Agenda and minutes

To receive apologies for absence from those Members who are unable to attend the meeting.

All members of the Committee were in attendance.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 20^th September 2024.

RESOLVED -

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 20^th September 2024 be approved as a correct record.

Members will be asked to say if there are any items on the Agenda in which they have any disclosable pecuniary interests or any other interests, which may prevent them from participating in any discussion of the items or participating in any vote upon the items.

No interests were declared.

Most agenda items take place in public. This only changes where there is a need to consider exempt information, as contained at Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. You will be informed at this point which items are to be recommended for exclusion and to be resolved by the Committee.

All items were considered in public session.

The Committee will receive any petitions and/or deputations from members of the public. A deputation is where up to five people can attend the meeting and make a presentation on some particular issue of concern. A member of the public can also submit a petition at the meeting relating to a matter on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10, Members of the Public must submit a deputation in writing, at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting and shall subsequently be notified if the deputation shall be heard. A maximum of four deputations shall be heard at any one meeting.

No deputations or petitions were received.

To receive any public questions.

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, the period for the asking and answering of public questions shall not exceed 15 minutes.

Any questions must be submitted in writing at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting.

No public questions were received.

A presentation will be given in respect of the Corporate Financial Monitoring Report for Quarter 2 2024-2025, with reference to the report being submitted to Cabinet on 10^th December 2024.

Contact: Kevin Mulvaney – Service Director Finance

Kevin Mulvaney, Service Director Finance presented the Corporate Financial Monitoring Report for Quarter 2 2024-2025, with reference to the report submitted to Cabinet on 10^th December 2024.

The report set out:

·       The revenue headlines

·       Revenue monitoring, with a breakdown across each directorate;

·       Key pressures on each directorate and mitigating actions

·       Analysis of Reserves

·       Housing Revenue Account position, variances and revenue pressures

·       Direct Schools Grant headlines including pressures and mitigations

·       Collection Fund

·       Position in respect of the Capital Budget and monitoring for each directorate.

·       The Medium Term Capital Plan;

·       Prudential and treasury management indicators; and

·       An update on savings delivery across all directorates and the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

The following points were highlighted:

·       The projected outturn of £9.95 million overspend in respect of the Council’s General Fund, which equated to approximately 2.6% of the General Fund Budget.

·       Services had been reminded of the need to balance their budgets and controls remained in place in respect of recruitment and spend.

·       The Finance Team were reviewing the balance sheet items, including earmarked reserves, grant reserves and any balances not used for some time, to try and bring in appropriate one-off income to the revenue account.

·       An overview of the key pressures in each directorate, noting that many of these were addressed within the 2025/25 budget proposals.

·       The position in terms of reserves; noting that if the budget could not be balanced at year end there would need to be a further call on reserves.

·       The projected overspend of £3 million on the HRA, the majority of which related to the calculation for depreciation, and the key pressures on this budget.and the position on reserves.

·       The Capital Plan which had been re-profiled for this year, with further reprofiling being anticipated.

·       The cost of borrowing remained high.

The Portfolio Holder for Finance and Regeneration, Councillor Graham Turner, was also present for the item.

Questions and comments were invited from Committee Members, with the following issues being covered:

·       The conditions for the ‘safety valve agreement’, associated with the Dedicated Schools Grant deficit, were still in place as agreed under the previous Government. The high needs block deficit had risen to £43 million in 2023/24 and was projected to rise to £65 million this year, in line with projections. The Council was in regular contact with the Department for Education (DfE) and they had acknowledged the pressures local authorities faced.  The DfE had recognised the positive progress being made by Kirklees, including two new specialist schools, which would help reduce the deficit. The Government had placed £1 billion into the 2025/2026 budget for the sector and the Council had committed £10 million towards the safety valve agreement, with the 2025/2026 budget proposals including the first contribution of £2.15 million.

·       A question was asked regarding the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme. The Council had been notified by Defra of an indicative allocation of £6 million funding for 2025/26 to recognise the cost to the authority of the collection, management, recycling and disposal of packaging waste. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

A presentation will be given in respect of the Council Plan and Performance Update Report for Quarter 2 2024-2025, with reference to the report being submitted to Cabinet on 10^th December 2024.

Contact: Mike Henry – Head of Data and Insight

A presentation was given by Andy Simcox - Service Director, Strategy and Innovation, in respect of the Quarter 2 2024-2025 Council Plan and Performance Update, with reference to the report submitted to Cabinet on 10^th December 2024.

He explained that:

·       The purpose of the report was to update the Executive Leadership Team, Executive Board, Cabinet and scrutiny in respect of progress and activities related to the Council’s four key priorities, as detailed in the Council Plan.

·       The report included those actions delivered in quarter 2 and those planned for the next quarter. It also provided an update in respect of key council measures for 2024/2025 and included an appendix that contained updates against other measures.

·       This was the second iteration of the report for 2024/25 and reflected the structural changes agreed at Personnel Committee on 2^nd July.

·       Benchmarking data was included where possible.

RESOLVED -

(1)      That the Service Director, Strategy and Innovation be thanked for attending the meeting and providing an update in relation to the Council Plan and Corporate Performance for Quarter 2, 2024/2025

(2)      That it be noted that the quarterly reports would be submitted to the Committee on a regular basis during 2025 and Lead Members will identify any issues that they consider might require further scrutiny by their respective Panel.

A presentation will be given in respect of the Quarter 2 2024-2025 Corporate Risk Report, with reference to the report being submitted to Cabinet on 10^th December 2024.

Contact: Martin Dearnley – Head of Audit and Risk

Kevin Mulvaney, Service Director for Finance and Andy Simcox, Service Director for Strategy and Innovation presented the Quarter 2 2024-2025 Corporate Risk Report, with reference to the report submitted to Cabinet on 10^th December 2024. 

RESOLVED -

(1)      That the Service Director, Finance and Service Director Strategy and Innovation be thanked for attending the meeting and providing an update in relation to the Corporate Risk - Quarter 2 Report 2024-2024.

(2)      That it be noted that the quarterly reports would be submitted to the Committee on a regular basis during 2025 and Lead Members will identify any issues that they consider might require further scrutiny by their respective Panel.

The Committee will receive a report in respect of activities associated with identifying and pursuing partnership and funding opportunities that support Council priorities.

Contact:

Stephen Bonnell – Head of Policy Partnerships and Corporate Planning

Paul Mitchell, External Funding & Resources Officer

A presentation was given by Stephen Bonnell, Head of Policy Partnerships and Corporate Planning and Paul Mitchell, External Funding and Resource Officer. in respect of activities associated with identifying and pursuing partnership and funding opportunities that supported the Council priorities.

The following key areas were outlined:

·       Constant monitoring took place in respect of opportunities for funding, collaborative working or associated with wider social or economic changes such as new technologies.

·       Services worked closely with a wide range of partners, nationally, regionally and locally, including local community groups. The Council had a close working relationship with the West Yorkshire Combined Authority, for example on infrastructure projects.

·       The importance of information sharing and communication at an early stage,

·       The approach was shaped around the Council Plan priorities and those within the partnership strategies.

·       Monitoring of a range of other information including best practice and benchmarking.

·       An explanation of what constituted ‘external funding’ the various routes by which it was accessed and why it was needed

·       The External Funding Framework, which set out the guiding principles to encourage a consistent and strategic approach including; the need for early consideration of funding when designing projects and services.

·       The wide range of central support available to services, including support with identifying and assessing funding opportunities, bid development, communication, and the maintenance of comprehensive records including a tracking spreadsheet.

·       Ongoing external development work.

·       Successes and challenges.

Questions and comments were invited from Committee Members, with the following issues being covered:

·       Tools and resources were now in place to minimise the possibility of missed opportunities, including a comprehensive search and alert tool, ‘Grant Finder’.

·       The significant work going into sourcing funding via the appropriate channels was acknowledged. In respect of support to try and ensure the success of bids, such as training and development of staff and working with partner agencies to ensure  those involved had the necessary skills, training workshops were undertaken in respect of the ‘Grant Finder’ tool  so that it could be used to the maximum effect to identify funding opportunities . In terms of developing bids and applying for funding, this support was currently undertaken on an ad-hoc basis on request but there were plans to include such support more formally within the training suite in the future.

·       Third party and community groups often found submitting effective bids could be challenging. In response to a question about whether the Council would be able to work with such groups it was explained that the Third Sector Team provided support to Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) organisations in applying for funding and that support could also be accessed through partners such as Third Sector Leaders (TSL). It was also noted that the Third Sector Team was now part of the same service which would strengthen collaborative working.

·       In respect of engagement and collaborative working it was queried whether Kirklees worked with other local authorities on projects, particularly where a project might overlap boundaries, as this could be more effective. It was advised that, to date,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

The latest version of the Committee’s work programme for 2024-2025 will be submitted for consideration.

Contact: Sheila Dykes – Principal Governance Officer

The latest version of the Committee’s Work Programme for 2024-2025 was submitted and noted.