Contact: Sheila Little, (01962) 847545; [email protected]

1 Summary

1.1 This report sets out the proposed Children's Services revenue budget for 2007/08, a provisional budget for 2008/09 and 2009/10 and recommends a revised budget for 2006/07.

1.2 The following decisions are sought:

a) To approve for submission to the Leader and Cabinet:

1. The revised budget for 2006/07 totalling £826.922m (as set out in Appendices 1 and 2)

2. The base budget for 2007/08 totalling £858.305m (as set out in Appendix 3)

3. The proposals for redeployment of resources totalling £387,000 for the LEA budget and £117,000 for the Children's Social Care Budget in 2007/08 and pressures of £3.530m (as set out in Appendix 4)

4. The proposals for efficiency improvements totalling £1.129m in 2007/08 (as set out in Appendix 5)

5. The annual review of income and charges (as set out in Appendix 6)

6. The summarised trading accounts of business units (as set out in Appendix 7)

7. The detailed budget for 2007/08 (as set out in Appendix 8)

8. The workforce implications of the proposed budget for 2007/08 (as set out in Appendix 10)

9. The provisional budget for 2008/09 of £873,991m and for 2009/10 of £890,523m (as set out in Appendix 11)

10. That the provision of Out of Hours Legal Advice (24 hour standby) referred to within the papers be the subject of a separate decision paper for the Executive Member for Children's Services, prior to the cessation of this service taking effect.

11. That the constructive support of the Schools Forum in the development of this budget should be acknowledged.

2 Reason(s)

2.1 Cabinet has requested that service budgets be prepared for approval by Executive members within the provisional budget guidelines set by Cabinet in September 2006 and submitted to the Leader and Cabinet for consideration in February 2007. Proposals need to be submitted to the Cabinet on 9 February 2007 in order to influence decisions on the 2007/08 budget and council tax.

2.2 The budget proposals contained in this report are derived from the departmental service plan which have been developed to support the priorities of the Corporate Strategy.

3 Other options considered and rejected:

3.1 The total of the budget proposals in this report equal the guidelines set by Cabinet. A budget in excess of the guidelines is not affordable and a budget below the guidelines would not enable service objectives to be met.

4 Conflicts of interest declared by the decision maker or other Executive member consulted - none (unless declared)

5 Dispensation granted by the Standards Committee - none (unless granted)

6 Reason(s) for the matter being dealt with if urgent - none (unless statutory or constitutional definition met)

Approved by: (signature) Date: (date of decision)

Councillor

Executive Member for Date: (date of decision)