In accordance with the Regulations, Members are invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

There were no declarations of interest from members.

To receive any petitions, deputations and questions received from Members of the Public in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 217.

The total time allowed for this item shall be 30 minutes.  Petitions, declarations and questions shall be dealt with in the order in which they are received.  Questions may also be submitted at short notice by giving a written copy to the Committee Administrator 15 minutes before the start of the meeting.

The total time allowed for questions at short notice is 15 minutes out of the total time of 30 minutes.  Any petitions, deputations and questions that have been submitted with prior formal notice will take precedence over questions submitted at short notice.  Any questions that are not considered within the time limit shall receive a written response after the meeting and be the subject of a report to the next meeting.

No petitions, deputations or questions were received from members of the public.

To consider any questions with notice from Members received in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule No 219 and No 219A.

No questions were received from members.

To receive Report No.8/2017 from the Director for Resources.

Members are requested to bring their copy, distributed under separate cover.

·         The above report was presented to Cabinet on 10 January 2017 and the recommendations within the report were approved.

·         Cabinet has requested that Scrutiny review and comment on proposals before the Cabinet on 14 February 2017 so as to inform the decision-making process.

·         The report and its proposals may be amended following the outcome of the Scrutiny Panel. Scrutiny is therefore asked to consider the report and provide feedback to the Portfolio Holder and Director.

Report No. 8/2017 was received from the Director for Resources. The purpose of the report was to present a draft budget for consultation prior to the budget being formally set in February 2017.

The Acting Leader, Mr Mathias, gave a brief overview of the report.  He advised members that the Council was in the second year of a four year settlement from government which significantly reduced funding provided to local authorities.  A further  reduction was due to changes in the New Homes Bonus.  Payments previously received for 6 years were being reduced to four years and a baseline of 0.4% is being introduced.  This baseline represented the percentage of new housing the government expected and authority to build therefore the New Homes Bonus would now only be paid for new builds after a deduction for the baseline.  He advised that Rutland’s MP, Sir Alan Duncan, had written to the Government on the council’s behalf requesting more funding.  He summed up stating that the 2017/18 budget was robust but that there was uncertainty beyond 2020.

During the discussion the following points were noted:

a.  That the Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR) Sustainability and Transformation Plan (STP) is being consulted on early in 2017 and not 2018 as the report indicated.

b.  The Better Care Fund (BCF) was used increasingly to try and prevent people

from needing hospital services. Action taken to date has resulted in people leaving hospital quicker with delays reduced anda significant reduction in admissions to hospital through lower number of falls.  Mr Andrews advised that social care delays had been reduced by 80% over a 2 year period. .  Investing in prevention has seen less complex cases for the authority.

c.   Members asked if the Council received recognition from either the NHS or Government for this performance.  Mr Clifton advised that the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was using Rutland as an example of good practice in this area.

d.  That maintained schools would be liable for the cost of the Apprenticeship Levy due to be introduced in April 2017. Members noted that education redundancies were no longer funded by the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and sought clarification as whether this applied to all schools., Ms Greaves confirmed that this applied to maintained schools only.

e.  Statutory duties currently funded from the Education Services Grant include the Director of Children’s Services, Welfare Services and, Asset management. With Government plans to cut this funding it was thought that there may be pressure on the General Fund.  Dr O’Neill advised that policy is still evolving and the funding position is still under review.  There was an intention to be more flexible around budgeting for statutory duties and that the aim would be to avoid creating a pressure on the General Fund but it was too early to tell..  He would welcome a robust scrutiny conversation on this at a later date.

f.    Members asked whether there may be some cost pressures as a result of the BCF being frozen but  ...  view the full minutes text for item 519.

To receive Report No. 23/2017 from the Director for Resources.

Members are requested to bring their copy, distributed under separate cover.

·         The above report will be considered by Cabinet on 17 January 2017.

·         Cabinet has requested that Scrutiny review and comment on proposals before the Cabinet on 14 February 2017 so as to inform the decision-making process.

·         The report and its proposals may be amended following the outcome of the Scrutiny Panel.  Scrutiny is therefore asked to consider the report and provide feedback to the Portfolio Holder and Director.

Report No. 23/2016 was received from the Director for Resources. The report set out the proposals for fees and charges for services provided by the Council for the financial year 2017/18.

AGREED:

1.       That the Panel NOTED the contents of the report.