The Resources and Performance Cabinet Panel met on Tuesday 25 November to discuss the Quarter 2 finance budget monitor, the future of residual land at The Valley School, and the council's performance. The panel approved the proposed capital reprogramming of £28.4 million and a £847,000 transfer from the Adult Care Services Day Services Transformation budget to the Adult Care Services Relocation of Day Opportunities Services.

Here's a breakdown of the key discussion points:

Quarter 2 Finance Budget Monitor

The panel reviewed the Quarter 2 Budget Monitor report, which summarised the council's financial position against revenue and capital budgets. Scott Walker, head of corporate finance, reported that the overall revenue budget is showing a £6.2 million overspend for the financial year, which is within the £10 million annual contingency. The overspend is attributed to increased demand in older people's nursing and residential placements, and in looked-after children. The number of children looked after has increased from 872 to 919. The savings programme is projected to achieve £40.1 million of the £42 million target. The capital programme is reporting a £16 million underspend, and a reprogramming of £28.4 million of capital spend into later years is requested. The school budget is forecasting a £10.8 million overspend, mainly in the higher-needs block, driven by an increased number of EHCPs across the board. The council's current debt is approximately £100 million, an increase of £24.7 million since the start of the financial year, with £23 million of that owed by NHS partners.

Councillor Mark Biddle raised concerns about the accumulated deficit of £88.5 million.

Councillor John Graham questioned the accuracy of the reported £6.1 million deficit, given that £4.6 million in savings were at risk of not being recovered. He also raised concerns about the £8 million in savings sought from organisational resourcing.

Scott Walker clarified that the amber and red areas in the savings programme are assumed as fully delivered at this point in time in the forecast, but there is a risk around delivery. He explained the challenges in children's social care, resources, and third-party spending.

Councillor Alexander Curtis said that the forecast for pressures for the next four years are almost all listed as zero, and that this was not a true reflection of affairs. He also raised concerns about debt, and asked what was being done to get money into the council's bank accounts more quickly.

Councillor Tim Williams said that the standard terms are 30 days on date of invoice, and that the debt team chase their debts, mostly by telephone. He suggested that for the big NHS foundations, there should be meetings with them, going through line by line, invoice by invoice, trying to actually work out the problems so they can actually be paid.

Councillor Richard Roberts raised concerns about the increasing number of children coming into care since May, and the rising costs of care.

Councillor Ian Albert asked about the impacts on treasury and investment income through increasing numbers on the high needs block, and about spending in relation to LGR pressures.

Councillor Matthew Hurst declared an interest as his wife receives care through Hertfordshire County Council, and asked for confirmation that any individual charges or charges on individuals are greatly protected from increases.

Councillor Williams commented on the £1.2 billion budget, and the challenges of managing the social care budgets, especially adult care, children's services, including that children looked after budget. He said that there had been years of neglect from the previous government, and that the current Labour government has shown no willingness to actually address local government finance.

Councillor Graham said that HCC has been constrained from delivering its legal obligations to send children, and asked about the word constrained.

Councillor Biddle asked if invoices could have been done quicker, why didn't the previous administration implement this?

Councillor Curtis said that there's always improvements, as you can make on practices, and that Hertfordshire is one of the better councils in terms of its medium-term financial position. He also said that savings will come in the form of council tax rises in terms of precepts for the different institutions, the levy precepts, and that the reason why LGR is being done is obviously for central governments to not have to provide councils with extra money to meet their statutory responsibilities on stuff like adult social care.

Councillor Albert said that we've been operating on an unfair funding model for about 15 years, and that the previous Conservative administration didn't do is actually look at funding every year.

The panel agreed to recommend to Cabinet that it approve the proposed capital reprogramming of £28.4 million and the proposed agreement of £847,000 from adult care services, day services, the transformation budget to the adult care services relocation of day opportunity services.

Future of Residual Land at The Valley School, Stevenage

The panel discussed the future of residual land at The Valley School in Stevenage. Councillor Roberts said that this looks fairly straightforward, and that it sounds like a great idea to get rid of the empty building. Councillor Hill pointed out that there is an existing SEND school on the site, and that whatever happens to redevelop it is going to have a tangible impact on those students, and that consideration must be given to supporting those students through their educational journey and to make sure that they are well looked after.

The cabinet panel agreed to recommend to cabinet that the residual land at The Valley School be declared surplus to requirements and available for disposal, and that the terms of disposal of the above site be delegated to the deputy chief executive and executive director for resources and consultation with the executive member for resources and performance.

Hertfordshire County Council Performance Monitor – Quarter 1 & 2 2025-26

The panel reviewed the Hertfordshire County Council Performance Monitor for Quarter 1 and 2 of 2025-26. Parikh McKenna, presented the report, which is an initial iteration of the way in which the council proposes to report to the panel going forward. The report is aligned to the new corporate plan, is more digestible, and pushes accountability down to the service panels. The report covers five priorities for the council, which are broken down into 17 objectives and 50 specific outcomes. The report focuses on 19 priority outcomes.

Councillor Curtis said that there's not a massive amount in the report, and that a lot of the facts that are merited as achievements are initiatives that were started under the previous administration. He also said that this panel needs to have oversight over the financial indicators for the other portfolios.

Councillor Biddle said that there's positive movement on SEND, which is welcomed, but that it is still of immense concern that the continued SEND costs are rising greatly.

Councillor Albert said that the panel should have the staff numbers and tables for resources, but it's only for resources, and that this of all panels should have the tables for all of the areas and the organisation as a whole. He also said that there's lots of positives, but no negatives, and that's not a criticism of officers because other officers are doing a fantastic job, but that in any organisation that there are things that are going well and there are things that are going not so well, and that's not really highlighted in this report.

Councillor Hurst said that as a carer, he really does not feel listened to, and would like to see what work has been done regarding improving the joined up.

Councillor Roberts said that he can't tell from this what's working and what isn't working, and that this committee has to be the place that understands what the most important things are that are happening to and with 1.2 million people with our involvement, 1.2 billion pounds worth of investment.

Councillor Graham said that HCC is being constrained for delivery, its legal obligations for, because of resources, and that this doesn't link with the corporate plan into the resources and when, where we might be constrained accordingly.

Councillor Stuart Roberts said that there is a danger with these documents that we swing from too little detail to too much detail, and that he didn't want to create huge levels of additional work on officers.

Councillor Horner said that he would appreciate offline to take up Councillor Hurst's point, and that if you look at the figures here, it's not just congratulating us on all the things that are going well, and that if you look at the overall satisfaction of carers, it's only 37 or 50%, and that is not acceptable.

Councillor Hill said that we have to think about how other cabinet panels fit into this one as well, and that what she wouldn't want to see is that I replicated across to here, because that's not our function.

The panel agreed to note the metrics and have identified any actions, and to alert cabinet to the discussion.

Hertfordshire County Council Resources Performance Monitor – Quarter 1 2025-26

The panel reviewed the Hertfordshire County Council Resources Performance Monitor for Quarter 1 2025-26. Parikh McKenna presented the report, which sets out around 20 indicators across a broad range of categories, provides a red, amber, green rating and some succinct commentary.

Councillor Curtis said that there's a lot in the executive post for the portfolio resources and performance, and then looked at this table where we have the indicators for the new administration, how they're assessing performance against priorities, objectives. He said that for property, we have the three metrics that apparently determine how we're doing as a council on property, our electricity consumption, gas consumption and capital receipt, cumulative pounds, nothing at all on the cost of running property, nothing at all on the rental income across the portfolio. He said that for finance, there's nothing at all, and that we don't even have a metric.

Councillor Biddle thanked the CSC on their continued superb work, and the members of health and safety staff for their dedication for the improvements on lowering incidents occurred.

Councillor Roberts said that can we be very careful if we ever look to change the matrix, because all of a sudden, those trends become irrelevant if we've actually changed how we measure them. He also said that because the school issue is such a large proportion, I do wonder if we need to graph that separately.

Councillor Albert said that this particular report is much more like the one that the previous administration had for many years, and that it is an abbreviated report.

The panel agreed to note the metrics and the approach outlined in this report.

Hertfordshire Libraries Motion

The panel considered the Hertfordshire Libraries Motion, proposed by Councillor Richard Roberts and seconded by Councillor Albert. Councillor Roberts said that the main purpose of bringing this motion is not for us to spend two hours on this, but to acknowledge that our library service is something that is an exemplar within what we do at Hertfordshire County Council. He said that the library service is spread right across our county, allowing our community to learn, to play, to sing, to make things, to communicate, to go and get books, to read magazines and newspapers. He implored that we commit to protecting the integrity of the library service from here on onwards.

Danny Bailey, director of libraries, welcomed the sentiment of this motion. He said that in 2024-25, the library service welcomed over seven million visitors, had over 64,000 new members, loaned over six million issues, items, and that included over 137 borrowers. In addition to this, way more than just the books that we issue across our network, we also delivered over 10,000 events, and that this ranged from author talks, Lego clubs, silent discos, and printmaking, and this had over 200,000 attendees.

Councillor Albert said that it might be good to get a deeper dive with our library service here, where we've had some deep dives at this panel before.

Councillor Curtis said that Hertfordshire has kept its libraries open, and that all of our libraries have remained open, and that there are very few other places, if any, in England, any other counties that can attest the same.

Councillor Hill said that libraries are obviously invaluable to our community, and just a huge thank you to the officers and volunteers for all their work in delivering that.

Councillor Stuart Roberts said that libraries today are so far away from what they historically were, and that they are a huge community asset.

Councillor Crystall said that he just wanted to highlight the superb professional staff, and that they just do such a great job in what can be, can be difficult, difficult working conditions, but just due to the challenges that are put on them.

Councillor Biddle said that he just wanted to agree with everything that's been said, and it's got my full support.

Councillor Curtis said that it would be remiss of me, and not to mention the collaborations between some of our libraries and the post office, in terms of keeping post offices in our town centres.

The panel agreed to note that the Cabinet panel consider the response to the motion set out above, and that there are no recommendations set out in relation to this motion.

Finally, Councillor Graham asked for an update on the summit to do with high streets, and the chair said that they would make sure he gets that offline.