Item 15 Appendix 3
West Dunbartonshire Council · 18 March 2026
Back to Educational Services Committee — 18 March 2026 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL APPENDIX 3 ANALYSIS FOR VARIANCES OVER £50,000 MONTH END DATE PERIOD Total Budget Forecast Spend Use of EMR Variance after the use of EMR RAG Status £000 £000 £000 £000 % 138,396 139,528 359 773 1% Primary Schools (Gillian Hamilton) 35,039 35,199 0 160 0% Service Description Main Issues / Reason for Variance Mitigating Action Anticipated Outcome 31 January 2026 Budget Details Variance Analysis P10 Education This service area includes all Primary Schools. none possible The cost of upkeep of grounds is likely to be at the level charged in 2024/25 resulting in an overspend (£56k) and teacher costs are forecasting an overspend of (£533k) as a result of payments to cover teacher absences.These overspends are offset by a number of underspends , the principal ones being gas/electricity (£211k), clothing grants (£55k) and non-teacher vacancies (£152k). adverse variance
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL APPENDIX 3 ANALYSIS FOR VARIANCES OVER £50,000 MONTH END DATE PERIOD Total Budget Forecast Spend Use of EMR Variance after the use of EMR RAG Status 31 January 2026 Budget Details Variance Analysis P10 Secondary Schools (Gillian Hamilton) 35,877 35,940 124 (61) 0% Service Description Main Issues / Reason for Variance Mitigating Action Anticipated Outcome none necessary This service area includes all Secondary Schools. favourable variance Teacher cover costs are greater than anticipated (£182k) but there are a number of underspends , the principal ones being gas/electricity/NDR (£87k) , clothing grants (£46k) and non-teacher vacancies (£36k).In addition to greater school meal income (£82k)
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL APPENDIX 3 ANALYSIS FOR VARIANCES OVER £50,000 MONTH END DATE PERIOD Total Budget Forecast Spend Use of EMR Variance after the use of EMR RAG Status 31 January 2026 Budget Details Variance Analysis P10 Additional Support Needs (Claire Cusick) 23,471 24,316 5 839 4% Service Description Main Issues / Reason for Variance The principal reason for the adverse variance is an overspend on employee costs - mainly APT&C following the recent job evaluation of grade 3 and 4 staff (£320k inc. backdating to August 2024 plus £16k for non-achievement of turnover ) and an overspend on transport (£913k). Whilst the purchase of 6 additional buses has reduced the number of taxi contracts the payback period for the one-off cost of £255k , charged directly to the taxi budget within the service , was always projected to be more than one year.The use of taxis will remain essential for some children given their individual needs (£309k). As a result of the additional buses and a reduction in other internal users the recharge from Transport Services is anticipated to be higher (£604k).These overspends are partly offset by a projected underspend on out of authority placements (£430k) This service area covers all ASN Services.
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL APPENDIX 3 ANALYSIS FOR VARIANCES OVER £50,000 MONTH END DATE PERIOD Total Budget Forecast Spend Use of EMR Variance after the use of EMR RAG Status 31 January 2026 Budget Details Variance Analysis P10 Mitigating Action Anticipated Outcome Steps have been taken to reduce taxi expenditure further, with discussions ongoing with external providers about transport of children attending those facilities. We have however taken on additional runs required for both Riverside School and St. Mary's Duntocher, which have increased our costs. Discussions are ongoing with Transport Services about internal recharges, due to the reduction in other services making use of Internal Transport adverse variance
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL APPENDIX 3 ANALYSIS FOR VARIANCES OVER £50,000 MONTH END DATE PERIOD Total Budget Forecast Spend Use of EMR Variance after the use of EMR RAG Status 31 January 2026 Budget Details Variance Analysis P10 Pre 5s ( Gillian Hamilton) 19,319 19,472 0 153 1% Service Description Main Issues / Reason for Variance Mitigating Action Anticipated Outcome This service area includes all Early Years establishments within West Dunbartonshire. none possible adverse variance The principal reason for the adverse variance is an overspend on employee costs (£130k) due to the Grade 3 and 4 job evaluation and the likely non-achievement of the turnover target. In addition, payments to private providers are greater than budget following the sharp increase in the number of eligible 2 year olds in these nurseries (£94k). An underspend against the food provision budget (£26k) and childminding (£33k) and income from pre-entitlement hours (£8k) has reduced the overall adverse variance.
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL APPENDIX 3 ANALYSIS FOR VARIANCES OVER £50,000 MONTH END DATE PERIOD Total Budget Forecast Spend Use of EMR Variance after the use of EMR RAG Status 31 January 2026 Budget Details Variance Analysis P10 PPP (Gillian Hamilton) 18,400 18,240 0 (161) -1% Service Description Main Issues / Reason for Variance Mitigating Action Anticipated Outcome none necessary favourable variance This service area includes Vale of Leven, Clydebank High and St Peter the Apostle High Schools and St Eunan's Primary School. The costs charged to this service are Property costs and the Unitary charge. The favourable variance is due to underspends on gas/electricity.
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL APPENDIX 3 ANALYSIS FOR VARIANCES OVER £50,000 MONTH END DATE PERIOD Total Budget Forecast Spend Use of EMR Variance after the use of EMR RAG Status 31 January 2026 Budget Details Variance Analysis P10 Education Development 2,539 2,505 100 (134) -5% Service Description Main Issues / Reason for Variance Mitigating Action Anticipated Outcome This service includes spend in areas such as technician service, language programmes, counselling, Whole Family Wellbeing, Youth Learning and senior phase programmes. favourable variance none necessary The favourable variance is due to underspends on employee costs
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL APPENDIX 3 ANALYSIS FOR VARIANCES OVER £50,000 MONTH END DATE PERIOD Total Budget Forecast Spend Use of EMR Variance after the use of EMR RAG Status 31 January 2026 Budget Details Variance Analysis P10