(a)

the estimated revenue overspend at the end of the year was £3.073m as at September 2014; the overall net spend equated to £208.383m against a budget of £204.680m which was a variance of 1.81 percent;

(b)

this needed to be taken within the context of setting £16m of management and net transformation savings in 2014/15 on the back of balancing the 2013/14 revenue budget where £17.8m of net revenue reductions were successfully delivered;

(c)

the key pressure points were still in Adult Social Care where, although client numbers were broadly in line with the set budget, the average cost per care package per client was significantly higher (which reflected the more complex needs to clients that the Council was supporting);

(d)

there was a significant increase in placement with young people placed in independent foster care which had increased by five to 74 against the target budget of 60; residential placements had reduced by three to 27 against a target budget of 18 but with a significantly number of these placements being high cost due to the complex nature of these children’s needs; due to ‘Operation Triage’ taking place in September, an additional 15 young people had to be accommodated and this had put additional pressure on the placement budget;

(e)

additional management solutions and escalated actions to deliver further savings from the Council’s transformation programme were being worked up in order to address the in-year forecasted overspend;

(f)

the latest capital budget covering 2013/14 to 2016/17 stood at £216.398 which was approved at Full Council on 15 September 2014 (including Tamar Bridge and Torpoint Ferry at £7.445m);

(g)

the forecast had been amended to remove estimates in relation to 2013/14 and to incorporate income projections in respect of 2017/18 together with updated forecasts for the 2014-2018 period; the revised 2014-18 Capital budget for approval was £210.154m;

(h)

an additional cost of £629,000 had been incurred due to the discovery of asbestos whilst undertaking demolition works at the Mayflower car park;

(i)

a survey of the Council’s estate was in progress to identify the priorities for maintaining the stock and meeting the contractual obligations in order to protect the level of rental income;

(j)

agency staffing figures were regularly reviewed to ensure that staff were being utilised appropriately; the strategic directors had been tasked to look at their spend on agency staff; the structures of areas with high levels of agency staff would be reviewed;

(k)

it had always been anticipated that driver behaviour would improve in relation to the enforcement of the bus lanes and as such the income stream would reduce;

(l)

The Council had been notified since the publication of the monitoring report that the bid to the Department of Education Innovation fund for £3.5m had been unsuccessful; the implications of not receiving the funding would need to be factored into next year’s budget;

(m)

the work undertaken by EDGE within the GAME transformation programme related to the vehicle fleet and how to make better use of it across the Council; ie review routes, capitalise on vehicle ‘dead time’ etc;

(n)

the reported overspend included the savings achieved through the transformation programme.