Resources Committee

MAIN ITEMS OF BUSINESS
Financial Monitoring and planning
Financial Monitoring Report P4 2023/24

Estates
Project Falcon – Streamlining the Estate
Project Eagle Update Report
St Stephen’s Community Police Hub, Airdrie

Business Cases
Strategic Efficiency Redesign and Reinvestment Review (SERR Priority Based Budgeting) Business Justification Case

KEY ISSUES RAISED
Financial Monitoring and planning
• The Committee considered the P4 Financial Monitoring Report, however scrutiny and challenge focused on a Q1 Forecast Update which was provided to Members at the meeting and which provided details of a further worsening of the financial position and additional mitigating actions being considered.

• Members discussed in detail the actual savings delivered in P5 across various spend categories and heard details of the actual vs planned savings noting an overall adverse variance of £0.3m against target which has resulted in a revised savings target of £19.2m, with a narrowing time window in which to achieve this.

• The savings challenge seen in P5 onwards was discussed in detail with particular focus on the additional actions proposed and consequent operational impact. Deputy Chief Constables Malcolm Graham and
Jane Connors attended to provide the Committee with operational insights and reassurance as to the steps being taken to control expenditure and reinforcement of the proportionate controls that will support this robust approach organisation-wide.

• Discussion focused on the importance of having a plan to articulate what policing will look like for citizens of Scotland going forward so that public expectations are managed as the difficult decisions that Police Scotland must make are made.

Estates
- Proposals to rationalise and improve the Police Scotland Estate in several areas were considered and Members were supportive of the plans. Assurance was provided that all internal and external consultation and engagement will be completed.

- Members approved the progression of plans to enter a co-location partnership as part of a multi-agency Community Hub in North Lanarkshire. An assurance was provided that this co-location is aligned to the Police Scotland Estates Strategy however Members asked that work on a national long-term plan for Estates continue at pace, and this plan should be used to contextualise any future proposals.

Business Cases
- The plans to introduce a form of Priority Based Budgeting - Strategic Efficiency Redesign and Reinvestment Review (SERR) - were shared with Members who were supportive of the ambition to roll out this methodology across the organisation so that a more consistent and data-driven approach to making operational choices will be in place. However more work was required to provide the Committee with assurances about what this would mean in practical terms for this organisation.

CONCLUSIONS/ACTIONS REACHED
- The Committee understands the scale of the revenue budget challenge and notes that previously communicated plans to close the gap are now no longer adequate and require significant additional savings options to be delivered at pace.

- The Committee therefore does not have yet have sufficient confidence in the deliverability of the evolving plan to bring the budget back to a break-even position and is therefore advising the Board of this.

- Monthly meetings to be scheduled so that the financial and operational impacts of the ongoing mitigations can be closely monitored by this Committee and to provide opportunity for any matters to be escalated to the Board as required.

- Strategic Efficiency Redesign and Reinvestment Review (SERR) business case to be developed.

- Approval of the progression of plans to enter a co-location partnership as part of a multi-agency Community Hub in North Lanarkshire.