Families, Children & Learning

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2023/24	Provisional	Provisional	Provisional	2023/24	Net	Net
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
(10)	Director of Families, Children & Learning	179	170	(9)	-5.0%	0	0	0
1,132	Health, SEN & Disability Services	9,698	10,808	1,110	11.4%	460	10	450
(545)	Education & Skills	9,169	8,596	(573)	-6.2%	104	104	0
(2,139)	Children's Safeguarding & Care	41,176	39,031	(2,145)	-5.2%	1,302	1,302	0
(2)	Quality Assurance & Performance	1,570	1,551	(19)	-1.2%	0	0	0
(1,564)	Total Families, Children & Learning	61,792	60,156	(1,636)	-2.6%	1,866	1,416	450

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

Key
Variances
£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Director of Families, Children & Learning
(9)	Other	Minor variances.
Health, SEN & Disability Services
781	Demand-Led Disability Placements	There were three new residential disability placements taking effect from the start of the new academic year and three new foster agency placements that commenced in December 2023 and January 2024. Another key reason for the level of overspend is that no funding was provided by third parties in relation to placements that were established prior to the 2023/24 financial year, whereas the 2023/24 budget incorporated a £0.200m saving within the savings strategy of the directorate which was not achievable.
118	Commissioning and Brokerage	Delays in recruitment have meant the commissioning and brokerage function has not yet achieved the level of savings required to make itself self-financing. Corporate modernisation funding of this function ceased in 2023/24.
58	Children's Disability Section 17 Preventive Payments Budget	The Section 17 preventive payments budget has been required to provide additional support to young people where additional unforeseen costs have arisen.
153	Other	Minor variances.
Education & Skills
627	Home to School Transport	The overspend for Home to School Transport was £0.627m. Costs have increased considerably and were related to a combination of factors which included, increased numbers of children requiring single occupancy journeys, lack of local SEND school sufficiency, and increased numbers of routes required to accommodate individual post 16 learners’ timetables. Market forces within SEND transport also contributed to the overspend in Home to School Transport. The service was impacted by local driver, vehicle passenger assistant, vehicle shortages and increased running costs. There was also a lack of competition in the transport market, particularly minibus providers, which increased contract prices  further. There was increasingly less capacity in the local system to meet increasing demand in the number of children requiring transport and the nature of the transport requirements.
405	Schools PFI	A combination of historically low interest rates reducing the return on balances held in reserves and very high inflation impacting on costs has resulted in a shortfall in the schools PFI reserve in 2023/24.
(1,325)	Early Help	Contribution from Public Health to Family Hubs of £1.316m in 2023/24.
(280)	Other	Other variances.
Children's Safeguarding & Care
(1,981)	Demand-Led - Children's placements	There have been ongoing significant issues with sufficiency of foster carers and other placement types making placing children difficult and driving up unit costs. In addition the post pandemic period has seen children with increasingly complex needs coming into care.  However, several initiatives and alternative service offers, attempting to reverse the trend of reducing foster carer numbers and to address the complex needs of the children being referred, have been very effective. These have resulted in placements for children in care and care leavers remaining within budget in 2023/24.
217	Legal Fees	In recent years there has been a significant increase in the cost of both the in-house legal team and external counsel. This has continued into 2023/24 resulting in the overspend on legal fees of £0.217m.
(116)	Contact Service	Underspend due to reduced activity and increased efficiency within the contact service.
(296)	Section 117	The new agreement for a 50:50 funding arrangement with Health partners for Section 117 aftercare has generated additional income in 2023/24.
31	Other	Other variances.
Quality Assurance & Performance
(19)	Other

Health & Adult Social Care (HASC)

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2023/24	Provisional	Provisional	Provisional	2023/24	Net	Net
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
455	Adult Social Care	78,628	78,770	142	0.2%	3,143	2,296	847
(159)	S75 Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT)	18,832	18,551	(281)	-1.5%	987	865	122
(75)	Integrated Commissioning	5,333	5,413	80	1.5%	173	149	24
353	Life Events	23	241	218	947.8%	13	6	7
(170)	Public Health	888	717	(171)	-19.3%	0	0	0
404	Total Health & Adult Social Care	103,704	103,692	(12)	0.0%	4,316	3,316	1,000
(35)	Further Financial Recovery Measures (see below)	-		0	-	-	-	-
369	Residual Risk After Financial Recovery Measures	103,704	103,692	(12)	0.0%	4,316	3,316	1,000

Explanation of Key Variances

Key
Variances
£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Adult Social Care
(557)	Demand-Led Community Care - Physical & Sensory Support	The number of placements/packages was significantly below the budgeted level. Although the average unit cost of a placement/package was slightly higher than budgeted, the combination of the lower number of adults placed and the increased unit costs result in the underspend of £0.557m.
(236)	Demand-Led Community Care - Substance Misuse	There are relatively small numbers of clients within this service and the average unit cost is below the budgeted unit cost which resulted in the underspend.
(720)	Assessment teams	Additional legal fees offset by temporary vacancies & inability to recruit across the Assessment teams.
1,066	In-house provision	Due to projected agency and overtime spend above budget.
989	Demand-Led Community Care - Adult LD	Although the number of placements/packages was well below the budgeted level, the average unit cost per client was significantly higher than the budgeted level. The appreciably high unit costs have resulted in the overspend of £0.989m. The average unit costs have been nearly 11% higher than allowed in the budget.
(400)	Community Equipment Store	The underspend was due to lower equipment unit cost than budgeted. This forms part of the Better Care Fund (BCF) and off-sets the overspend in the risk share (below)
S75 Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT)
(519)	Demand-Led - Memory Cognition and Mental Health Support	The number of placements/packages was substantially below the budgeted level. This was partly off-set by higher unit costs in some services.
238	Staffing teams	Inability to deliver in-year savings target due to protracted negotiations with Health. Savings won't now show until 2024/25.
Integrated Commissioning
80	Commissioning and Contracts	Overspend on the Better Care Fund risk share off-set against the underspend in the Community Equipment Store (above).
Life Events
218	Life Events	The overspend relates to additional cost recharged by West Sussex County Council for the Coroner’s Office.
Public Health
(171)	Public Health	Contracts previously funded through General Fund now being resourced within Public Health grant.

Economy, Environment & Culture

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2023/24	Provisional	Provisional	Provisional	2023/24	Net	Net
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
1,675	Transport	(7,879)	(7,111)	768	9.7%	2,765	1,674	1,091
(1,252)	City Environmental Management	33,723	31,436	(2,287)	-6.8%	498	498	0
341	City Development & Regeneration	2,841	3,708	867	30.5%	428	428	0
(184)	Culture, Tourism & Sport	4,371	3,771	(600)	-13.7%	563	463	100
999	Property	1,037	2,330	1,293	124.7%	473	275	198
1,579	Total Economy, Environment & Culture	34,093	34,134	41	0.1%	4,727	3,338	1,389

Explanation of Key Variances

Key
Variances
£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Transport
(115)	Head of City Transport	Unallocated staff budget £0.066m and underspends of £0.046m within Consultancy and Initiatives.
2,371	Parking Services	Overall Parking Services underachieved by £2.371m (5.24% of expected income targets) against a £28.254m net income budget. Despite income increasing for parking permits from £10.500m in 2022/23 to £10.770m in 2023/24, income is still £2.024m (15.82%) underachieved compared to the budget of £12.800m. This position contains a reduction in demand in residents and visitor permits across zones and the loss of parking capacity due to active travel proposals along with many other factors affecting all paid parking. On-street paid parking is £2.378m (16.20%) underachieved compared to its budget of £14.600m. £0.400m of which is driven by the removal of previously agreed zone changes. £0.500m is due to removal of Parking spaces due to active travel measures. A further £0.300m is a result of the light to full scheme programme being altered with full consultation now being undertaken. The £2 single bus fare encouraging bus travel over short car journeys has impacted the current deficit. The remainder of the shortfall is due to reduced demand in paid parking due to the significant prices rises in recent years, the impact of hybrid and home working which has changed parking patterns, concern that motorists are risking receiving a Penalty Charge Notice in some areas (particularly high tariff areas) as the parking charge is almost the same rate as a PCN (£25 at discounted rate for low level offence), poor weather in 2023/24 particularly since June 2023 and the issues of not going ahead with the recent changes to Area M (Medium tariff to High) & Area Y (parts Medium to High) and the seafront winter tariff only increasing by 11% . To add to this the increased charges for 2023/24 were only introduced in early October with some only just being increased in January 2024 following the Traffic Regulation Order process and required IT changes. These deficits are offset by surplus income for Parking Suspensions of £0.157m (13.14%). There is also a reduction in Parking costs of £1.113m which is primarily driven by an underspend in Unsupported Borrowing and other costs associated with the replacement of parking machines that is no longer going ahead. PCN income overachieved by £0.778m despite a reduction in tickets issued compared to last year particularly in relation to CCTV bus lane enforcement. Staffing costs are £0.103m above budget which is mainly due to IT staff costs partly mitigated by staff posts being held vacant.
(118)	Concessionary Bus Fares	Negotiated contract costs were lower than budget.
(226)	Traffic Management	Additional Highway Operations costs of £0.114m. The contract costs for the service have increased by 30% following the contract retender and a very wet and cold winter has increased defects by 50% leading to an initial £0.900m additional spend required. This has been largely mitigated by capitalising larger repairs and reviewing the scope of works required.  Additional income from Temporary Traffic Regulation Orders of £0.048m. Events income, net of cost increases  of £0.027m. Streetworks income exceeded budget by £0.160m, partly countered by Streetworks Training of £0.017m and Software costs of £0.015m. Highway Licensing income exceeded budget by £0.210m, partly offset by new Highway Licensing software to improve service delivery of £0.026m. Before use of reserve funding, Road Works Permit Fee Income was £0.122m less than budget as CityFibre rollout paused but Fixed Penalty Notices were £0.016m greater than budget. The Road Works Permit Scheme overall shortfall has been reduced to £0.039m by reserve funding of £0.097m.
84	Transport Policy and Strategy	Highways Development Control and Transport Assessment has exceeded budget by £0.104m mainly due to a shortfall in income.
(1,228)	Transport Projects and Engineering	Payments to Bus Operators for both base and enhanced services are now funded by the DfT Bus Service Improvement Plan grant and Public Transport staff costs of £0.047m have been recharged to BSIP and consequently there is a Public Transport underspend of £0.790m. Electricity savings of £0.493m against budget. Bus Shelter net contract income surplus of £0.087m. Road Safety Education costs exceeded budget and funding by £0.058m.
City Environmental Management
(1,217)	City Clean	£0.010m overspend in Street Cleansing as a result of employment pension and NI costs of approximately £0.205m greater than historic budget due to large turnover of staff in recent years with more staff remaining in the scheme than choosing to opt out, offset by vacancies within the service. £0.254m underspend within waste collections due to vacant posts held as part of expenditure controls. The underspend includes £0.109m overspend in staffing oncosts as a result of employment pension and NI costs greater than historic budget allocation due to large turnover of staff in recent years with more staff remaining in the scheme than choosing to opt out. £0.156m overspend in CityClean Enforcement as income has not achieved its targets. £0.147m use of the enforcement reserve has reduced this pressure to £0.009m though there is no further reserve available. £0.569m underspend on public toilets due to large utility credits for prior years offsetting in year charges following actual readings submitted as well as vacancies and spending controls in place throughout the year. £0.396m surplus in commercial and green waste collections as a result of lower than forecast disposal costs and increased revenues.
(236)	City Parks	£0.049m overspend as a result of the Level Cafe being vacant and other works and £0.067m overspend in Sports Bookings income due to reduced demand. These are offset by vacancies held within the service of £0.138m, underspends on supplies and services of £0.082m as part of spending controls and delays to tree works of £0.119m.
427	Fleet & Maintenance	£0.080m overspend on Hollingdean Depot costs due to insufficient budget. Centralised stores costs for CityClean services greater than budget by £0.063m. Additional fuel and vehicle related costs of £0.154m as a result of rising costs for CEM Vehicles and additional hire costs due to delays in purchased vehicle replacements and sabotage of £0.120m.
224	Head of City Environmental Management	The costs of the independent special investigation of £0.198m net are also included in this budget.
(104)	Strategy & Projects	Forecast underspends of £0.057m from reduced Supplies & Services costs and £0.058m staffing underspends from vacancies as a result of spending controls.
(1,381)	Waste Disposal	Release of reconciliation payment for windfall electricity incomes in the Waste PFI. Review of available Waste PFI reserve has allowed this windfall to be released as an underspend to support wider overspends in other areas.
City Development & Regeneration
802	Development Planning and Business Development and Customer Services	Underachievement of Planning and Building Control income of £1.362m as there is still uncertainty over levels of service post-covid. This is offset by staffing and supplies & services underspends of £0.560m as part of spending controls.
(17)	Planning Policy and Major Projects	Underspends on consultants fees and salaries of £0.136m offset by Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) administration costs greater than CIL administration income collected.
(86)	Sustainability & International	Delayed spend in Sustainability initiatives.
116	Director - EEC	Unbudgeted costs within Executive Director budgets including shared EEC resources of £0.068m and share of attendance management costs of £0.049m.
17	Major Projects	Overspend relating to project costs where funding was not allocated in year and accrual omitted during closedown. Funding anticipated to be received during 2024/25.
18	Economic Development	£0.019m of Economic Development share of 2023/24 savings were not achieved but mitigated within sustainability underspends.
17	Head of Regeneration	Share of corporate savings allocation in year and consultancy fees.
Culture, Tourism & Sport
42	Arts	Greater than budgeted costs for Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival funding of £0.078m. Offset by staff vacancies and reduced expenditure of £0.037m
317	Heritage and Archives	Additional costs under the RPMT contract relating to salary pay awards.
(572)	Sport and Leisure	£0.100m pressure for maintaining the lifeguard service during the summer season at 2022/23 levels offset by underspends on golf course contracts of £0.035m and Sport & Leisure initiative budgets of £0.046m. £0.118m underspend relating to Sports Facilities and £0.100m underspend on Seafront responsive repairs as a result of spending controls. £0.377m income surplus to budget relating to Seafront rental incomes. £0.015m underspend on Outdoor Events where income has not met its target but achieved through expenditure controls.
(370)	Venues	Utility overspends of £0.024m offset by underspends in Brighton Centre Technical and surplus incomes of £0.494m.
(17)	Tourism and Marketing	£0.017m underspend on Tourism and Marketing where income has not met its target but achieved through expenditure controls.
Property
1,293	Property and Design	Vacant Properties within both the In-house & Commercial portfolios have caused pressures from the loss of rental income and the additional premises related costs until new tenants can be attracted resulting in a pressure of £1.794m. There have however, been some new leases agreed for New England House and an expected reduction in the current year’s contract costs from the managing agents of £0.017m. The current rental climate demands rent free periods which leads to in year pressures that will hopefully impact on the first year only. Some of these pressures are offset by in year staff vacancies being held within Estates of £0.128m. Security costs have increased significantly by over £5 per hour due to BHCC agreeing to pay the higher rate living wage to contract service providers, with the increase from April 1st resulting in pressures of £0.245m.  In-house printing continues to show a historic pressure of £0.039m due to the reduction in demand resulting in underachievement of costs recovered. Post room services contains a pressure of £0.109m due to additional surcharges from Royal Mail whilst the service is not barcode compliant. These pressures are offset by underspends within the remaining Facilities & Building services budgets of £0.169m as a result of expenditure controls and efficiencies. Technical Services are £0.176m overspent due to shortfalls on Professional Fee incomes which is mitigated by underspends within the Planned Maintenance Budgets (PMB) of £0.522m and Education Maintenance Budgets of £0.209m. These have been achieved by only completing essential Health & Safety works and capitalising costs that are appropriate to the PMB Capital budgets.

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2023/24	Provisional	Provisional	Provisional	2023/24	Net	Net
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
1,051	Housing General Fund	9,995	10,944	949	9.5%	1,705	687	1,018
99	Libraries	2,239	2,311	72	3.2%	81	81	0
(116)	Communities, Equalities & Third Sector	2,932	2,858	(74)	-2.5%	44	44	0
(240)	Safer Communities	3,511	3,212	(299)	-8.5%	86	86	0
794	Total Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities	18,677	19,325	648	1.7%	1,916	898	1,018

Explanation of Key Variances

Key
Variances
£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Housing General Fund
1,002	Temporary Accommodation (TA)	The budget for Temporary Accommodation (TA) is overspent by £1.002m for 2023/24. Emergency nightly accommodation (spot purchased) was budgeted to be at an average of 52 households per night for the year. However, the service saw increasing numbers of applicants for emergency accommodation in the first quarter of 2023/24 with an average of 153 households every night. The summer saw a slight dip in numbers, however the last four months has seen a steady increase with 256 households being housed as at 31/3/24. To add to this pressure, the cost of accommodation has also been increasing and the service is focussed on reducing the average nightly cost wherever possible. Overall this budget has overspent by £1.138m.  The service is implementing further measures to reduce the number of households accommodated as part of the financial recovery plan and future budget strategy. Block Booked - The service is also facing significant pressures on the overall costs of block booked emergency accommodation. The budget assumed that there would be a reduction of 125 units of block booked accommodation during 2023/24. However, due to the demands on the service, there has only been a reduction of  16 units as one block handed back to the provider. Additionally, the council is facing large increases to contract prices and therefore this budget has overspent by £1.829m. Leased TA - Leased TA is underspent by £0.241m. The net accommodation costs are underspent by £0.172m. This is partly driven by lower numbers of leased properties being used for TA as landlords request them back. There are 45 fewer properties now than in April 2023. This is part of the reason for the increased numbers spot purchased accommodation. Linked to this, there is also an underspend of £0.146m on the cost of repairs offset with the extra cost of the loss of Housing Benefit Subsidy of £0.112m and other minor variances.  The service has been working to improve empty property turnaround times and as a result has also seen an improvement in the void rent loss. Future costs for the authority will depend on the prices associated with any new contracts agreed with landlords as and when new contracts are agreed.  The overall variance for TA has been offset by extra in-year Homelessness Prevention Grant of £1.801m and an overspend on temporary accommodation staffing costs of £0.077m.
(152)	Housing Options	Vacancies across the service and a reduction in the use of agency staff.
119	Seaside Homes	The repairs and maintenance budgets for these properties have overspent by £0.057m. There is also an overspend on the management costs of this service of £0.306m and a net overspend of £0.114m on the rents budget due to the fact that the LHA rates have not increased in 2023/24 in line with budget expectations plus other minor variances across this service of £0.008m. However, this is offset by an underspend on the contribution to the bad debt provision of £0.321m and an underspend on the rent loss on void properties of £0.055m. The service is working to improve void turn-around times further in order to minimise void loss and further reduce costs. Budgets within this service will be realigned for 2024/25.
(38)	Private Sector Housing	Unachieved savings for fine income of £0.042m offset by an underspend on employee costs of £0.030m and an underspend of £0.050m on the adaptations service as a result of further capitalisation.
35	Homemove	Extra IT costs due to system changes and a shortfall in income generated from other local authorities and housing associations.
(110)	Commissioned Rough Sleeper and Housing Related Support Services	This service is underspent by £0.170m across the core commissioned services. There is also a £0.060m overspend relating to the Rough Sleeper Accommodation Programme (RSAP) leased property scheme.
44	Travellers Service	Increased security costs of £0.026m and the extra costs of water at the site offset by an underspend on staffing.
83	Restructure costs	This service is overspent in 2023/24 due to unmet savings of £0.026m allocated to this budget, an overspend of £0.046m on staffing costs and the costs of the attendance management system of £0.011m.
(34)	Housing Strategy and Enabling	This variance relates to vacancies across this service.
Libraries
72	Libraries	This overspend relates to an overspend of £0.051m on employees costs, an under achievement of income of £0.047m and increased costs of facilities management costs for the libraries of £0.031m. This is in part due to savings from the closure of Mile Oak Library not being realised until the second quarter of 2023/24. This has been partially offset by monies being claimed back for the book fund from the PFI contract.
Communities, Equalities & Third Sector
(12)	CETS	Underspend on staffing costs.
(35)	Initiatives	Pause on 'Our Legacy' project and a reduction in number of advisory group meetings for anti-racism and accessible city work.
(27)	Community Grant Programme	Reduction of 3rd round of annual community grants programme.
Safer Communities
(259)	Safer Communities	The underspend is against staffing costs as a result of vacancies across the service.
(124)	Domestic Violence and Violence against Women and Girls	Underspend on core budgets for Domestic Violence and Violence against Women and Girls.
69	Income from fees and charges	A shortfall in licence fee income of £0.044m, for example a shortfall in license fees for gambling venues due to  a move to on-line gambling; also less income from street trader licences due to a combination of Zone A street trading numbers reducing and more premises licenses (licensing and gambling) having lapsed or been surrendered. A shortfall in Pest Control fees income of £0.025m (this service is ceasing from 2024/25 as part of the budget savings).
15	Safer Communities	Other minor variances across the service.

Governance, People & Resources

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2023/24	Provisional	Provisional	Provisional	2023/24	Net	Net
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
0	Chief Executive Monitoring Office	554	562	8	1.4%	0	0	0
(23)	Policy & Communications	1,719	1,763	44	2.6%	134	134	0
(106)	Legal & Democratic Services	3,618	3,449	(169)	-4.7%	167	147	20
204	Elections & Land Charges	520	703	183	35.2%	22	10	12
(10)	Customer Modernisation & Data	1,867	1,859	(8)	-0.4%	86	86	0
309	Finance (Mobo)	2,096	2,342	246	11.7%	67	11	56
(17)	Procurement (Mobo)	(37)	(52)	(15)	-40.5%	0	0	0
(31)	HR & Organisational Development	4,009	3,794	(215)	-5.4%	214	214	0
(525)	IT&D (Mobo)	8,586	8,001	(585)	-6.8%	350	350	0
(28)	Welfare Revenue & Business Support	7,372	7,159	(213)	-2.9%	146	146	0
0	Contribution to Orbis	2,804	2,873	69	2.5%	0	0	0
(227)	Total Governance, People & Resources	33,108	32,453	(655)	-2.0%	1,186	1,098	88

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 any budget variance on ‘Orbis Services’ is shared in accordance with the Inter-Authority Agreement (IAA).

Explanation of Key Variances

Key
Variances
£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Chief Executive Monitoring Office
8		Overspends in recruitment costs that have been offset by staff and other small operational budget underspends.
Policy & Communications
51	Policy Development	Staffing overspends offset by underspends in Initatives and other operations budgets.
(3)	AD Policy and Communications	Vacancy controls contribution
69	Brighton & Hove Strategic Partnership	Loss of partnership funding of £0.105m offset by underspends in Staffing of £0.027m, initiatives £0.016m and other small underspends in the service.
(20)	Communications	Underspends in Publicity & Marketing of £0.021m, Vacancy contribution of £0.018m and Public Health funding of £0.018m offset by overspends in Internal graphic design and computer lisences cost.
(11)	Graphic Design	Underspends in legal fees, supplies and other small underspends in operations budget.
57	Leadership Support	Staffing overspends to be offset by underspends in Overview & Scrutiny
(82)	Overview & Scrutiny	Underspends in staffing budgets.
(18)	Partnership Fund	Underspends in initiatives budgets.
Legal & Democratic Services
(5)	Member training	Small underspends in member training
9	Civics Mayors Office	Minor variances.
31	Democratic Services	Staffing overspend of £0.005m, shortfall in income from DSG of £0.004m and other small overspends in the service.
(15)	Members Allowances	Staffing saving of £0.004m and savings on mobile rental of £0.011m.
(153)	Legal team	Staffing savings of £0.215m and overachievement in income of £0.092m offset by one off learning & library resources cost of £0.035m, overspends in licences £0.101m and other small overspends in the service £0.018m.
(18)	Ward Community Budget	Underspend in initiatives.
(18)	Political assistants	Staffing underspend
Elections & Land Charges
183	Elections & Land Charges	Underachievement in Land Charges budget of £195k due to a slowing housing market and a disporportionate income target, offset by underspends  in Electoral Services.
Customer Modernisation & Data
(8)	Customers and Performance	Vacancy Contribution
Finance (Mobo)
246	Finance	£0.260m of the overspend is due to an increase in external audit fees following the national re-procurement of the 5-year contract which has seen costs increase by 151%. This has been partially offset by a Local Audit Grant allocation of £0.058m. A further £0.139m overspend on staffing due to sickness cover and repatriation of Orbis (Tax Advice Service) costs which was mostly offset by one-off income from the LGA-led card provider lawsuit settlement (£0.120m). The remaining overspend was due to higher than expected costs for consultant fees £0.015m and a small underachievement of contract income £0.010m.
Procurement (Mobo)
(15)	Procurement	Underspend in computer hardware purchase budget.
HR & Organisational Development
(43)	Policy and initiatives	Overachieved income of £0.060m offset by small overspend on supplies and services of £0.017m.
(163)	Organisational Development	Underspend on Staff Training of £0.114m and other supplies & services of £0.024m due to expenditure controls. Underspend on payroll costs of £0.025m due to vacancy controls.
(14)	Occupational Health & Safety	Small underspend on salaries due to vacancy controls.
5	Unions	Small overspend on Union budgets
IT&D (Mobo)
(585)	IT&D	IT&D are reporting an underspend of £0.585m. The underspend on salary budgets of £0.682m is due in most part to the vacancy freeze. However, this has had a detrimental effect on the ability to effectively deliver services. Some of these savings have offset some overspends in other areas, notably the costs of providing a standby service as well as increased costs in Microsoft licensing. There was an overspend on the Traded Services budget due to the income target for the DSG grant, (which is no longer allocated to IT&D), not fully achieved by increased income for services.
Welfare Revenue & Business Support
(125)	HB, CTAX & NNDR Running Expenses incl Discretionary payments	Shortfall in court costs income of £0.138m and higher software costs £0.153m.  Offset by vacancy savings of £0.137m, savings on initiatives of £0.110m, underspend in computer maintenance £0.097m and additional income of £0.070m.
(43)	Social Fund & Welfare	A £0.209m staffing pressure offset by £0.050m contribution from Public Health and £0.150m staff savings from other areas within the service.
(68)	WRBS Systems Teams	Savings in IT contract cost offset by overspends in staffing and software costs.
(78)	Corp Debt & Banking	Staffing underspends in Corporate Debt team
101	Payroll	Overspends in Staffing £0.088m, Professional fees £0.011m and other small overspends in operational budgets within the service.
Contribution to Orbis
69	Contribution to Orbis	The Orbis partnership as a whole underspent by £0.061m and BHCC’s share of that was £0.027m. However, due to in year changes to the Orbis partnership budget the contribution required was £0.036m in excess of the budget set aside to pay for it. In addition, £0.033m has been used to provide a reserve to fund IT Helpdesk renewal in 2024/25.

Corporately-held Budgets

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2023/24	Provisional	Provisional	Provisional	2023/24	Net	Net
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
350	Bulk Insurance Premia	3,940	4,440	500	12.7%	0	0	0
(2,284)	Capital Financing Costs	3,274	1,041	(2,233)	-68.2%	0	0	0
0	Levies & Precepts	229	229	0	0.0%	0	0	0
(100)	Unallocated Contingency & Risk Provisions	222	0	(222)	-100.0%	0	0	0
0	Unringfenced Grants	(28,828)	(29,337)	(509)	-1.8%	0	0	0
920	Housing Benefit Subsidy	(301)	974	1,275	423.6%	0	0	0
184	Other Corporate Items	10,436	10,971	535	5.1%	162	162	0
(930)	Total Corporately-held Budgets	(11,028)	(11,682)	(654)	-5.9%	162	162	0

Explanation of Key Variances

Key
Variances
£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Bulk Insurance Premia
96	Premium costs	The majority of the premiums increased by 18% which is in excess of the amount budgeted.
404	Claims	There has been an increase in settlement of claims this year.
Capital Financing Costs
(1,007)	Investment Income	Increases in the Bank of England Base Rate have resulted in improved investment income.
(298)	Minimum Revenue Provision	Reprofiling of 2022/23 capital borrowing resulted in a lower MRP to set aside in 2023/24 than budgeted.
(928)	Interest Payable	Delaying long term borrowing by maximising internal borrowing has resulted in savings on borrowing costs.
Unallocated Contingency & Risk Provisions
(222)	Contingency	Release of contingencies set aside for part year effect of 2023/24 savings, pay costs and other minor items no longer required.
Unringfenced Grants
(496)	Business Rates Levy Surplus Distribution	This is a one-off grant to distribute the historic business rates levy surplus across local authorities announced in February 2024.
(13)	Transparency Grant	Grant paid in late March 2024 with no official notification in advance of payment.
Housing Benefit Subsidy
1,275	Housing Benefit Subsidy	There is a final net pressure of £1.275m. Within this £1.320m relates to the main subsidy budgets and is based on the final subsidy claim produced in April 2024 . Of this pressure, £0.161m relates to particular benefit types for vulnerable tenants (Regulations 11 & 13) which are not fully subsidised and which has continued to grow despite service pressure funding of £0.450m provided in the 2023/24 budget. Action taken this year has reduced this pressure £0.290m compared to Month 9 and it is anticipated that this action will lead to continued reduction next year. There is also a pressure of £1.025m on the net recovery of overpayments. There is a provision of £0.100m for a potential reduction in 2022/23 subsidy following audit and minor variances of £0.034m. The surplus on the recovery of overpaid former council Tax Benefit was £0.045m.  Service pressure funding of £0.700m has been provided in the 2024/25 budget and this, together with action taken to reduce the subsidy loss on Regulation 11 & 13 payments, should bring this budget much closer to a break even position.
Other Corporate Items
3,535	Pay award 2023/24	Additional cost for the 2023/24 pay award based on the final settlement. The average cost was 6% compared to the budgeted level of 3.75%.
1,500	Contribution towards Voluntary Severance Provision.	Contribution towards the estimated cost of severances arising from the 2024/25 budget savings.
(91)	Corporate pension costs	Overpayment from 2021/22 of (£0.020m) and an in year variance of (£0.054m). Over achievement of National Insurance savings on AVC scheme.
500	Provision for school organisation costs	Potential school organisational changes are anticipated to give rise to additional costs that would not be chargeable to the Dedicated Schools Grant. These are estimates at present and a prudential provision of £0.500m has been included to reflect potential costs.
(1,119)	Bad Debt Provision	£1.183m of this relates to the release of an unrequired provision for Adult Social Care debt. This is partially offset by a £0.064m increased contribution to the general bad debt provision.
(3,668)	Joint Venture profit Share	The 50:50 profit-share from the Housing Joint Venture with Hyde Housing has been confirmed following completion of a scheme and this provides a net £3.668m one-off corporate resources.
(101)	Review of Reserves and Provisions	Net position on review of unrequired reserves and provisions.
1	Death Management	BHCC share of Sussex wide costs on mass fatalities work.
(22)	Other variances

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2023/24	Provisional	Provisional	Provisional	2023/24	Net	Net
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Savings	Savings	Savings
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Proposed	Achieved	Unachieved
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
(377)	Capital Financing	26,138	25,580	(558)	-2.1%	0	0	0
376	Housing Management & Support	5,096	5,838	741	14.5%	0	0	0
(89)	Housing Strategy & Supply	1,442	1,214	(227)	-15.8%	0	0	0
1,292	Repairs & Maintenance	16,397	17,652	1,255	7.7%	0	0	0
(271)	Housing Investment & Asset Management	2,027	1,500	(527)	-26.0%	0	0	0
(931)	Tenancy Services	(51,099)	(51,784)	(684)	-1.3%	0	0	0
0	Total Housing Revenue Account	0	0	0	0.0%	0	0	0

Explanation of Key Variances

Key
Variances
£'000	Subjective Area	Variance Description
Capital Financing
537	Capital Financing costs	The borrowing requirement increased for the HRA due to an overspend on the capital programme, couple with a change in interest rates resulted in an increase of £0.177m from the Month 9 forecast. This is a timing issue with borrowing being taken out in 2023/24 as opposed to 2024/25.
(1,095)	Direct Revenue funding	A reduced capital programme has resulted in less Direct Revenue Funding being required without increasing borrowing beyond that which had been forecast at Month 2. The use of Direct Revenue Funding balances off any net overspend on services within the HRA to ensure it balances to zero.
Housing Management & Support
102	Employees	Due to the growing number of council owned Temporary Accommodation there is an increase in staffing costs of £0.055m relating to their management, in addition to an increase in support costs of £0.049m relating to HR business partners during 2023/24. Other minor movements across the employee costs contirbute towards the difference.
460	Premises	Costs from the provision of fuel at Manoj House of £0.132m continues to create a pressure, There are plans to install a new boiler at the block which will mean this cost will no longer be incurred. The responsive repair and empty property costs associated with the council owned Temporary Accommodation overspent by £0.237m, this is a result of increase in the number of units in addition to higher than expected inflation. Business Rates and Council Tax costs continue to cause a budget pressure for the HRA with the overspend relating to this at £0.110m. The HRA incurs council tax costs for empty properties and so reducing the number of empty properties will have a direct impact on the council tax costs incurred. Other minor variances make up the differences.
248	Supplies and Services	The HRA incurred its share of the external audit fees relating to the compilation of the statement of accounts totalling £0.030m, in addtion insurance costs of £0.203m have been incurred over and above the budget in relation to the reprocurement of insurer early in the financial year which cannot be recharged to leaseholders. The cost of securtity at the Housing Centre exceeded the budget by £0.037m with other minor variances totalling £0.066m. offsetting these is an underspend on the Transfer Incentive scheme of £0.092m.
(69)	Income	Increased levels of income from council owned Temporary Accommodation of £0.084 offset by void rent loss of £0.015m.
Housing Strategy & Supply
(312)	Employees	There have been a number of vacancies carried during 2023/24 resulting in an underspend of £0.211m in addition to this a greater level of salaries have been capitalised totalling £0.108m this is due to the high number of new affordable homes delivered in 2023/24.Other minor variances make up the difference.
85	Supplies and Services	Historic Business Rates for Palace Place were charged during the year totalling £0.020m, these will continue to be charged until the site is being developed. The Housing Management system (NEC) has reached a stage were support costs are now recognised as a revenue cost, the total for these was £0.038m, a service review is required to ensure support costs are budgeted for going forward to 2024/25. Other minor variances make up the difference.
Repairs & Maintenance
(1,096)	Employees	There was an underspend against the base salary budget of £0.592m, largely due to in year vacancy management and an increase in the capitalisation of salaries for the Electrical Testing programme of £0.638m.  This represents approximately 14% variance against the net salary budget.
1,939	Premises	There has been an overspend against the base budget for subcontractor costs of £1.758m, due in part to the number of repairs undertaken during the year and the impact of high inflation during the year. There has also been an overspend on rubbish clearance of £0.116m which was due to an increased focus on tidying neighbourhoods and running waste amnesities during the year. An overspend cleaning and disinfestation of properties of £0.065m and other minor variances make up the difference.
443	Supplies and Services	A continued pressure is felt from disrepair claims totalling £0.530m, by their nature are not possible to forecast easily, investment has been made in the 2024/25 budgets seeking to address this and slow the level of claims being made. The service has had to decant a number of tenants during the financial year whilst repairs are undertaken costs have increased beyond those anticipated at the start of the year resulting in an overspend of £0.133m.  There has been an underspend of £0.208m against the materials budgets, cheaper rates than anticipated were obtained during the year resulting in this position, in part offsetting the overspends outlined above. Other minor variances make up the difference.
46	Transport	Additional fuel and contract hire costs than originally aniticpated at the start of the financial year.
(77)	Income	Unexpected income received from the ESFA - Apprenticeship Service.
Housing Investment & Asset Management
(165)	Employees	There was an underspend against the base salary budget of £0.183m, largely due to in year vacancy management, offset by other minor variances relating to staffing matters.
104	Premises	There has been a significant increase in the work related to fire safety and water safety, costs in the second half of the year started to be incurred a greater rate than anticipated, resulting in an overspend on fire safety measures of £0.083m. Work related to water safety overspent by £0.099m, this is all key work relating to the requirements under the social housing regulator. These oversends were offset in part by underspends on asbestos works and heating and ventilation totalling £0.101m. Other minor variances make up the difference.
(466)	Income	A decision was made to not make a contirbution to the bad debt provision for leaseholders during 2023/24. A provision totalling 30% of the total arrears is already provided for which in liason with the leaseholder manager was deemed sufficient. This released £0.150m from the HRA resources, in addition there was an increase in lease holder income of £0.310m which was not anticipated at the start of the financial year.
Tenancy Services
(78)	Employees	There was an underspend against the base salary budget of £0.104m, largely due to in year vacancy management, offset by other minor variances relating to staffing matters.
285	Premises	Forecast underspend on utility costs £0.147m, offset by overspends against council tax costs of £0.152m which is linked to the number of empty properties held in the HRA over the course of the financial year offset by an underspend on business rates of £0.057m.Rubbish clearance and cleaning costs combined overspent across the year by £0.136m, this was a result of ensuring neighbouhoods were kept tidy and additional costs of the waste amnesty held in 2023. Tree Maintenance has overspent by £0.068m, this being the HRA's share of delaing with the ash die back programme. Grounds Mainentnace overspent by £0.060m with other minor variances totalling a £0.024m across the service make up the difference.
4	Supplies and Services	Increased contribution required to the bad debt provision of £0.013m and a forecast overspend on the use of temporary accommodation of £0.075m for council housing tenants, linked to the current policy for Temporary Accommodation across the authority and in some part to the number of empty properties held in the HRA.  These pressures have been offset by an underspend against security costs of £0.045m and other minor net variances totalling an underspend of £0.043m across the service.
(133)	Other	Grant recevied to support tenant satisfcation measures totalling £0.051m, this grant is recevied on an annual basis in light of the regulatory changes the HRA is facing. Offset by minor overspends across the service area.
(762)	Income	Forecast overachievement in net rental income and service charges due to new supply of affordable housing. This is £100k worse than reported at Month 11 due to the delay in letting Kubic apartments once purchased. Despite this overachievement in income there has been a growth in arrears of £1m during 2023/24 which needs to be addressed, this is further hilighted by a reduced collection rate of 93.46%. Other minor variances across the service, make up the difference.

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2023/24	Provisional	Provisional	Provisional
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance
Month 9		Month 12	Month 12	Month 12	Month 12
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	%
0	Individual Schools Budget (ISB)	144,139	144,139	0	0.0%
(141)	Early Years Block (excluding delegated to Schools) (This includes Private Voluntary & Independent (PVI) Early Years 3 & 4 year old funding for the free entitlement to early years education)	13,643	13,624	(19)	-0.1%
286	High Needs Block (excluding delegated to Schools)	30,986	29,990	(996)	-3.2%
(47)	Exceptions and Central Services	3,178	2,918	(260)	-8.2%
0	Grant Income	(191,578)	(191,578)	0	0.0%
98	Total Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG)	368	(907)	(1,275)	-346.5%

Explanation of Key Variances

Key
Variances
£'000	Service Area	Variance Description
Early Years Block (including delegated to Schools)
(19)	Other	Small variances across the Early Years block mainly relating to early years free entitlement and additional support funding budgets
High Needs Block (excluding delegated to Schools)
513	Post-16 high needs placements	Overspends for high needs students in FE colleges and post-19 specialist providers. There has been a significant increase in the number of high needs learners accessing FE colleges in the last year with a large number attending provision outside of the city
146	Mainstream school top-up funding	There continues to be an overspend on the mainstream top-up budget despite a further increase to the budget of £0.470m in 2023/24. This is linked to the continuing growth in the number of Education Health and Care plans being issued, particularly in primary schools
(142)	Special school top-up funding	There was an increase of 62 places in the LA's special schools from September 2023 and budgets have been rebased accordingly. The additional budget investment has generally been in line with expenditure, with an underspend due to some special schools being below capacity since September.
82	Brighton and Hove Inclusion Support Services (BHISS)	Overspend of £0.082m against the BHISS DSG budget areas. This is made up of £0.050m BHISS DSG core services and £0.035m against the Literacy support service. The most significant factor contributing to the predicted overspend is the level of the pay awards for 2022/23 and 2023/24.
232	Children with medical needs	The budget for Children with medical needs has seen a significant increase in the caseload including the educational provision of children who are placed in private hospitals, generally due to acute mental health needs
(159)	Education Agency Schools	Placements in independent non maintained schools. Budget increased by £0.730m in 2023/24 and costs slightly below level of budget
(89)	Early Years Additional Support Funding	Lower than expected number of early years children with additional needs receiving additional support funding
(1,615)	Other	Realignment of DSG high needs block funding allocations
36	Other	Other variances
Exceptions and Growth Fund
(240)	Schools Contingency	School contingency underspend to be carried forward and re-distributed to schools in 2024/25
(20)	Other	Other small compensating variances.