Dear Allison
Please accept my agenda items for the next meeting
I am still awaiting information from RCC for the Youth Worker Funding
I will be collecting the mentioned supporting reports from CA today, for distribution to members at that meeting.
From
Martin
Report No: #
Appendix: #
Agenda Item: #
Council:
Date of Meeting: 11th January 2017
Report Aurthors: Cllr Martin Brookes and CA Rutland
Title: Budget Request for Citizens Advice Rutland Funding
Applicable Strategy:
Background:
Oakham Town Council has over the past years provided financial support to Citizens Advice Rutland. The funding has been in recognition of the support that we provide to the residents of the Town. Last year the grant was used in part to support the cost of our training officer who is responsible for the induction and training of new paid and volunteer staff plus ensuring existing staff continue to learn and develop their skills and knowledge.
Further information from CA Rutland:
We seek your continued financial support for the year 2017-18. Although we were successful in our bid to Rutland County Council to continue to provide advice services locally for the next 5 years, it has come at a reduced level of funding - we will have a short fall of £30,000 on previous levels of funding. Your continued financial support is therefore vitally important in ensuring that we can continue to provide a quality assured advice and information service to the residents of Oakham. As per this year we would look to use the monies to support the training of new members of our team as well as develop the skills of existing staff. For example we are about to provide training to all staff in being able to effectively communicate with clients who have mental health issues. From April 2017, we will be introducing new IT software to enable us to work more effectively which will involve all staff being trained in its use.
In the last 12 months we supported over 2,592 clients with 13,732 issues and problems, with over 50% of clients coming from Oakham. In the first 6 months of this year the numbers are 1,393 and 7,687 respectively which represent a 10% increase on the same period last year. You can see from these numbers that the service is vital in ensuring everybody has access to free, confidential, impartial and independent advice at a time when they need it.
In the last few months we have also produced two extensive reports, one on poverty across the County which was an update of a report originally written in 1998 and updated to reflect the current position and one on domestic abuse. If you have not already received copies then we would be more than happy to supply you with copies.
We have included 2 documents. Firstly a copy of our latest accounts to 31st March 2016. With regard to these I would mention that our unrestricted reserves are at the minimum level required by the Charity Commission to ensure that if we were to loose a major part of our funding then we would have the funds to ensure an orderly wind down of our service. In fact we will have to use some of these reserves to deal with the redundancies expected as a result of the short fall in funding. The second is a copy of our annual client survey.
Recommendations:
The Council Agree to fund the Citizens Advice Rutland a total of £_________ for the financial year of 2017 - 2018
Report No: #
Appendix: #
Agenda Item: #
Council:
Date of Meeting: 11th January 2017
Report Aurthors: Cllr Martin Brookes
Title: Outsourcing Council Accounts
Background:
Oakham Town Council over last few years not handled its accounts to well, I won't repeat those issues here as I feel they
are well known, The issues resulted in the council bringing in a firm of accountants to carry out end of year accounts and a review
We currently don't have a qualified person to carry out this work.
The council has taken over a year to introduced the use use of recommended software.
If the council were to outsource accounting the software could still be used for entering the transactions.
The council accounts are smaller than most small business and like some small business we have seen
errors with the VAT which resulted in an over payment last year.
Looking back at the previous costs of appointing accountants and the recent outsourcing of payroll, I believe outsourcing
could reduce our wages bill and free up staff time to carry out other tasks.
An accountant could assist us with setting the budget which is currently guessed and ensure we stick to it wherever possible.
Recommendations:
The council approves in principle the outsourcing of its accounting
and delegates the acting Clerk or Assistant Clerk to find the full costs
of outsourcing and bring to council for final approval for the start
of the next financial year.
