Subject:

Families, Children & Learning

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Forecast	Forecast	COVID	Forecast	2021/22	Savings	Savings
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Achieved/	At
Month 2		Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Proposed	Anticipated	Risk
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
0	Director of Families, Children & Learning	133	133	0	0	0.0%	0	0	0
617	Health, SEN & Disability Services	46,207	47,065	858	281	1.9%	1,110	1,032	78
259	Education & Skills	9,925	10,009	84	266	0.8%	162	162	0
(227)	Children's Safeguarding & Care	40,364	39,912	(452)	0	-1.1%	975	789	186
38	Quality Assurance & Performance	1,508	1,541	33	0	2.2%	0	0	0
687	Total Families, Children & Learning	98,137	98,660	523	547	0.5%	2,247	1,983	264
(130)	Further Financial Recovery Measures (see below)	-	0	0	0	-	-	-	-
557	Residual Risk After Financial Recovery Measures	98,137	98,660	523	547	0.5%	2,247	1,983	264

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances (Note: FTE/WTE = Full/Whole Time Equivalent)

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Health, SEN & Disability Services
584	201	Children's Disability Placements	The children's disability placement budget has been rebased in 2021/22, but there continues to be a pressure with some existing placements breaking down.
(100)	0	Adults with Learning Disabilities - Community Care	Due to social work staff vacancies and the ongoing impact of COVID-19 it is anticipated that the 2021/22 savings target will not be fully achieved. At this stage, £0.550m of the £0.950m savings target are identified as being at risk.
226	80	Adults with Learning Disabilities - in-house provider services	The forecast overspend mainly relates to pressure in the residential respite budget due to high levels of staff absence (partly linked to COVID-19) and the cost of emergency placements.
82	0	Children's Disabilities - in-house provision	There is a pressure for respite provision for children with disabilities and a high use of agency / sessional staff.
51	0	Brighton and Hove Inclusion Support Service	Locum cover for staff absences in Education Psychology Service to ensure Council meets statutory duties and delivers buyback commitments to schools
15	0	Other	Minor variances on other budgets.
Education & Skills
(101)	191	Home to School Transport	For 2021/22 the forecast overspend is £0.031m based on the current information from the data held on the transport system. This includes spend of £0.191m relating to additional costs as a result of COVID-19 and has been partially funded by the ongoing transport grant, assumed at £0.098m for this term. Latest numbers from September are 384 for 5-16 year olds and 89 for Post 16.
150	75	Council Nurseries and Children's Centres	There is a reduction in children attending council nurseries due to Covid-19. This is both for fee paying and DSG early years funded children and is a continuation of the trend seen in spring term when council nurseries were only open for disadvantaged children. At the same time there has been an increase in the number of SEND children and there are also higher levels of staff sickness and maternity leave that need to be covered to maintain legal ratios.
35	0	Other	Minor variances.
Children's Safeguarding & Care
161	0	Demand-Led - Children's placements	The overspend is the result of a combination of a number of different factors. There are significant overspends in Residential Home and External Fostering placements due to increasing numbers but this has been off-set by increasing grant funding and underspends in Secure and Semi-independence placements.
(106)	0	Preventive/S17	There is a significant underspend projected across the Preventive budgets. It is anticipated that, with continued scrutiny and current controls on spending, a year end underspend will be realised in 2021/22, despite the continuing increasing costs of families with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF).
(176)	0	Partners in Change Contracts	Contracts with SPFT and other partners have been re-negotiated reducing the cost to the Council.
(246)	0	Social Work, Adolescent Service and Fostering & Adoption Teams	There are a number of vacancies at present across children's social care teams.
(85)	0	Other	Minor variances.
Quality Assurance & Performance
33		Other

Health & Adult Social Care (HASC)

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Forecast	Forecast	COVID	Forecast	2021/22	Savings	Savings
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Achieved/	At
Month 2		Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Proposed	Anticipated	Risk
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
3,129	Adult Social Care	42,643	43,793	1,150	106	2.7%	3,345	1,834	1,511
(308)	S75 Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT)	22,546	21,703	(843)	1	-3.7%	860	760	100
(2)	Integrated Commissioning	3,643	3,876	233	86	6.4%	310	310	0
0	Public Health	2,387	2,387	0	5	0.0%	0	0	0
2,819	Total Health & Adult Social Care	71,219	71,759	540	198	0.8%	4,515	2,904	1,611
(2,607)	Further Financial Recovery Measures (see below)	-	(1,313)	(1,313)	0	-	-	-	-
212	Residual Risk After Financial Recovery Measures	71,219	70,446	(773)	198	-1.1%	4,515	2,904	1,611

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Further Directorate Financial Recovery Measures
(1,313)	0	Further Financial Recovery Measures projection	The directorate has developed an over-arching Financial Recovery Plan to address the above pressures. The Recovery plan includes the following measures:
			- developing a new Section 117 funding arrangement with health partners
Adult Social Care
285	0	Demand-Led Community Care - Physical & Sensory Support	The forecast number of placements/packages is 2,160 WTE, which is below the budgeted level of 2,321 WTE placements. The average unit cost of a placements/package is higher than the budgeted level at £240 per week (£19 per week above budget per client). The combination of the number of adults placed being 161 WTE below the budgeted level and the increased unit costs result in the overspend of £0.285m. Therefore, the overall activity is in-line with the budget however the unit costs are 9% above budget and causing a significant pressure. This is due to increasing numbers of placements (many of which are hospital discharges) being made at high unit costs.
(44)	0	Demand-Led Community Care - Substance Misuse	There are relatively small numbers of clients within this service and this is below the budgeted demand which is resulting in the projected underspend of £0.044m.
(121)	90	Assessment teams	This is due to a number of temporary vacancies across the Assessment teams.
1,002	16	In house services	There is an underlying budget pressure in in-house provision due to unachieved 2020/21 financial recovery plan targets and staffing costs above budget
28	0	Other
S75 Sussex Partnership Foundation Trust (SPFT)
(1,054)	0	Demand-Led - Memory Cognition Support	The number of forecast placements is lower than budgeted resulting in the underspend projection of £1.054m. The forecast number of placements/packages is 380 WTE which is below the budgeted level of 425 WTE placements. The average unit cost is below the budgeted level at £424 per week (£3 per week below budget). Therefore, the overall activity is 45 WTE below budget and the unit costs are 1% below budget.
157	0	Demand-Led - Mental Health Support	The average unit cost is above budget which results in the overspend projection of £0.157m. There is an increasing need and complexity within this client group and the forecast number of placements/packages is 483 WTE, which is below the budgeted level of 499 WTE placements. The average unit cost of a placements/package is above the budgeted level at £393 per week (£19 per week higher than the budget per client).
54	1	Staffing Teams	This is due to temporary agency staff and additional capacity.
Integrated Commissioning
(28)	0	Contracts	Underspends against budget for ASC block contracts
261	86	Commissioning teams	The overspend relates to additional staffing costs and management capacity within the commissioning, performance and management teams.
Public Health
0	4	Other

Economy, Environment & Culture

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Forecast	Forecast	COVID	Forecast	2021/22	Savings	Savings
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Achieved/	At
Month 2		Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Proposed	Anticipated	Risk
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
2,997	Transport	(3,808)	(1,678)	2,130	2,711	55.9%	1,782	1,127	655
628	City Environmental Management	34,672	35,101	429	536	1.2%	155	155	0
8	City Development & Regeneration	4,109	4,356	247	263	6.0%	168	133	35
594	Culture, Tourism & Sport	4,603	5,173	570	690	12.4%	92	15	77
0	Property	3,183	3,236	53	0	1.7%	346	106	240
4,227	Total Economy, Environment & Culture	42,759	46,188	3,429	4,200	8.0%	2,543	1,536	1,007

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Transport
0	0	Head of City Transport	Head of City Transport is forecast to spend on budget for 2021/22.
2,668	3,143	Parking Services	Parking Services is forecasting a substantial additional loss of income against budget of £3.143m as a result of the recent national restrictions and loss of parking spaces. With uncertainty around behaviours of customers following easing of restrictions and ongoing home working for many offices in the city, the forecast assumption is that current levels of parking income will continue but with increases later in the year. However, the loss of parking due to active transport measures (e.g. Madeira Drive, Old Town, A259) does mean a loss of an estimated £0.950m which is contributing to this loss of income. The overall parking income position is being kept under constant review and may potentially change depending on local and national circumstances. There are also forecast overspends of £0.229m for repairs & maintenance of off street car parks due to essential work to safeguard income, as well as additional use of overtime and agency of £0.028m. These additional overspends are partly offset against reductions in other costs including £0.289m in unsupported borrowings and £0.442m in transactional and contract costs. The updated figures for Month 5 also include an additional forecast for a new parking scheme being introduced at the end of the year and a review of cash collection payments which has improved the income forecast since Month 2. It’s important to note that the council is also currently subsidising concessionary travel fares for the bus companies paying 100% of expected journeys pre-covid under central government direction. Bus companies are currently running at 60% in terms of concessionary travel journeys so currently the council is effectively paying approximately £0.360m of the monthly payments of £0.890m for journeys that are not provided.
(77)	103	Traffic Management	Hoarding, Scaffold and Skip licence fees are forecast to exceed budget by £0.221m, principally reflecting a number of significant development sites for hoardings. This is partially offset by waived Tables and Chairs licence fees of £0.103m and increased signage costs of £0.040m. Additional forecast income for vehicle crossovers of £0.018m reflecting anticipated applications at increased fee rates and sample inspections of £0.011m based on the proposed inspection schedule. Salary costs within Street Works are forecast to exceed budget by £0.036m.
44	0	Transport Projects and Engineering	Bus Shelter expenditure is forecast to exceed budget by £0.025m due to a supply bottleneck compounded by trade logistic challenges in 2020/21 now easing, enabling essential work catch up and also Valley Gardens 3, Bus Shelter replacements not budgeted for. Bus Shelter electricity costs are forecast to exceed budget by £0.015m due to a revision to supply cost allocation. A National Trust voluntary contribution towards Breeze up to the Downs is forecast not to be received £0.016m but Computer software costs are forecast to be £0.013m less than budget.
30	0	Transport Policy and Strategy	Minor variances.
(535)	(535)	Sales, Fees and Charges Grant	This is the estimated value of the grant due to be claimed based on the latest eligible forecast losses of income driven by the COVID-19 outbreak. The grant is only for losses in the first quarter and further work will be completed to ensure all eligible losses relating to the first quarter of the year are captured.
City Environmental Management
457	208	City Clean	The forecast overspend is waste collection and street cleansing (operational) agency costs anticipated partly due to COVID-19 staffing related shortfalls. Recruitment into vacant posts and managing of attendance should start to see these high agency costs reduce during the year. Commercial income is anticipated to be on budget for 2021/22, though increased vehicle related costs is resulting in a small overspend.
0	221	Waste Disposal	The forecasted impact of COVID-19 on the waste disposal contract will need to be managed through the Waste PFI Reserve.
141	56	City Parks	Anticipated additional costs for decorating and repairs to The Level Café of £0.021m. Potential lost rental income from The Level Café that could be written off of £0.056m. Forecast overspend in relation to contractor costs for Playgrounds.
(379)	0	Fleet & Maintenance	Fleet & Maintenance are forecast to be underbudget by £0.379m. Progress has been made in Fleet and Maintenance to control and reduce costs.
50	50	Head of City Environmental Management	Additional COVID-19 waste disposal related costs of stewarding at the household waste disposal sites.
174	15	Strategy & Projects	£0.120m overspend related to forecast repairs and maintenance of public conveniences. Other overspends include shortfall on income budgets of £0.085m and additional forecast spend for supplies & services, but these are mostly offset with staffing vacancies.
(14)	(14)	Sales, Fees and Charges Grant	This is the estimated value of the grant due to be claimed based on the latest eligible forecast losses of income driven by the COVID-19 outbreak. The grant is only for losses in the first quarter and further work will be completed to ensure all eligible losses relating to the first quarter of the year are captured.
City Development & Regeneration
313	313	Development Planning	Forecasted underachievement of Planning Control Applications Income due to COVID-19.
(24)	0	Sustainability & International	Minor variances.
8	0	Economic Development	Slight pressure due to Coast to Capital payment.
(50)	(50)	Sales, Fees and Charges Grant	This is the estimated value of the grant due to be claimed based on the latest eligible forecast losses of income driven by the COVID-19 outbreak. The grant is only for losses in the first quarter and further work will be completed to ensure all eligible losses relating to the first quarter of the year are captured.
Culture, Tourism & Sport
230	243	Sport and Leisure	Loss of income due to COVID-19, including rent reductions on seafront properties, closure of Volks Railway during the start of the year and underachievement on the outdoor events programme.
215	291	Venues	This underachievement is wholly as a result of COVID-19 which means that the Venue cannot open until 1st September 2021 resulting in lost income of over £1.000m. However, its use as a Vaccination Centre and savings from vacancies and other budgets has helped to reduce this figure to £0.215m.
225	250	Tourism and Marketing	The deficit is due to a projected under achievement on income, predominantly from a total collapse of conference and hotel commissions due to all events from March – August being cancelled. Every effort will be made to mitigate the loss of income through careful control of non-fixed expenditure.
(6)	0	Arts	Minor variances
(94)	(94)	Sales, Fees and Charges Grant	This is the estimated value of the grant due to be claimed based on the latest eligible forecast losses of income driven by the COVID-19 outbreak. The grant is only for losses in the first quarter and further work will be completed to ensure all eligible losses relating to the first quarter of the year are captured.
Property
53	0	Property and Design	The pressure reported at Month 5 by Property is largely due to a recent lease termination causing a loss of rental income plus some additional NNDR bills which have now become the responsibility of Corporate Landlord.

Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Forecast	Forecast	COVID	Forecast	2021/22	Savings	Savings
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Achieved/	At
Month 2		Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Proposed	Anticipated	Risk
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
746	Housing General Fund	13,371	17,024	3,653	3,628	27.3%	318	50	268
145	Libraries	4,807	4,952	145	138	3.0%	98	98	0
0	Communities, Equalities & Third Sector	3,898	3,898	0	0	0.0%	72	72	0
0	Safer Communities	3,417	3,417	0	0	0.0%	47	47	0
891	Housing, Neighbourhoods & Communities	25,493	29,291	3,798	3,766	30.3%	535	267	268
0	Further Financial Recovery Measures (see below)	-	(1,815)	(1,815)	(1,815)	-	-	-	-
891	Residual Risk After Financial Recovery Measures	25,493	27,476	1,983	1,951	7.8%	535	267	268

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Further Directorate Financial Recovery Measures
(200)	0	Homelessness	The service has reduced the forecast spend by £0.370m when compared to the interim forecast at Month 4 and this has been taken into account in the forecast below. This Financial Recovery Plan includes a further £0.200m in cost reduction measures as follows: · Introducing tighter measures and enhanced scrutiny for authorising emergency placements; · re-creating a team to focus on prevention to avoid homelessness; a team to focus on outstanding backlog of assessments of applications for people currently in emergency accommodation; and a team to focus on post accept matters e.g. discharge of duties. Additional staff resources may be required in the short term to achieve this; · urgently carrying out a census/audit of the additional Emergency Accommodation (EA) hotels to check occupancy rates and terminate accommodation where possible; · enhanced performance management of the commissioned services contracts to facilitate best use of this resource. It should be possible to reduce costs to meet a further £0.200m reduction but this will be kept under review together with any ideas to further mitigate costs wherever possible.
(1,615)	(1,615)	COMF Funding	This relates to the recommendation, in this report, to P&R Committee to approve the use of the remainder of the 2021/22 Contain Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) of £1.615m to mitigate the costs of homelessness and rough sleeping.
Housing General Fund
632	0	Temporary Accommodation	This pressure relates to the budget assumption for Rough Sleeper funding which included £1m increased funding relating to the initial government announcement of £254m funding nationally as detailed in paragraph 4.6 of the main report. This is partially offset by an underspend of £0.368m reflecting that the new Emergency Accommodation (EA) contracts are unlikely to be in in place until April 2022 and therefore the estimated extra costs will not occur until the new financial year. This forecast assumes the numbers in EA (excluding emergency hotels discussed separately below), will remain at a similar level for the remainder of the year (average level of 627 units). Move-ons from EA is challenging while the service prioritises moving on those housed in hotels under the 'Everyone In' initiative. By assuming numbers remain high, this allows for some of the risks around homelessness increasing as a result of the ending of the moratorium on private landlord evictions together with potential implications with the ending of the government's furlough scheme, although numbers are very difficult to predict at this time.
2,730	2,730	Temporary accommodation - additional emergency hotel accommodation	There is a forecast overspend on the cost of the additional emergency hotel accommodation originally acquired early in the pandemic. The forecast spend has increased by £1.923m since the forecast at Month 2 leading to an overspend of £2.730m. While rough sleepers are being moved on and the projection is to complete move-on by the end of November, the impact has been that other statutory homeless have not been able to move on as there is insufficient supply of accommodation to move on all groups at the same time and priority has been given to those originally housed under the 'Everyone In' initiative during the pandemic. Also, so far this year, any move ons have been largely replaced with new placements and so it will not be possible to decant all of the hotels as originally planned. Therefore, this forecast assumes that an estimated 136 rooms will be required to 31st March 2022 to house those we owe a homeless duty to. The service is currently experiencing high demand in its supported accommodation which means that move on options for those in hotels are limited. The current costs of this service are high with an average gross cost of approximately £80 per person per night due to the high costs of damages/repairs costs, security costs and food. HB income is lower than expected, however, this is explained to some degree by the fact that as the hotels are also being utilised for emergency accommodation clients and so the Housing Benefit income for these is included in the forecast for Temporary Accommodation above. The forecast assumes the use of £2.043m in Containment Outbreak Management Fund (COMF) Grant as agreed at P&R Committee 28 April 2021 and the use of £0.500m grant from MHCLG for continued housing of rough sleepers as included in the original budget assumptions. Please note Financial Recovery measures above that are being put in place to mitigate part of this cost pressure and the recommendation to use the remainder of the 2021/22 COMF funding of £1.615m for this purpose as noted above.
266	266	Commissioned Rough Sleeper and Housing related Support Services (Formally HASC Budgets)	The council commissions services to assist rough sleepers and those in supported housing. This service is forecast to overspend by £0.276m during 2021/22. The main reasons for this is an estimated £0.140m cost of a building for Severe Weather Emergency Protocols (SWEP) for six months October-March and a £0.174m overspend on support for those rough sleepers housed in the 'care and protect' hotels for a further three months, July to September. These overspends are offset by other minor underspends of £0.047m.
(25)	0	Housing Options	Underspend due to staff turnover. The service is busy recruiting staff in order to ensure that they can support the current volume of households in temporary accommodation to move on to more sustainable housing options.
41	0	Travellers	Forecast overspend of £0.020m relating to a shortfall in income due to Housing Benefit claims issues and reduced capacity of transit site to comply with COVID-19 regulations. A further forecast overspend of £0.016m on enforcement of van dwellers, £0.017m Premises related costs including tree & shrub clearance, cleaning and cleaning and maintenance. However, these were partially offset by £0.012m underspend in salaries.
9	0	Other	Minor variances.
Libraries
120	120	Library Income	There is an estimated loss of income due to COVID-19 from shop sales, meeting space bookings, fines and charges of £0.120m, after assumed Sales, Fees and Charges Grant in respect of Quarter 1 losses.
18	18	Premises	COVID-19 related changes to air conditioning units.
7	0	Other	Minor variances.

Finance & Resources

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Forecast	Forecast	COVID	Forecast	2021/22	Savings	Savings
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Achieved/	At
Month 2		Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Proposed	Anticipated	Risk
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
(35)	Finance (Mobo)	1,622	1,587	(35)	1	-2.2%	0	0	0
0	HR & Organisational Development (Mobo)	2,802	2,821	19	1	0.7%	0	0	0
0	IT&D (Mobo)	5,394	5,394	0	1	0.0%	0	0	0
0	Procurement (Mobo)	(165)	7	172	0	104.2%	0	0	0
0	Business Operations (Mobo)	(85)	(85)	0	0	0.0%	0	0	0
0	Revenues & Benefits (Mobo)	5,715	5,715	0	0	0.0%	250	250	0
0	Housing Benefit Subsidy	(751)	(424)	327	0	43.5%	0	0	0
500	Contribution to Orbis	8,438	8,935	497	0	5.9%	240	0	240
465	Total Finance & Resources	22,970	23,950	980	3	4.3%	490	250	240

Mobo = Specific budget items held by Orbis but Managed on behalf of the relevant partner i.e. they are sovereign, non-partnership budgets. Under or overspends on Mobo budgets fall directly to the relevant partner whereas Orbis Operational budget variances are shared in accordance with the Inter-Authority Agreement (IAA).

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Finance (Mobo)
(35)	1	Finance	There is a predicted underspend of £0.035m. There is an underspend of £0.156m due to the vacant Executive Director post (net of acting up costs), but this is partly offset by other costs including a contribution towards the senior management restructure saving.
HR & Organisational Development (Mobo)
19	1	HR&OD	The service is declaring a £0.019m pressure at Month 5. 9 months of Orbis budgets have been disaggregated as the service was withdrawn from Orbis on 1 July 2021. The forecast assumes that Orbis pressures are dealt with elsewhere in the forecast and there is a pressure of circa £0.500m showing against “F&R Contribution to Orbis” below. We are continuing to track the long-term impact of Covid on income in the service. This will inform future budget pressure funding requirements which will increase by up to £0.120m due to one-off funding ending. A Union facility time review is underway and any additional staffing and accommodation costs may also create funding pressures.
IT&D (Mobo)
0	1	IT&D	At Month 5 IT&D is expecting to be on target, however, to achieve this it is planned to draw down £0.200m of modernisation funding. This is a reduction of £0.100m from the previous estimate which is the result of a review of contracts. A saving of £0.040m has been made on the MS Enterprise renewal by downgrading some licences and savings have also been made in other contracts. However, there are other new pressures this year; standby and overtime costs previously funded by Orbis are now to be funded from the Sovereign budget (estimated at approx. £0.100m) and the service is also contributing funding of £0.011m to a new Orbis Accessibility post and approx. £0.020m to a new Orbis wide “ChatBot” system. There is also the possibility of increased telephony costs due to the ending of the Virgin Media Centrex contract but this is still being finalised.
Procurement (Mobo)
172	0	Procurement	There is an overspend of £0.172m forecast for the year, due to unaddressed budgetary pressures.
Business Operations (Mobo)
0	1
Revenues & Benefits (Mobo)
0	0	Revenues & Benefits	The ongoing impacts of COVID-19 continue to be managed within the service and it is currently forecasting a break even position. Within this position there is an ongoing pressure on court costs income that is anticipated will be offset on a one-off basis through a combination of government 75% income protection grant for April to June and a higher level of council tax administration grant that included a backdated award.
Housing Benefit Subsidy
327	0	HB Subsidy	There is a net pressure of £0.377m on the main subsidy budgets. This relates to a pressure of £0.147m on a particular type of benefit for vulnerable tenants which is not fully subsidised and a pressure of £0.219m on the net position on the recovery of overpayments. There are other minor adverse variances of £0.011m. In addition, there is a forecast surplus of £0.050m relating to the recovery of former Council Tax Benefit.
F&R Contribution to ORBIS
497	0	Contribution to Orbis	The variance of £0.497m is due mainly to the expected pressure for services being disaggregated from Orbis this year, currently projected at £0.500m. There is also an in-year Orbis Partnership overspend, mainly around Business Operations of which BHCC’s share is approximately £0.247m, though this is partly offset by Orbis contribution budget headroom of £0.250m in accordance with the Inter-Authority Agreement. These figures reflect the latest known Orbis position at Month 5.

Strategy, Governance & Law

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Forecast	Forecast	COVID	Forecast	2021/22	Savings	Savings
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Achieved/	At
Month 2		Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Proposed	Anticipated	Risk
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
0	Corporate Policy	679	679	0	0	0.0%	27	27	0
0	Legal Services	1,606	1,581	(25)	0	-1.6%	65	65	0
0	Democratic & Civic Office Services	1,814	1,805	(9)	0	-0.5%	33	33	0
0	Life Events	261	287	26	0	10.0%	40	35	5
0	Performance, Improvement & Programmes	1,089	1,089	0	0	0.0%	37	37	0
0	Communications	727	716	(11)	0	-1.5%	35	35	0
0	Total Strategy, Governance & Law	6,176	6,157	(19)	0	-0.3%	237	232	5

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Legal Services
(25)	0	Legal Services	The service is forecasting an underspend of £0.025m this year, due mainly to overachievement of income.
Democratic & Civic Office Services
(9)	0	Democratic Services	Minor variances.
Life Events
26	10	Life Events	The service is forecasting an overspend of £0.026m at Month 5, compared to £0.011m overspend last month. The income pressures have risen to £0.097m from £0.082m last time, following a revision to the Bereavement income forecast, and there remains an issue around a drop in the death rate. This is offset by £0.050m COVID-19 funding accrued forward from last year. Elsewhere there are vacancy savings of £0.046m and other costs of £0.025m mostly due to webcasting.
Communications
(11)	0	Communications	Minor variances

Corporately-held Budgets

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Forecast	Forecast	COVID	Forecast	2021/22	Savings	Savings
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Achieved/	At
Month 2		Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Proposed	Anticipated	Risk
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
0	Bulk Insurance Premia	3,127	3,127	0	0	0.0%	0	0	0
0	Capital Financing Costs	9,536	7,670	(1,866)	0	-19.6%	0	0	0
0	Levies & Precepts	215	215	0	0	0.0%	0	0	0
0	Unallocated Contingency & Risk Provisions	865	865	0	0	0.0%	0	0	0
0	Unringfenced Grants	(44,778)	(44,778)	0	0	0.0%	0	0	0
(147)	Other Corporate Items	(39,979)	(40,077)	(98)	49	-0.2%	120	120	0
(147)	Total Corporately-held Budgets	(71,014)	(72,978)	(1,964)	49	-2.8%	120	120	0

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance or Financial Recovery Measure Description
Capital Financing Costs
(326)	0	Investment Income	Increased income due to a combination of increased balances since Budget Setting and an increased average investment rate as a result of undertaking some longer term investments.
(1,360)	0	Minimum Revenue Provision	Reduction in provision for un-supported borrowing as a result of delays to capital programme schemes.
(180)	0	Interest on borrowing	Reduction in expected borrowing in the year and therefore a reduction in borrowing interest as a result of the delay to the capital programme
Other Corporate Items
(147)	0	Pensions	Overpayment from 2019/20 of £0.050m and an in year variance of £0.097m.
49	49	Death Management	Council share of Sussex wide death management forecast spend

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

Revenue Budget Summary

Forecast		2021/22	Forecast	Forecast	COVID	Forecast	2021/22	Savings	Savings
Variance		Budget	Outturn	Variance	Variance	Variance	Savings	Achieved/	At
Month 2		Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Month 5	Proposed	Anticipated	Risk
£'000	Service	£'000	£'000	£'000	£'000	%	£'000	£'000	£'000
(170)	Capital Financing	27,552	27,622	70	0	0.3%	0	0	0
50	Housing Management & Support	4,073	4,153	80	75	2.0%	0	0	0
0	New Housing Supply	638	638	0	0	0.0%	0	0	0
150	Income, Involvement & Improvement	(48,182)	(47,941)	241	200	0.5%	0	0	0
224	Repairs & Maintenance	10,778	10,998	220	0	2.0%	0	0	0
(150)	Property & Investment	2,588	2,357	(230)	0	-8.9%	0	0	0
(70)	Tenancy Services	2,554	3,151	597	238	23.4%	0	0	0
34	Total Housing Revenue Account	0	978	978	513	0.0%	0	0	0

The Covid variances shown in the tables above and below are included within the “Forecast Variance” and “Key Variances” columns.

Explanation of Key Variances

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance Description
Capital Financing
70	0	Financing costs	There is a forecast overspend of £0.070m against the financing costs budget, resulting from borrowing being undertaken much earlier in the financial year to take advantage of low interest rates.
Housing Management & Support
(70)	0	Transfer Incentive Scheme	Projected underspend against this budget.
150	75	Temporary Accommodation (TA)	Less rental income of an estimated £0.100m due to later completion of HRA schemes to provide council owned TA than expected at budget setting time and rent loss due to empty properties. Also forecast overspends on council tax and repairs costs £0.050m.
Income, Involvement & Improvement
400	200	Rents and service charges	Forecast overspend relating to rent loss due to a backlog of empty properties caused by the pandemic when lettings were put on hold and also challenges of a shortage of contractors available to undertake the backlog of works. The service has now agreed additional contractor capacity.
(150)	0	Contribution to Bad Debt Provision	Forecast underspend based on debt outstanding to date. This budget was increased for 2020-21 on the basis that debts would increase in light of welfare reforms. However, although arrears have increased they have not reached the levels expected at that time and therefore this budget will be reviewed as part of the budget setting process for 2022/23.
(9)	0	Other	Minor variances.
Repairs & Maintenance
593	0	Empty Properties and Responsive Repairs	There was an underspend of approximately £1.500m across the R&M service in 2020/21, largely due to reduced activity as a result of COVID-19 restrictions. For 2021/22, there is a projected overspend of £1.409m forecast at Month 5, largely due to catch-up works from last financial year, of which £0.816m is forecast to be funded from reserves set aside for this purpose. This will continue to be closely monitored during the year.
(373)	0	Employees	There is a forecast overspend of £0.760m as a result of harmonisation costs, which has been offset by an underspend of £0.373m as a result of the high level of staff vacancies. As set out in the HRA budget 2021/22 report to Budget Council in February 2021, the harmonisation costs will be funded from HRA reserves. The full impact of harmonisation on the total employees budget will be reflected in budget setting for 2022/23.
Property & Investment
(400)	0	Employees	An underspend is forecast due to changes in the timescales for recruiting additional staff to support the new arrangements for planned and major works.
170	0	Disrepair Claims	There is a forecast overspend against the £0.100m compensation budget provision, based on current spend to date projected forward. Disrepair claims by their nature are not possible to forecast easily. Instances and costs associated with each instance will be recorded separately within the HRA and the variance against budget will be regularly reviewed during the year.
Tenancy Services
249	150	Employee costs	There is a forecast overspend against staffing, largely due to a continuation of additional spend against agency staff in the estates services team due to the increased cleaning requirements as a result of COVID-19.
176	88	Council Tax	Increase in Council Tax costs in respect of the higher number of empty council dwellings awaiting repairs.
108	0	Temporary Accommodation	An overspend on the use of temporary accommodation for council housing tenants.
63	0	Security costs	Overspend largely relates to the use of security guards at two blocks of flats to ensure the safety of residents at risk
1	0	Other	Other minor variances across the service.

Key	COVID
Variances	Variances
£'000	£'000	Service Area	Variance Description
Early Years Block (including delegated to Schools)
40	0	Early Years Additional Support Funding for 2, 3 and 4-year olds	Increase in the number of early years children being assessed for additional support funding
(382)	0	Unallocated DSG	Unallocated DSG to offset wider 2021/22 DSG overspends.
High Needs Block (excluding delegated to Schools)
605	127	Education agency placements	There has been an increase in the cost of some bespoke tuition packages, some of which relate to COVID-19. The agency budget has also been impacted due to a lack of local provision for cognitively able children with Autism and Anxiety/Social Emotional Mental Health (SEMH) needs who have not been able to manage in local mainstream schools despite intervention from external agencies. Furthermore, there is an increasing cost of the education packages linked to external residential social care placements.
(100)	0	Special school provision	Special school budgets have been rebased to accommodate an increase in commissioned places from September 2021. There is a surplus in the amount of pressure funding that has been applied.
61	0	Brighton and Hove Inclusion Support Service (BHISS)	Staff absences in key areas that require agency cover to ensure statutory duties are met and buyback commitments to schools are delivered.
(111)	0	Mainstream Specialist Provision	Delay in establishing in-house specialist provision for primary and secondary autism and social emotional mental health needs.
142	0	Post-16 High Needs Placements	Increase in number of placements in FE colleges and post-19 independent specialist provision
65	0	Mainstream Schools Top-up	Large increase in the number of children with education, health and care plans in mainstream schools within the city and increase in complexity of need.
86	0	High needs placements in maintained provision in other LAs	Lack of local specialist provision resulting in increased number of placements in special schools outside of the city.
21	17	Other	Variances on other budgets
Exceptions and Growth Fund
38	0	School Premature Retirement Costs	Ongoing pressure linked to historic commitments
10	0	Other	Minor variances.