Agenda item

Area

Overspend/ (Under spend) to 30 Sept

Forecast Outturn at 31 March

Reason

£’000

£’000

Winter Hill

110

110

Costs agreed to date currently stood at £1m, however it was noted that we were awaiting outstanding invoices in relation to the incident from three FRS who assisted and as such could not accurately predict the final total cost.

As reported previously we intend to submit a claim under the Bellwin Scheme of Emergency Financial Assistance and hence anticipated our total net costs being limited to the threshold £110k.

The Committee would be updated on final costs, once all claims had been received.

Procurement

52

73

The overspend to date and the outturn position both related to the replacement of Personal Protective Equipment which had reached the end of its economic life. In addition the recruitment that had taken place in year had led to an increased spend on Technical Rescue Jackets, to accommodate size changes since the initial bulk purchase prior to roll out.  This had ultimately led to the need to purchase more of the common sizes of jacket in order to hold the correct amount in the pooled stock.  We were currently reviewing pooled PPE stock, which was nearing the end of its life, to determine likely outturn costs as well as on-going budget requirements.

Property

103

150

The overspend position related to premises repairs and maintenance. The forecast overspend reflected some of the new minor schemes approved in year to enhance station facilities such as enhanced female facilities.

Pensions

(13)

80

The outturn position reflected a number of ill health retirements anticipated before the end of the financial year.  This position may alter as exact costs and timings were finalised.

Non DFM

(58)

(174)

The year to date underspend was largely due to the increase in the bank base interest rate during the year, increasing interest receivable on our call account balances with Lancashire County Council.  In addition, the outturn position reflected the above, plus interest receivable on several fixed term investments which had been put in place commencing in the second half of the year.

Wholetime Pay

133

(358)

The following issues affected whole-time pay:

·        The budget allowed for an assumed 2% pay award last year, however this did not transpire, hence in the first six months of the year there had been an underspend of £150k. (With a full year effect of £300k)

·        Overtime was overspent by approx. £60k the majority of which was attributable to the continuing policy of detaching wholetime personnel into key RDS stations.

·        As in previous years the budget included a vacancy factor based on anticipated retirements, leavers and new recruits. During the first four months staffing numbers had been higher than forecast, due to fewer retirements, leading to overspend of approx. £100k. Whilst it was impossible to accurately predict this going forward, we had reviewed the position which was likely to reverse in the second half of the year due to a number of outstanding retirements coupled with several personnel leaving the service early. Hence we anticipate a broadly balanced position in respect of this at the year end.

·        The budget also allowed for the recruitment of 12 FF apprentices in the second half of the year, at a cost of £250k. Given the difficulty in establishing a suitable apprentice’s scheme, as previously reported, it was clear that these would not be recruited until next year, and hence no costs would be incurred.

Retained (RDS) Pay

217

377

The following issues affected retained pay:

·        As referred to under whole-time pay the budget allowed for 2% pay awards in both years. Hence in the first six months of the year there had been an underspend of £22k.

·        Activity levels in the first 6 months of the year were higher than previous (excluding Winter Hill), reflecting increased hours of cover as well as an increasing number of incidents and hence pay costs were higher than forecast

·        In addition RDS recruits received wholetime pay during the recruits course for two weeks, resulting in an overspend of £40k due to timing, on the two RDS courses that ran during the first six months

Previously, the significant vacant posts in excess of the budgeted vacancy factor within RDS pay had mitigated any overspends, however with the improvement in retention/recruitment these were  more visible, and would be reviewed for the next financial year’s budget.

Associate Trainers

36

60

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.  There had been several ongoing trainer vacancies throughout the year to date, which had resulted in the overspend shown, but were counteracted by corresponding underspends within wholetime pay.

Support staff (less agency staff)

(154)

(259)

The underspend to date related to vacant posts across various departments, which were in excess of the vacancy factor built into the budget. (Note agency staff costs to date of £33k were replacing vacant support staff roles, this still only accounted for less than 1% of total support staff costs).

Although some vacancies had been filled, there were a number of vacancies which had proven historically difficult to fill, most notably in ICT and Information Management, resulting in a forecast outturn underspend of £259k. The Service continued to review roles and structures before moving to recruitment.

Apprentice Levy

(7)

(19)

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 positions reported above.

It was noted that due to delays in apprenticeships standards being approved we had not been able to utilise the levy payments we had made to HMRC since April 2017. The outcome of this was that funds that had been in the levy account for 24 months and had not been utilised would be clawed back by HMRC.  Whilst this would not affect the current year it would impact next year. At the present time we anticipated a claw back of  £10k per month until we could fully utilise this for training costs.  We had submitted an application for STC to be an approved training provider, in order to access HMRC levy funds to match training costs, however the timing of the approval process was unknown, hence no such income had been forecast in the current financial year.

Pumping Appliances

The budget allowed for the first stage payment for the 7 pumping appliances ordered for the 2018/19 programme.  The remainder of the budget had been included in the 2019/20 draft programme.

Other vehicles

This budget allowed for the replacement of various operational support vehicles:

·        One Aerial Ladder Platform which was delivered during July; and

·        One Water Tower, which was scheduled for delivery  during the financial year.

·        Various support vehicles which were reviewed prior to replacement. As the lead times on these were relatively short we anticipated utilising this budget in year.

Operational Equipment/Future Firefighting

This budget allowed for the initial purchase of technical rescue jackets, following the regional procurement exercise, which were delivered at the end of May and now in service.

£40k related to the purchase of fist microphones, which included noise cancelling facilities and hence enabled clearer voice transmission, thus aiding fire ground communications.

The balance of £50k was to meet costs associated with on-going research projects relating to new equipment, and we anticipated utilising this in the current year.

Building Modifications

Completion of the new joint Fire & Ambulance facility at Lancaster was completed in October. Contract variations of £41k had been agreed in respect of time delays due to the discharge of planning conditions, and upgrading the appliance bay doors, however there were a further £40k variations still being discussed with the contractors. 

In terms of the redevelopment of Preston Fire Station, the budget allowed for £0.1m of fees which might be incurred before the end of March.

The final element of this capital budget related to the balance of the Training Centre redevelopment works, largely relating to the replacement welfare/ICT porta-cabin which would be progressed before the end of the financial year.

IT systems

Given the delay on the ESMCP project, the replacement station end project had also been delayed. However we could not delay this indefinitely and had therefore commenced work to replace the station end in the current financial year, whilst ensuring that any solution would be compatible with the eventual ESMCP solution.

The budget also allowed for the replacement of the Service’s wide area network (WAN) providing an enhanced network and improving speed of use across the Service, and having agreed a contract for this we anticipated this being completed in the current financial year.