Agenda and draft minutes

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Contact: Wyn Richards, Scrutiny Manager and Head of Democratic Services 

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Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

To receive apologies for absence.

Minutes:

An apology for absence was received from County Councillor E Roderick.

2.

Declarations of interest

To receive declarations of interest from Members.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest from Members relating to items for consideration on the agenda.

3.

Declarations of Party Whip

To receive disclosures of prohibited party whips which a Member has been given in relation to the meeting in accordance with Section 78(3) of the Local Government Measure 2011.

 

(NB: Members are reminded that under Section 78 Members having been given a prohibited party whip cannot vote on a matter before the Committee.)

Minutes:

The Committee did not receive any disclosures of prohibited party whips which a Member has been given in relation to the meeting in accordance with Section 78(3) of the Local Government Measure 2011.

4.

Draft 2021 - 22 Budget pdf icon PDF 11 MB

To scrutinise the Draft 2021- 22 Budget.

 

Attached, in relation to the Cabinet’s Budget proposals to Council are the following documents:

 

(i)       A copy of the Cabinet report to provide the overall context for the budget setting process (Attached)

(ii)      A copy of the Mid Term Financial Strategy and Finance Resource Model (Appendices A and B)

(iii)      A copy of Services' cost reduction proposals (Appendix C)

(iv)     A copy of the Fees and Charges Report which provides an overview to Service proposals for income generation. (Appendices D and E – To Follow)

(v)      A copy of the Capital Strategy and the Treasury Management Strategy. (Appendix F)

(vi)     A copy of the Reserves Policy (Appendix G)

(vii)     A copy of the Future Proofing Powys Survey (Appendix H – To Follow)

(viii)    Individual Impact Assessments relating to the proposals under (iii) above (Appendix I)

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Documents Considered:

·                 Draft 2021 – 22 Budget including:

·       A copy of the Cabinet report to provide the overall context for the budget setting process

·       A copy of the Mid Term Financial Strategy and Finance Resource Model

·       A copy of Services' cost reduction proposals

·       A copy of the Fees and Charges Report which provides an overview to Service proposals for income generation

·       A copy of the Capital Strategy and the Treasury Management Strategy.

·       A copy of the Reserves Policy

·       A copy of the Future Proofing Powys Survey

·       Individual Impact Assessments relating to the proposals

 

Issues Discussed:

·                 The Portfolio Holder for Finance set out the background to the draft budget. There were no particular cost savings in relation to Education.

·                 There are two aspects to the revenue budget, some traditional spends such as catering and also the transferring of costs that the service has carried but are related to spends in schools e.g. licences, services for school trips.

 

·                 Reduce GDPR support to schools. The original budget relates to when GDPR was first introduced. Training is now undertaken virtually during the pandemic rather than on a face to face basis. Mandatory virtual training is also to be introduced for schools on cyber security and data protection.

 

·                 Questions:

If schools have specific issues, can they still have those questions answered

Yes the schools will be still able to access relevant officers for advice.

Will some of the cost for GDPR work be transferred to schools, whilst this is a saving for the Service, will increase the costs for schools.

Some of these are a spend for the Service which needs to be reduced. GDPR is no longer new and the demand for support was high in the early period. The Service has moved to a point where most of the training is now digital and the demand for support is low. This is about the Service itself contributing less for GDPR support than previously.

The Service needs to pay less for what it needs which is less than previously and the second proposal for GDPR is that the cost that schools should pay for support will be delegated to schools. That will be reviewed to see whether it needs to be increased or reduced.

How are we going to reduce the central spend and how confident are you on delivering the saving

The main area of saving is by automating processes and digitisation of training. There is confidence that the saving can be achieved by doing training in a different way.

Is the saving on travel in respect of GDPR covered in overall travelling saving or is it separate.

No this is separate.

 

·                 Travel – the Service is proposing to save £63,000 by promoting agile working and reduce travelling by Service officers in line with the enhanced digital methods that have been developed during the pandemic. The Service is confident this can be achieved. This would include the work of school improvement officers, schools improvement advisory teachers, governors and governor support services, the ALN  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.