The Overview and Scrutiny Commission met on 15 September 2025, to discuss the Cabinet's response to the Finance Scrutiny Task Group report, review the financial monitoring report for period one of 2025/26, consider the performance outturn report for 2024/25, and examine the scrutiny work programmes for 2025/26. The commission noted the cabinet response, the financial monitoring report, the performance outturn report, and the scrutiny work programmes.

Financial Monitoring Report

The Director for Finance provided an overview of the council's financial monitoring report for period one of 2025/26. The report covered April and May 2025. At this early stage in the year, there was a forecast service overspend of £0.297m against the net portfolio budget of £202.670m, with one-off corporate underspends forecast to offset the overspend by £0.200m, resulting in a forecast net budget overspend of £0.097m.

The commission resolved to note:

• the forecast outturn revenue underspend position for 2025/26
• the latest position regarding the implementation of 2025/26 budget savings and those brought forward from prior years
• the proposed alternative means of achieving saving CORP04 (review of staffing across Corporate Services) and CORP08 (review of Senior Management)
• the proposed alternative means of achieving savings within Place Services. ENV04 (review of charging policy for out-of-town centre parking) and S-Place 1 10% reduction in employee costs across the directorate
• the proposed alternative means of achieving saving CYP01B (review of Children's Centres and Early Help Services)
• the revised capital programme
• the latest Reserves and Balances position
• the Dedicated Schools Grant position
• the Other Financial Monitoring Matters
• the Treasury Management Position Statement

During the discussion, the following points were raised:

• Monitoring efforts will focus on demand-led services and the achievement of planned savings, with particular attention given to children's homes and the sale of council assets.
• A presentation on the Fair Funding Review[^1] will be delivered to the Budget Scrutiny Task Group when it is formed for this municipal year. [^1]: The Fair Funding Review aimed to revise the funding formula for councils, considering factors such as deprivation levels and low tax bases.
• The council has conducted analysis to assess the potential impact of the revised formula and officers will report back to the committee on the progress and implications of the Fair Funding Review.
• Concerns were raised about how services were held accountable when agreed savings were not achieved. It was discussed that monthly monitoring team meetings were in place to support the Financial Management Reporting (FMR) process and a Budget Performance Board had also been established to identify and address any budget variances.

Performance Outturn Report

The Director for Policy and Transformation presented the Corporate Directorate Performance Outturn Report 2024-25, which provided an analysis of progress and performance over the period April 2024 to the end of March 2025 against the council's priority 6 Be a responsible Council .

The commission resolved to note:

• the performance position at outturn 2024-25
• the actions planned by Corporate Services to address specific areas for performance improvement in relation to Priority 6

Particular attention was brought to the improvements made in areas such as: timelines of responses to complaints, responses to Freedom of Information requests, and customer experience measures aligned to the customer experience programme. It was noted that more work was needed to continue improving in these areas.

During the discussion, the following points arose:

• 15% of complaints were not completed within the required timescales, an improvement from 73% at the same time last year, now reflecting an 85% success rate. Continued efforts were underway to further improve response times.
• The improvement in complaint response times had been attributed to enhanced reporting and monitoring systems for managers, the implementation of tools such as GOSS, and targeted training for staff and managers.
• It was noted that complaints were often complex and multifaceted, requiring adequate time to ensure thorough and appropriate responses.
• Each council directorate dealt with unique and varied types of complaints, reflecting differing complexities. Children's services were highlighted as frequently requiring more detailed and complex responses to complaints.
• Freedom of Information (FOIs) requests remained a challenge due to increasing volume and complexity.
• Training and knowledge sessions had been delivered to improve handling of FOI requests.
• The service had explored ways to proactively publish commonly requested information on the council's website and other platforms to reduce the number of incoming requests.
• All three key indicators related to customer experience had shown improvement. Progress was largely credited to the customer services team, who had embraced new technologies and completed relevant training.
• The use of AI, including the Helen chat bot, had positively impacted process efficiency and service delivery.
• The introduction of a new technical officer post had ensured that services and processes aligned with emerging technologies. This role provided oversight of outcomes and supported continuous improvement in service delivery.

Scrutiny Work Programme Report

The Senior Scrutiny Officer provided an overview of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission's work programme.

The commission resolved to note the work programmes of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission and three Scrutiny Committees.

The Chair of the Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Committee and the Chair of the Place Services Scrutiny Committee provided updates on the recent work of their committee's and items due to be considered as part of their work programmes, including progress of their task and finish groups. In the absence of the Chair of the Children and Young People Services Scrutiny Committee, the Senior Scrutiny Officer provided a brief overview of the Committee's meeting held earlier in the day and the current progress of task and finish groups.

Cabinet Response to Finance Scrutiny Task Group Report

The Director of Finance provided an overview of the process that had been undertaken by the Task Group review and that the Cabinet had endorsed the 3 recommendations made by the Task Group at its meeting on Wednesday 16 July 2025. The Director of Finance presented the Cabinet response action plan along with timeframes for completion.

The commission resolved to note the Cabinet response to the recommendations of the Finance Scrutiny Task Group.