Purpose

Cabinet is asked to:
 

-    
note the revenue and capital forecast outturn
position, savings monitoring and reserves
monitoring
 

-    
approve any additional management actions required

 
-    
note and agree revenue and capital cash limit
changes
 
 
 
Reason for the
decision
 
Quarterly reports are presented which identify
any management action required and recommendations for Cabinet
decision. 
 
 
 
Background
 
The report on the
Council’s latest financial position will be reported to
Cabinet on 26/09/24, and shows a forecast overspend of
£16,344.9 excluding Schools’ Delegated
Budgets.  The forecast overspend
presents a serious and significant risk to the Council’s
financial sustainability if it is not addressed as a matter of
urgency particularly as the approved budget for 2024-25 did not
include any contingency provision meaning any residue overspend can
only be offset from reserves.  The
report identifies the latest progress on savings compared to the
original plan, any undeliverable savings are already reflected in
the forecast. The most significant overspends are in Adult Social
Care, and Growth, Environment & Transport Directorates, due to
a combination of unachievable savings and unplanned spending
increases.
 
 
Options (other
options considered but discarded)

 
-      
The Council has already continued the spending controls introduced
in 2023-24 into 2024-25 aimed at curtailing non committed spend,
any further extension of spending controls is likely to impact on
the Council’s ability to fulfil its statutory
responsibilities.
-      
All options to reduce spend both one off and recurring are being
considered to bring the 2024-25 budget back into balance.
 
 
 
How the proposed
decision supports the
Framing Kent's Future - Our
Council Strategy 2022-2026
 
 
How the proposed
decision supports Securing Kent’s Future
 
Securing Kent’s Future
(SKF) acknowledges that given the significance of adults and
children’s social care within the council’s budget, and
that spending growth pressures on the council’s budget
overwhelming (but not exclusively) come from social care, that the
priority of delivering New Models of Care and Support must take
precedence over the other priorities in Framing Kent’s
Future.  This creates an expectation
that council services across all directorates must collectively
prioritise delivering the new models of care and support objective
as a collective enterprise.
The Finance Monitoring report for June 2024-25
provides the detail of the latest financial position and the
relevant information on the progress being made in terms of the
savings and management actions to reduce the budget gap for the
following year and the MTFP.
 

Decision

The Cabinet agree to:
 
a)   
note the forecast revenue overspend of £16.3m (excluding
Schools’ Delegated Budgets)
b)   
Note the forecast overspend on Schools’ Delegated Budgets of
£23.1m
c)   
Note the forecast capital underspend of £55.4m
d)   
Consider and note the progress on delivery of savings
e)   
Note and agree the Revenue budget changes
f)    
Note and agree the Capital budget changes
g)   
Note the Reserves Monitoring
h)   
Note the Prudential Indicators Monitoring