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Statement of Accounts 2016/17

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Statement of Accounts 2016/17 Essex County Council Statement of Accounts 2016/17 Contents Contents Page Narrative Report 2 Statement of Accounts 26 Introduction 28 Statement of Responsibilities 30 Financial Statements 32 Notes to the Financial Statements 37 Group Accounts 123 Pension Fund Accounts 136 Glossary of terms 188 Annual Governance Statement 193 Independent Auditor’s Report 212 1 Narrative Report 2016/17 2 Narrative Report Contents Page Introduction 4 Our Ambition 5 Our Performance 7 Revenue spending 12 Capital investment 17 Revenue Reserves and Balances 22 Cash Flow management 23 Statement of Accounts 23 Annual Governance Statement 24 Conclusion 25 3 Narrative Report Introduction About Essex County Council Essex County Council (ECC) is one of the largest of the 27 county councils in England, covering an area of around 346,000 hectares, with a population of around 1.4m people and comprising 70 electoral divisions. The Council forms the upper tier of local government within Essex (excluding Southend and Thurrock). Our Services The following core services are provided by the Council: . Adult Social Care (including services for older people, people with physical or learning disabilities and the homeless); . Children’s and Families (including the safeguarding of children, looked after children, services to vulnerable children and young people and their families and adoption and fostering services); . Economic Growth, Infrastructure and Partnerships (including matters of strategic, regional or countywide significance in relation to integrated spatial development and economic growth, economic development and regeneration, enterprise, international trade and inward investment, skills and apprenticeships); . Education and Lifelong Learning (including early years and pre-school, mainstream and special schools, special educational needs provision, school improvement, raising the participation age, youth services and careers advice and adult community learning); . Environment and Waste (including waste minimisation, disposal and recycling, sustainable development, country parks, flood management, rural affairs and gypsies and travellers); . Health (including public health, mental health services, child health related matters and drug and alcohol action); . Highways and Transport (including highways, street lighting, traffic management and road safety and passenger transport); and . Other services (including libraries, registration of births, deaths and marriages, coroners, trading standards, emergency planning and housing strategy). These services are either provided directly by the Council or are commissioned from and delivered by other organisations. Most of these services are mandatory, meaning that the Council must provide them because it is under a statutory duty to do so. 4 Narrative Report Our leadership and workforce Our 75 elected Councillors represent the people of Essex and set the overall policy of the Council. The political management structure is centred upon our: . Leader, Cllr David Finch, who has been elected by our local councillors into this role. He is responsible for setting the vision and direction of the Council; and . Cabinet Members, appointed by our Leader, with responsibilities for particular portfolios. Together, these members form our Cabinet. Overview and scrutiny committees hold our Cabinet to account for the decisions made on behalf of the Council. Senior officers, led by our Chief Executive Gavin Jones and our Executive Directors, are responsible for: . Advising councillors on policy; . Implementing councillors’ decisions; and . Service performance. Together, these officers form our Corporate Management Board. Our workforce is structured in 2015/16 Workforce numbers (full time equivalents) 2016/17 line with the structure of our Corporate Management 1,973 Corporate and Customer Services 1,975 1,272 Family Operations 1,149 Board. 856 Adult Operations 891 Overall, our workforce 688 People Commissioning 683 554 Place Operations 478 comprises 14,596 ‘full time 231 Place Commissioning 280 equivalent’ employees. Of this 332 Traded Services 344 total, 8,661 are employed 136 HR, Strategy and Communications 135 within our locally maintained 6,042 Sub total - non schools 5,935 schools. Our non schools’ workforce therefore comprises 10,297 Schools 8,661 5,935 ‘full time equivalent’ 16,339 Total 14,596 employees. Our Ambition Our overarching ambition is for Essex to be a county where individuals, families and communities can thrive and prosper. This ambition translates into seven strategic outcomes that we want to achieve: . Children in Essex get the best start in life; . People in Essex enjoy good health and wellbeing; . People have aspirations and achieve their ambitions through education, training and lifelong- learning; 5 Narrative Report . People in Essex live in safe communities and are protected from harm; . Sustainable economic growth for Essex communities and businesses; . People in Essex experience a high quality and sustainable environment; and . People in Essex can live independently and exercise control over their lives. We set these strategic outcomes in 2013. Since then, a lot has changed: . Our finances are now under huge pressure. We need to save more than £1 million each week, for the next four years, to compensate for reducing levels of central government funding and to mitigate inflationary and demand led pressures, and we need to find new sources of income in order to become completely self-financing by 2020; . Older people in Essex are living longer than ever before, which is great news. But, at the same time, more people will need support in later life. The numbers of people with significant disabilities will have grown too. Without seeing big changes in the way people are helped to live in the community, we will be increasingly unable to support the most vulnerable adults in society; . The Essex economy is growing and it is vitally important that we continue to improve the skills levels required and make sure wages are kept at a competitive level; and . Technological advances in all walks of life have developed fast and the Council, residents and partners need to embrace this change in the way public services operate. We therefore began some detailed work in 2016/17 to set an overarching organisational strategy which would set out how we are going to meet the huge challenges going forward. We expected to publish this in the summer of 2017. As a precursor to this, our Corporate Plan for 2016/17 set out our priorities for action for the year. Our core operating principles were to: . Focus on the whole system, rather than just our own role in the system, and to work together seamlessly with other public agencies and partners to secure the best outcomes for our residents; . Collaborate with our partners, communities and residents, jointly designing the best solutions with them, rather than imposing them; . Create and enable the conditions for success, by enabling and empowering people to support themselves where they can, and look to proactively influence and shape demand; . Be leaders in ‘Digital First’ so all interactions are optimised for a fast, accessible, resident-friendly and reliable digital experience; and . Focus on becoming financially self-sustaining, as we move to a Council that is self-funding with little reliance on central government funding, and to drive efficiency and create profitable income to enable investment in services for Essex residents. We have many challenges facing us and with limited resources we cannot deliver everything – we need to work collaboratively with our partners and, most importantly, the many communities of Essex, to continue to ensure we all contribute to the great quality of life in Essex. 6 Narrative Report Our Performance Our seven strategic outcomes explain how we seek to deliver the best result for residents. The following paragraphs highlight some of our achievements against these outcomes in 2016/17. Children in Essex get the best start in life Our ambition is for every child to get a good start in life, irrespective of his or her circumstances. We know that a good start in life transforms future life outcomes for children and can help to reduce inequalities. By supporting children and their families from conception through birth and the early years of their life, we want to give all children and young people the best possible opportunity to succeed, thrive and reach their full potential. Our strategic priorities are therefore that: . Children and young people in Essex are ready for starting school; . Children and young people are well looked after and safe with their basic needs being met within resilient families; . Children and young people are emotionally healthy and make good decisions; and . Children, young people and families support each other within their communities with access to local facilities. Key indicators of our performance in 2016/17 against these strategic priorities are as follows: Performance indicators 2015/16 2016/17 Percentage of children reaching the expected levels of development in Early Years 78% 81% Foundation Stage profile (ready for school) Percentage of children reaching the expected levels of development in Early Years 68% 72% Foundation Stage profile, as well as literacy and numeracy (Good level of development) Percentage of Private, Voluntary and Independent settings rated as Good or Outstanding 71% 75% by Ofsted Percentage of registered Childminders rated as Good or Outstanding by Ofsted 70% 74% People in Essex enjoy
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