Subject:

Families, Children & Learning

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Provisional	Provisional	COVID	Provisional	2021/22
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
(10)	Director of Families, Children & Learning	137	128	(9)	0	-6.6%	0	0	0
137	Health, SEN & Disability Services	46,731	46,737	6	305	0.0%	1,110	1,033	77
4	Education & Skills	8,161	8,106	(55)	182	-0.7%	162	158	4
(110)	Children's Safeguarding & Care	40,732	40,715	(17)	1	0.0%	975	667	308
(12)	Quality Assurance & Performance	1,467	1,424	(43)	0	-2.9%	0	0	0
9	Total Families, Children & Learning	97,228	97,110	(118)	488	-0.1%	2,247	1,858	389

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances (Note: FTE/WTE = Full/Whole Time Equivalent)

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Director of Families, Children & Learning
(9)	0	Other
Health, SEN & Disability Services
367	201	Children's Disability Placements	The children's disability placement budget was rebased in 2021/22, but there continues to be a pressure with additional high cost residential placements made during the year. The market situation is very challenging and there are issues of sufficiency. This has led to delays in sourcing appropriate placements. The costs of residential placements have increased sharply in the last two years.
(757)	41	Adults with Learning Disabilities - Community Care	Due to social work staff vacancies and the ongoing impact of COVID-19 the 2021/22 savings target was not fully achieved through targeted strategies. However there are some significant reductions in costs elsewhere, due to the impact of the pandemic, particularly on services such as day care where provision is still below pre-COVID-19 levels. Across the whole of the community care budget actual client number FTEs were 3.5% below budgeted levels.
120	63	Adults with Learning Disabilities - in-house provider services	The overspend mainly relates to pressure in the residential respite budget due to high levels of staff absence (partly linked to COVID-19) and the cost of emergency placements.
139	0	Children's Disabilities - in-house provision	There is a pressure for respite provision for children with disabilities and a high use of agency / sessional staff.
75	0	Brighton and Hove Inclusion Support Service	Locum cover for staff absences in Education Psychology Service to ensure Council meets statutory duties and delivers buyback commitments to schools.
62	0	Other	Minor variances on other budgets.
Education & Skills
(91)	106	Home to School Transport	For 2021/22 the outturn underspend was £0.091m mainly due to increased costs for hired and post-16 transport offset by underspends on recoupment and grant income. This included spend of £0.106m relating to additional costs resulting from COVID-19 and was partially funded by the transport grant of £0.099m. Final numbers from March were 436 for 5-16 year olds and 100 for Post 16.
73	63	Council Nurseries and Children's Centres	There is a reduction in children attending council nurseries due to COVID-19. This is both for fee paying and DSG early years funded children and is a continuation of the trend seen in spring term 2021 when council nurseries were only open for disadvantaged children. At the same time there has been an increase in the number of SEND children and there are also higher levels of staff sickness and maternity leave that need to be covered to maintain legal ratios.
(37)	13	Other	Minor variances.
Children's Safeguarding & Care
602	0	Demand-Led - Children's placements	The overspend is the result of a combination of a number of different factors. There are significant overspends in Residential Home and External Fostering placements due to increasing numbers and costs of placements. This has been partially off-set by increasing grant funding and underspends in Secure and Care Leaver costs.
(66)	1	Preventive/S17	There is a significant underspend across the Preventive budgets. The ongoing scrutiny and controls on spending have resulted in an underspend despite the increasing costs of families with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF).
(240)	0	Partners in Change Contracts	Contracts with SPFT and other partners have been re-negotiated, reducing the cost to the council.
(175)	0	Social Work, Adolescent Service and Fostering & Adoption Teams	There have been a number of vacancies across children's social care teams during the year.
(128)	0	Contact service	Reduced activity within the Contact service and efficiencies in the use of available resources have resulted in an underspend
(10)	0	Other	Minor variances.
Quality Assurance & Performance
(43)	0	Other	Minor variances.

Health & Adult Social Care (HASC)

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Provisional	Provisional	COVID	Provisional	2021/22
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
(758)	Adult Social Care	42,250	41,467	(783)	115	-1.9%	3,345	2,068	1,277
(1,877)	S75 Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT)	22,416	19,139	(3,277)	23	-14.6%	860	728	132
(127)	Integrated Commissioning	3,692	3,331	(361)	28	-9.8%	310	310	0
0	Public Health	(534)	(534)	0	21	0.0%	0	0	0
(2,762)	Total Health & Adult Social Care	67,824	63,403	(4,421)	187	-6.5%	4,515	3,106	1,409
(1,100)	Further Financial Recovery Measures (see below)	-	0	0	0	-	-	-	-
(3,862)	Residual Risk After Financial Recovery Measures	67,824	63,403	(4,421)	187	-6.5%	4,515	3,106	1,409

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Adult Social Care
(750)	0	Demand-Led Community Care - Physical & Sensory Support	The number of placements/packages is 1,918 WTE, which is below the budgeted level of 2,346 WTE placements. The average unit cost of a placements/package is higher than the budgeted level at £257 per week (£41 per week above budget per client). The combination of the number of adults placed being 429 WTE below the budgeted level and the increased unit costs result in the underspend of £0.750m. Therefore, the unit costs are 19% above budget however the overall activity is below budget. This is due to high attrition rates in Quarter 4 of last financial year, and areas where suitable provision is not currently accessible to meet identified need as a result of workforce pressures.
(252)	0	Demand-Led Community Care - Substance Misuse	There are relatively small numbers of clients within this service and this is below the budgeted demand which is resulting in the projected underspend of £0.252m.
21	84	Assessment teams	Due to increased demands for community equipment.
196	31	In house services	There is an underlying budget pressure across in-house provision due to unachieved 2020/21 financial recovery plan targets and staffing costs above budget.
2	0	Other
S75 Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT)
(1,767)	22	Demand-Led - Memory Cognition Support	The number of placements and unit costs are lower than budgeted resulting in the underspend of £1.767m. The number of placements/packages is 348 WTE which is below the budgeted level of 429 WTE placements. The average unit cost is above the budgeted level at £426 per week (£2 per week above budget). Therefore, the overall activity is 81 WTE below budget. This is due to high attrition rates in Quarter 4 of last financial year, an additional contribution to Section 117 from Health Partners and areas where suitable provision is not currently accessible to meet identified need as a result of workforce pressures.
(1,473)	0	Demand-Led - Mental Health Support	The number of placements is lower than budgeted which results in the underspend of £1.473m. There is an increasing need and complexity within this client group and the number of placements/packages is 451 WTE, which is below the budgeted level of 499 WTE placements. The average unit cost of a placements/package is below the budgeted level at £342 per week (£24 per week lower than the budget per client). This is due to an additional contribution to Section 117 from Health Partners and areas where suitable provision is not currently accessible to meet identified need as a result of workforce pressures.
(37)	1	Staffing Teams	Minor variances.
Integrated Commissioning
(14)	0	Contracts	Minor variances.
(347)	28	Commissioning teams	There is an underspend due to delays in the planned service redesign, the Better Care Fund risk share and temporary vacancies.
Public Health
0	21	Other	Minor variances.

Economy, Environment & Culture

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Provisional	Provisional	COVID	Provisional	2021/22
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
357	Transport	(4,610)	(6,821)	(2,211)	563	-48.0%	1,782	1,127	655
645	City Environmental Management	28,005	28,538	533	516	1.9%	155	155	0
95	City Development & Regeneration	2,353	2,212	(141)	293	-6.0%	168	133	35
284	Culture, Tourism & Sport	4,520	4,901	381	645	8.4%	92	15	77
(27)	Property	1,990	1,810	(180)	0	-9.0%	346	106	240
1,354	Total Economy, Environment & Culture	32,258	30,640	(1,618)	2,017	-5.0%	2,543	1,536	1,007

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Transport
(39)	0	Head of City Transport	Minor underspend on the Assistant Director of City Transport budget.
(653)	979	Parking Services	Parking Services achieved a net underspend of (£0.653m). Though the outturn has improved since Month 9, the service has still recorded a substantial loss of income against budget of £0.979m. This results from national restrictions in the year and loss of parking spaces from active transport measures (e.g. Madeira Drive, Old Town, A259). The pressure from parking income shortfalls is offset against reductions in other costs caused by staff shortages including £0.831m in infrastructure and repairs & maintenance of off street car parks, £0.283m in unsupported borrowings and £0.518m in transactional and contract costs due to fewer transactions in the year.
(22)	0	Concessionary Bus Fares	Concessionary Bus Fares recorded a net underspend of £0.022m due to underspends in consultancy budgets. It is important to note that the council has been subsidising concessionary travel fares for the bus companies paying 100% of expected journeys pre-COVID-19 under central government direction.
(734)	103	Traffic Management	Hoarding, Scaffold and Skip licence fees exceeded budget by (£0.419m), principally reflecting a number of significant development sites for hoardings. This is partially offset by waived Tables and Chairs licence fees of £0.096m and increased signage costs of £0.040m. There was additional income for vehicle crossovers of £0.045m reflecting applications at increased fee rates and sample inspections of £0.012m based on the proposed inspection schedule. S74 income exceeded budget by £0.156m where a new utility company has mainly incurred these prolonged works charges. Net income for Traffic Regulation Orders exceeds budget by £0.103m and net event income exceeds budget by £0.033m with more events returning and in particular filming. Additional expenditure for the Street Manager software was £0.031m.
222	0	Transport Policy and Strategy	Transport Policy and Strategy consultancy costs exceeded budget to deliver workstreams including the development of the Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan (LCWIP), a bid to the Levelling Up Fund for the seafront arches renewal programme and the assessment of the Toads Hole Valley planning application and appeal inquiry preparation. Within Highways Development Control and Transport Assessment agency staff have been employed to deal with an increasing workload assessing and supporting development in the city. Permanent officer recruitment has been unsuccessful.
(466)	0	Transport Projects and Engineering	Bridges and Other Structures underspent by £0.080m due to proposed work on Duke's Mound being delayed as it is being undertaken in co-ordination with the delayed Black Rock project. The proposed works to Dyke Road Drive to replace the brick parapet were also delayed due to unforeseen ground conditions. The Street Lighting service costs were £0.084m less than budget, in part reflecting both more accurate Electricity inventory and cost allocation across Transport. Road Safety Education has overspent by £0.064m mostly due to casual workers being transferred to permanent contracts after gaining employment rights. School Crossing Patrol costs were underspent by £0.031m due to a recurring difficulty in recruiting staff. Local Flood Risk Management underspent by £0.197m due to delays of planned works from updating the Surface Water Management Plan and Local Flood Risk Management Strategy. Coast Protection underspent by £0.153m due to less maintenance required.
(519)	(519)	Sales, Fees and Charges Grant	Final claim for 2021/22 received based on the eligible losses of income in the first quarter of the year driven by the COVID-19 outbreak.
City Environmental Management
711	208	City Clean	The overspend is due to waste collection and street cleansing (operational) agency costs as a result of COVID-19 staffing related shortfalls in the year. Higher than anticipated vehicle costs due to various breakdowns in the year have also contributed to the overspend. Additional net costs of £0.141m were paid to staff for catch up work following the industrial action. These additional costs have been partly offset by improvements to commercial income during the year.
(224)	56	City Parks	Additional funding received during the year supported costs within City Parks for various projects including Playgrounds, Parks & Trees. This, combined with some underspends relating to staffing and supplies and services, has resulted in a net underspend of £0.224m.
(12)	0	Fleet & Maintenance	Fleet & Maintenance are underspent by £0.012m. This is made up of £0.148m underspend on main Fleet and Maintenance activities and £0.136m overspend on Hollingdean Depot costs. Progress has been made in controlling Fleet and Maintenance costs, however fuel and vehicle cost increases due to vehicle breakdowns and inflation have reduced the underspend position previously reported.
38	50	Head of City Environmental Management	Additional COVID-19 costs of stewarding at the household waste disposal sites.
54	15	Strategy & Projects	£0.137m overspend related to repairs and maintenance of public conveniences. Other overspends include shortfall on income budgets of £0.113m, but these are mostly offset with staffing vacancies.
0	221	Waste Disposal	The £0.221m impact of COVID-19 on the waste disposal contract has been managed through the Waste PFI Reserve.
(34)	(34)	Sales, Fees and Charges Grant	Final claim received based on the eligible losses of income in the first quarter of the year driven by the COVID-19 outbreak.
City Development & Regeneration
168	313	Development Planning	Underachievement of Planning Applications and Building Control income of £0.636m due to effects of lockdown restrictions for COVID-19. This has been partly offset by reductions in staffing expenditure of £0.261m, and a credit of £0.132m arising from an under accrual of SFC grant income in 2021/22. There were also underspends in expenditure on supplies and services across various areas.
(76)	0	Planning Policy and Major Projects	Underspends relating to staffing and supplies & services costs of £0.071m, and Apprenticeship income of £0.040m.
(173)	0	Sustainability & International	Underspends relating to staffing and supplies & services costs of £0.098m and Section 106 funds of £0.075m not included in forecast.
31	0	Assistant Director - EEC	Overspend relating to share of cost of attendance management charge for the whole of EEC, offset by some underspend on assistant's post.
(51)	0	Economic Development	Underspend due to funding received from another service relating to costs of substantive post for EDRF manager.
(20)	(20)	Business Development and Customer Services	Underspend due to staff vacancies.
(20)	(20)	Sales, Fees and Charges Grant	Final claim for 2021/22 received based on the eligible losses of income in the first quarter of the year driven by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Culture, Tourism & Sport
15	0	Arts	Small overspend on consultant fees and pay in lieu of notice for staff leavers.
(101)	0	Heritage and Archives	£0.098m of the underspend relates to lower than expected contribution towards The Keep.
456	264	Sport and Leisure	Loss of income due to COVID-19, including rent reductions on leased seafront properties, closure of Volks Railway during the early part of the year and underachievement on the outdoor events programme. Balance of Freedom Leisure contract extension of £0.230m paid from revenue rather than borrowing from a reserve.
29	291	Venues	Underachievement of income as a result of COVID-19 as the Brighton Centre could not open until 1st September 2021 resulting in lost income of over £0.825m. However, income from the NHS for its use as a Vaccination Centre (£0.672m) and savings from vacancies and reduced expenditure on supplies and services during lockdown has helped to reduce this figure to £0.029m.
142	250	Tourism and Marketing	Under-achievement of income, predominantly from a total collapse of conference and hotel commissions due to all events from March – August being cancelled. Partly offset by underspends on supplies and services.
(160)	(160)	Sales, Fees and Charges Grant	Final claim for 2021/22 received based on the eligible losses of income in the first quarter of the year driven by the COVID-19 outbreak.
Property
(180)	0	Property and Design	The main areas of variance relate to Estates for rent credits for COVID-19 related adjustments and to Utilities where extra credits from Southern Water and unexpected service charge income was received. In-house printing is showing a historic pressure due to the reduction in demand, significantly reducing recharge admin fees, and Security contract costs were higher than last year. This security budget has a recognised pressure and the budget may need to be reviewed as the contract has been re-tendered and costs have further increased.

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Provisional	Provisional	COVID	Provisional	2021/22
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
880	Housing General Fund	14,589	15,627	1,038	715	7.1%	318	120	198
145	Libraries	3,351	3,515	164	120	4.9%	98	98	0
(75)	Communities, Equalities & Third Sector	3,880	3,763	(117)	0	-3.0%	72	72	0
(80)	Safer Communities	2,888	2,733	(155)	0	-5.4%	47	47	0
870	Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities	24,708	25,638	930	835	3.6%	535	337	198

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Housing General Fund
0.972	0.715	Temporary Accommodation	Provision for underlying Temporary Accommodation pressures was provided in the 2021/22 budget which was expected to be supported by additional funding from the government’s announcement of an additional £254 million national funding. However, although core funding increased overall, it was insufficient to support the service pressure funding assumed in the budget and there remains a pressure of £1 million due to the number of leased and emergency properties required. During the year, a further in-year pressure of £0.715m has been experienced which relates largely to the extra costs of block booked Emergency Accommodation (EA), including an additional eight properties and reflects the rising costs of rented accommodation in the city as interim contracts are renewed pending the re-procurement of this service. There has been an increased contribution to the bad debt provision of £0.191m compared to last year reflecting the increase in arrears for those in leased TA. The overspend also reflects increased rent loss and council tax liabilities due to leased TA properties remaining empty while awaiting repair. The Housing Benefit subsidy loss also increased by £0.107m since Month 9. The number of EA homes (excluding additional rough sleeper hotels, discussed separately below) has been reducing steadily over the year, reducing the need for spot-purchased accommodation. As at 31^st March 2022, there were 121 units of spot-purchased accommodation compared to a high of 202 in June 2021. The HB income reflected in this outturn has had to be apportioned between the Temporary Accommodation discussed here and the extra hotel accommodation discussed below. Additional costs relating to Covid pressures in Quarter 4 have been partially funded from Contain Outbreak Management Funds of £0.743m.
(0	0	Temporary accommodation - additional emergency hotel accommodation	The cost of the additional emergency hotel accommodation originally acquired early in the pandemic because of the Government 'Everyone In ' Initiative was significant. This service has cost £5.777m for 2021/22 and this has been funded through a £0.650m one-off Council budget, £0.500m in Next Steps Accommodation Programme (NSAP) funding and Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) grant funding of £4.627m. The costs include accommodation in various hotels, some food, security and laundry costs as well as dilapidations and repairs. At the beginning of the year, the council were paying for 410 rooms but this has reduced to 47 as at 31^st March 2022. The forecast is that the remaining two hotels should be decanted around the end of July 2022.
(176)	0	Commissioned Rough Sleeper and Housing related Support Services (Formally HASC Budgets)	The council commissions services to assist rough sleepers and those in supported housing. This service has underspent by £0.176m in 2021/22. This is largely due to the underspend on staffing costs of £0.123m and a further underspend against core commissioning budgets across the service of £0.053m. The costs associated with operating SWEP (Severe Weather Emergency Protocol) for 2021/22 were met from within the core budget and the extra Winter Provision Grant allocated from the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC).
(32)	0	Housing Options	Minor staffing underspends across the service.
(8)	0	Travellers	Forecast shortfall of £0.010m in income due to HB claims issues and reduced capacity of transit site to comply with COVID-19 regulations, a further forecast overspend of £0.035m largely relating to the extra costs associated with enforcement of van dwellers offset by a reduced security costs of £0.015m and reduced premises/utility costs of £0.031m.
372	0	Seaside Homes	Overspend due to the costs of management and maintenance not being met by the management fees from Seaside Homes. The costs of repairs has increased due to the national supply chain issues and the higher number of empty properties resulting from the pandemic.
(66)	0	Private Sector Housing	Adaptations service underspend as more of this service can be capitalised and charged to the DFG capital grant.
(24)	0	Other Housing	Other minor variances across Housing General Fund budgets.
Libraries
148	148	Loss of library income	There was a shortfall in income of £0.148m primarily due to COVID-19 from shop sales, meeting space bookings, fines and charges after the application of the Sales, Fees and Charges Grant in respect of Quarter 1 losses.
18	18	Premises	Covid related changes to air conditioning units.
(2)	0	Other	Other minor variances.
Communities, Equalities & Third Sector
(119)	0	Communities, Equalities & Third Sector	Net underspend against staffing, largely as a result of vacancies across the service.
2	0		Minor variances.
Safer Communities
(136)	0	Safer Communities	Net underspend against staffing, largely as a result of vacancies across the service.
(19)	0		Minor variances.

Finance & Resources

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Provisional	Provisional	COVID	Provisional	2021/22
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
(70)	Finance (Mobo)	1,405	1,549	144	0	10.2%	0	0	0
59	HR & Organisational Development (Mobo)	3,056	2,945	(111)	0	-3.6%	0	0	0
0	IT&D (Mobo)	5,028	5,028	0	0	0.0%	0	0	0
172	Procurement (Mobo)	(105)	109	214	0	203.8%	0	0	0
0	Business Operations (Mobo)	(67)	(75)	(8)	0	-11.9%	0	0	0
0	Revenues & Benefits (Mobo)	5,882	5,866	(16)	0	-0.3%	250	250	0
446	Housing Benefit Subsidy	(751)	(355)	396	0	52.7%	0	0	0
561	Contribution to Orbis	8,100	8,491	391	0	4.8%	240	0	240
1,168	Total Finance & Resources	22,548	23,558	1,010	0	4.5%	490	250	240

Mobo = Specific budget items held by Orbis but Managed on behalf of the relevant partner i.e. they are sovereign, non-partnership budgets. Under or overspends on Mobo budgets fall directly to the relevant partner whereas Orbis Operational budget variances are shared in accordance with the Inter-Authority Agreement (IAA).

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Finance (Mobo)
144	1	Finance	There was an overspend of £0.144m for the year. The overspend reflects a revision of the staffing forecast for Financial Services in January to accurately reflect the impact of disaggregation of the service from Orbis on 1 July 2021 and results in an in-year pressure of £0.246m. Elsewhere in the service there is an underspend of £0.156m due to the vacant Executive Director post (net of the costs of temporary cover arrangements), but this is partly offset by a corporate senior management savings target and payments relating to interim arrangements (e.g. Acting Up payments) resulting in a net underspend of £0.097m. There are other minor underspend variances of £0.005m.
HR & Organisational Development (Mobo)
(111)	1	Human Resources	The service underspent by £0.111m in the year, compared to a forecast underspend of £0.059m at Month 9. The underspend was attributed mainly to staff vacancies and income overachievements, though there were some pressures from union facilities time for which extra funding has been given in time for the 2022/23 financial year. There were pressures arising from the service disaggregation of the service from Orbis during the year, but these have been dealt with corporately and are treated elsewhere in the report.
IT&D (Mobo)
0	1	IT&D	The final position for IT&D was on target. To achieve this, a net figure of £0.059m was drawn down from the Modernisation Fund. The drawdown amount includes £0.127m returned to Modernisation (Digital Customer CMDB funded budget, Traded Services and Grant underspends) so the funding required to support IT&D revenue was £0.186m. This is lower than the previously expected £0.215m forecast due to some final contract spend being lower than expected and some expected consultancy spend carrying over to 2022/23.
Procurement (Mobo)
214	0	Procurement	There was an overspend of £0.214m for the year, due to an underlying funding pressure combined with the ending of short term funding. This pressure has been recognised in the 2022/23 budget.
Business Operations (Mobo)
(8)	0	Business Operations	Minor variances.
Revenues & Benefits (Mobo)
(16)	0	Revenues & Benefits	The ongoing impacts of COVID-19 were managed within the service resulting in an underspend of £0.016m. Within this there is an ongoing pressure on court costs income that has been offset on a one-off basis through a combination of government income protection grant for April to June (SFC grant at 75%), new burdens funding and a higher level of council tax administration grant that included a backdated award.
Housing Benefit Subsidy
396	0	HB Subsidy	There is a net pressure of £0.474m on the main subsidy budgets. This relates to a pressure of £0.189m on a particular type of benefit for vulnerable tenants which is not fully subsidised and a pressure of £0.434m on the net position on the recovery of overpayments. There are other minor favourable variances of £0.149m. In addition, there is a forecast surplus of £0.078m relating to the recovery of former Council Tax Benefit.
F&R Contribution to ORBIS
391	0	Contribution to Orbis	The variance of £0.391m is due mainly to the in-year share of the Orbis Partnership overspend, mainly related to under-achievement of business plan savings for the Business Operations service.

Strategy, Governance & Law

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Provisional	Provisional	COVID	Provisional	2021/22
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
0	Corporate Policy	768	768	0	0	0.0%	27	27	0
(27)	Legal Services	1,495	1,464	(31)	0	-2.1%	65	65	0
(33)	Democratic & Civic Office Services	1,794	1,722	(72)	0	-4.0%	33	33	0
(25)	Life Events	305	(191)	(496)	0	-162.6%	40	40	0
0	Performance, Improvement & Programmes	1,195	1,195	0	0	0.0%	37	37	0
(77)	Communications	1,073	916	(157)	0	-14.6%	35	35	0
(162)	Total Strategy, Governance & Law	6,630	5,874	(756)	0	-11.4%	237	237	0

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Legal Services
(31)	0	Legal Services	The service underspent by £0.031m this year, due mainly to overachievement of income. Further surpluses of income were achieved and transferred to reserves to cover future costs of the case management system.
Democratic & Civic Office Services
(72)	0	Democratic Services	An underspend of £0.072m compared to the Month 9 forecast of £0.033m. This was accounted for by supplies and services underspends (such as printing) and also some vacancies during the year, as well as some training and office costs relating to members.
Life Events
(496)	10	Life Events	The service underspent by £0.496m at year end compared to an underspend of £0.025m at Month 9, a further improvement of £0.471m. This was mainly resulting from an improvement from the latest income forecast combined with a higher level of vacancies . Overall there were income surpluses in Life Events of £0.182m. These were mostly in respect of Registrars (£0.159m) and Local Land Charges (£0.054m). There were vacancy savings of £0.294m and other underspends of £0.020m.
Communications
(157)	0	Communications	The service underspent by £0.157m, an improvement of £0.080m from the Month 9 figure. COVID-19 related pressures of restructure saving delay (£0.080m) and COVID-19 advertising and printing costs (£0.030m) have been covered by funding as part of the budget setting process, and in addition there have been large amounts recharged through the internal invoicing process. The Graphic Design Team had an underspend of £0.028m included in the figures.

Corporately-held Budgets

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Provisional	Provisional	COVID	Provisional	2021/22
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
0	Bulk Insurance Premia	3,374	3,802	428	0	12.7%	0	0	0
(2,040)	Capital Financing Costs	8,529	6,008	(2,521)	0	-29.6%	0	0	0
0	Levies & Precepts	216	216	0	0	0.0%	0	0	0
0	Unallocated Contingency & Risk Provisions	0	0	0	0	0.0%	0	0	0
(162)	Unringfenced Grants	(67,425)	(67,602)	(177)	0	-0.3%	0	0	0
1,732	Other Corporate Items	(3,339)	956	4,295	1,156	128.6%	120	120	0
(470)	Total Corporately-held Budgets	(58,645)	(56,620)	2,025	1,156	3.5%	120	120	0

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Bulk Insurance Premia
428	0	Settlement of insurance claims
Capital Financing Costs
(772)	0	Investment Income	Increased income due to a combination of increased cash (investment) balances since Budget Setting and an increased average investment rate as a result of undertaking some longer term investments and increases in Bank of England Base Rate.
(1,357)	0	Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP)	Reduction in MRP for unsupported borrowing as a result of delays to capital programme schemes.
(392)	0	Interest on borrowing	Similarly, reduction in expected borrowing in the year and therefore a reduction in interest payments as a result of the delays to capital programme schemes.
Unringfenced Grants
(33)	0	DfE Extended Rights to Free Travel	Additional in-year allocation announced.
(106)	0	Pressure funding released	Budget pressure funding in respect of losses of grants released following the final announcement of all grants.
(23)	0	DH Local Reform Community Voice Grant	Late announcement with a higher than forecast allocation.
(15)	0	Other	DLUHC Transparency Grant where the council was not formally notified of allocation ahead of payment in March 2022 together with other minor variances.
Other Corporate Items
(138)	0	Pensions	Overpayment from 2020/21 of £0.050m and an in-year variance of £0.088m.
44	44	Death Management	The council’s share of the Sussex-wide death management forecast spend.
310	0	General Fund Services	Increase in the nationally negotiated NJC 2021/22 pay award offer from 1.50% to 1.75%.
2,585	0	General Fund and Schools	Estimated cost of resolving the 2021 industrial dispute (£1.012m) together with a provision for the estimated cost of increasing the council’s minimum pay grade from Scale 1/2 and other associated pay and grading issues currently in negotiation (£1.573m). These costs include a provision for the impact on schools for 2021/22 only.
1,112	1,112	Other corporate items	Carry forward of funding set aside for fully committed, ongoing Covid-19 schemes previously approved by Policy & Resources Recovery Sub-Committee including a requested carry forward of £0.064m to support emergency food provision as per paragraph 10.5 of the main report.
382	0	Other corporate items	Provision for the outcome of litigation including a current HSE investigation together with the net impact from miscellaneous income, new burdens funding and a change in the corporate bad debt provision.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Provisional	Provisional	COVID	Provisional	2021/22
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
70	Capital Financing	25,601	23,490	(2,111)	0	-8.2%	0	0	0
40	Housing Management & Support	4,038	4,342	304	75	7.5%	0	0	0
(83)	New Housing Supply	899	830	(69)	0	-7.7%	0	0	0
165	Income, Involvement & Improvement	(48,142)	(47,790)	352	200	0.7%	0	0	0
1,067	Repairs & Maintenance	12,268	12,760	492	591	4.0%	0	0	0
(594)	Property & Investment	2,782	2,340	(442)	0	-15.9%	0	0	0
1,041	Tenancy Services	2,554	3,995	1,441	226	56.4%	0	0	0
1,705	Total Housing Revenue Account	0	(33)	(33)	1,092	0.0%	0	0	0

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance Description
Capital Financing
(2,414)	0	Direct Revenue Funding	A reduced capital programme spend due to delays caused by the pandemic and supply chain issues has resulted in less Direct Revenue Funding being required, which has been applied to achieve a break-even position. However, the impact of this is a reduced level of funding for future capital programmes which will potentially increase the need for borrowing.
303	0	Financing costs	Borrowing was undertaken earlier during the financial year to mitigate against rising interests rates. This has resulted in higher interest charges being incurred during 2021/22 when compared to the original budget forecast.
Housing Management & Support
(128)	0	Transfer Incentive Scheme	This service assists tenants to down-size or to move into more suitable or accessible accommodation. Each case takes time to complete and the budget underspent by £0.128m.
301	75	Temporary Accommodation	Cost of repairs & maintenance to properties overspent by £0.245m, cost of repairs were uncertain during the year. There was also overspend on income and utilities during the year of £0.056m.
60	0	Employee Costs	Increased costs relating to Housing Management support for the HRA.
82	0	Support Service Costs	Mainly attributed to the costs associated with Housing allocations and Homeless admin services offset by an underspend against central support service costs.
(11)	0	Other	Other net underspends across the service.
New Housing Supply
(9)	0	Estate Regeneration	Underspend mainly attributable to salary costs as a result of a delay in recruiting to the new structure for the delivery of new build projects across the city.
(60)	0	New Housing Supply	Underspend due to changes in the timescales for recruiting additional staff to support the new arrangement for delivery of new homes.
Income, Involvement & Improvement
439	200	Rents and service charges	Overspend relating to rent loss due to a backlog of empty properties caused by the pandemic when lettings were put on hold and also challenges of a shortage of contractors available to undertake the backlog of works.
(127)	0	Employee Costs	Underspend as a result of staff vacancies across the service.
40	0	Other	Other net overspends across the service.
Repairs & Maintenance
1,292	591	Empty Properties and Responsive Repairs	The underlying overspend is approximately £2.1m across the Repairs & Maintenance service due to an increase in sub-contractor and material costs in dealing with both backlog and business-as-usual activity. This is due to the current market conditions where there have been above inflation increases in both labour and material costs. This has been reflected in the budget set for 2022/23 and will be kept under close review. There was a transfer from earmarked reserves of £0.800m as set out in previous TBM reports.
(800)	0	Employee costs and overheads	There was an underspend of £0.800m, mainly as a result of the high level of staff vacancies across the service during the course of the year. The pressure of £0.720m as a result of harmonisation costs was funded from HRA reserves, as set out in the HRA budget 2021/22 report to Budget Council in February 2021. The full impact of harmonisation on the total employees budget has been reflected in budget setting for 2022/23.
Property & Investment
(767)	0	Employee Costs	An underspend due to change in the timescales for recruiting additional staff to support the new arrangements for planned and major works.
224	0	Disrepair Claims	There is an overspend against the £0.100m compensation budget provision, Disrepair claims by their nature are not possible to forecast easily. Instances and costs associated with each instance are recorded separately within the HRA and the variance against budgets are regularly reviewed during the year.
67	0	Housing Centre rent	Rent review adjustment.
34	0	Other	Other net overspends across the service.
Tenancy Services
479	150	Employee Costs	The overspend against staffing is largely as a result of a continuation of agency staff in the Estates Services team due to the increased cleaning requirements as a result of COVID-19 and extra resources in the rehousing team to assist with the mutual exchange and empty property backlog.
218	0	Utility costs	Price of electricity and gas increased from 1st October causing an overspend.
212	76	Council Tax	Increase in council tax costs in respect of the higher number of empty council dwellings awaiting repairs.
157	0	Temporary Accommodation	An overspend on the use of temporary accommodation for council housing tenants.
149	0	Rents and Service Charges	Overspend relating to rent loss due to difficulty in the letting of Seniors Housing.
91	0	Cleaning	Continuation of enhanced cleaning regime for blocks, following implementation during the pandemic.
84	0	Security	Overspend largely relates to the use of security guards at two blocks of flats to ensure the safety of residents at risk.
51	0	Other	Other net overspends across the service.

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance Description
Early Years Block (including delegated to Schools)
123	0	Early Years Additional Support Funding for 2, 3 and 4-year olds	Increase in the number of early years children being assessed for additional support funding. Caseload increases and impact of out of area children attending early years settings within the city.
(111)	0	Early Years Free Entitlement Funding	Underspends against free entitlement funding for 2-year olds and 3 and 4-year olds budgets.
(392)	0	Unallocated DSG	Unallocated DSG to offset wider 2021/22 DSG overspends.
(1)	0	Other	Minor variances on other budgets.
High Needs Block (excluding delegated to Schools)
394	127	Education agency placements	There has been an increase in the cost of some bespoke tuition packages, some of which relate to COVID-19. The Education Agency budget has also been impacted due to a lack of local provision for cognitively able children with Autism and Anxiety/Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH) needs who have not been able to manage in local mainstream schools despite intervention from external agencies. Furthermore, there is an increasing cost of the education packages linked to external residential social care placements.
(140)	0	Special school provision	Special Schools’ budgets have been rebased to accommodate an increase in commissioned places from September 2021. There is a surplus in the amount of pressure funding that was applied.
29	0	Brighton and Hove Inclusion Support Service (BHISS)	Staff absences in key areas that require agency cover to ensure statutory duties are met and buyback commitments to schools are delivered.
(134)	0	Mainstream Specialist Provision	Delay in establishing in-house specialist provision for primary and secondary autism and social emotional mental health needs.
21	0	Post-16 High Needs Placements	Increase in number of placements in FE colleges and post-19 independent specialist provision.
91	0	Mainstream Schools Top-up	Large increase in the number of children with education, health and care plans in mainstream schools within the city and increase in complexity of need.
66	0	High needs placements in maintained provision in other LAs	Lack of local specialist provision resulting in increased number of placements in special schools outside of the city.
14	47	Other	Variances on other budgets.
Exceptions and Growth Fund
(26)	0	Schools contingency	Year-end underspend on schools contingency to be rolled forward to 2022/23.
40	0	School Premature Retirement Costs	Ongoing pressure linked to historic commitments.
(9)	0	Other	Minor variances on other budgets.