ITEM NO. 4 SCOTTISH BORDERS COUNCIL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MINUTE of MEETING of the EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE held in the Council Chamber, Council Headquarters, Newtown St. Boswells on 11 November 2014 at 10.00 a.m. ------------------ Present:- Councillors D. Parker (Chairman), S. Aitchison, S. Bell, C. Bhatia, J. Brown, M. Cook, V. Davidson, G. Edgar, J. Greenwell, J. Mitchell, D. Moffat, S. Mountford, F. Renton, T. Weatherston. Apologies:- Councillor D. Paterson, R. Smith. In Attendance:- Chief Executive, Depute Chief Executive – People, Depute Chief Executive – Place, Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Transformation and Services Director, Service Director Regulatory Services, Clerk to the Council, Democratic Services Officer (J. Turnbull). ---------------------------------------- ARMISTICE DAY The Chairman, Councillor Parker, advised the Committee that he would suspend the Meeting at 10.40 am and reconvene at 11.20, in order that Members could attend local services being held at 11.00 am. MINUTE 1. The Minute of the Meeting of 21 October 2014 had been circulated. DECISION APPROVED and signed by the Chairman. MEMBERS Councillors Aitchison and Davidson joined the meeting during consideration of the following item. SCOTTISH BORDERS COUNCIL COMMUNITY GRANT SCHEME – GENERIC BUDGET 2. There had been circulated copies of a report by the Service Director Strategy and Policy recommending an application for approval from the Community Grant Scheme generic budget. The application for approval was from Instinctively Wild, based in Jedburgh, which undertook activities across the Scottish Borders. The support grant was to assist with the organisation’s core costs, such as telephone, printing, photocopying, transport, insurance, advertising and marketing costs. The organisation was experiencing a period of temporary financial difficulty following unexpected loss of income over the last three months; Appendix 1 to the report referred. The grant requested was for £4,930. The confirmed budget available was £17,051. It was recommended to approve the request to the full amount. The Funding and Projects Officer, Mrs Robertson, was in attendance and advised that the organisation was updating their business plan and receiving guidance from The Bridge on marketing and fundraising initiatives. It was hoped that this would enable the organisation to be sustainable but there was no guarantee. The Chief Financial Officer, Mr Robertson, reported that if the organisation could not source financial support then it might be forced to close. Members considered whether to support the funding request or attach further conditions to a grant. VOTE Councillor Edgar seconded by Councillor Brown moved approval of the recommendation in the report, on condition that Instinctively Wild produced its revised business plan. Councillor Renton, seconded by Councillor Bhatia, moved that 50% of the proposed grant be given now, with the remaining 50% to be granted once the business plan had been received. Motion - 11 votes Amendment – 3 votes The Motion was accordingly carried. DECISION DECIDED to grant £4,930 to Instinctively Wild, conditional on the organisation producing its revised business plan. MONITORING OF THE GENERAL FUND REVENUE BUDGET 2014/15 3. There had been circulated copies of a report by the Chief Financial Officer providing budgetary control statements for the Council’s General Fund based on actual expenditure and income to 30 September 2014 and explanations of the major variances between projected outturn expenditure/income and the current approved budget. The revenue monitoring position set out in the report was based on the actual income and expenditure to 30 September 2014 and reflected a balanced position projected at 31/3/14 at the end of the reporting period. All pressures identified across departments had been addressed in order to project a break even position for 2014/15 as reflected in Appendix 1 to the report, which also included full details of pressures, risks and challenges. 72% (£5.855m) of 2014/15 Financial Plan savings had been achieved as planned with 12% (£0.994m) being achieved through alternative means. This left 16% (£1.267m) of the current savings which were profiled to be achieved within this financial year. Progress on achievement of Financial Plan savings was detailed in Appendix 5 to the report. 4. With reference to paragraph 2 of the Minute of 30 September 2014, the Chief Financial Officer, Mr Robertson, advised that Tower Mill Café’s replacement arrangements had been in place since May and were proving to be increasingly effective, building the customer base and achieving quality of service. Mr Robertson confirmed that the consequences of not having an appropriate notice period in the original contract had been noted and this would not occur again. Members requested that Scrutiny Committee, once established, undertook a review of the ongoing operation of the Tower Mill Café. 5. Mr Robertson highlighted that out of hours placements were currently projected to cost £1.275m in excess of budget. A forecast underspend of £0.187m within Generic Services and Locality teams would be used to offset pressures across Adult Services, arising from pressures in adults with learning and physical difficulties, undelivered historical savings targets and delayed introduction of client contributions towards the cost of their Self-Directed support. The Depute Chief Executive – People, Mrs McDiarmid clarified that the out of area placements were children excluded from schools because of emotional and behavioural issues and was not linked to foster care. Mrs McDiarmid advised that an outreach team, which would work with the children in their schools, was currently being considered and a report would come to the Children and Young People Sounding Board. The Meeting was suspended at 10.40 and reconvened at 11.20 6. Mr Robertson advised that it was proposed the resources carried forward within Revenue Support Grant associated with the implementation of welfare reform could be used to support one-off phasing and installation costs in the SWAN project. Mr Robertson explained that the Council had met all its obligations for the additional funding it had received from DWP and the Scottish Government, and using the funding towards SWAN would benefit people who were accessing services with a fast, broadband connection at all SBC contact centres. Members expressed concern that at the previous week’s Social Work and Housing Committee meeting, no mention had been made of the SWAN project. Mr Robertson proposed bringing a report to the next Executive Committee on the DWP funding, and in the interim, reduce the Reserves earmarked balances from £1.5m to £1.1m on a temporary basis and use the £400k for the SWAN project. Members also queried that the Council did not seem to be charging for self- directed support. Mr Robertson advised that he would circulate details of the charges via email to the Executive Committee. Members welcomed the additional funding for the youth employment scheme which had given 150 young people work placements. In terms of the backlog of cases on Framework-i, Members were assured that this would be included in the next monitoring report by which time it was expected the backlog would be resolved. There had been a £0.050m budget set aside in Reserves to support Roads works at the 2014/14 financial year end which had been transferred into the Place budget. DECISION (a) AGREED: (i) to approve the budgetary control statements as contained in Appendix 1 to the report; (ii) the virements as detailed in Appendix 2 to report; (iii) to amend the budget virement requirement in Appendix 3 from £1.5m to £1.1m on a temporary basis; and (iv) to receive a report on the proposed use of £400k from the balance of DWP and Scottish Government welfare reform funding to the SWAN project at the next Executive Committee meeting. (b) NOTED the budget reconciliation and efficiency savings detailed in Appendices 4 & 5 to the report. Projected Balances at 31 March 2015 7. There had been circulated copies of a report by the Chief Financial Officer which provided an analysis of the Council’s balances as at 31 March 2014 and advised of the Council’s projected balances at 31 March 2015. The Council’s General Fund useable reserve (non-earmarked) balance was £6.756m at 31 March 2014. The total of all useable balances excluding developer contributions at 31 March 2015 was projected at £6.756m. The current balance on the Capital Fund £5.274m would be affected by any further capital receipts, developer contributions, interest credited and any expenditure authorised to be financed from the Fund during the remainder of this financial year. DECISION NOTED: (a) the projected revenue balances, as per Appendices 1 & 2 to the report; and (b) the current balance in the Capital Fund as per Appendix 3 to the report. MONITORING OF THE CAPITAL FINANCIAL PLAN 2014/15 8. There had been circulated copies of a report by the Chief Financial Officer providing an update on the progress of the 2014/15 Capital Financial Plan. The monitoring tables contained in Appendix 1 to the report detailed the actual expenditure to 30 September 2014. The key issues identified were summarised within the main report and identified a net timing movement of £2.587 million. At this point in the year an unallocated budget of £0.041 million remained in the Emergency/Unplanned schemes. The timing movement was mainly due to the reprofiling of the Innerleithen-Walkerburn Shared Access Route, Selkirk Flood Protection, Hawick and Jedburgh Flood Protection schemes, Cemetery Land Acquisition and Development, Galashiels Schools Provision, Langlee Primary School, Broomlands Primary School, Residential Care Home Upgrade and Economic Development and Regeneration projects. Appendix 2 to the report, contained proposals for various projects and programmes to be allocated from the block allocations within the 2014/15 Capital Plan. Mr Robertson referred to Appendix 2A which detailed adjustments within the Place – Roads, Bridges, Lighting and Transport block, and highlighted that the Innerleithen-Walkerburn shared access route project had been fully funded from Police and Fire & Rescue Reserves.