The Finance and Resources Select Committee scheduled a meeting to discuss the council's budget, IT strategy, and overall performance. The meeting was also scheduled to include a review of the budget scrutiny process for 2026/27.

Quarter 2 Budget Management Report

The committee was scheduled to review the Quarter 2 Budget Management Report, which forecasts revenue and capital outturn for the 2025/2026 financial year. Councillor Robert Carington, Cabinet Member for Resources, and David Skinner, s. 151 Officer¹ & Chief Finance Officer, were listed as contributors.

The report noted that the forecast revenue outturn was a balanced position, but that the council was experiencing financial pressures in adult social care, children's social care, temporary accommodation, home to school transport, and high needs budgets within the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG).

The report stated that the forecast revenue outturn position at Quarter 2 within Portfolios was an adverse variance of £2.1m (0.4% of Portfolio budgets), an improvement from the £5.5m reported in Q1. Pressures were forecast in children's social care (£2.8m), parking income (£0.8m), home to school transport (£1.1m) and temporary accommodation (£0.8m), offset by underspending from vacancies in parking staffing budgets (£0.6m), additional planning income (£0.7m) and managed underspending from vacancies in resources and health and wellbeing (£0.8m).

The report also stated that the Dedicated Schools Grant budget had been set with a deficit of £22.9m, and that there was a risk of increased demand impacting adversely on the financial position in the second half of the year. The balance on the DSG deficit reserve at the beginning of the year was £24.5m with a forecast closing balance of £47.4m.

The report recommended that the committee note the financial position of the council in respect of 2025/26 budgets.

ICT and AURA Programme

The Select Committee was scheduled to receive a report on the transition from the ONE programme to the IT strategy for the next five years, as well as an update on the AURA programme. Councillor Robert Carington, Cabinet Member for Resources, and Sarah Murphy-Brookman, Corporate Director, Resources, were listed as contributors.

The ONE Programme, established at vesting day², aimed to provide a single improved IT programme for the council while delivering financial savings. The report stated that the programme had created a single IT team, standardised processes, delivered a new modern network, brought together disparate IT environments, replaced legacy infrastructure and contracts, consolidated business systems, and delivered £2.4m in savings.

The report stated that the new IT strategy would focus on five strategic pillars:

• Unified Governance, Architecture & Delivery
• Harmonised & Integrated Applications
• Unified Digital, Data, Analytics & AI
• Optimised Infrastructure and Operations
• Cybersecurity

The AURA Programme, reviewing the Resources technology stack including SAP³, aimed to deliver improvements to council support services and examine options for the council's ERP system. The report stated that the AURA programme had supported the delivery of £2.6m of savings by 31 March 2026.

Performance Monitoring Report

The Select Committee was scheduled to discuss the Quarter 2 Corporate Performance Report. Councillor Robert Carington, Cabinet Member for Resources, and Sarah Murphy-Brookman, Corporate Director - Resources, were listed as contributors.

The report stated that at the end of quarter 2, 66 indicators had outturns reported with a Red, Amber or Green status, with 44 Green (67%), 6 Amber (9%) and 16 Red (24%).

One red indicator in the Leader's Portfolio was the percentage of profiled spend achieved for new strategic infrastructure projects, which was 38.2% against a target of 50%. This was attributed to drainage issues and utility diversions affecting the South-East Aylesbury Link Road (SEALR).

One green indicator in the Leader's Portfolio was the number of leading Buckinghamshire firms engaged with, which was 100 against a target of 34. This was attributed to the Buckinghamshire Economic Summit held in September 2025.

One amber indicator in the Resources Portfolio was the average time for processing housing benefit change claims, which was 8.13 days against a target of 8 days.

Budget Scrutiny Scoping Document

The Select Committee was scheduled to agree the scoping document for the council's budget scrutiny process for 2026/2027. Councillor John Chilver, Chairman of the Budget Inquiry Group, was listed as a contributor.

The report stated that the Finance and Resources Select Committee will conduct meetings with Cabinet Members in January 2026 to develop the conclusions and recommendations of its 2026/27 Budget Scrutiny Inquiry.

The report also listed key questions to be put to all Cabinet Members, including:

• What are the key challenges/risks for developing the budget for your portfolio and how are you addressing them?
• How do your budget proposals fit with council objectives and the strategic plan and how will they impact on Buckinghamshire residents?
• What methods are you using to a) maintain the workforce in a climate of increased service demand and/or complexity of work, and b) mitigate other impacts of increased demand?
• How will the Fair Funding Review impact on your budget area?
• What impact will the proposals in the Local Plan have on your budget area and what can you do at this stage to mitigate the potential impact?
• What are the key climate change and environmental actions you are taking and how do these impact on your budget?

Other Business

The committee was also scheduled to discuss its work programme and note the items for the next meeting. Additionally, there was an agenda item to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item of business on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972.