Agenda item

Area

Overspend/ (Under spend) to 31 July

Forecast Outturn at 31 March

Reason

£’000

£’000

Service Delivery

(36)

(64)

The variance to date and forecast outturn both reflected:-

·      An additional £58k of grant being allocated to the USAR Team by Government, this announcement only being made after the budget was set;

·       The additional income generated at Preston due to the extension of the lease arrangement with NWAS until September 2020, generating an additional £25k in 2019/20.

Winter Hill

(94)

(94)

As previously reported, we anticipated claiming under Bellwin for the Winter Hill incident, however we had now received the funding via Section 31 grant and had been reimbursed all bar £15k of the total costs, giving an underspend in 2019/20 of £94k.

Property

97

21

The overspend position related to premises repairs and maintenance, with lighting and drill yard works being carried out at several fire stations. This was a timing issue and reflected orders raised to date for work which had not yet been undertaken. Hence we were forecasting a broadly balanced year end position.

Other Non-DFM

(62)

360

The majority of the underspend to date reflected the additional council tax collection fund surplus of £59k due from one of the billing authorities as previously reported.

The majority of the forecast overspend reflected the funding gap identified at the time of setting the budget in February.

Whole-time Pay (less Associate Trainers)

(97)

(275)

There were a number of factors contributing to the underspend on whole-time pay at the end of July. The most significant of which were:

·      The Service currently held four more vacancies than allowed for in the budget due to personnel retiring earlier than forecast and a slight shortfall in the number of recruits who commenced on station in April. This gave rise to an underspend of £25k.

·      However within the total staffing levels there were a number of vacancies at Watch Manager level, which were offset by Fire-fighters. This reflected the difficulty in filling some of the Trainer and Fire Safety posts, generating a further underspend of approx. £50k.

·      On a similar basis the number of personnel in development was higher than budgeted, which also meant that fewer personnel were in receipt of CPD payments than allowed for. Both of these gave rise to a further underspend of approx. £50k.

·      In addition a number of personnel had opted out of the pension scheme. The budget was based on the actual number of ‘opt outs’ at the time of setting the budget. However this had now increased to 35 with the 4 additional ‘opt outs’ generating a saving of approx. £20k.

·      Offsetting this Associate Trainer costs were higher than budgeted, by £52k, reflecting additional usage of associates to cover vacancies at TOR and to meet temporary demand for trainers in excess of current staffing levels.

As a result of these the overall whole-time budget was underspent by approx. £100k after 4 months of the year. However to put this into context that represented a variance of less than 1% of the budget at the end of July.  Some of these variances were a timing issue, as new recruits started, personnel were promoted and as personnel achieved competency and were paid accordingly. This was reflected in the forecast outturn position shown, an anticipated underspend of £275k. However it was still early in the year to make any accurate predictions and we would continue to monitor and report on this.

RDS Pay

14

42

The budget was broadly in line at the end of July. This was reflected in the forecast outturn position, which was based on average activity levels during the second half of the year, and vacancies remaining at a consistent level.

Support staff (less agency staff)

(53)

(130)

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

Note: agency staff costs to date of £39k were replacing vacant support staff roles, this accounted for less than 2% of total support staff costs.

Area

Committed Expenditure to June 2019

Details

£000

Pumping Appliances

1,056

The budget allowed for the remaining stage payments for 7 pumping appliances for the 2018/19 programme, for which the order had been placed in January 2018. 

In addition, the budget allowed for the first stage payments of the 3 pumping appliances for the 2019/20 programme, given we were still finalising the vehicle specification for these, it appeared unlikely that any costs would be incurred in the current year.

Other vehicles

698

This budget allowed for the replacement of various operational support vehicles, the most significant of which were:

·      Two Command Support Units (CSU), the requirements were still being finalised with Service Delivery prior to undertaking a procurement exercise; and

·      One Water Tower, which had been delivered during quarter one.

In addition to these, the budget allowed for various support vehicles which were reviewed prior to replacement.

We currently anticipated completing the purchase of all of these other than the Command Support Units, which were likely to slip into next year.

Operational Equipment

4

This budget allowed for completion of the kitting out of three reserve pumping appliances, which were part of the 2018/19 programme, in addition to providing a £50k budget for innovations in fire-fighting to be explored.

This budget also allowed for the progression of CCTV on pumping appliances, this project had been delayed due to capacity issues; hence it was not clear whether costs would be incurred in the current or next financial year.

Building Modifications

270

This budget allowed for:

·      Provision of a new workshop, BA Recovery and Trainer facility at STC. We had completed design work and were in discussion with Chorley BC relating to planning permissions. We had selected a procurement framework and were commencing works to appoint a contractor/partner to take designs forward.

·      Refurbishment of the Fire House, where work was nearing completion at the end of June (actually completed in July), and where we had incurred costs of £270k to date.

·      Provision of an area training hub within the Northern area, and whilst works were on-going on designing this facility, we required the approval of the PFI contactors before proceeding to the procurement stage;

·      Amendment to accommodation at Morecambe Fire Station to enable co-location with NWAS, however, as referred to above, prior to moving to the procurement stage we required the approval of the PFI contactors;

·      Based on the latest stock condition survey, several stations had identified upgrades to dormitory and shower facilities. Plans had been finalised and were currently being costed prior to moving to procurement. The actual timing of works would vary depending on Property department capacity to deliver the works.

Anticipated in-year spend would depend upon the final procurement route for the above projects and the timeframe for approval to proceed being granted by the PFI contractors.

IT systems

860

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. This national project had suffered lengthy delays to date.

The replacement station end project had now commenced with equipment ordered and due for delivery in the current calendar year, with installation following thereafter.

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. The order had been placed and work was underway to install this. We anticipated this project being completed in the current calendar year

The budget also allowed for replacement Storage Area Network, the hardware for which had been delivered in quarter one, and would be configured for use in due course.

The balance of the budget related to the replacement of various systems, in line with the ICT asset management plan. Whilst procurement work was on-going to facilitate the replacement of some of these systems in the current year, we were still reviewing the need to replace others. Hence further updates on progress would confirm which replacements were being actioned in the current year and anticipated spend profiles.