3 EAST AYRSHIRE COUNCIL CABINET - 20 NOVEMBER 2019 Report by Depute Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer Economy and Skills SUBJECT: EAST AYRSHIRE PERFORMS – SUMMARY REPORT PURPOSE OF REPORT 1 To advise Members of a number of important performance measures as at 13 October 2019 (Period 7), including the projected financial position for the year, expenditure reduction measures, treasury indicators, progress of the capital programme, absence management, complaints, health and safety, and risk management. 2 The report also provides Members with details of the projected financial position in respect of the alternative delivery models; East Ayrshire Leisure Trust and Ayrshire Roads Alliance. RECOMMENDATIONS 3 It is recommended that Members: (i) Note the financial management position as detailed in paragraphs 7 to 15; (ii) Request that Depute Chief Executives identify how any shortfall in approved expenditure reduction measures shown in paragraphs 9 and 10 will be met; (iii) Approve the commissioning of the Residents Survey as at paragraph 16; (iv) Approve £0.280m of funding for customer service delivery posts from the Transformation Fund as detailed at paragraph 17; (v) Note the position in relation to the Bellwin threshold and recent flooding expenditure as detailed at paragraph 18; (vi) Approve £0.030m of funding to the Barony A Frame Trust to support the upgrade of lighting equipment for the Barony A Frame, as detailed at paragraph 19; (vii) Approve the commitment of £0.160m from Economy & Skills in year underspends for external support to assist with asset valuation requirements, as detailed at paragraph 20; (viii) Agree that the £0.100m funding set aside form the Town Centre Regeneration Fund for the refurbishment of Newmilns local office is reallocated for the refurbishment of the Morton Hall, as detailed at paragraph 21; 4 (ix) Approve the re-profiling of capital budgets from 2019/20 to future years as at paragraph 23 to 25; (x) Note the contract figure exceeding the accepted tender value by more than 10% in respect of the refurbishment works at Stewarton Academy, detailed at paragraph 26; (xi) Agree that the new Community Room within the new Bellsbank Primary School, Early Childhood Centre and Community facility should be dedicated to Nancy Murray, detailed at paragraph 27; (xii) Note that the Stewarton Sports Centre has been renamed the Rose Reilly Sports Centre as highlighted at paragraph 28; (xiii) Note the information in respect of People highlighted at paragraphs 29 to 30 and in the summary report; (xiv) Note the health and safety position as detailed in paragraphs 31 to 36 and in the summary report; (xv) Note the current risks as identified in the Corporate Risk Register in the summary report and as further detailed at paragraph 37; and (xvi) Otherwise note the contents of this report. INTRODUCTION 4 Supporting information is available on the Members’ Portal, and Depute Chief Executives and Heads of Service are available to discuss any aspect of the report. The supporting information will include: Summarised Revenue Information by Department Capital Programme Monitoring Report; Health and Safety Performance Report; East Ayrshire Performs: Key Statistics. Transformation Workstreams 5 The established reporting format of East Ayrshire Performs follows a Red / Amber / Green (RAG) exception reporting approach. The table below details the “colour scheme” and the tolerances associated with each banding. COLOUR VARIANCE Significantly off target Red (+/- 2% or more of budget; or £0.500m, whichever is less) Slightly off target Amber (+/- 0.5% to 2% of budget; or £0.125m, whichever is less) Broadly on target Green Within +/- 0.5% of budget EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 6 The East Ayrshire Performs Summary Report (for the period ended 13 October 2019) is attached to this covering report. As indicated above, an analysis of current performance measures is available via the Members’ Portal. 5 Financial Management – Revenue 7 The General Fund uncommitted balance is forecast to be £12.354m (3.5%) at the year end taking account of the current projected online position. The projection in respect of services, and the overspends noted in the report, assume that remedial action will be taken in the year to redress the noted projected outturn. 8 A review of service earmarked balances has been undertaken following the completion of the external audit of the 2018/19 Annual Accounts and a detailed report will be considered as a separate agenda item to this Cabinet meeting with the proposal to transfer £0.066m to the General Fund Uncommitted balance. This would increase the General Fund Uncommitted balance forecast to £12.420m (3.5%) at the year end assuming the transfer is approved. Expenditure Reduction Measures 9 Council on 28 February 2019 approved £8.983m of efficiency savings related to management action for 2019/20. £8.550m (95%) of these savings are currently achieved, or anticipated to be achieved without issue. The exceptions are those detailed below. These are being closely monitored by services and any anticipated variances will be highlighted to Members with services identifying compensating savings in other budget lines. 10 The relevant Depute Chief Executives require to identify how any likely shortfall will be addressed in year and this information will be included in the next East Ayrshire Performs Report. 6 Revenue Budget Health and Social Care 11 The Health and Social Care budget is currently projected to underspend by (£0.738m) predominantly arising from an anticipated underspend on equipment and adaptations expenditure, savings within service strategy employee costs and a lower number of external child placements than in previous years. The annual budget for equipment and adaptations work on council properties is £1.263m and there is also an earmarked balance available from 2018/19 of £0.840m. The 2019/20 spend is currently anticipated to be £1.549m taking account of current commitments and it is anticipated that £0.554m will be ring-fenced for expenditure on equipment and adaptations in future years with the IJB asked to approve this. The position will be monitored and further updates reported in future reports. Safer Communities 12 Safer Communities are projecting to end the year with an overspend of £0.797m mainly due to pressures in relation to Primary and Secondary Education school transport. The Head of Service requires to produce an action plan to address this and advice on this will be included in the next East Ayrshire Performs report. Pupil Equity Fund 13 The Council was allocated £3.522m of Pupil Equity Funding for 2019/20 from the Scottish Government to address the poverty related attainment gap and the current projection assumes a full spend of this funding at this point. PEF funding is under the direct control of individual head teachers, with the option to carry forward some of this funding until the end of June 2020 to enable the implementation of plans over the academic year. For 2019/20 (Year 3 PEF), in line previous years, it is likely to result in some schools requiring to earmark any underspend at the end of the financial year, with full spend of the funds by June 2020. Individual school plans are currently being progressed by head teachers and their current status is reported in the Summary report. 14 The funding is used within schools to improve outcomes for children and young people in literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing. For example, at Newmilns Primary School and ECC, some of the money funded an additional classroom assistant to improve reading and writing skills for small, targeted literacy groups which has had a positive impact on the progress being made by the children involved. At Grange Academy, some PEF spend included improving health and wellbeing of a small group of S1 pupils through a residential outdoor learning experience with feedback from pupils involved suggesting that they have raised aspirations and improvements in essential skills such as teamwork, communication and resilience. At Park School, the resources were focussed on raising attainment in numeracy by training staff and providing resources for pupil support and the school has reported that this targeted support has resulted in an increasing number of young people achieving SCQF level 4 Numeracy. 15 Clearly Head Teachers are using these funds in ways that address specific issues in their own schools but these examples illustrate that PEF is being used effectively and is focussed on outcomes which help to close the poverty related attainment gap. The Chief Executive has, however, requested that an assessment of the impact of PEF funding is carried out by the South West Regional Improvement Collaborative (RIC). 7 The assessment will provide an evaluation of PEF spending across the RIC and will include the identification of PEF funded interventions that have led to the greatest impact on improving outcomes for children and young people locally and across the South West RIC. Resident’s Survey 16 As Members will be aware, the Council and Community Planning Partnership have, since 2005, commissioned a Resident’s Survey on a three yearly basis. The survey is a valuable tool which supports the Council and its partners to gage residents’ feedback and improve service delivery. The last survey exercise was undertaken in 2017 and the next survey would be due to take place during 2020. Following a comprehensive tender process, the 2017 Survey was undertaken at a cost of approximately £0.030m and it is proposed that this will be met from in-year underspends within Economy and Skills. Subject to Cabinet approval, the intention would be to commission the survey to be undertaken early in 2020, to allow the results to inform the Council’s forthcoming Strategic Self-Assessment. Customer Services Delivery 17 The implementation of a corporate approach to customer services has led to a number of bespoke workstreams being created.