Hampshire County Council

Executive Member - Recreation and Heritage Item 4

14 September 2006

Financial and Performance Monitoring 2006/07

Report of the County Treasurer and Director of Recreation and Heritage

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

Stuart Dorward (01962) 84 6110 [email protected]

1. Summary

1.1 The purpose of this report is to:

· Provide monitoring information for 2006/07 on:

· The Recreation and Heritage revenue budget

· Service performance indicators to date

· Recommend £150,000 is earmarked from the 2007/08 capital programme for essential repairs to the chapel at Royal Victoria Country Park

· Provide an update on the 2006 Culture block of the Comprehensive Performance Assessment.

· Seek approval from the Executive Member for Policy and Resources to 100% of a £50,000 capital receipt being available for Recreation and Heritage to part-fund the cost of the Royal Victoria Country Park Chapel repairs

1.2 This is the first full monitoring report of 2006/07, and includes full details of all service budgets in the appendices. A summary report was presented at the last decision day. Monitoring reports will continue to be prepared and presented throughout the year.

1.3 Decisions on Recreation and Heritage finance and performance impact on the resources available to the service which contributes to the following corporate strategy aims:

a) maximising life opportunities

b) stewardship of the environment

c) achieving economic prosperity

d) building strong and safe communities

e) improving services

f) developing councillors and staff

2. Summary Financial Position 2006/07 - Revenue

2.1 Appendix 1 shows the summarised position for Recreation and Heritage's revenue budget, which totals £31.7m. More detailed information for individual services is shown in Appendix 2.

2.2 The projections in Appendices 1 and 2 are potentially the worst case and identify maximum pressures of £561,000 - 1.7% of the budget. This does not take into account the managerial action being taken to minimise the extent of any eventual overspending, since this has not yet had a significant impact. A more optimistic view, particularly on income generation and staffing costs, of the total pressures could be to assess them at some £420,000, before managerial action.

2.3 Managers have been asked to ensure that:

· Only essential recruitment to vacant posts is undertaken

· The presumption should be in favour of temporary rather than permanent appointments

· Only essential expenditure is incurred and new commitments are held back

· Travel and transport expenditure is particularly tightly managed

· Income is maximised

2.4 This action could potentially reduce the net pressures to some £200,000. Cabinet agreed in July that services should be set benefits realisation targets in connection with Pay and Benefits. That target for Recreation and Heritage is £50,000 and the full year effect will be taken into account in financial planning for the future. Staff expenditure is already being tightly managed, as outlined above.

2.5 The previous monitoring report indicated that savings against the Book Fund may be required as a last resort to balance the budget if there are still net pressures against the budget after all agreed managerial action has been taken and any identified savings or additional income have been used to offset the pressures. This will mean, however, that a bottom line overspend by Recreation and Heritage will be avoided.

3. Financial Position - Service Details

3.1 The majority of the pressures on the budget continue to be in the Libraries and Information Service, where the budget requires the achievement of over £280,000 savings, and where income pressures persist. Significant savings have been achieved on the staffing budget, but the majority of these are offset by additional premises costs.

3.2 A pressure that has emerged is Milestones Museum, where the particularly hot weather has caused a fall in visitor numbers after a very encouraging start to the year. A potential overspend of £44,000 is a cautious interpretation of the visitor numbers, although it should be pointed out that the average spend per visitor is slightly below the budgeted level. Visitor numbers to mid-August are showing signs of recovery, and expenditure is being tightly managed. If the improvement in visitor numbers continues, the £44,000 should be a worst case position. Milestones is run jointly with Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council and it is expected that any deficit at the year end should be shared between the two partners.

3.2.1 Owing to the above pressures, a minor departmental contingency of £40,000 is being held in the Policy Fund. This will either be used to address any further pressures that emerge, or to reduce final savings required elsewhere in the department to ensure that the bottom line overspend is avoided.

4. Performance Monitoring 2006/07

4.1 Performance information for the first quarter of 2006/07 is attached in Appendix 3. This is the second financial year in which financial and performance reporting have been combined, and for the first time, projections for the year are included for performance. It should be noted that, at this stage, the projection assumes that the first quarter will prove to be typical of the whole year.

4.2 Appendix 3 shows that most of the performance indicators are on course to achieve target levels. The exceptions are:

· pupil visits to Museums where the reduction - which is in any case marginal - is likely to be the result of seasonal factors

· visits to Libraries where the information is based on counts in sample libraries only

5. Capital Programme 2006/07 and 2007/08

5.1 Apart from a small contingency of £29,000, the capital programme for 2006/07 is fully allocated.

5.2 Essential repairs are required to the Chapel at Royal Victoria Country Park. The total cost of the scheme is likely to be in excess of £300,000, and the majority of the cost will be borne by Policy and Resources: for this reason the project will need the approval of the Executive Member for Policy and Resources, and this approval will be sought in the autumn. It is proposed that Recreation and Heritage contribute £150,000 towards the total cost as this is a high priority scheme given the potential public health and safety implications of not proceeding.

5.3 The opportunity has arisen to generate a capital receipt from the sale of about 0.4 hectares (1.0 acres) of garden land at Solent Drive, Warsash. It is estimated that the receipt will be £50,000. It is proposed that the Executive Member - Policy and Resources is requested to give approval to the retention of 100% of this receipt to part-fund the contribution towards the works at Royal Victoria Country Park Chapel.

5.4 It is proposed that the balance of this contribution be made from the 2007/08 capital programme. The total Recreation and Heritage programme for that year (following the Cabinet decision in July to reduce the programme by £7,000) is £604,000 and £280,000 of this has already been allocated:

· Winchester Discovery Centre £200,000

· Library Improvements £80,000

Assuming that 100% of the capital receipt is available, the earmarking of a further £150,000 for this scheme would leave only £224,000 of next year's capital programme available for other purposes, with no allocation having yet been made for either countryside improvements or community buildings and village halls. In 2005/06 the allocation for those two programme areas alone was £500,000 and this year's allocation is £200,000.

6. Comprehensive Performance Assessment 2006 - Culture Block

6.1 The Audit Commission has published final guidance for the 2006 Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA), including the Culture block element. The thresholds for assessing performance have remained unchanged, even though earlier consultation drafts had suggested that the thresholds would be raised. This appeared particularly unreasonable where the higher threshold would have been backdated to outturn information for 2005/06.

6.2 As expected, the following performance indicators have been added to those affecting the CPA Culture block, and Hampshire shapes up well against these indicators:

· Museums accreditation (Hampshire Museums Service is accredited)

· Adult Public Library user satisfaction (at higher than 90% is close to the required standard and comfortably in excess of the lower threshold)

· School Sports Partnerships participation (Hampshire's level is estimated as higher than 80% which is the upper threshold)

7. Impact Assessment

7.1 In completing this report, account has been taken of the Corporate Equalities and Race Scheme, and of the Department's service impact assessments.

Recommendation

It is recommended that:

1. The financial position for 2006/07 be noted and the managerial action to address this be endorsed

2. The performance information for the first quarter of 2006/07 be noted

3. That £150,000 be earmarked from the 2007/08 capital programme for the works at the Chapel, Royal Victoria Country Park

4. A recommendation is made to the Executive Member for Policy and Resources that the capital receipt from the sale of land at Solent Drive, Warsash be added to the Recreation and Heritage capital programme to part-fund the cost of the Royal Victoria Country Park Chapel repairs

5. The prospects for the 2006 Comprehensive Performance Assessment Culture block be noted

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.

TITLE FILE

None

Recreation and Heritage Appendix 3

Performance Monitoring 2006/07