Councillor Coker (Chair of Scrutiny Management Board) introduced the Budget Scrutiny Recommendations report and discussed:

a)    The Scrutiny Management Board held Budget Scrutiny sessions on 21, 22 and 28 January 2026 and undertook a detailed review of the Draft 2026/27 Budget, Cabinet Member risks and supporting financial information. The Board engaged with Cabinet Members and senior officers to assess the robustness of assumptions and risk management across portfolios;

b)    The Board recognised the significant financial pressures affecting local government nationally, noting that demand?led pressures continued to exceed available funding and that Plymouth’s circumstances reflected challenges facing councils across the country;

c)    A challenge?based approach was adopted in which Cabinet Members provided written briefings identifying their top three budget risks within each portfolio. This approach enabled Scrutiny to focus on issues Cabinet Members themselves flagged as high priorities. This method had worked effectively and should continue in future years;

d)    Five structured scrutiny sessions were held across three days, arranged by Cabinet portfolio. In each session, Cabinet Members presented their briefings, officers provided technical and financial evidence, and Scrutiny Members questioned underlying assumptions and tested the strength of proposed mitigations;

e)    Scrutiny Members made 15 informal requests for further information during the sessions. Officers provided responses in time for the wash?up meeting on 28 January 2026, which enabled the Board to agree its final recommendations based on complete information;

f)     A total of 19 recommendations were produced, all of which were agreed unanimously by the Scrutiny Management Board. Councillor Coker emphasised that each recommendation related either to a challenge identified by Cabinet in their own briefings or to risks probed by Scrutiny during questioning;

g)    The recommendations covered a range of topics including children’s social care, the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) deficit, agency staffing costs, transport and connectivity, partnership working and financial oversight, with a focus on supporting budget delivery and improving risk management;

h)    Many of the recommendations could be implemented through existing reporting and monitoring mechanisms;

i)     Councillor Coker recorded the Board’s thanks to Cabinet Members for engaging fully with the scrutiny process and to officers for responding quickly to information requests.

Councillor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) responded to the report and discussed:

j)     Appreciation was expressed to Councillor Coker and the Scrutiny Management Board for carrying out thorough cross?party scrutiny and for highlighting how effective scrutiny added value to the wider budget process;

k)    The Leader stated that the revised format for budget scrutiny in 2026/27 had strengthened the quality of the process. He noted that Scrutiny’s request for Cabinet Members to identify their three key worries had helped portfolio holders focus their own thinking and promoted more efficient scrutiny of the relevant risks;

l)     The Leader observed that the clearer information flow between Cabinet and Scrutiny had made this year’s scrutiny stronger than in previous years, where Scrutiny had sometimes had to go fishing for issues. He thanked Councillor Coker for initiating this improved approach;

m)  The Leader outlined the next steps, confirming that Cabinet would first note the Scrutiny report and would then consider a separate item on the agenda containing the Cabinet’s formal responses to each of the 19 recommendations.

The Cabinet agreed:

1. To note the Budget Scrutiny Recommendations report of the Scrutiny Management Board arising from the Budget Scrutiny sessions held on 21, 22 and 28 January 2026;

2. To record its thanks to the Scrutiny Management Board, Cabinet Members and officers for their engagement in the 2026/27 Budget Scrutiny process.