(a)

the estimated revenue overspend at the end of the year was £3.112m as at October 2014; there had been a reduction of £0.5m since last reported to the Board;

(b)

management plans were in place to further reduce the overspend; there was the potential to use the contingency fund which had been built into the budget;

(c)

there has been a significant increase in placements for children and young people during the summer; the number of young people placed in independent foster care has reduced by 7 to 67 against an original estimate of 60; residential placements had reduced by 3 to 24 against an original estimate of 18 (a significant number of these placements were high cost due to the complex nature of the children’s needs);

(d)

there had also been significant pressure within adult social care which had been created by cost and volume changes and a reduction in income relating in particular to the delay in implementing the Fairer Charing Policy;

(e)

an overspend within the Executive Office of £83,000 had been due to a shortfall on the planned efficiency savings; management were continually reviewing the budgets to identify potential savings to address issues and hold positions vacant where possible; work undertaken by the Co-operative Centre of Operations transformation work stream would result in ongoing sustainable solutions.

(f)

it was unlikely that there would be additional revenue costs as a result of the recent Ofsted inspection;

(g)

an undertaking was given to provide further information relating to the pressures within the Executive Office which had resulted in an overspend of £83,000;

(h)

within Co-operative Commissioning and Adult Social Care £1.1m of management actions had been identified; this would include reviewing the way resources were allocated through the Resource Allocation System which would ensure a consistent approach; further information relating to this matter would be sought;

(i)

an assurance was given that information on agency staff would be available for Budget Scrutiny in January 2015;

(j)

temporary members of staff employed through Pertemps (the council’s agency staff provider), after 12 weeks, receive the same pay as permanent members of staff;

(k)

the containment plans for  Children’s Social Care referred to in the report were informal departmental documents;

(l)

it was possible to record zero sick days, if this related to a small team of staff who had not taken sick leave during this period of time;

(m)

information would be provided on the number of sick days being taken by staff due to stress related illnesses;

(n)

the overall sickness figure for the authority had reduced with an average of 7.37 sick days per full time equivalent; this was considered to be a favourable figure as the organisation employed a large number of front line staff.

(1)

with regard to (f) above, the information relating to the cost of the recent Ofsted inspection is included on the work programme for the Ambitious Plymouth Panel;

(2)

with regard to (k) above, the containment plans within Children’s Social Care are included on the work programme for the Ambitious Plymouth Panel.