This meeting was largely about scrutinising the financial performance and progress of Gloucestershire County Council against its priorities for the second quarter of the 2024/25 financial year, which runs from April 2024 to March 2025. There was also scheduled to be discussion of a proposal for the next scrutiny review, the council's staff survey results, and the recently announced Autumn Statement.

It is important to note that this article summarises only what was scheduled to be discussed in the meeting. It is not a record of what was actually said by the participants, or of any decisions that were taken.

Corporate Performance, Risk and Financial Monitoring - Quarter 2 2024/25

The most significant topic scheduled for discussion was the performance of the council in the second quarter of 2024/25. The document pack included a detailed report, the Corporate Performance, Risk and Financial Monitoring - Quarter 2 2024/25 COSC by Paul Blacker, Finance Director and Rob Ayliffe, Director of Policy, Performance and Governance. This report covered the council’s revenue budget, savings programme, capital expenditure, performance and risk management.

Revenue Budget

The council was currently forecasting a small underspend of £580,000 against its overall revenue budget, but this was after an expected drawdown from reserves of £39.4 million. £27.3 million of this expected drawdown was to cover the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficit, which was forecast to increase to £73.1 million by the end of the year, and could increase further to beyond £100 million by the end of the override period in March 2026.

The main financial risks to the council were:

• The ongoing DSG deficit[^2] and the impact of this on the council's reserves from April 2026, when the statutory override allowing councils to hold DSG deficits as negative reserves was due to expire. [^2]: The DSG deficit refers to the amount by which the council's spending on high needs students exceeds the Dedicated Schools Grant the council receives from central government to fund this spending.
• The potential expansion of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to include energy from waste, and the impact of this on the council’s income from its Energy from Waste facility.

The report also included updates on the forecast financial position for each of the council's departments.

Savings Programme

The council's savings programme for 2024/25 had a target of £32.4 million, which included £9.4 million of savings targets that had not been achieved in previous years. The report pack noted that £25.9 million (79.9%) of these savings were currently forecast to be achieved.

The most significant risk to the savings programme was £5.5 million of savings targets in Adult Social Care that were currently forecast not to be achieved.

Capital Expenditure

The council's capital expenditure budget for 2024/25 was originally set at £174.8 million but was reprofiled at the previous meeting to £172.8 million. The report pack stated that £144.1 million was now expected to be spent in this financial year, with a forecast outturn at the end of the year being £144.7 million.

The report also included proposals for a number of changes to the capital budget, including:

• Additional funding for a number of road resurfacing schemes.
• Additional funding for Electric Vehicle charge points.
• Funding for various schemes including a number of new primary school pre-schools, and contributions from developers for a number of highway schemes.

The report pack noted that a final Broadband Gainshare payment of £6.1 million was expected from BT in this financial year. This money could only be used for broadband-related investments and would be transferred to the Economic Stimulus Reserve.

Corporate Performance and Risk

The report pack stated that the council was currently performing well against its corporate performance targets, with 70% of corporate performance indicators either meeting or exceeding their targets. There was scheduled to be further discussion of the performance of individual departments in separate sections of the report.

Staff Survey Results - Action Plan

The committee was scheduled to consider the council's progress in responding to the results of its 2023 Staff Survey, in a report titled GCC Employee Engagement Survey Action planning by Mandy Quayle, the council's Director of People and Digital Services.

The report pack included the presentation slides that Ms Quayle was due to use during the meeting, which covered:

• An overview of the action planning process.
• Highlights from the action plan, including progress in areas like communication, leadership visibility, reward and recognition, health and wellbeing, career progression and equalities, diversity and inclusion.
• Examples of the actions that were being taken in response to the staff survey, in each of the council's departments.
• Plans for the next staff survey, which was due to be launched on 15 January 2025.

The presentation slides noted that the council was working to improve its change management processes and to better communicate with staff about changes. It also highlighted the work that the council was doing to improve staff wellbeing and to support career progression.

Autumn Statement

The committee was scheduled to receive a verbal update on the recently announced Autumn Statement, the COSC Autumn Budget Verbal Update 111224 by Nina Philippidis, the council's Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Director of Corporate Resources.

The report pack contained a briefing note on the Autumn Statement, which highlighted a number of key announcements:

• Local authorities would receive an additional £1.3 billion in grant funding, £1 billion for SEND services, and £230 million to tackle homelessness.
• The Comprehensive Spending Power (CSP)[^3] available to local authorities would increase by 3.2% in real terms. [^3]: Comprehensive Spending Power is the total amount of money that a local authority has available to spend on services. It includes grants from central government, income from council tax, and business rates.
• The referendum limit on council tax increases would remain at 5%.
• The government was planning to reform local government funding in 2026/27.
• The government was planning to introduce new sectoral business rates multipliers from 2026/27, with lower multipliers for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure properties.

The briefing note also highlighted a number of potential impacts for Gloucestershire, including:

• The increased cost of employer National Insurance Contributions, which would be compensated for by central government.
• The impact of increases to the National Living Wage and Minimum Wage on council services.
• The potential impact of higher inflation on council budgets.
• The potential impact of the government's plans to reform local government funding on the council’s finances.

Scrutiny Review

The committee was scheduled to consider a proposal for a review of its scrutiny arrangements, the Scrutiny Review proposal by Stephen Bace, Head of Democratic Services.

The report pack included:

• An overview of the current scrutiny arrangements, which consist of eight scrutiny committees: Adult Social Care and Communities Scrutiny, Children and Families Scrutiny, Gloucestershire Economic Strategy Scrutiny, Environment Scrutiny, Health Overview and Scrutiny, Fire and Rescue Scrutiny, the Police and Crime Panel, and a joint scrutiny committee with the Police and Crime Commissioner.
• A summary of the updated government guidance on overview and scrutiny, published in April 2024, and an assessment of how Gloucestershire’s current scrutiny arrangements compared to the guidance.
• The Terms of Reference for the Scrutiny Chairs Forum, which had been established in response to the council’s recent Corporate Peer Challenge.

The report pack noted that the previous scrutiny review had been undertaken in 2021. The current review was scheduled to be completed by March 2025, with the final report and recommendations being passed to the new council elected in May 2025 for consideration.