The Scrutiny Commission were scheduled to meet to discuss local government reorganisation, the council's annual delivery report, and the annual traded services strategy. The meeting was also scheduled to cover the council's financial strategy monitoring, including revenue budget and capital programme updates. Councillors were expected to comment on a draft business case for local government reorganisation and the future direction of Beaumanor Hall.

Local Government Reorganisation

The Scrutiny Commission were scheduled to consider a draft business case for local government reorganisation (LGR) in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland. This followed a previous presentation to the commission on 29 October 2025. According to the Agenda frontsheet, the report was to be presented by the Chief Executive, John Sinnott, the Director of Corporate Resources, Declan Keegan, and the Director of Law and Governance, Lauren Haslam.

The report's purpose was to provide further detail on the council's proposals, following a formal invitation from the Minister of State for Local Government and English Devolution on 5 February 2025. The invitation required an interim plan to be submitted before 21 March 2025.

The report pack included a Supplementary Report, a Draft Business Case, a Strategic Summary and confirmed assumptions list model final, and notes on Collaborative Working and Data Sharing.

The draft business case outlined several options for LGR:

• A single unitary council for Leicestershire and Rutland
• A single unitary council for Leicestershire
• An extension to Leicester City Council's boundaries to include the Principal Urban Area and adjacent rural areas
• An extension to Leicester City Council's boundaries to the Principal Urban Area
• An extension to Leicester City Council's boundaries to include Oadby and Wigston Borough Council and Blaby District Council
• An extension to Leicester City Council's boundaries to include Oadby and Wigston Borough Council
• Three Unitary Councils for the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland area

The report stated that the council considered that a north/south split of the county would have a significant risk to the stability of countywide services, particularly social care, would cause unnecessary disaggregation of services, and that it was unable to support that proposal. The council's resolution also noted that there was joint agreement with the City Council that the best option for reorganisation in Leicester and Leicestershire is a two unitary model, one City, one County.

The report stated that the council's final business case must be submitted to the government by 28 November 2025.

Annual Delivery Report and Performance Compendium 2025

The Scrutiny Commission were scheduled to discuss the draft Annual Delivery Report and Performance Compendium for 2025. According to the Agenda frontsheet, the report was to be presented by the Chief Executive, John Sinnott.

The Report to Scrutiny - Annual Performance Report Nov25 v1 stated that the Annual Delivery Report and Performance Compendium outline recent progress in relation to key service plan priorities and metrics. The government has recently been consulting on a new national Local Government Outcomes Framework (LGOF) which it is currently aiming to introduce from April 2026.

The Draft Leicestershire County Council Annual Delivery Report 2025 summarised delivery and achievements over the last 12 months, focusing on performance against council priorities in main service strategies.

The Draft Performance Compendium 2025 contained information on:

• Current inequality in funding
• Comparative performance, cost and service benchmarking 2023/24 including lower comparative performing areas
• 2024/25 end of year performance figures, where available
• Main corporate and service risks

The report stated that the council's benchmarking shows that it was the fifth best performing county in England on a wide range of performance measures in 2023/24, despite being the lowest funded.

The lower performing areas identified in the 2023/24 benchmarking were:

• Adult Social Care
  • Adult Social Care satisfaction and quality of life
  • Carers ease of finding information about services
  • % of Care Homes rated good or outstanding
  • Wider Social care workforce turnover
• Children and Families
  • Timeliness of conferences and review of child protection cases
  • Looked After Children Health checks
  • Child protection plans lasting 2 years or more
  • Re-referrals to children's social care
  • Education, Health and Care Plans issued within 20 weeks
• Public and Child Health
  • Air Pollution concentration and attributable mortality
  • HIV late diagnosis
  • Child good level of development at 2-2.5 years, and at 5 years old eligible for free school meals
  • The percentage of physically active children and young people
  • Infant mortality rate
• Environment and Waste
  • The % of municipal waste landfilled
• Transport and Highways
  • Relatively low results for number of passenger journeys on local bus services originating in the area per head
• Economy
  • The percentage of 3-year survival of new enterprises
  • % of employees in knowledge-based industries

The report also highlighted a number of service risks, including:

• The ability to deliver savings to meet the Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS)
• Unexpected loss of income
• Failure to control cost and demand pressures
• Increasing number and type of high-cost social care placements
• Rising demand for and complexity of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP)
• Delays to Special Educational Needs Assessments
• Increasing demand for EHC Needs Assessment
• Unresolved immigration status of refugees and asylum seekers
• Unavailability of suitable placements for UASC (unaccompanied asylum-seeking children)
• Failure of health and care partners to work together to address the impact of system pressures effectively
• Failure to develop and maintain a stable, sustainable, and quality social care market
• Continuing increase in demand for assessments (care needs and financial)
• Ash dieback disease causing shedding branches or falling trees
• Major issue resulting in unplanned waste site closure
• Significant changes/clarifications to legislation, policy or guidance
• Services not taking into account current and future environmental changes
• Council not effectively managing its exposure to cyber risk
• Failure to restore services or maintain services in a major disruption
• Sickness not effectively managed
• Departments unable to promptly recruit and retain staff
• Developer contributions not secured, are not sufficient to cover costs or are not spent efficiently
• East Midlands Gateway 2 application is approved without mitigating infrastructure

Annual Report on the Traded Services Strategy

The Scrutiny Commission were scheduled to receive an update on the performance of Leicestershire Traded Services (LTS) during 2024/25. According to the Agenda frontsheet, the report was to be presented by the Director of Corporate Resources. The report also requested the views of the Commission on the future direction of Beaumanor Hall and Park, as part of the council's engagement process.

The Traded Services Strategy Annual Report 2025 FINAL stated that LTS is the council's commercial arm and comprises catering services, property services, and professional and business services, with a customer base predominantly of schools and academies.

The report noted that overall, the performance of LTS exceeded the budget target by £250,000, with a contribution of £243,000. It also noted that retendering of services by Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) remains a major risk to all traded services, with aggressive pricing by competitors and some insourcing leading to several contracts being lost.

The overall financial results for LTS in 2024/25 were:

The report also provided an update on the School Food Service, Beaumanor Hall and Park, the Cafes, Professional Services, Soft Facilities Management, Hard Facilities Management, and the Century Theatre.

The report also included the Appendix - Beaumanor Hall Engagement Survey, and the Scrutiny Commission were asked for their views on the following questions:

• Are there any particular strengths that you think Beaumanor Hall offers?
• Are there any barriers to making the most of Beaumanor Hall that you think we should consider?
• Do you have any suggestions for how Beaumanor Hall could generate more income or attract more visitors?

Medium Term Financial Strategy Monitoring (Period 6)

The Scrutiny Commission were scheduled to receive an update on the 2025/26 revenue budget and capital programme monitoring position as at the end of Period 6 (the end of September 2025). According to the Agenda frontsheet, the report was to be presented by the Director of Corporate Resources.

The Supplementary Report - MTFS Monitoring Period 6 stated that the period 6 revenue budget monitoring exercise shows a net projected overspend of £2.9m, and the period 6 capital programme monitoring exercise shows net acceleration of £0.3m.

The key projected variances that had been identified were:

• Children and Family Services (C&FS) – Schools Budget
• Children and Family Services – Local Authority Budget (Other)
• Adults and Communities
• Public Health
• Environment and Transport
• Chief Executive's
• Corporate Resources
• Central Contingencies
• Central Items
• Business Rates

The Appendix A - Revenue Budget monitoring summary P6 25-26 and Appendix B - Revenue Budget forecast main variances 25-26 P6 provided a breakdown of the revenue budget monitoring statement and forecast main variances.

The Appendix C - Capital Monitoring Summary 25-26 and Appendix D - Capital variances 25-26 provided a capital programme monitoring statement and forecast main variances.

The report also provided an update on the Investing in Leicestershire Programme.

The Council's current MTFS shows a budget gap of £90m by 2028/29, with almost £40m of that falling in 2026/27.