Agenda item

Report of the Director of Finance & Resourcing (Treasurer) (RC/21/16) attached.

The Committee received for information a report of the Director of Finance & Resourcing (Treasurer) (RC/21/16) that set out details of the second quarter performance (to September 2021) against the agreed financial targets for 2021-22.

The Director of Finance & Resourcing (Treasurer) advised the Committee that, at this point in the financial year, it was projected that spending would be £0.514m under budget of £78.222m, representing an underspend of 0.69% of total budget.  He indicated that he had commissioned a full review to be undertaken in preparation for the budget in 2022-23 which had been completed and taken account of in the figures presented in this report to the Committee.

It was noted that the main variances in budget were set out at page 22 of the report circulated but notably, they were due to a forecast underspend on service delivery staff costs (£0.211m), an underspend on training investments costs (£0.163m) although both timber and energy costs had increased resulting in an overspend in both of these areas.

In terms of the capital programme, this was due to underspend by £4.9m in 2021-22 as a result largely of delays in delivery of the refurbishment/rebuild of the station at Camelshead.  This was linked to the requirement for an in depth, structural report that had been commissioned to identify the potential lifetime left on the building which would subsequently facilitate a decision on whether it was viable to refurbish the building or to go for a rebuild.

Reference was made to an amendment required in the figure for other income set out on line 31 of table 2 on page 21 of the report circulated (-£412k).  The Director of Finance & Resourcing (Treasurer) advised that he would look into this and report back on the accuracy of the figures presented.

The Committee also sought an explanation on the costs of utilising agency staff when there were internal vacancies held to which staff could be employed directly.  The Director of Finance & Resourcing (Treasurer) advised that this was due to the need to source experienced staff to undertake development work in the Information and Technology department on the Change & Improvement Programme.  Current market conditions had meant that the staff with the requisite skills were only available at premium rates due to current market conditions.  These costs were accounted for within an earmarked reserve in the Capital Programme and thus did not feature in the revenue budget directly.  Concern was expressed that the Service was undertaking bespoke development work in house when there may be off the shelf solutions available at less cost.  The Chief Fire Officer stated that there were instances where a bespoke solution would be required but that current strategy was to develop the capability for in house expertise whilst looking to purchase off the shelf wherever possible.  He undertook to cover the solutions already utilised by the Service, such as the performance dashboards and how they were utilised within the Service, at a future Members’ Forum.

The Committee expressed the view that such costs were not evident within the Capital Programme.  The Director of Finance & Resourcing (Treasurer) replied that he would provide a more detailed breakdown of the information contained within the Capital Programme in future reports to the Committee