Agenda item

Worcestershire Regulatory Services Revenue Monitoring April to September 2017

Meeting of Worcestershire Regulatory Services Board, Thursday 16th November 2017 4.30 p.m. (Item 22/17)

Minutes:

The Board considered a report which detailed the financial position for the period 1st April 2017 to 30th September 2017.

The Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Resources, Bromsgrove District Council and Redditch Borough Council introduced the report and in doing so informed the Board that the report presented the final financial position for Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) for the period 1st April 2017 to 30th September 2017.

The Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Resources, Bromsgrove District Council and Redditch Borough Council informed the Board that the detailed revenue report, at Appendix 1 to the report, showed a projected outturn savings that would be refunded to partner authorities of £14,000, it was appreciated that this was an estimation to the year-end based on current level of expenditure.

There were a number of vacant posts within the service and these, together with savings from maternity leave, long term sick etc. had resulted in a projected savings in salaries. This was offset by the costs associated with additional agency staff used to cover the vacancies, sick leave and to support the service when staff worked on additional income generation projects. Officers would ensure that the reliance on agency cover was as minimal as possible.

However, two full time employees’ (FTE’s) were working within the Community Environmental Heath Team to assist with the backlog of nuisance issues and to address some of the issues raised by the Food Standards Agency. One FTE was being used in Technical Services to cover the high level of sickness reported to Members at their previous meeting.

Members were further informed that if the April to September spend on pest control continued on the same trend for the rest of the year, there would be a projected overspend of £9,000. Officers have continued to analyse the overspend and the following was the projected full year overspend to be funded from each partner, this income was in the £335,000 income projected outturn:-

Redditch £2,000

Wychavon £3,000

Wyre Forest £4,000

The Executive Director, Finance and Corporate Resources, Bromsgrove District Council and Redditch Borough Council continued and further informed Members of the actual bereavement costs 1st April to 30th September 2017 to be funded by partner, as detailed below. These costs were charged on an as and when basis. Due to the nature of the charges it was not possible to project a final outturn figure. This income had also been included in the £335,000 income projected outturn:-

Worcester City £4,000

Redditch £2,000

Bromsgrove £2,000

Appendix 2 to the report detailed the income achieved by WRS during April 2017 to September 2017. £158,000 worth of income was achieved in the first half of the year against a full year budget of £284,000. This was a slight improvement on the picture from quarter 1 and the service was now predicting a slightly reduced outturn of £335,000 due to the likelihood of achieving slightly less on the Primary Authority activity.

Grant funded expenditure was shown separate to the core service costs as this was not funded by the participating Councils.

The Head of Regulatory Services, WRS, informed Members with regard to the use of agency staff that, income was used with some flexibility, in order to respond where necessary to retain services; which included the recent Food Standards Agency Audit findings with regard to food inspections and trying to reduce the level of nuisance calls to ensure that WRS delivered the required works for partner authorities.

RESOLVED:

(a) that the final financial position for the period 1st April 2017 to 30th September 2017, be noted; and

(b) that partner councils be informed of their liabilities for 2017/2018 with regard to Pest Control and Bereavements, by Section 151 Officers.

Supporting documents: