Pre-decision Scrutiny
·
To select appropriate items from the Cabinet agenda for pre-decision
scrutiny (cabinet reports enclosed for Scrutiny Members)
·
To select appropriate items from the Cabinet (Finance) Sub Committee
agenda for pre-decision scrutiny (Cabinet Finance Sub - Committee reports
enclosed for Scrutiny Members)
Minutes:
The Committee
scrutinised the following Cabinet Board items:
Welsh Language
Standards Annual Report
Members were
presented with the Welsh Language Standards Annual Report for 2020/2021.
The circulated report
contained data on the language skills of staff within the Council; it was asked
if Officers could provide a reflection on how the proportion of staff compared
to the general population of the County Borough. Officers stated that they were
in the process of moving to a new Human Resource payroll database which would
improve the way in which data could be presented; this type of information
could be provided moving forward.
Following
Scrutiny, the report was noted.
2020/21 Revenue
Outturn and Reserves Position Statement 2020/2021
The Committee
received a report in relation to the Councils Revenue Outturn and Reserves
Position Statement for 2020/2021.
Officers
expressed the difficulty of the past year due to the Coronavirus pandemic and
the need to deliver some services in a very different way. It was stated that
the circulated reported included the substantial amount of additional monies
that Welsh Government provided throughout the year, which resulted in improved
figures for the end of the 2021 financial year. Officers confirmed that they
will still in discussions with Welsh Government in relation to some of the
claims that they had yet to pay, which could change some of the elements
included within the report. It was added that the auditors had commenced work
in relation to managing and reviewing the Councils statement of accounts, and
they were due to report to the Governance and Audit Committee towards the end
of July 2021; this will finalise the overview of the last financial year in
relation to the information included in the circulated report and Officers will
have to prepare in terms of statutory accounting requirements for those
statements.
A discussion
took place in relation to the data that was available to help understand the
differences in usable reserves as a percentage of spend on services, for each
Local Authority in Wales. Officers confirmed they had made inquiries and
reviewed the documents that the auditor made reference to in a recent meeting
of Council, and found a report they prepared in October 2020 called the
‘Financial Sustainability of Local Government as a Result of the Covid 19
Pandemic’. It was confirmed that the Director of Finance and Corporate Services
would circulate this report and any other relevant information to all Members
following the meeting.
It was asked at what point in the financial year did the reserves needed to be assessed and when was the last time the need for reserves was assessed. Members were informed that every budget monitoring report presented to Cabinet Scrutiny Committee and Cabinet included detail of the reserve balances; last year these were provided every two months, and in previous years they had been provided every quarter, then at the end of the year Members would receive a report on the final position. Officers confirmed that they would provide a further report for Members in ... view the full minutes text for item 1