18 through a signed agreement under Section 75 of the National Health Service Act 2006. Somerset County Council received additional funding in 2017/18 through the improved Better Care Fund, which has been pooled as part of the Section 75 agreement. Under this Section 75 agreement there are three funds totalling £51.682m and hosted by whichever body undertook the contracting arrangements. These funds support the four schemes supported by the Better Care Fund namely Reablement, Person-centred care, Improved Delayed Transfer of Care (DToC) Arrangements and Housing Adaptions. The Somerset Better Care Fund arrangement is shown diagrammatically below. CCG LA Cash Cash Cash Single S75 agreement Fund 3 hosted by LA Fund 1 hosted by Fund 2 hosted by LA CCG £23.562m £11.651 m £3.466m Contract with NHS providers Contract with LA providers Contract with LA providers NHS Provider Local authority provider More detail about this arrangement can be found within the Pooled Budget disclosure note in the Statement of Accounts on page 85. Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership The Heart of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership (HoTSW LEP) has been awarded Growth Deal funding from the Government’s Local Growth Fund, a fund set up to fund projects that benefit local areas and economies. In 2016/17 it was awarded £56.7m, in 2017/18 £36.1m and in 2018/19 £10m. These monies are continuing to be spent as the projects approved by the LEP progress. DCLG paid the monies to Somerset County Council as the accountable body for the Local Growth Deal. More information on the Heart of the South West LEP can be found here: www.heartofswlep.co.uk Flexible use of Capital Receipts directive In March 2016 the Department for Communities and Local Government issued statutory guidance on the Flexible Use of Capital receipts. This directive gave Local Authorities the ability to use Capital Receipts received in the year to fund expenditure incurred on projects that are designed to generate ongoing revenue savings in the delivery of public services and/or transform service delivery to reduce costs and/or transform service delivery in a way that reduces costs or demand for services in the future years for any of the public sector delivery partners. The Authority has made use of these new flexibilities during 2017/18 and has used £4.001m of capital receipts to fund qualifying expenditure. 3 Use of reserves Over the past few years, key services such as Children’s Social Care, Adult Social Care and Learning Disabilities services have had to manage considerable increases in demand. As a result there has been considerable financial pressure forecast in these services.