7
There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to the Council's review of OneRen's annual business plan, which was appended to the report.
The report intimated that under the terms of the Service Agreement, Renfrewshire Leisure, now trading as OneRen was required to submit an annual business plan to the Council which set out priorities for the year and outlined how it would deliver the services specified in the service agreement. The business plan set out the priorities and main actions that would be undertaken by OneRen during 2022/23 and that would support the delivery of its strategic objectives.
It was noted that the Head of Policy & Commissioning, who was the 'monitoring officer' for OneRen had reviewed the Plan and was satisfied that overall it met the conditions of the service agreement. However, it was acknowledged that there were still areas of recovery as a result of the pandemic that would continue to impact on OneRen's operating model, including its support for the region's mass vaccination programme.
The report intimated that OneRen was also required to identify the expected expenditure to implement obligations under the service agreement and the Director of Finance & Resources was satisfied that OneRen's budget was prudent in its funding assumptions and expenditure. However, with the impact on earned income due to ongoing recovery from the pandemic, the current challenging financial climate was likely to continue for the forseeable future and as in 2021/22 it was forecast that commercial income to OneRen would be under-recovered in 2022/23. It was further noted that in preparing the 2021/22 financial accounts the OneRen Board would require to make active disclosures of the impact of the pandemic and the external auditor would seek appropriate assurances over the financial going concern of the Trust in the following 12-month period. In order to meet this requirement, and as agreed by the Council in 2020 and 2021, a letter of support would require to be provided by the Council.
DECIDED:
(a) That OneRen's annual Business Plan for 2022/23, as appended to the report, and which met the terms of the service agreement, be agreed;
(b) That the monitoring arrangements in place by the Head of Policy & Commissioning (the OneRen Monitoring Officer) to undertake quarterly performance monitoring meetings with OneRen and provide six-monthly progress reports to this Board be noted; and
(c) That it be agreed, as outlined in section 6 of the report, that a letter of financial support be provided to OneRen from the Council as part of providing the necessary level of assurance to external audit for the closure of OneRen's 2021/22 accounts be agreed.