Agenda item

Councillor D.J.R. Bartlett had earlier declared an interest in that he is President of the Carmarthenshire branch of the National Union of Teachers.

Councillor C.A. Campbell had earlier declared and interest in that he is currently undertaking consultancy work on behalf of ERW.

Councillor M.J.A. Lewis had earlier declared an interest in that she is Vice-President of the Welsh Young Farmers Association.

The Committee considered the Revenue Budget Strategy 2017/18 to 2019/20 (Appendix A) which had been endorsed by the Executive Board for consultation purposes at its meeting on 21st November 2016.  The report provided members with the current proposals for the Revenue Budget for 2017/18 together with indicative figures for the 2018/19 and 2019/20 financial years. The report was based on officers’ projections of spending need and took into account the provisional settlement issued by the Welsh Government on 19th October 2016, which was better than had been expected generally within local government and was an improved position on the Authority’s original budget outlook plan. Members were informed that the final settlement had been received the previous day and that the Council would be benefiting from an additional net sum of £382,000. However, the additional funding was linked to duties the Authority would be expected to carry out in relation to homelessness. 

The Committee was also advised that the budget proposals assumed full delivery of the £24.6m worth of savings identified and a Council Tax increase of 2.5%. A 1% change in the Council Tax would equate to +/-£790,000.

The following issues were discussed during consideration of the report:

Clarification was sought as to the apparent lack of school reserves from March 2018 onwards. Concern was also expressed that schools were utilising their reserves to cover their present day financial predicaments and that the Authority’s reserves policy needed to be reviewed. The Director of Corporate Services acknowledged the members’ concerns but noted that the report was based on the data that was available or had been supplied by the schools themselves. The fact that there were currently no projected figures for 2018 onwards, was not a true reflection of the likely situation but reflected the position that schools were not able to forecast their balances that far into the future.

Reference was made to departmental overspends and the risk that some £1.8m of the original efficiency proposals for 2016/17 would not be fully delivered in the current financial year. Concern was also expressed at the Education & Children departmental overspend which the Committee had been monitoring throughout the year and it was queried as to why this couldn’t be resolved and why was allowed to get to that situation in the first place. The Director of Corporate Services acknowledged the comments but noted that the figures relating to non-delivery of efficiencies referred to the position at the time of writing and that much of this would be resolved by the year end.

Concern was expressed at the proposal to increase charges for school meals, especially as Carmarthenshire had the highest prices in Wales and that for the amount of food that primary school children often ate, the current pricing arrangements were unfair, let alone increasing the charges further. It was proposed that the Executive Board look again at this proposal. The Committee agreed to the proposal but for primary school meals, rather than for secondary schools which operated cafeteria–style facilities where there was a choice of foods.

Concerns were also expressed at the proposal to reduce the core Special Educational Needs (SEN) budget to schools by £70,000 and that such a move would further hamper schools’ abilities to support pupils who were already at a disadvantage. It was proposed and endorsed by the Committee that the Executive Board be requested to reconsider this particular proposal. In response, the Interim Director of Education & Children confirmed that the proposal was to reduce the funding given to the 72 larger schools with over a hundred pupils. Provision for these schools would come from their delegated budgets. Schools with less than a hundred pupils sought assistance with SEN provision directly from the Local Authority.

Reference was made to the proposal to reduce the schools delegated budget by £1.9m and serious reservations were expressed that in light of the Welsh Government’s cost neutral settlement, this was a purposeful act which would ultimately lead to schools losing their most experienced staff as they attempted to balance their budgets. It was again proposed that the Executive Board reconsider this proposal which the Committee duly endorsed. In response, the Director of Corporate Services reminded the Committee that in opposing proposals such as this, efficiency savings would need to be identified elsewhere in the departmental budget. He also reminded members that schools had been spared substantial cuts in previous years when compared with the services within the remits of other scrutiny committees (e.g. Highways services).

Disappointment was expressed at the on-going drain on the departmental budget due to costs associated with early voluntary retirement (EVR) arrangements in schools. The Interim Director of Education & Children acknowledged the Committee’s concerns but that the matter was difficult for the department to manage as school governors made the decisions in respect of EVR expenditure. However, he reassured the Committee that officers were being proactive in seeking to address budgetary pressures in schools. Arrangements had been put in place to challenge schools on future EVR applications via a new central panel of officers from the department and from Financial Services. The department was also looking to appoint a new officer to work with the TIC Team in the county’s schools in order to assist schools with identifying efficiencies in both financial and operational matters. The department had also been undertaking research work in relation to school structures and had found schools with varying numbers of staff and support staff, even though they had similar numbers of pupils. It was hoped that this work would lead to the creation of a Carmarthenshire ‘model structure’ for schools of different sizes and through this, unifying structures and staffing numbers across the county. 

Clarification was sought in relation to the charges for Welsh for Adults courses provided by the department. The Interim Director of Education & Children agreed to confirm whether these charges were per session or hour but added that many would also be supported by grants from other funding sources. The Head of Learner Programmes added that the charges were extremely competitive when compared with other providers and many of the courses were oversubscribed. 

The Committee RESOLVED that:

6.1       The 3-Year Revenue Budget Consultation 2017/18 to 2019/20 be received.

6.2       The Charging Digest for the Education & Children Department be endorsed.

The Committee UNANIMOUSLY RESOLVED that:

6.3       The Executive Board be requested to reconsider the proposals to increase school meal charges in the primary sector, to reduce SEN funding and reduce the delegated schools budgets.