Agenda item

The Committee had before it a report by the Director of Education, Culture and Sport and the Head of Finance which detailed the performance to date in relation to the Education, Culture and Sport revenue budget and advised on any areas of risk which could require management action.

The report advised that there were 37 approved savings for 2010/2011 which totalled £8,500,000 and that the service was on target to achieve most of these savings.  In relation to the saving of £810,000 proposed for Directorate and Operational Staff costs, it was noted that work was ongoing to identify the exact savings which would be generated in relation to staffing.

The report further noted that there had been a double count of savings between Enterprise, Planning and Infrastructure and Education, Culture and Sport in relation to facilities and that options to minimise the potential overspend of £400,000 were being examined by both services.

The forecast overspend of £1,755,000 did not include the payment of increments and the report advised that this figure would be adjusted following decisions by the Council and the Corporate Management Team.  

In relation to Out of Authority placements, the report advised that based on current figures, there was likely to be an overspend of £786,000, and that the Education, Culture and Sport element of this combined budget with Social Care and Wellbeing was anticipated to be over-committed by £311,000.  It was noted that new screening, resource and authorisation arrangements had been implemented which were designed to impact on the number of children and young people being accommodated at and going to residential school.

The delay in the transfer of facilities to Sport Aberdeen had also had an impact on projected savings, and the report noted that the full year savings were now projected to be £230,000 less than anticipated as a result.

Energy costs were estimated to be £540,000 greater than budget, however, the report noted that there was a central contingency held by Corporate Accounting for energy costs.   All Services had been requested to identify their energy budget shortfall to enable an allocation to be made from the contingency.  

In relation to the teachers’ long term absence budget, the report advised that there was a potential overspend of £400,000 against a budget of £1,400,000.    It was noted that this figure did not merely reflect sickness costs, but also covered a wide range of absences, including maternity leave.  

Detailed information in relation to progress on the various education, culture and sport budget savings for 2010/11 was appended to the report.

The report recommended:-

(a)       that Committee note the report and the information on management action and risks that were contained within;  and

(b)       that Committee instruct officers to continue to review budget performance and report on Service strategies.

The Committee resolved:-

(i)         to approve the recommendations contained in the report; 

(ii)        to note that a more detailed report on the actions being taken to ensure a balanced budget would be brought to the next meeting of the Committee;

(ii)        in relation to the teachers’ long term absence budget, to request that officers circulate figures to members in relation to the effect of the budget of leave accrued during maternity or sickness absence, but to note that work was ongoing to find better ways to identify patterns of maternity leave; 

(iii)       to note that work was ongoing at a corporate level to identify the budgets to be used to pay for the costs of the increments, and therefore the exact impact of the payments on the Education, Culture and Sport budget was unknown at this time;

(iv)       in relation to ECS BS C14(a) (Library Service – Reduction in Library posts) and (b) (Library Service Charges), to note that the figures under the value and forecast columns were transposed;  and

(v)        to request that in future reports, the explanation under each budget line reflected the current position.