Agenda item

Area

Overspend/ (Under spend) to 30 Jan

Forecast Outturn at 31 March

Reason

£’000

£’000

Service Delivery

27

2

The current and forecast outturn position reflected underspends on smoke detectors and income generated in relation to drone courses run by LFRS. This was largely offset by overspends on new recruits uniforms/PPE, training mannequins for stations, and furniture.

The budget also included £200k for the partial swap out of various items of PPE (gloves, boots and helmets) with the balance of costs being met in 18/19.  This amount was unlikely to be incurred during the current financial year due to delays in expected delivery dates and therefore, this amount would need to be carried forward into 18/19 as part of the year end process.

Human Resources

(79)

(95)

Both the current and forecast positions represented the unspent remainder of the budget allocation for Organisational Development (currently £106k) less overspends in relation to carrying out the wholetime recruitment exercise.  Spends committed against the Organisational Development budget were an additional fixed term HR adviser, the leadership conferences and the management development programme. 

Property

131

127

The overspend position related to premises repairs and maintenance, which was expected to continue for the remainder of the year.

Non DFM

438

551

The overspend largely related to funding of the purchase of the water tower, as agreed at the last Resources Committee meeting.

It should be noted that the outturn position ignored year-end adjustments in respect of the final insurance position on the Aggregate Stop Loss and claims history, which would only be determined as part of the year end process.

Wholetime Pay

(279)

(368)

The year to date position reflected:

·         the number of whole time recruits who took part in the June course was lower than budgeted, 32 compared with  a budgeted 36.

·         in addition, vacancies to date were  higher than forecast due to the early leaver profile pension costs were lower than forecast as the number of personnel who were no longer on the FF pension schemes stood at 25, in addition staff continue to transfer from the 92 scheme to the 2015 scheme resulting in a reduction in employer pension contributions. 

·         the balance of the underspend relating to the timing of costs of ad hoc payments such as public holidays.

However it was noted that the position to date only included the interim pay award of 1% backdated to July, which was in line with the approved budget. Should the final pay award not be agreed by 31 March, we would review this as part of the year end outturn position reported to Resources Committee, where we will consider setting aside a further sum of money to fund any eventual agreement. (It was noted that each additional 1% pay award would increase the current year costs by £0.25m.)

The outturn reflected all of the above, plus the shortfall in W/T recruitment on the recruits course began in January (15 as opposed to a budgeted figure of 24).

Control Staff

(37)

(44)

The underspend related to a communications officer post, which was temporarily filled by a wholetime member of staff, whilst the substantive post holder was seconded to work for the Home Office on the national ESMCP project.

RDS Pay

79

100

The forecast overspend on RDS pay arose following several successful recruitment campaigns, which had resulted in an overall increase of 3% in hours of cover/number of RDS staff since the beginning of the year.

Associate Trainers

116

153

The annual training plan was used to match planned training activity to staff available at the training centre.  Where this was not possible, associate trainers were brought in to cover the shortfall.  The reintroduction of wholetime courses this year had led to an increased use of these, hence the forecast overspend.

Support staff (inc agency staff)

(262)

(196)

The underspend to date related to vacant posts across various departments, which were in excess of the vacancy factor built into the budget. The majority of these vacancies had now been filled, although ICT and Knowledge Management remained problem areas.   

Note: agency staff costs to date of £108k were replacing vacant support staff roles; this still only accounted for 2% of total support staff costs).

As highlighted above the budget included a sum of £180k to allow for the recruitment of apprentices in the second half of the year. This recruitment had been delayed whilst an appropriate mechanism was identified, meaning that approx. £150k of the funding would not be utilised in the current year. The previous report proposed that any underspend on this budget should be carried forward as an earmarked reserve to meet on-going costs in future years, hence as part of the year end process the eventual underspend would be transferred to earmarked reserves, subject to Resources Committee approval in May as part of the revenue outturn reporting.

Apprentice Levy

(18)

(23)

The apprentice levy was payable at 0.5% of each months’ payroll costs. The budget for this was set at anticipated establishment levels, hence the underspend against this budget reflected the various pay budget underspends reported above.

Committed spend to Jan 17

£m

Forecast Slippage

Into 1718

£m

Pumping Appliances

1.728

-

The budget allowed for the purchase of 6 pumping appliances for the 2017/18 programme, for which the order was placed in February 2017.  We currently anticipated that these appliances would be delivered during March.  In addition, the budget allowed for the final stage payments in relation to the 5 pumping appliances carried from the 2016/17 programme, which were delivered during June and August.

Other vehicles

0.692

(0.598)

Committed spend related to the purchase of the Water Tower vehicle and various operational support vehicles during the year.

In addition, this budget also allowed for the replacement of one of the Command Support Units and two Driver Training Vehicles. Requirements for these had not yet been finalised therefore, as previously reported this would slip over into 2018/19, along with the budget for any operational support vehicles not received during 2017/18.

Operational Equipment / Future Firefighting

0.020

(1.092)

Committed spend related to the purchase of fog spikes within the future firefighting budget.

This budget also allowed for the replacement of Thermal Imaging Cameras (TICs), which was subject to a regional procurement exercise.  The contract had recently been awarded, and an order placed, however the TICs had not yet been received, hence the budget would slip into 2018/19.

In addition, the budget allowed for the balance of the Future Fire Fighting equipment budget, the majority of which related to the purchase of the technical rescue jackets, following the regional procurement exercise, which would be delivered during the first quarter of the new financial year as previously reported.

The replacement of Breathing Apparatus Radios would slip into 2018/19, as options were being reviewed including the potential to undertake a regional procurement process.

Building Modifications

1.563

(4.262)

Committed spend to date related to completion of the replacement water main and the completion of the Multi Compartment Fire Fighting prop at STC, purchase of the land adjacent to Preston Fire Station in preparation for redevelopment, and sums paid to date in respect of the redevelopment of the Lancaster Fire and Ambulance facility, which was expected to complete during the first quarter of 2018/19.

The slippage figure related to:

·        the redevelopment of Preston Fire and Ambulance Station where we were in the process of appointing consultants to take the project forward to detailed design and ultimately construction. The delay getting a commitment meant that no building works would take place in the current financial year; hence the majority of capital budget would slip into the next financial year.

·        The replacement Fleet workshop was currently in the detailed design stage prior to undertaking a tendering exercise, hence would slip into 2018/19.

IT systems

-

(1.980)

The majority of the capital budget related to the national Emergency Services Mobile Communications Project (ESMCP), to replace the Airwave wide area radio system and the replacement of the station end mobilising system. The ESMCP project budget, £1.0m, was offset by anticipated grant, however the timing of both expenditure and grant was dependent upon progress against the national project. We would not incur any costs in the current year.  We were still awaiting an updated project timeframe from the National project team.

Given the delay on the ESMCP project, the replacement station end project had also been delayed, however we were currently reviewing options to enhance resilience and ensure that any solution was compatible with the eventual ESMCP solution.

The budget also allowed for the replacement of the Service-wide area network (WAN) providing an enhanced network and improving speed of use across the Service. The delivery of this was currently scheduled for the first half of the next financial year.

The balance of the budget related to the replacement of various systems, in line with the ICT asset management plan. We were still reviewing these systems in terms of requirements, having experienced capacity issues within various departments. Hence it was clear that none of these would be committed within the current financial year.