Agenda item

Area

Over/(Under) spend at 31 Jan

Forecast Outturn

Reason

£’000

£’000

Property

(185)

(143)

The underspend related to spend against planned repairs and maintenance as property department capacity was almost fully occupied with the working on the current capital projects.  It was expected that this would result in a similar level of underspend by year end.  In addition it reflected previous year’s investment in property assets.  A full stock condition survey had been carried out, the results were expected before the end of March, which would indicate where and how much future investment may be required.   The repairs and maintenance budget for 2017/18 had been reduced by £100k in anticipation of the expected results. 

Service Delivery

(234)

(279)

The underspend reflected the continued reductions in spending across many budget headings, for which next year’s budget had been reduced, the single most significant element of which was the ongoing underspend on smoke detectors and fire safety consumables as the new Home Fire Safety Check process continued to be embedded within the service. 

Utilities were also forecast to be underspent, reflecting past and ongoing energy efficiency measures.  Next year’s budget had been adjusted to reflect the out-turn position.

Pay - wholetime

(409)

(422)

The majority of the underspend related to difference between budgeted staffing numbers and actual staffing number.

Personnel had continued to leave the Service without accruing full pension benefits, with a further 16 personnel doing this since the budget was set, and we anticipated a further 2 more between now and the year end. (This was not allowed for in the budget for 2016/17 as it was not clear whether this was related to changes to the pension schemes or not, however it was now apparent that this trend would continue and hence next year’s budget had been amended to reflect this).

A further element of underspend related to a combination of the timing of costs of ad hoc payments such as overtime and public holidays, and the mix of personnel in each of the pension schemes. All of these had been reviewed and updated in next year’s budget.

Pay - RDS

(350)

(369)

The underspend related to the shortfall  in respect of hours of cover provided, which was higher than allowed for in the budget, reflecting the ongoing issues in terms of recruitment and retention. This was compounded by a greater number of RDS personnel still being in development than forecast, again reflecting turnover rates.

However we had carried out RDS recruitment exercises in November and March to alleviate the potential issue. 

The Retained budget also included an additional £600k in relation to the Strengthening and Improving RDS project, to design an RDS pay scheme which resulted in improved recruitment, retention and availability. As reported to the CFA in February the change had been referred to the Fire Brigades Union regional/national council for approval and hence implementation was currently on hold. 

Pay – Support Staff

(220)

(283)

The underspend related to turnover of various specialist and administrative roles during the year, when we had assumed that as all previous staffing reviews had been implemented prior to the start of the year there would be minimal changes. This had been reflected in next year’s budget by increasing assumed vacancies to 2.5%. 

Non-DFM

35

1,679

The year-end position reflected the transfer of £2.3m revenue underspends into the capital funding reserve as referred to above.

Committed spend to Jan 17

£m

Forecast Slippage

Into 1718

£m

Pumping Appliances

0.269

(0.696)

Committed spend to date related to the purchase of 5 pumping appliances for the 2016/17 programme, which had been ordered and were currently in build; since the last report we were now aware that delivery of these had been delayed to during May 2017.

We were forecasting a £14k overspend on this as final contract prices were marginally higher than anticipated. This had been built into future capital budgets.

Other vehicles

0.126

(0.436)

Committed spend to date related to various support vehicles which had either been delivered or had been ordered.

The slippage related to:-

• the remaining planned support vehicles replacements, which were ordered and would be delivered in the new financial year, or were being reviewed prior to replacement;
• the replacement of 2 driver training vehicles (DTVs) for which specification options were currently being considered with a likely procurement date in the new financial year.

Operational Equipment/Future Firefighting

0.523

(0.425)

This £1m budget was set aside to meet the costs of innovations in firefighting equipment, and the spend to date and year end position reflected the purchase of various items, including:

• an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) or drone, which was now operational;
• the purchase of flood suits for all operational staff along with various items of flood rescue equipment;
• the purchase of stabilisation struts for operational use during rescues involving crashed vehicles, or collapsed/damaged property;
• We were currently regionally reviewing the potential use of body worn cameras for operational use for learning from incidents, and for staff protection in certain locations.

In addition, the Fire Authority had given approval to purchase technical rescue jackets for non-fire related incidents, however this was unlikely to result in spend during the current financial year so would slip forwards to 2017/18.

Building Modifications

2.149

(2.975)

The majority of committed spend to date related to:

• the purchase and refurbishment of the property adjacent to Lancaster fire station in order to facilitate the redevelopment of the site;
• stage payments for the refurbishment of Carnforth fire station which was completed in February; and
• stage payments for the build of the Multi-Compartment Fire Fighting prop at Training Centre.

The forecast slippage related to:-

• the remainder of the budget for the provision of a replacement for Lancaster Fire Station, incorporating a joint Fire & Ambulance facility, following the purchase of the adjacent site, for which the contract was awarded and works had commenced.

Discussions remained on-going with the Council in respect of the strip of land that we currently leased for car parking spaces to enhance the overall scheme.

• completion of the remaining items of capital works at the Training Centre site;
• the relocation of the Fleet workshop to Training Centre, with a final design being developed and considered alongside other proposed works on the Training Centre site included within the 2017/18 capital budget.

IT systems

0.063

(0.630)

Committed spend to date related to the final stages of the phased implementation of the replacement asset management system which began during the last financial year, and the upgrade of the Community Risk Management Information System (CFRMIS).

The slippage related to:-

• Initial costs of the national Emergency Services Mobile Communications Project (ESMCP) to replace the Airwave wide area radio system – with further budgetary provision included in the 2017/18 capital budget;
• the replacement of the wide area network (WAN) to allow a solution to be in place when current service contracts were due to end during 2017/18, for which the specification was currently being drafted;
• The replacement of various systems, in line with the ICT asset management plan, however these were reviewed prior to starting the replacement process.