Item 09 - Educational Services Committee Timetable
West Dunbartonshire Council · 24 April 2024
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WEST DUNBARTONSHIRE COUNCIL Report by Chief Officer - Resources Council: 24 April 2024 Subject: Educational Services Committee Timetable 1. PURPOSE 1.1 The purpose of this paper is to advise Council on the proposed timetable for reporting Budgetary Control Reports (BCR) to the Educational Services Committee (the Committee) and seek approval of a change to the schedule of the Committee to align it better to the BCR timetable in order to make the information reported more up to date. 2. RECOMMENDATIONS 2.1 It is recommended Council agrees to revising the schedule of the Educational Services Committee from September 2024 as set out in Exhibit 2 of this report. 3. BACKGROUND 3.1 The Council’s Finance team is operating with reduced resources as a consequence of saving options agreed to help the Council deliver a balanced budget. This required a review of workloads and processes to ensure essential work is carried out. One of the changes agreed with the Council’s senior management team was to reduce the number of BCRs being prepared on an annual basis whilst ensuring there was no reduction in the number of BCRs presented to Council and Service Committees. 4. MAIN ISSUES 4.1 Prior to the review of reporting arrangements the finance team were preparing nine BCRs per year. All nine were reported to the Council’s Performance Management Review Group (PMRG) which is a meeting of senior management. Four of the nine were reported to full Council and three were reported to Service Committees. 4.2 The review of the BCR timetable focused on aligning the PMRG reports with those reported to Council / Service Committees to find a balance between providing information at a pertinent time, treating all committees equally and seeking the most efficient use of resources. 4.3 The output of this review recommended the production of the following BCRs: • Period 3 (period ending 30 June) • Period 5 (period ending 31 August) • Period 7 (period ending 31 October) ITEM 9
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• Period 10 (period ending 31st January) This means a total of four BCRs will be reported each year with all four presented to PMRG, Council and Service Committees. This is summarised in Exhibit 1 for the meeting dates in 2024/25. Exhibit 1 –Timetable for BCRs BCR P3 BCR P5 BCR P7 BCR P10 PMRG 01/09/2024 29/10/2024 17/12/2024 25/03/2025 Council 28/08/2024 30/10/2024 18/12/2024 26/03/2025 Corporate Services 14/08/2024 06/11/2024 05/02/2025 21/05/2025 Education 18/09/2024 04/12/2024 19/03/2025 11/06/2025 IRED 14/08/2024 06/11/2024 05/02/2025 21/05/2025 Housing & Communities 21/08/2024 20/11/2024 26/02/2025 07/05/2025 4.4 Exhibit 1 illustrates that the reduction in the number of BCRs being prepared will mean that the BCR for the Educational Services Committee is further out of date by the time of the Committee than any other Service Committee. For example Period 5 (period ending 31 August) would not be presented to the Educational Services Committee until December). This could be resolved through the production of an additional BCR however this would create an inconsistency across service committees and have an additional impact on resources. 4.5 This issue cannot be fully resolved, but can be reduced, if the Educational Services Committee dates were rescheduled to be more aligned to other Service Committee dates. 4.6 There are also a small number of Educational Services Committees which are scheduled for 2pm starts rather than 10am. The Convener has requested these change to 10am as a 2pm start time will be problematic for attendees who need to pick up children after school. 4.7 The current Educational Services Committee dates and proposed changes are set out in Exhibit 2. It is recommended that any changes are implemented from the September 2024 Educational Services Committee onwards. Exhibit 2: Educational Services Committee dates and proposed changes Educational Services Committee – proposed dates BCR P3 P5 P7 P10 P3 P5 P7 Current Date / Time 18/09/24 10:00 04/12/24 10:00 19/03/25 14:00 11/06/25 10:00 17/09/25 10:00 10/12/25 10:00 18/03/26 10:00 Proposed Date / 18/09/24 10:00 27/11/24 19/03/25 28/05/25 17/09/25 10:00 26/11/25 18/03/26 10:00
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Time (Note 1) 10:00 10:00 10:00 (Note 1) 10:00 (Note 2) Summary No Change Week Earlier Change in Time Fortnight Earlier No Change Fortnight Earlier No Change Educational Services Committee – proposed dates BCR P10 P3 P5 P7 Current Date / Time 10/06/26 10:00 16/09/26 10:00 09/12/26 10:00 17/03/27 14:00 Proposed Date / Time 06/05/26 10:00 16/09/26 10:00 (Note 1) 09/12/26 10:00 (Note 2) 10/03/27 10:00 Summary Month Earlier No Change No Change Week Earlier & Time Change Note 1 – No proposal to change September meetings to avoid papers being issued during the school holidays. Note 2 – It was not possible to find alternative dates for these committees which could be accommodated. 5. PEOPLE IMPLICATIONS 5.1 Maintaining the existing timetable will either mean education budgetary reports are considerably out of date or will require the creation of additional budgetary control reports which will impact on Finance officers. 6. FINANCIAL AND PROCUREMENT IMPLICATIONS 6.1 6.2 The change to the scheduled timetable will mean the budgetary reports reported to the Educational Services Committee are more up to date. There are no procurement implications arising from this report. 7. RISK ANALYSIS 7.1 8. 8.1 None Environmental Sustainability None 9. EQUALITIES IMPACT ASSESSMENT (EIA) 9.1 None.
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10. CONSULTATION 10.1 The proposed changes to the schedule has been discussed with the Education Convener, Chief Officer Education and Chief Officer Regulatory and Regeneration. 11. STRATEGIC ASSESSMENT 11.1 Timely budgetary control and sound financial practice are cornerstones of good governance and support Council and officers to pursue the strategic priorities of the Council’s Strategic Plan. Laurence Slavin Chief Officer - Resources Date: 8 April 2024 Person to Contact: Laurence Slavin, Chief Officer – Resources E-mail: laurence.slavin@west-dunbarton.gov.uk Appendices: None Background Papers: None Wards Affected: All