Hampshire County Council

Recreation and Heritage Policy Review Committee Item 12

17 November 2005

Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage Item 3

17 November 2005

Finance and Performance Monitoring 2005/06

Report of the Director of Recreation and Heritage and the County Treasurer

Contact: Bevis Ingram (01962) 84 7508 [email protected]

Stuart Dorward (01962) 84 6110 [email protected]

1. Introduction

1.1 This report updates members on the Department's financial position and key performance indicators for 2005/06. Both reflect activity in the first half of the financial year.

1.2 The previous (September) report identified budget pressures of £330,000 and remedial action that would reduce those to a maximum of £150,000. The `worst case' pressures are now assessed at £240,000 - an improvement of £90,000. This suggests that, with continued management action, the year-end position could be better than previously reported.

1.3 This is the first monitoring report to include an update on the Department's key performance indicators mainly concerned with service usage levels. It is encouraging to note that these indicators are generally showing an improvement in performance compared with 2004/05.

2. Financial Position 2005/06

2.1 Appendix 2 to this report shows the financial position in summary, and detailed service position is in Appendix 3.

The cash limit for the year is £29.894m. This reflects the transfer to capital of £88,000 to fund the approved access road improvements at Tile Barn Outdoor Centre. This has been funded from the Outdoor Centres special needs budgets.

2.2 Detailed work is now under way to prepare the revised budget for 2005/06. As part of this exercise, the cash limits will be reduced by £109,000 which is the Recreation and Heritage share of the £1million procurement savings included in the overall County Council budget for the current year. This should be matched by reductions in the cost of goods and services. To the extent that this is not the case, it will be necessary to make equivalent savings elsewhere in the budget.

3. Library and Information Service

3.1 Income continues to be below budgeted levels: the shortfall, estimated at approximately £230,000, is very similar to that previously reported. However, continued vacancy management and tight management of premises costs and general running expenses mean that the financial position has eased without a direct effect on the services provided. It is essential that this is maintained for the rest of the financial year to minimise the impact of the pressures. The Departmental Management Team has agreed a similar course of action for the Department's other services to ensure that expenditure is as close to cash limit as possible.

3.2 This is likely to be the longer term approach to managing the Library and Information Service's budget because of investment in the People's Network recommended to the Executive Member's decision day on 17 November.

4. Other Recreation and Heritage Services

4.1 Three posts are being held vacant in the Community Service and this should result in a saving of at least £50,000. The position has not changed significantly for other services, with projected net expenditure remaining very close to budget. The major areas of note are:

· Argoed Lwyd Mountain Centre: a commitment has been made to find £58,000 approved for capital funding of the scheme from within the Sport, Community and Outdoor Service.

· Tile Barn Outdoor Centre: as mentioned earlier, the revenue cash limit has been adjusted to reflect the transfer to capital to fund the access road improvements.

· Arts Service: there is a modest over commitment on the grants budget which is being covered by staff savings.

· Tourism and Marketing: there is a net projected overspend of £14,000, although every effort will be made to avoid this through management of expenditure.

· Milestones Museum: there is a potential financial pressure resulting from visitor numbers falling short of budgeted levels in the first six months of the year. This is being tackled by increased marketing - from existing sources - and tight management of expenditure levels to ensure that net expenditure is contained within budget. This is partly due to the fact that there is no Easter in the current financial year.

· Countryside Service: There is also pressure on income - some £20,000 - also related to the absence of an Easter holiday in the current financial year.

4.2 There are three main projects which are being developed to ensure that the Department is able to achieve true efficiency savings which do not impact adversely on service delivery. These are:

· Information and communication technology (ICT)

· Travel and transport

· Design and publication

4.3 As has been previously reported, these projects will yield benefits in future years, and in the current year efficiency savings are being achieved by more pragmatic budgetary means such as vacancy management - again with the proviso that front line services should not be impacted. However, the ICT project has achieved some initial savings this year - in excess of £20,000 - mainly by negotiating a reduced payment to a software supplier.

4.4 It is anticipated that savings of up to £100,000 p.a. could be identified by the ICT project. At this stage it is not possible to quantify the return from the other projects. There is an emphasis on questioning whether, for example, a publication or the hire of an item of plant, is really necessary, and if so, whether it can be procured more economically and managed more effectively. Further information on the progress of these projects will be brought to future meetings.

5. Capital

5.1 £100,000 of the capital resources available in 2005/06 have not yet been committed - either in programming or contractual terms. Any capital remaining at the end of the financial year will be available to offset revenue pressures at the end of March 2006.

5.2 The Community Buildings Fund is used to make capital grants to village halls, which is seen as a Recreation and Heritage priority. A paper on the agenda for the Executive Member's Decision Day, 17 November, highlights a shortfall in the Fund. It is recommended that £50,000 of the uncommitted capital is added to the Community Buildings Fund for 2005/06, to meet this shortfall.

6. Performance Monitoring

6.1 It is both necessary and desirable to monitor service performance alongside the financial position to ensure that efficiency savings do not have an adverse effect on service, and that value for money is being achieved. This is the first financial monitoring report to incorporate this information, which is detailed in Appendix 1.

6.2 Where comparable information is available for the current year and 2004/05 (this may be in the form of a year end projection or a comparison with the comparable period last year), it is encouraging to note an improvement in:

· Library opening hours and usage

· Visits to museums

· Outdoor Centre usage

6.3 The selected suite of performance indicators combines a number of key local and national indicators identified to monitor the impact of efficiency savings on service usage. The six month data, where available, and projected year end figures all show an increase on the outturn data for 2004/05. Some of these indicators, such as visits to countryside sites, are being monitored for the first time and will be developed to provide additional data of service usage in future.

6.4 This performance information offers the opportunity to identify non-cashable efficiency savings - e.g. where service usage has increased whilst costs have remained constant. Further work is required to identify the relationship between the two and will be reported in due course. Recent information also suggests that staff sickness absence is reducing and it is estimated that this could yield a non-cashable efficiency gain of £70,000 in 2005/06.

7. Impact Assessment

7.1 In completing this report, account has been taken of the Corporate Equalities and Race Scheme.

8. Summary and Recommendation

8.1 As a result of the management action being taken, the budget pressures, whilst remaining significant, have reduced and tight financial management will continue to be exercised across the Department.

8.2 The performance information confirms that efficiency savings have not been to the detriment of services and suggest that it will be possible to identify non-cashable efficiencies as part of the 2006/07 budget.

8.3 It is recommended that members support the following recommendation for the approval of the Executive Member:

1 the financial position be noted

2 the continuing action taken to address the pressures be endorsed

3 the performance information be noted

4 £50,000 of the capital programme is added to the Community Buildings Fund for 2005/06

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - background papers

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and has been relied upon to a material extent in the preparation of this report.

NB the list excludes:

1 Published works

2 Documents which disclose exempt or confidential information as defined in the Act

Recreation and Heritage Appendix 1

Performance Monitoring 2005/06

2004/05 2005/06

April - Total April - Projected

September 2004/05 September Total

2004 2005 2005/06

Libraries

Opening hours per 1000 population per week - 87 88 88

Visits to Libraries per 1000 population per year - 5463 - 5970

Museums

Visits per 1000 population per year 135 284 129 310

Number of pupils visiting

in organised group per year 11,485 31,604 9,396 32,236

Archives

Visits to/usage of HRO - - 14,705 -

Countryside

Number of visits to principal sites - - 320,770* -

Percentage of total length of footpaths

and r.o.w. easy to use by members of public - 85.2% - 85.2%

Outdoor Centres

Total number of users per year 35,995 46,695 37,097 -

Arts Centres

Total number of users per year - - 30,148 -

* 1^st quarter 2005/06