• Education – The overall overspend of £249,000 is mainly due to additional spending on in-county special education needs of £1,610,000 offset by savings of £310,000 as fewer children were placed in schools outside the County. There is also a significant overspend of £210,000 on drug awareness, mainly relating to additional expenditure not matched by external funding. Underspends include £320,000 on mainstream school transport and £460,000 on service units. Provisions and balances of £340,000 have also been utilised to reduce the net overspend. In addition, some growth has been delayed, mainly common admissions policy and early years provision.
• Social Services – Underspendings have been identified regarding Residential Care (£290,000), lower than expected growth in demand for Home Care (£60,000), continuing difficulties in recruiting specialist staff (£330,000) and lower running costs (£60,000). These underspends are partly offset by additional costs of £540,000, mainly resulting from Home Care retendering.
• Highways and Transport – Savings include £570,000 on concessionary travel and £220,000 on highways design and maintenance. Increased income of £100,000 is anticipated from statutory undertakings. These underspends are partly offset by an overspend of £120,000 on public transport contracts.
• Waste Disposal – The underspend of £520,000 includes savings of £120,000 on the disposal costs of fridges and freezers, following allocation of grant from the Government, and £350,000 on disposal costs due to lower than expected tonnage. Additional income of £150,000 from trade waste is anticipated and an underspend of £70,000 on recycling initiatives is forecast due to slippage in agreeing a waste strategy. These underspends are partly offset by an overspends of £140,000 on recycling and household waste sites due to increased haulage costs and £30,000 on sites repair and maintenance etc.
• Community Services – Underspends on Museums ,Arts and Records (£50,000) and Regulatory Services (£90,000), mainly due to additional income, are offset by an overspend of £20,000 on Sustainable Development.
• Chief Executives – The assumed level of savings arising through withdrawal from the contract with the Learning and Skills Council for Youth Training will not now be achieved until 2003/04. In addition one off transitional costs were incurred resulting in an overspend of £284,000.
• Central Items – Capital financing costs are £300,000 higher, mainly due to higher than anticipated transportation capital spending in 2001/02 and the commutation of Magistrates Courts debt. Provisional information indicates that the costs of Job Evaluation and departmental reorganisation will be about £200,000 higher than originally estimated. The contribution to the Combined Fire Authority is expected to increase by £155,000, principally as a result of higher than anticipated retirements. These are partly offset by an increase of £150,000 in income from bank and other interest, as cash balances are higher than anticipated.

Considered what additional funds we can afford to put to those areas we have identified as part of our Medium Term Corporate Strategy;

Closely examined the current spending pressures on services to identify areas where additional funds are required to meet those pressures;

Identified where savings can be made in order to release funds to be used in areas of greater priority or pressure.

• The Government has issued a "target" budget for Schools-related expenditure. The County Council budget complies with that requirement. Our own calculations indicate that the Government’s figure is not sufficient to fund the cost pressures facing schools. To partly offset this problem, £1m has been transferred to Schools (for 2003-04 only) from the Central Maintenance budget; the equivalent amount of repairs can be met from increased resources in the Council’s capital programme;
• A number of Education and Social Services specific government grants have been transferred to revenue support grant (RSG). In addition, contributions to the teachers pension fund have increased by over 60%, with most of the extra cost being met by an increase in RSG;
• Social Services spending continues to grow rapidly as demand for services increase and cost pressures continue;
• Waste Disposal costs also continue to increase steeply, with a further landfill tax increase and an anticipated increase in waste tonnage;
• Provision of £3.6m has been made to meet the estimated phased implementation costs of the job evaluation exercise;
• Budgets have been prepared on an outturn basis, with inflation assumptions of 3.5% for pay, 2% for running costs and 3% for income;
• The budget includes £4.6m for efficiency and other savings, additional income and transferring expenditure to capital. This reduces the net budget and therefore the required increase in Council Tax.

• Best Value Review of Learning Disabilities;
• Implementing the results of reviews of public transport and highways network management;
• Implementation of a waste management strategy;
• Implementing the "Better Access to Better Services" initiative;
• Making progress on e-government.

• Extending provision of nursery education for all 3 year olds, at a cost of £2.1m, to meet Government requirements;
• Re-instating pre 9.30am concessionary travel for older people (dependent on 50% contributions from District Councils);
• Crime reduction initiatives including improvements to facilities for young people.