Archived decisions

Hampshire County Council

Executive Member - Recreation, Heritage and Communities Item 3

17 July 2008

Finance and Performance 2007/08 and 2008/09

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. Summary

1.1 The purpose of this report is to outline the final budget and performance position for 2007/08, and to consider the key financial issues for 2008/09.

1.2 Revenue expenditure in 2007/08 was again very close to budgeted levels, with actual spending at £32.375m - only £10,000 higher than the cash limit. Capital resources of £544,000 were carried forward, of which only £4,000 is not allocated to specific schemes.

2. Recommendations

2.1 It is recommended that the Executive Member for Recreation, Heritage and Communities approves the following recommendations:

i) That the financial and performance information for 2007/08 be noted.

ii) That the 2008/09 financial position be noted.

iii) That it be a recommendation to Cabinet that £307,000 be added to the Recreation and Heritage capital programme for 2008/09, for the Fair Play Playbuilder Programme, which is funded by central government, and £12,000 in respect of developer's contributions.

3. Financial and Performance Position 2007/08

3.1 The final revenue outturn position for 2008/09 is shown in Appendix 1. This shows that there was a net overspend of £10,000 which represents just 0.03% of the cash limit.

3.2 The only service showing a significant variation from budget is the Library and Information Service with an overspend of £76,000 which is within 0.5% of the cash limit.

3.3 This result, and indeed the financial position for all Recreation and Heritage, is a significant achievement in a year of major change with the implementation of both the Library restructure and Pay and Benefits. The relatively bad weather and the outbreak of Foot and Mouth disease also had an adverse effect on the Countryside Service.

3.4 The Library restructure has achieved its financial target of reducing the salary bill by £1 million per annum in a full year without any library closures or reductions in opening hours. In the short term, these savings have been partially offset by one-off costs. In 2007/08 these took the form of redundancy payments and an element of pension costs (which are spread over three years). These one-off costs were partially offset in 2007/08 by the addition of £175,000 invest-to-save resources to the cash limit.

3.5 The £10,000 overspend needs to be repaid in 2008/09 and this will be achieved by reducing the cash limit available for Policy Development Initiatives, leaving an unallocated balance of approximately £35,000.

3.6 There are three trading undertakings in Recreation and Heritage, and each of these made a surplus as follows:

	£000
River Hamble	6
Hampshire Wardrobe	5
Amh (formerly Arts Marketing Hampshire)	4

3.7 The results for the River Hamble and amh are very close to budget. It had been anticipated that Hampshire Wardrobe would trade at a modest deficit, as this is its first full year of operation in Recreation and Heritage. To return a surplus is thus a considerable achievement. 2007/08 was also the first year in which the River Hamble formed part of Recreation and Heritage.

3.8 The total capital resources available to Recreation and Heritage - including external funding - were £2.3 million. Over £1.7 million was committed in the course of 2007/08, and the remaining £544,000 is carried forward to 2008/09. Of this, £540,000 is earmarked for programmes which have previously been approved.

3.9 Appendix 2 shows the final position on the performance indicators which have been the subject of monitoring reports in 2007/08. This indicates that most targets have been achieved or exceeded.

3.10 The major Recreation and Heritage achievements in 2007/08 were:

· Completion and implementation of the Library Service restructure with emphasis on customer focus and continuing to work to Charter Mark principles - success indicated by achieving 93% satisfaction in the Public Library User Survey.

· Successful completion of capital and refurbishment projects - Winchester Discovery Centre, integration of the Archives and Local Studies in the refurbished Hampshire Record Office; purpose-built Whitchurch Library; refurbishment of Stubbington, Lee on Solent and Andover, and the Connect at Botley project.

· Successful lottery bid - awarded £1 million by the Big Lottery Fund, Community Libraries Programme for work with the community in the areas of Havant/Waterlooville and Aldershot.

· Among the many notable accreditations received are; Charter Mark re-Certification for a further three years for the whole of the Recreation and Heritage department; First pilot inspection of quality at Calshot outdoor activity centre. The centre was rated as `outstanding' for the quality of teaching and learning.

· Expansion of the Adult Physical Activity programme funded by sport England and National Lottery and the Workplace Activity Scheme (over 25,000 attendances logged).

· The expansion of curriculum and non-curriculum learning and development opportunities for children and young people.

· First services to go live for Hantsdirect, Hampshire County Council's Contact Centre - Libraries and Rights of Way.

· Countryside Service: Restoration work carried out to Odiham Castle with funding from Heritage Lottery Fund. A lot of volunteers were used to help and included clearing out the moat. Volunteering will become an annual event at the site.

· Museums Service: Successful grant bids: Allen Gallery £45,000 from HLF; Willis Museum £50,000 from Wolfson Foundation; Basing House £1.1 million from HLF; Havant Museum £8,000 from HLF, £45,000 HLF for the King Alfred exhibition in the Winchester Discovery Centre.

· Arts Service: Successful application to Arts Council England for Phase 2 Creative Hampshire Partnerships £120,000. Literature Development programme successfully reinstated. Arts Marketing Hampshire successful bid to Arts Council England for organisational Development £75,000.

4. Financial Position 2008/09

4.1 The approved revenue budget for 2008/09 is £33.620 million, and Appendix 3 shows how this is allocated between services. This sum includes £350,000 added to the materials fund for 2008/09 only, and £250,000 which has been added to the base budget from the contingency initially held centrally to address budget pressures in the County Council. This included allocations for:

· Sunday opening in two more libraries

· Expansion of the Home Library Service

· Outreach for young people

· Well being/Adult learning

4.2 The revenue budget requires that the cost of increments be absorbed within base budget and further efficiency savings of £860,000 be achieved to meet priority service developments: in total these efficiency savings amount to 3.3% of the budget. The majority of the efficiency savings have been available for reinvestment in service priorities. As a consequence, the cumulative total of annual recurring efficiency savings achieved by Recreation and Heritage over the five years of the "Gershon regime" will be approximately £3.9m. Some of these savings have been achieved by projects or staff restructures including:

· The major Library Service restructure mentioned earlier in this report

· A review of the efficiency and economy associated with transport and travelling

· A review covering similar aspects of the use of ICT

Other savings have been achieved by more pragmatic means - e.g. vacancy management - and it is envisaged that a mix of such approaches will be required to deliver a balanced budget again for 2008/09.

4.3 2008/09 sees a significant change in the way that budgets are managed in Recreation and Heritage with the Library Service budget fully devolved to local managers for the first time. As well as improving financial control, this also supports Recreation and Heritage's value for money agenda as local managers will be more aware of the financial implications of decisions, and those decisions will better reflect local needs and priorities. There has been a programme of systems and more general financial management training for relevant Library Managers. One of the financial issues facing Library Managers is the anticipated continuing decline in income levels.

4.4 The Recreation and Heritage capital programme supported by local resources is £627,000. This has been supplemented in 2008/09 by £1.9 million: of this £900,000 has come from capital receipts, and £1 million from the Big Lottery Fund, Community Libraries Programme. There is also a further one-off addition of £90,000, approved by Cabinet, for the Countryside Service. In addition to the pressures on that service outlined earlier in this report, there was a breach of the Basingstoke Canal which required remedial works, the cost of which was initially assessed at £90,000. In the short term, this was accommodated by rescheduling Countryside Service projects and the addition of the £90,000 enables programmed work to proceed.

4.5 In 2007/08, Sport, Community and Outdoor Services transferred £256,000 from revenue to capital to part-fund schemes at Calshot and Tile Barn. It is currently anticipated that a further £134,000 will be transferred in 2008/09.

4.6 The Department for Children, Schools and Families has allocated £307,000 in 2008/09 to Hampshire County Council in respect of Fair Play Playbuilder Capital Grants. This is to fund the provision of new public play areas. This programme will be managed by Recreation and Heritage on behalf of the County Council in partnership with District Councils. It is therefore recommended that this sum be added to the Recreation and Heritage capital programme for 2008/09. There is also a recommended addition to the capital programme to reflect a developer's contribution of £12,000 in respect of the Library Service.

4.7 Regular monitoring reports will continue to be made to the Executive Member for Recreation, Heritage and Communities.

5. Impact Assessment

5.1 The proposals in this report are in accordance with the budget strategy and the County Council's financial management policy. This policy applies equally to all services and ensures consistent financial management decisions across all services, and the proposals outlined in this report are not considered discriminatory.

6. Conclusion

6.1 Recreation and Heritage's net revenue expenditure for 2007/08 was very close

to cash limit in a very challenging year. Performance levels remained high with several key achievements. 2008/09 is the first year of full devolution for Library Service budgets, and the budget requires efficiency savings to be achieved. The capital programme has been bolstered by external funding.

LINK TO CORPORATE STRATEGY

Yes No

Hampshire safer and more secure for all _

Maximising well-being _

Enhancing our quality of place _

Section 100 D - Local Government Act 1972 - Background Documents

The following documents disclose facts or matters on which this report, or an important part of it, is based and have 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 LOCATION

None.

Appendix 1

Recreation and Heritage

Revenue Expenditure 2007/08

Appendix 2

(*) not directly comparable owing to improvements in method of counting

Appendix 3

Recreation and Heritage

Revenue Budget 2008/09