The 11 December meeting of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee included updates on the council's finances, the Dedicated Schools Grant, the results of the staff survey and a proposal for a scrutiny review. There was also a presentation from Paul Blacker, Finance Director, and Rob Ayliffe, Director of Policy, Performance and Governance, on the council's performance during the second quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.

Council finances

The report pack included a financial update for the second quarter of the 2024/25 financial year. Overall the council is predicting a small underspend of £580,000. This is good news, but the report pack noted that

it was acknowledged that it was still early days

The report pack noted that the predicted underspend was achieved after the forecast use of £39.408 million of reserves in 2024/25. The largest predicted underspend was in Economy, Environment and Infrastructure, which the report pack attributed to income generated by the Javelin Park Incinerator.¹ The report pack also noted an overspend in Children and Families, which it attributed in part to packages of support for disabled children.

Dedicated Schools Grant

The report pack noted that Gloucestershire County Council is predicting a £27.358 million deficit in its Dedicated Schools Grant² budget, with the majority of this attributed to the High Needs Block. This would increase the total deficit to £73.109 million at the end of the financial year. The report pack said that

Gloucestershire’s High Needs block, like most local authorities nationally, is in deficit

and that

the issue remained that Gloucestershire received low levels of funding to support increasing levels of demand

It went on to say that

This creates a risk that Useable Revenue Reserve balances will be required to meet the cumulative deficit, as at 1 April 2026. Based upon current trajectories, the Council’s Useable Revenue Reserves will not be sufficient to meet the deficit as at 1 April 2026. This creates a risk of insolvency, which Local Authorities and representative groups nationally continue to highlight to Central Government.

Autumn Statement

The report pack included a briefing about the Autumn Statement³ that was delivered by Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, on 30 October 2024. It noted that Gloucestershire County Council would receive an additional £1.3 billion in grant funding, including a £600 million increase in the social care grant. However, the briefing also noted that the government is planning to reform local government funding from 2026/27 onwards, with a white paper on devolution expected before the end of 2024.

Staff Survey results - action plan

The report pack included an update on the actions taken in response to the results of the 2023 Staff Survey. These included communication and leadership visibility, change management, reward and recognition, health and wellbeing, career progression, and equalities, diversity and inclusion.

The report pack listed a number of actions that were scheduled to be discussed, including a new business change management toolkit, more visible leadership, a review of reward and recognition practices, a new health and wellbeing strategy, enhanced career development opportunities and EDI training.

The report pack noted that a new staff survey is scheduled to be launched on 15 January 2025. It also noted that the number of questions in the survey would be reduced and aligned with the LGA framework questions to enable benchmarking with other councils.

Scrutiny review

The report pack included a proposal for a scrutiny review that would report back to the new Council following the May 2025 local elections. This was prompted by changes to the government's guidance on Overview and Scrutiny that were published in April 2024. The report pack noted that the guidance

included a number of policies and practices all authorities should adopt of consider adopting.

The report pack outlined a number of actions that were scheduled to be discussed. These included:

• Scrutiny Chairs Forum to discuss and review the proposal document.
• Each Scrutiny Committee to discuss areas for improvement
• A final report with recommendations to be prepared by Democratic Services and signed by Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee members.

The report pack noted that the review would consider the role of co-optees, member induction arrangements, the way in which topics are shortlisted for consideration, meeting agendas and improved communication of the role and purpose of scrutiny. It also noted that the review would consider whether a secret ballot should be used to appoint scrutiny chairs.