Agenda item

Area

Overspend/ (Under spend) to 31 Jan

Forecast Outturn at 31 March

Reason

£’000

£’000

Service Delivery

191

243

The majority of both the year to date and outturn positions reflected the replacement of firefighting gloves and helmets to all operational staff during the year, in addition to investment in equipment for the specialist wildfire unit based at Bacup.

Winter Hill

110

110

Although the total cost was £1.2m, as reported previously details had been submitted to MHCLG under the Bellwin Scheme of Emergency Financial Assistance and hence it was anticipated the total net costs being limited to the threshold of £110k.

Prince’s Trust

(84)

(85)

On completion of the 17/18 academic year Prince’s Trust received an extra £42k team funding from Preston College in excess of the amount initially indicated.  In addition £56k of European Social Fund money had been accessed for team members who were not eligible for standard funding.  As this funding was only available for 16-18 year olds unless already claimed by another learning provider, this income had not been included in the base budget.

Property

116

140

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

25

63

The current and outturn positions reflected the three ill health retirements in the year to date, and one more anticipated before the end of the financial year.  This position might still alter until exact costs and timing were finalised.

Non DFM

(166)

(647)

The year to date underspend was largely due to the increase in the bank base interest rate during the year, which increased interest receivable on call account balances with Lancashire County Council, and also  interest receivable on several fixed term investments which had been put in place commencing in the second half of the year.

·        The outturn position reflected the above, and the additional £429k of income from central government, as referred to earlier.

Wholetime Pay

(204)

(318)

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 eight months of the year there had been an underspend of £200k. (With a full year effect of £300k).

·      Overtime was overspent by approx. £40k 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 were higher than forecast, due to fewer retirements, leading to overspend of approx. £100k. Since then the position had reversed due to the number of retirements coupled with several personnel leaving the service early. Hence we anticipated 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 £256k. 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

234

250

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 ten months of the year there had been an underspend of £36k.

·      Activity levels in the first 10 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 budgeted.

·      In addition RDS recruits received wholetime pay during the recruits course for two weeks, resulting in an overspend of £40k due to the two RDS courses run to date.

Previously, the significant vacant posts in excess of the budgeted vacancy factor within RDS pay had mitigated any overspends, however with the previous marginal improvement in retention/recruitment and the increased activity costs these were more visible, and had been amended for the next financial year’s budget. 

The forecast position was a lower underspend than previously predicted which reflected that there had been more leavers than new recruits in the second half of the year.

Associate Trainers

69

77

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.

In addition, it had been agreed that associate trainer could be used to facilitate the ‘have a go’ days which were part of the wholetime recruits process at an estimated cost of £10k.

Support staff (less agency staff)

(226)

(291)

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 £70k were replacing vacant support staff roles, which accounted for just over 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. The Service continued to review roles and structures before moving to recruitment.

Apprentice Levy

(15)

(19)

The apprentice levy was payable at 0.5% of each month’s 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 it had not been possible to utilise the levy payments 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 a claw back of around £10k per month was anticipated until this could be fully utilised for training costs.  An application had been submitted for STC to be an approved training provider, in order to access HMRC levy funds to match training costs; with approval expected to be granted early in the new financial year.

Spend to date

Forecast Year End Spend

Pumping Appliances

0.4

0.4

The budget allowed for the first stage payment for the 6 pumping appliances ordered for the 2018/19 programme.  A 7^th pumping appliance was ordered to replace two Driver Training Vehicles, following approval by May Resources Committee, although the timing of the first stage payment wasn’t allowed for in the 2018/19 budget.  As the vehicle was currently in build the stage payment had been made, creating an overspend of £58k in year, however the remainder of the budget for all 7 appliances had been included in the 2019/20 draft programme.

Other vehicles

1.1

1.3

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

·      One Aerial Ladder Platform which was delivered during July.

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

·      Various support vehicles which were reviewed prior to replacement. Although the lead times on these were relatively short, it was anticipated that there would be some slippage into the next financial year.

Operational Equipment/ Future Firefighting

0.4

0.5

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 were 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 of kitting out three reserve appliances with equipment to speed up handover for vehicle servicing, and it was anticipated this would be used in the current year.

Building Modifications

0.6

0.8

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 was 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 was unlikely to be incurred before the end of March, hence was included in slippage into 2019/20.

The final element of this capital budget related to the balance of the Training Centre redevelopment works, largely relating to two main elements:

• the replacement welfare/ICT porta-cabin which was expected to be completed before the end of the financial year; and
• fleet workshop, where final design plans were being drafted however these formed part of a larger site masterplan.  The development of the site master plan was on hold pending discussions with Lancashire Constabulary about joint use of the facility, therefore the budget would slip into the next financial year.

IT systems

0.4

0.6

Given the delay on the ESMCP project, the replacement station end project had also been delayed. However this could not be delayed indefinitely and work had therefore commenced 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 Services wide area network (WAN) providing an enhanced network and improving speed of use across the Service.  Having agreed a contract for this implementation would begin, but it was anticipated that about half of this budget would be spent in the next financial year.

Total

2.9

3.4