Agenda and minutes

To be notified of the appointment of any Substitute Members.

Councillor L Bones was in attendance as a substitute for Councillor D Lilly.

You are invited to declare any registerable and/or non registerable interests in matters appearing on the agenda, and the nature of that interest.

You are also invited to disclose any dispensation in relation to any registerable and/or non-registerable interests that have been granted to you in respect of any matters appearing on the agenda.

Please complete the Declarations of Interests card available at the meeting and return it to the Democratic Services Officer before leaving the meeting.

Item OV6/24 2024/25 Performance & Financial Management Report to 30 November 2024.

The following Councillors declared the interests shown below:

Councillor Liam Bones, Non-Registerable Personal, a family member who works for North Tyneside Council.

Councillor Julie Cruddas, Registerable Personal, she is a Director and Employee of Justice Prince CIC which receives funding for contract delivery.  Councillor Cruddas' partner also works for the authority.

Councillor Davey Drummond, Non-Registerable Personal, they have a relation employed by the CAB, and is on their Board of Trustees.

Councillor Tommy Mulvenna, Non-Registerable Personal, Councillor Mulvenna advised that he has a family member who works for the Local Authority.

Councillor Jane Shaw, Non-Registerable Personal, Councillor Shaw advised that she has a close family member who works for Monkseaton High School.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 15 January 2025.

Resolved that the minutes of the meeting held on 15 January 2025 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

The report is to update members of the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordination and Finance Committee (OSC&FC) on the decision due to be considered on 27 January 2025 at Cabinet.  It also requests that members of the Committee, supported by the members of the Budget Study Sub-group who are invited to this meeting, consider whether any further updates are required to its report to Cabinet on its Budget Proposals.

The Director of Resources gave a short presentation to members on the decisions made at Cabinet on 27 January 2025.  Members were asked to consider whether any further updates were required to its report to Cabinet on its Budget Proposals.

A member enquired if the Household Recycling Centre Development feasibility figure of £1m was a confirmed final figure or a figure of available finance used to round up the total.  Officers replied that this figure was not for the development or running of the project but just to explore the concept, and it may run over a further year.

A question was asked about whether the £770k contingency figure for National Insurance Contributions was realistic given the risk that the Authority will not be fully compensated.  Officers responded that the Authority would need to wait to see what the final Government settlement was going to be before confirming it would be enough, but officers were confident that this figure was a well-researched assumption.

A member commented that they felt that the Budget Study group should in some capacity operate over a longer period than it currently does.  The Chair said that a discussion on this point would be best done outside of OSCFC and asked members to contact them to express their interest to discuss and to gauge the appetite for this.

A member asked if there would be an ongoing commitment to agree to keep the Poverty Intervention Fund topped up.  The Cabinet Member responsible for Finance and Resources stated that the current budget had factored in the decision to replenish the Fund that they had established, but that the Cabinet would be revisiting this decision each year based on the financial situation, but that there was no will to remove the fund.

Regarding a question about the transparency of decisions made at the Poverty Intervention Fund, the Deputy Mayor reminded members that there are two Poverty Intervention Fund groups, both the Steering group and the Committee.

A discussion took place about the return of services to the Authority which had previously been delivered through the Capita contract, and a suggestion that any savings from bringing the service back in-house be kept within Highways so as to better gauge how the resource is being used comparatively.  The Cabinet Member responsible for Finance and Resources said that the transfer of the Highways delivery service was not a ‘like for like’ handover.  The Authority was looking to renew the service, improve the quality of work being done and to work better for the long term good of the Authority’s assets.

The purpose of this report is to respond to the Motion agreed by full Council on 18 July 2024 which stated that recent reports indicated that careful attention needed to be paid while installing floating bus stops to ensure the safety of the most vulnerable residents.

Members asked for this report to return to OSCFC after it was discussed there on 11 Dec 2024, allowing for further investigation of the issues. 

Officers presented the further findings of the report on Floating bus stops after their investigation.  The item had originally been heard at OSCFC on 11 Dec 2024.

A member asked who the final decision about the feasibility of signage on Bus Stops lay with, and officers responded that would be entering into a conversation with ClearChannel about signage and the current contract’s terms – ClearChannel currently maintain contracted bus stops and therefore are able to advertise at them.

A discussion took place regarding what time of year the Cycle usage survey had taken place along the Broadway.  Officers confirmed that figures were recorded in August, where the number of riders were up 48% on other times of the year.  Members expressed their concern that the data did not match what they were seeing, and officers stated they would continue to monitor the route.  In a response to a query about whether any leftover funding at end of the project could be earmarked for the bus stops on this part of the route, officers said though this area was classed as low risk, they would look to recommend this, if funding was made available.

The Chair thanked the officers for the report, the further review that had taken place and for taking into account the views of the committee.

To receive and scrutinise the Authority’s performance and financial management report. The report provides a full overview of both the budget and service delivery performance position across the Authority as at 30 November 2024.

The Head of Policy, Performance and Research presented a full overview of both the budget and service delivery performance position across the Authority as at 30 November 2024.

The Authority was continuing to face significant challenges, projecting an overspend of £8.947m, driven largely by sustained pressures in social care with overspends of £1.131m in Adults Services and £12.839m in Children’s Services.

The Authority was still managing high levels of demand and complexity, and the inherent financial implications, in Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs), children in care, children in need, home care provision, residential and nursing care placements.  Council Tax and Business Rates collection remained on track and better than regional comparators.  Officers reported that the Housing Revenue Account remained broadly comparable, with a forecast underspend of £0.046m for 2024-25. 

The 13 Medium Term Financial Plan workstreams had identified £10.882m of savings which were included in the 2024-25 budget and the delivery of these planned savings was reported as progressing well, with £9.738m having been achieved and reflected in the reported position.

Members stated that in future they would prefer Project updates to OSCFC to come more regularly and cover what the Authority had done, what it said it’d do and what would be happening next.  Officers replied that these queries would be easier to respond to as there was now a Programme Delivery Manager who would be programme managing the Project work.

The Director of Resources reminded the Committee that, at its request, he would invite relevant officers to future meetings to discuss future topics of interest.

The Director of Children’s Services, attended the session providing a further update on the current position and its potential impact on future years, as well as the outcome of the July 2024 LGA Finance Peer review. 

Officers told members how a focus on recruitment activity had led to a small increase in social work staffing and progress was still being made in improving caseloads.  At the end of December, the overall population of the Authority’s Children in Need was 1643, and there were 365 children in the Authority’s care.  The Authority was still working towards using its in-house accommodation in the best way possible, and since 2019 it has increased from 4 to 8.  Officers understood that the Government were trying to bring in measures to limit the market and its inflation of placement costs.  Local Authorities were also looking to see how they could work together to challenge the market forces.

Officers told members that all Local Authorities were continuing to project an average overspend in Children’s Social Care of 10%, and the average overspend for Children in our care was 15%.  North Tyneside regionally had the lowest net spend on Children’s Social Care per 0-17 population in 2023/24, and this had increased to second lowest in 2024/25.

To determine and outline the Overview & Scrutiny Co-ordination & Finance Committee work programme going forward and to be sighted on the Scrutiny Sub-Committee Work Programmes.

The Chair reminded members that the combined Work Programme of all Scrutiny committees was now attached as a standing item to this Committee’s agenda.  The Chair reminded members that suggestions could be made to him at any time for inclusion in the agenda of future committees.

A discussion took place with members about the ‘Master Plans’ item (which has been scrutinised at sub-committee level) also coming to OSCFC, and the Deputy Chair noted that it would not be the best use of this Committee’s time for items to be scrutinised again at OSCFC unless the Committee was to look at the subject matter in a wholly separate light.

The Head of Governance highlighted to the Committee that an item scheduled for the next meeting of the Committee in March is the Annual Scrutiny Report.  Once prepared and agreed by OSCFC, the Annual Report is then in turn reported to the Annual Council Meeting in May.

It was proposed that all members of OSCFC should be contacted by the Head of Governance and asked to inform the Chair of OSCFC if there are any specific matters which they wish to suggest are included in the Annual Scrutiny Report for 2024/25.  As all Chairs of Scrutiny Sub-Committees are also members of OSCFC, this would allow Chairs of Scrutiny Sub-Committees to highlight any significant areas which have been covered in the work of each Sub-committee, for possible inclusion in the Annual Report.

The draft Annual Report would then be prepared and circulated ahead of the next meeting of OSCFC in March 2025, before formal consideration as part of the Agenda for that meeting.

The Committee agreed this proposal.