Issue - meetings

Report by the Director of Finance and Support Services.

The Committee is asked to consider and approve the Financial Statements for 2018/19 for the County Council and the Pension Fund.

4.1     The Committee considered a report by the Director of Finance and Support Services (copy appended to the signed minutes).

4.2     Mrs Chuter, Financial Reporting Manager, introduced the report and informed the Committee that the Financial Statements had been completed and that the external audit was substantially complete.

4.3     The Committee made comments including those that follow. It:

•        Thanked officers for preparing a comprehensive statement of accounts.

•        Questioned whether additional funds for Children’s Services and the Fire and Rescue Service were reflected in post balance sheet events because of the timing of the inspection outcomes. The Director of Finance and Support Services advised that they were not.

•        Asked whether the increase of staff being paid over £50,000 per annum was due to new posts or inflationary uplifts. The Director of Finance and Support Services advised that most was due to inflationary uplifts moving posts just over the £50,000 reporting threshold.

•        Noted challenges in recruitment retention of senior management staff and hoped that more stability could be achieved, particularly in children’s services management.  It noted that exit payments would include pensions provision if there were any pensions liabilities. The Leader of the Council highlighted that difficult markets in social work and in senior management made recruitment and retention a particular challenge in the South East. The Director of Finance and Support Services agreed to check on the figures for Children’s Services staff and provide this to the Committee.

4.4     Resolved – That the Statement of Accounts for 2018/19 for West Sussex County Council and the West Sussex Pension Fund be approved, for signing by the Chairman of the Committee.