General fund revenue account outturn: specific guidance notes

Question 1

RO1: Education services

Accepted Answer

Lines 10 to 40 Schools

Include expenditure supported by the Dedicated Schools Grant and Pupil Premium Grant, gross of grant income – record actual grant income on RG lines 102 and 103 respectively.

First and middle schools should be classified as either primary or secondary on the basis of the relevant deeming order.

Below is a short guidance on the treatment of Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) and Academies recoupment in the RO1 and RG forms:

The LEAs are asked to provide ‘Dedicated Schools Grant’ figures net of financing for Academies on the RG form.
In addition Academy expenditure should not be reported on the RO1 form.
If a maintained school became an Academy in 2023-24 all related financing and expenditure should be included on the Revenue Outturn to cover the period up until the point it became an Academy.

Line 10 Early years

Delegated nursery school budgets
Early years free entitlement
High needs budget for early years
Grants devolved to nursery schools – gross expenditure
Local authority / corporate expenditure attributable to early years provisions

Line 20 Primary schools – including nursery classes in primary schools

Delegated primary school budgets
Delegated items (England)
High needs budget for primary education
Grants devolved to primary schools – gross expenditure
Local authority / corporate expenditure attributable to primary schools

Line 30 Secondary schools

Include special education units attached to secondary schools.

Record expenditure gross of income from the Education and Skills Funding Agency grant for sixth forms, which should be recorded only on RG line 716.

Delegated secondary school budgets
Delegated items (England)
High needs budget for secondary education
Grants devolved to secondary schools – gross expenditure
Local authority / corporate expenditure attributable to secondary schools

Line 40 Special schools and alternative provision

Delegated special school and alternative provision budgets
Pupil referral units
Other alternative provision
High needs budget for special schools and alternative provision
Grants devolved to special schools – gross expenditure
Local authority / corporate expenditure attributable to special schools

Record special education units attached to primary/secondary schools on RO1 lines 20 & 30.

Line 45 Post-16 provision

High needs budget for post-16 provision
LA/corporate expenditure attributable to post-16 provision
Grants devolved to post-16 provision – gross expenditure

Line 65 Other education and community budget

Young people’s learning and development

Includes provision for 16–18-year-olds other than schools and further education and covers non-advanced direct provision on apprenticeships and entry to employment for 16–18-year-olds. This line also includes 14–19 reform, education business links, learning agreement pilots, NEETs, increasing flexibility for 14–16-year-olds, young apprenticeships – key stage 4 for 14- and 15-year-olds, 14–19 fighting funds, ie support for learning and development initiatives, and structural support for 16–18-year olds which has not been included within the lines above.

Adult and community learning

Combines adult education, community education, family learning and other community services (but not the youth service).

Service strategy and other educational functions

Include:

Therapies and other health-related services
Central support services (including music services)
Education welfare service
School improvement
Asset management – education
Statutory/regulatory duties
Premature retirement costs/redundancy costs (new provisions)
Monitoring national curriculum assessment
Educational psychology service
SEN administration, assessment, co-ordination and monitoring
Monitoring of SEN provision
Parent partnership, guidance and information
Home to school or other provider transport: SEN transport expenditure (age 0-25)
Home to school or other provider transport: other home to school transport expenditure
Supply of school places
Pension costs – includes existing early retirement costs
Joint use arrangements
Insurance
Complaints
Strategic management

Line 90 Total Education Services

The sum of groups 10 to 65 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS and RSX line 190.

Management and support services for education services

These services must either be allocated directly, or apportioned and recharged to the individual service lines above, in accordance with SeRCOP Section 3. The gross cost and its allocation/apportionment should also be included on RO6 line 489 and its memorandum box.

Question 2

RO2: Highways and transport services

Accepted Answer

Group 10 Transport planning, policy and strategy

Line 11 Highways maintenance planning, policy and strategy

Formulating highways and roads plans and policy
Research to inform policy making, eg: traffic and accident surveys
Assessing the impacts of developments on highways and roads
Highways and roads issues relating to planning applications
Formal adoption of highways and roads
Monitoring street works; Include monitoring street works under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, whereby the local authority monitors all road works by private parties, utilities, etc
Traffic regulation orders; temporary notices including road closures
Maintenance of a road network plan and publishing network information
Enforcing of and making maps of public rights of way, street naming
Temporary notices and orders, including road closures made under section 14 of the Road Traffic Act 1994 as amended by the Road Traffic Temporary Restrictions Procedure Regulations 1992

Include monitoring street works under the New Roads and Street Works Act 1991, whereby the local authority monitors all road works by private parties, utilities, etc.

Line 12 Public and other transport planning, policy and strategy

Formulating transport plans and policy, including associated research
Contributing to the regional transport strategy

Groups 30 to 40 Highways and roads – maintenance

Structural, environmental, safety and routine maintenance of public roads covers:

(a) Principal roads (local authority administered “A” roads), including special roads (local authority administered “M” roads) (b) Other local authority roads, including minor roads, footways and cycleways

Record motorways and trunk roads costs recoverable from central government on RS line 748.

Record maintenance of public footpaths, towpaths and bridleways on RO5 line 131.

Exclude private streets and roads not chargeable to the highways account (eg housing estate roads charged to the HRA; work for statutory undertakers that is not part of highway schemes).

For agency arrangements between shire district councils and county councils, see paragraph 4.3.2 of RO general guidance.

Depots, vehicles, plant and equipment used on non-maintenance road projects should be treated similarly to agency arrangements, recording (a) gross costs and gross income and (b) income from recharges, on lines 31 to 49; and (c) recording amounts charged out in column 2 of lines appropriate for the service provided. If not used for road projects (eg: refuse disposal), charge appropriate service lines on other RO forms.

Note that figures for joint arrangements within lines 31, 32, 41 and 44 should also be recorded in the additional information section, lines 101 to 104.

Group 30 Highways and roads – structural maintenance

Line 31 Structural maintenance – principal roads

Reconstruction
Overlay
Resurfacing / surface dressing (including integral patching and minor repairs)
Remedial earthworks
Drainage structures
Repair of fencing, walls and barriers
Cost of third party liability claims related to structural defects on roads, footpaths etc
Also record third party liability claims in the additional information section, line 130.

Line 32 Structural maintenance – other local authority roads

Same breakdown as line 31.

Line 33 Structural maintenance – bridges

All structural maintenance and strengthening of bridges and structures charged to the revenue account, including bridges, tunnels, culverts over 2 metres in span, pedestrian subways, noise barriers on bridges, and assessment work resulting from DfT departmental standards.

Group 40 Highways and roads – other maintenance

Line 41 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance – principal roads

Environmental maintenance – principal roads

Include the following services, but only to the extent that they are necessary for preservation of the carriageway and for traffic safety, including sight lines:

Tree and verge maintenance, including cutting and clearing
Carriageway sweeping, removal of litter, abandoned vehicles, and other hazards

Record routine street sweeping/cleaning for environmental purposes on RO5 line 270.

Safety maintenance – principal roads

Maintenance and replacement of existing road markings and studs
Cleaning, repair, replacement and energy costs of:
- Traffic signals, signal gantries, signs
- Crossings
- Illuminated bollards
- Communications equipment for principal motorways

Routine maintenance – principal roads

Ad-hoc unplanned patching and minor repairs
Also record ad-hoc unplanned patching in the additional information section, line 141
Drainage cleaning
Cleaning of fencing, walls, barriers, etc (record their repairs on lines 31/32)
Culverts and subways cleaning
Routine inspections

Line 44 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance – other local authority roads

Environmental maintenance – other local authority roads

Same breakdown as line 41.

Safety maintenance – other local authority roads

Same breakdown as line 41.

Routine repairs – other local authority roads

Same breakdown as line 41.

Also record ad-hoc unplanned patching in the additional information section, line 144.

Line 48 Winter service

Keeping roads free from snow and ice, including salting, urea treatment, snowploughing; snow fencing, and standby arrangements
Weather forecasting costs
Maintenance and energy for under-road heating
Maintenance and operation of ice detecting equipment

Line 49 Street lighting (including energy costs)

Maintenance, inspection and energy costs of street lighting equipment
Extra seasonal lighting, eg Christmas lights
Lighting pedestrian subways and highway tunnels

Group 50 Traffic management and road safety

Line 51 Congestion charging

Gross expenditure and gross income in respect of congestion charging zones, including the cost of surveys for proposed congestion charging schemes.

Record toll charges which are not part of a congestion charging zone on line 80.

Line 52 Bus lane enforcement

Include bus lane enforcement expenditure and income.

Line 54 Road safety education and safe routes (including school crossing patrols)

Road safety education

Publicity, training and other initiatives to improve road safety
Contributions to the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
Cycling and motorcycle proficiency
Schools liaison
Road safety literature
Rehabilitation courses for motor offenders

Safe routes (including school crossing patrols)

Safe route schemes (to school, to work, etc)
School crossing patrols

Line 58 Other traffic management

Other traffic management

Planning and scheme design (eg: urban safety management schemes, home zones, new pedestrian crossings and traffic calming measures)
Street naming
Traffic monitoring, including CCTV cameras
Area traffic control centres
Administration and enforcement of lorry ban schemes

Only include specific traffic management schemes here; traffic management aspects of larger construction or structural maintenance projects should be included within the larger projects on lines 31, 32 and 33.

Group 60 Parking services

Record income from parking fees, fines and other charges in column 4.

Line 61 On-street parking

Parking meters, including income from fees and Penalty Charge Notices
Residents’ and business parking permit schemes
Traffic wardens employed on parking duties, ie not on policing duties

Also record on-street parking fines in the additional information section, line 161

Line 62 Off-street parking

The operation and maintenance of all car parks, including car parks supporting park and ride schemes, decriminalised parking regimes, facilities for lorries, car parks authorised by statutes other than the Highways Act (in National Parks, comprehensive development areas, etc).

Staffing costs
Barrier and security equipment
Enforcement of excess charges etc

Group 70 Public transport

All costs incurred in support of the public transport network, either directly or by subsidies to operators or individuals, including administration, monitoring, tendering for and awarding contracts, overseeing public transport service subsidies.

Line 71 Statutory concessionary fares

Costs (including administration) of providing the statutory National Concessionary Travel Scheme for older people and eligible disabled people.

Record home/college transport on RO1 line 65.

Line 72 Discretionary concessionary fares

Costs (including administration) of all discretionary elements of any local concessionary travel schemes. This includes:

concessions during peak hours
for non-educational travel for young people
for companion travel
for disabilities not covered by the English National Concessionary Travel Scheme
and on transport other than registered buses

Line 73 Support to operators - Bus services

Payments to bus operators
Payments to park and ride operators
Levy payments to Passenger Transport Executives (PTE)
Transport for London expenditure on local bus services
Payments to voluntary groups providing quasi public transport eg dial-a-ride

Line 74 Support to operators - Rail services

Payments to train operators
Expenditure on London Underground and Tyne & Wear Metro services

Line 75 Support to operators - Other public transport services

ITA payments to PTEs in respect of ferries

Line 76 Public transport co-ordination

Provision of general information to the travelling public
Revenue costs of investing in the public transport infrastructure, eg bus stations and bus shelters
Costs of liaison with transport providers and the travelling public

Line 80 Airports, harbours and toll facilities

For trading services, refer to form TSR (Lines 281 to 284) and its guidance notes.

Airports – directly or partly owned

Including shares of airport companies’ receipts; and any revenue support given.

Record dividend income from public airport companies on RS line 786.

Harbours, ports and docks – directly owned

Record fishery harbours on RO5 line 250.

Piers and jetties – directly owned

Toll roads and tunnels – directly owned

Line 90 Total Highways, Roads and Transport Services

The sum of lines 11 to 80 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 290.

Management and support services for highways and transport services

Management and administration; highways properties; professional and engineering services (ie Professional and Technical (P&T) services covering the surveyors’ and engineers’ departments and technical support which has not been capitalised).

These services must either be allocated directly, or apportioned and recharged to the individual service lines above, in accordance with SeRCOP Section 3. The gross cost and its allocation/apportionment should also be included on RO6 line 489 and its memorandum box.

Record administrative costs recoverable from central government for works on motorways and trunk roads on RS line 748.

Exclude capitalised administrative expenditure, which should be recorded on COR forms.

Additional information: Joint arrangements included within maintenance

Line 101 Structural maintenance of principal roads

Joint arrangements included within line 31, column 5 (Other Income)

Line 102 Structural maintenance of other local authority roads

Joint arrangements included within line 32, column 5 (Other Income)

Line 103 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance of principal roads

Joint arrangements included within line 41, column 5 (Other Income)

Line 104 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance of other local authority roads

Joint arrangements included within line 44, column 5 (Other Income)

Additional information: Third party liability claims included within structural maintenance

Line 130 Structural maintenance (all roads)

Third party liability claims included within lines 31 and 32 (across all subjective columns, eg Employees, Running Expenses, Total Expenditure).

Additional information: Unplanned patching included within maintenance

Line 141 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance of principal roads

Unplanned patching included within line 41, column 2.

Line 144 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance of other local authority roads

Unplanned patching included within line 44, column 2.

Additional information: On-street parking: breakdown of sales, fees and charges

Line 161 On-street parking

Penalty Charge Notice income included within line 61, column 4.

Line 162 On-street parking

Other sales, fees and charges within line 61, column 4

For GLA only: Lines 172, 173 and 174

Payment to operators in respect of depreciation which are included in lines 73, 74 and 75

That part of the subsidy paid to TfL subsidiaries which covers the depreciation costs of those bodies and which are included in support to operators lines 73, 74 and 75.

Question 3

RO3: Social care and public health

Accepted Answer

Work carried out on behalf of, and reimbursed by health authorities / clinical commissioning groups should not be recorded on individual RO forms, but any surplus/deficit resulting from such transactions should be included within Adjustments to Net Current Expenditure on form RS, line 748.

Work jointly financed with health authorities / clinical commissioning groups (such as the Better Care Fund) should be recorded, using the full cost of the works, as expenditure in the first three columns of the appropriate service lines of the RO3 form, and contributions from these bodies recorded as “other income” thereby being net off in the Net Current Expenditure column.

ASC-FR reconciliation

We have been working closely with NHS Digital seeking to understand discrepancies between figures in the RO3 and ASC-FR (Adult Social Care Finance Return). We will be carrying out additional quality assurance checks and we will be requiring specific explanations of all such material discrepancies between these. Therefore, we ask that you liaise with your colleagues who fill out these returns in your local authority. Where there are legitimate reasons for differences it would be helpful if you could provide us proactively with an explanation in your return

Includes the cost of children’s centres, costs devolved to individual children’s centres, the cost of local authority provided or commissioned services, and management costs relating to children’s centres.

Include salary costs of any qualified teachers and/or early years professional staff employed by children’s centres.

Exclude other early education funding (including funding through the free entitlement, as that is covered elsewhere).

Exclude the cost of services provided in kind by other statutory providers (for example health services or Jobcentre Plus).

Include the costs of looking after children for continuous periods of more than 24 hours.

Sub-categories of ‘line 13 Children Looked After’

Line 16 Children looked after - Residential care

Include expenditure on residential care in voluntary children’s and registered children’s homes as defined in the Children Act 1989. This includes:

associated independent visitor costs and relevant contact payments under sections 20/34 of the Children Act 1989.
homes where education is provided, but does not attract education department funds
boarding schools – include the social care share of the costs of community homes with education provision and the social care element of accommodating children with special education needs in schools where the education element is met by the education department

Exclude expenditure costs for:

short breaks for looked after disabled children
mother and baby homes (include in ‘…of which other’ children looked after services)
youth detention accommodation (include in ‘…of which other’ children looked after services)
respite care for those children not meeting the definition of Children Looked After

Line 17 Children looked after - Fostering services

Include all in-house provision, fostering services purchased externally and the costs of social worker and other support staff who support foster carers.

Include:

mainstay placements
link placements
permanence placements
temporary/respite fostering
associated independent visitor costs and relevant contact payments under sections 20/34 of the Children Act 1989

Exclude fees and allowances paid to:

foster parents
remand fostering (Youth Justice)
foster care placements with a relative or friend (children placed with family and friends)
social work costs related directly to the fostered children (social work)
short breaks (respite) for looked after disabled children

Include all the fees and allowances and financial payments made to the approved foster carers of the local authority.

Please note, this corresponds to DfE’s Section 251 financial data collection guidance, lines 3.1.2a and 3.1.2b.

Line 18 - Children looked after – asylum seeking children who are looked after

Include expenditure related to asylum seeking children that are looked after that have not been recorded in other lines.

Exclude planned expenditure for children who are not looked after which is covered by the Home Office grant funding for refugees.

Line 19 ‘Children looked after – of which – other’

Includes:

Adoption services (as defined in DfE’s Section 251 financial data collection guidance, line 3.1.3)
Special guardianship support (as defined in DfE’s Section 251 financial data collection guidance, line 3.1.4)
Other children looked after services (as defined in DfE’s Section 251 financial data collection guidance, line 3.1.5)
Short breaks (respite) for looked after disabled children (as defined in DfE’s Section 251 financial data collection guidance, line 3.1.6)
Children placed with family and friends (as defined in DfE’s Section 251 financial data collection guidance, line 3.1.7)
Education of looked after children (as defined in DfE’s Section 251 financial data collection guidance, line 3.1.8) Exclude any funding delegated to schools for looked after children.
Leaving care support services (as defined in DfE’s Section 251 financial data collection guidance, line 3.1.9)

Include other budgeted spend that cannot be placed under another specific heading but contributes to overall spending on children’s and young people’s services.

Also include budgeted spend here:

Grants to voluntary organisations that cannot be specifically placed under another children’s heading
Counselling services
Generic services in support of children that abuse substances not included elsewhere.

Direct payments

Include the value of direct payments made to 16- and 17-year-olds who are disabled under s17(10) of the Children Act 1989, payments made to the carers (eg parents) of disabled children aged under 18 and payments made to 16- and 17-year-olds who act as carers for the purchase of care services. Also include the costs of administering the payments.

Short break (respite) for disabled children

Include all provision for short-breaks (respite) services for disabled children in need but not looked after. Include the costs of:

Short breaks utilising a residential setting – including overnight stays, day care and sessional visits to the setting
Family-based overnight and day care short-break services – including those provided through contract and family link carers
Sitting or sessional short break services in the child’s home, or supporting the child to access activities in the community.

Other support for disabled children

Include Children’s Services’ contribution to equipment and adaptations such as:

Adaptations to homes to help children remain at home
Disability equipment for children, including wheelchairs
Special telephones for the use of children
Other communications and community equipment
Stores, delivery and other associated costs.

Exclude contributions by the Housing service, the Adult Social Care service and local NHS services

Targeted family support

Targeted family support services are those focused on particular vulnerable families, including but not limited to families receiving support through the Troubled Families programme.

Include budgeted spending in the following areas that were previously captured under separate lines in this data collection:

Contribution to the health care of individual children. This is expenditure where there is a need to support a child. This includes non-statutory innovative initiatives or pilot programmes, eg family nurse partnerships. These could be funded privately, by the local authority, or jointly by the local authority and the primary care trust.
Home care services. This is home care provided to help look after a child at home; for example, home helps, domiciliary care assistants, and support or payments to voluntary workers or organisations providing home care services. Also include the costs of administration of home care for children.
Intensive family interventions. Include expenditure for providing intensive family interventions which support the programme led by the Troubled Families Unit to turn around the lives of troubled families. Common characteristics include each family having access to a dedicated practitioner who delivers support and co-ordinates the work of other agencies, ensuring that a support/care plan is in place which outlines actions and timescales. These interventions commonly include pre- and post-measurements of how circumstances for the family have changed.

Other areas of spend that could be included in this line are:

Payments or gifts in kind to safeguard and promote the welfare of children in need
Community support workers (peripatetic support staff who supervise children at risk, children in need, and learning in the community, and liaise with other agencies, CPNs, etc), outreach workers, family support or aid workers, and others working with those families but whose duties do not fit the home care definition
Expenditure on support for carers rather than clients (including young carers) that is not included in any of the other divisions of service
Family contact supervision
Residence orders paid for.

Universal family support

Universal family support is open to all, regardless of their family circumstances or perceptions of vulnerability.

This includes support provided in the community for children who do not have a particular need that has been already identified (but who may be in a disadvantaged group), such as home– school liaison services funded by the local authority, peer-to-peer support services, such as Homestart, and relationship support.

Include the costs of services related to young offenders including youth offending teams:

Costs of providing or purchasing secure accommodation for children who pose a risk to themselves or to others, or who have a security requirement placed on them for youth justice reasons under s53 of the Children and Young Persons Act 1933. Include all other remand facilities for a young offender, eg under s97 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
Costs of social services staff and support facilities for youth offender teams under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998
Community services costs
Remand fostering costs, ie payments to carers and supervision costs where a court has made an order that an alleged young offender should be held securely in the community rather than being placed in an institution
Bail support schemes
Other youth justice costs.

Social workers are directly involved with the care of children and with the commissioning of services for children.

Include most of the direct social work costs (except those detailed below). Also include the processes for assessing need, determining and defining the service to be provided and reviewing the quality of and continued relevance of that care for children. Also include:

Field social work costs (include hospital social workers)
Occupational therapy services to children
Relevant support staff cost
Child protection social work costs

Exclude social work costs in support of foster carers and adoptive families as these are captured elsewhere.

Commissioning and children’s services strategy

Include budgeted spending on overall commissioning within Children’s and Young People’s Services, such as the cost of a central commissioning function.

Also include any additional expenditure on services that are bought in from outside the local authority to support the central commissioning function. Where joint commissioning units have been set up, eg between the local authority and the primary care trust, include the overall costs of maintaining the joint unit.

Exclude the costs of the actual services commissioned as well as any social worker costs related to commissioning as these are captured elsewhere. Also exclude costs of commissioning services specifically for Sure Start children’s centres

For the children’s services strategy element, include partnership costs for multi-agency working, ie contributions from the authority to partnership manager and other costs. Do not include pooled budget contributions for specific front-line services. Include spending on statutory regulatory duties related to children’s services that are not included in ‘Service strategy and other educational functions’.

Local safeguarding children board

Includes costs of the authority’s local safeguarding children board functions under the Children Act 2004 and The Local Safeguarding Children Boards Regulations 2006.

Services to unaccompanied children and families, excludes unaccompanied asylum-seeking children who meet definition of Children Looked After.

(Note this excludes unaccompanied asylum seeking children who meet the definition of Children Looked After (Line 18)

Definitions as used for the Department for Education’s (DfE) Section 251 financial data collection guidance.

Services for young people (aged 13 to 19) encompasses all local authority expenditure on the provision of educational and recreational leisure-time activities, including youth work and delivery of their duties to support young people to participate in education or training. The scope of the activities covered by this is defined in Statutory Guidance for Local Authorities on Services and Activities to Improve Young People’s Well-being issued in June 2012 by the Secretary of State for Education and targeted support services for young people.

Targeted services for young people

Targeted services are those focused on supporting early intervention for vulnerable young people, including but not limited to those at risk of teenage pregnancy, substance misuse, youth crime and not being in education, employment or training.

Include those services that are targeted towards supporting individual young people on a one-to-one basis (eg counselling), groups of young people (for example young people at risk of gang involvement) or specific localities (for example detached youth work in areas that have high instances of anti-social behaviour). Include:

Youth work
Activities for young people
Services to support young people’s participation in education or training
Substance misuse services
Teenage pregnancy services
Discretionary awards
Student support

Universal services for young people

Universal and open access services are open to all young people, regardless of their circumstances or perception of vulnerability. Include:

Youth work
Activities for young people
Services to support young people’s participation in education or training
Substance misuse services
Teenage pregnancy services
Discretionary awards; and student support

The sum of lines 10 to 27 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 330.

Long Term support – nursing

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Include Long Term placements in:

Care homes with nursing care registered by health authorities and by definition requiring trained nursing staff to be present
Nursing care beds in dual registered homes

Local authorities should record their contributions to nursing care placements in this subdivision of service, even if this contribution is residential placement for this care.

Long Term support – residential

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Include Long Term placements in:

Homes registered under Registered Care Homes Act 1984
Residential care beds in dual registered homes

Long Term support – supported accommodation

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Include Long Term placements in:

Adult placement schemes (Shared Lives)
Hostels
Unstaffed homes
Partially staffed homes
Group homes

Long Term support – community: direct payments

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Direct payment describes a payment process where support is given via the issue of monetary payments directly to adult clients who have been assessed as needing certain services (eg the issue of a personal budget solely via direct payment of funds to the recipient).

Exclude the cost of administering the payments to clients; this should be included under Commissioning and Service Delivery.

Exclude grants to voluntary organisations that support direct payments users; these should be included under Information and Early Intervention.

Exclude direct payments to support carers of adults with physical support needs, which should be included under Social Support: Support for Carer.

Long Term support – community: homecare

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Homecare or domiciliary care provided in an individual’s own home, normally of a personal nature, to enable an individual to continue with their daily life (eg help with eating or drinking, toileting, washing or bathing, dressing, oral care or the care of skin, hair and nails). It may also include prompting and supervision of an individual’s self-care.

Long Term support – community: supported living

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Supported living covers a range of services that support people to live as independently as possible in the community. Service users are responsible for their own tenancies, own their home or are living with family or friends. They receive an agreed level of care and support tailored to their individual needs. Service users’ support needs may vary, from those who are very able and receive support for a few hours a week to those who require support 24 hours a day.

Long Term support – community: other Long Term care

Long Term support encompasses any service or support which is provided with the intention of maintaining quality of life for an individual on an ongoing basis, which has been allocated on the basis of eligibility criteria/policies (ie an assessment of need has taken place), and which is subject to regular review.

Exclude any Short Term episodes intended for a time-limited period.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Short Term support to maximise independence

All episodes of support provided that are intended to be time-limited and to maximise the independence of the individual and reduce/eliminate their need for ongoing support. At the end of the support, a review or assessment for ongoing care will take place to determine what will follow.

Such an assessment or review will need to have taken place several weeks after the start of the episode. This does not mean that the actual service has ceased, but that a review has been held, the support need has been assessed or reviewed, a decision to continue or not has been made, and a sequel can be clearly identified.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Short Term support to maximise independence includes reablement services. Exclude any episodes of respite care that may also be time-limited. This support is usually provided as part of a longer-term support package for a client, is commissioned only because of the existence of a carer who needs support, and is considered a carers’ service.

Exclude emergency support (ie not to maximise independence but a crisis support service), which should be included in ‘Other Short Term support’.

Exclude assistive equipment and technology.

Other Short Term support

All episodes of support provided that are intended to be time-limited but are not intended to maximise the independence of the individual (eg emergency support following a spell in hospital). At the end of the support, a review or assessment will take place to determine what will follow.

Please note that it is possible for a client to have concurrent short and Long Term support; for example, an existing (ongoing) Long Term support client who could benefit from Short Term support because of a change in their situation or circumstances (eg a spell in hospital as an emergency).

The costs of support for such clients should be allocated separately to the underlying intentions behind each form of support, ie the costs of the client’s Short Term support included in the Short Term measure, with the costs of their ongoing Long Term support included in the Long Term measure.

Costs should be analysed according to age:

Adults (18–64)
Older people (65+)

Exclude assistive equipment and technology.

Lines 32 and 33 Physical support

Services attributable to adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to physical support. Include support with access and mobility and the more intensive support described as personal care support (as defined in the Health and Social Care Act 2008).

Costs should be analysed according to the following age groups:

Line 32

Adults (18–64) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

Line 33

Older people (65+) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

Lines 34 and 35 Sensory support

Services attributable to adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to sensory support. Include visual impairment, hearing impairment or dual impairment.

Costs should be analysed according to the following age groups:

Line 34

Adults (18–64) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

Line 35

Older people (65+) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

Lines 36 and 37 Support with memory and cognition

Services attributable to adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to Support with Memory and Cognition. Include support and services for clients with conditions affecting their thinking, knowing, awareness and remembering processes.

Costs should be analysed according to the following age groups:

Line 36

Adults (18–64) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support.

Line 37

Older people (65+) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

Lines 40 and 41 Learning disability support

Services attributable to adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to learning disability support. Include services provided to assist individuals with understanding new or complex information and learning and applying new skills.

Costs should be analysed according to the following age groups:

Line 40

Adults (18–64) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

Line 41

Older people (65+) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

Lines 44 and 45 Mental health support

Services attributable to adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to mental health support. Include conditions or disorders of the mind involving thoughts, behaviours, and emotions that cause significant distress to either the person him/herself or others. Significant distress can mean the person is unable to function, meet personal needs on their own, or are a danger to themselves or others.

Costs should be analysed according to the following age groups:

Line 44

Adults (18–64) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

Line 45

Older people (65+) – see above for the definitions of the following:

Long Term support – nursing
Long Term support – residential
Long Term support – supported accommodation
Long Term support – community: direct payments
Long Term support – community: homecare
Long Term support – community: supported living
Long Term support – community: other Long Term care
Short Term support to maximise independence
Other Short Term support

Line 48 Social support – Substance misuse support

Services attributable to all adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to social support: substance misuse support. Include services or interventions for clients with conditions defined by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) as intoxication by, or regular excessive consumption of, and/or dependence on, psychoactive substances.

It includes problematic use of both legal and illegal drugs (including alcohol when used in combination with other substances).

Line 49 Social support – Asylum seeker support

Services or interventions for registered asylum seekers. Includes:

Supported access to health, housing or education services
Language/interpreter support
Providing advice and information
Access to legal advice

This includes support provided with the intention of reducing the social isolation of individuals, such as sitting and befriending services.

Lines 51 to 56

Adult social care age splits (18-64 & 65+) have been added to five existing service sub-categories (Lines 51 to 56). Where spend data are not available by the 18-64 and 65+ age split, then the total for these five categories should be estimated. If no other data or insights are available to help make these estimates, then estimates could be made by pro-rating using the same proportions as from the appropriate categories in Lines 32 to 45, which do already have an 18-64 and 65+ split.

There is space in column O to briefly describe the method of estimation used, and any assumptions, limitations or inherent concerns about the figures being provided for these age splits.

Line 51 Social support – Support for carer

Services attributable to adults and younger carers of adults where the primary support reason for their care is related to social support: support for carer. Include services or interventions undertaken in order to support an individual in their role of caring for another person.

Community: direct payments

Direct payment describes a payment process where support is given via the issue of monetary payments directly to clients who have been assessed as needing certain services (eg the issue of a grant payment to support a carer). Include the value of direct payments made to support all carers regardless of the primary support reason of the adult they are caring for.

Community: other support for carer

Include any other services attributable to supporting carers.

Line 53 Assistive equipment and technology

Include costs attributable to all adults regardless of their primary support reason. Include:

All items of equipment or minor adaptations funded by the authority with the intention of helping an individual in their daily living, including to have a greater sense of reassurance
The cost of telecare service contracts
The cost of maintenance contracts and safety inspections.

Exclude equipment grant-aided by central government or funded by the authority’s housing service.

Line 54 Care assessment and safeguarding

Includes any staff or other revenue expenditure associated with social work practice in relation to supporting individuals through a care or risk management process. Include:

Assessment. Front-line assessment of clients, including through initial allocation or intake functions.
Review. Front-line reviews of clients.
Care management. Providing other care management activities with clients, such as detailed planning of support to meet their eligible needs, brokerage and navigation following a statutory assessment or review; and ongoing professional support.
Safeguarding. Supporting all aspects of front-line safeguarding activity, from raising initial concerns to investigations and developing safeguarding plans to minimise risk.
Costs associated with undertaking carers’ assessments and reviews or providing professional support to carers.

Exclude expenditure associated with commissioning or infrastructure.

Exclude expenditure associated with the care, support and daily living solutions resulting from this care management process (with the exception of professional support), whether low-level preventative, Short Term or Long Term.

Line 55 Information and early intervention (non-attributable costs)

Includes expenditure on any service or support for which there is no test of eligibility and no requirement for review. Include:

Information and advice. Expenditure on advice and publication teams, leaflets and advertising, websites and other information channels.
Screening and signposting. Investment in contact centres, one-stop shops, advice services, etc
Prevention/low-level support. Non-attributable costs for drop in centres, supported luncheon clubs, falls prevention and low-level brokerage services (eg supporting access to full costed services such as gardening or shopping).
Independent advocacy. Costs of supporting advocacy and associated functions.

Exclude expenditure associated with front-line access of clients to assessment or care management processes, including safeguarding.

Exclude expenditure associated with the resulting care, support and daily living solutions themselves, whether Short Term or Long Term.

Exclude expenditure associated with assistive equipment and technology.

Exclude expenditure associated with commissioning or infrastructure.

Line 56 Commissioning, strategy and admin support

Includes expenditure on commissioning or commissioning-related functions and infrastructure costs.

Include:

Strategic business direction (eg needs analysis, policy or strategic development)
Business planning (including business development, performance and budget planning and monitoring)
Commissioning and de-commissioning functions
Commissioning, procurement and management (including market management, contract procurement and provider monitoring)
Communications and personal protective equipment
Governance and support (eg admin, finance, IT and information management, legal, non-front-line quality assurance, audit and risk management)
Responding to complaints and complaint management
Infrastructure: building and premises management, IT

Exclude front-line facilitation of clients’ access to assessment or care management, including safeguarding.

Exclude expenditure associated with the resulting care, support and daily living solutions themselves, whether low-level preventative, Short Term or Long Term.

Line 8 Disbursement payment to care homes

This new category is being added to both the budget and outturn collections. If relevant, record any expected payments relating to funding like the Infection Control Fund grant funding.

Line 9 Other payments to care providers

This was introduced to enable recording of payments that did not fit any of the regular categories, such as market support during COVID-19, which didn’t necessarily relate to particular client groups. If possible, please do not use this category. If you need to use this category, you must explain what payments you are recording against it.

The sum of lines 32 to 56 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 360.

Public health (lines 61 – 90)

Authorities in receipt of the Public Health Grant should ensure that all spend from this ringfenced grant is accounted for. This can be through Public Health expenditure (RO3 line 90), through Capital Expenditure from the Revenue Account (CERA) for public health (RS line 766) and through appropriations to the public health reserves (RS line 814). A warning message requesting an explanation may appear if spend on CERA or appropriations exceeds 25% of the grant.

The grant is recorded on line 313 in the RG form and is prepopulated with the final allocations for the year.

Do not include expenditure funded by grants related to other services. For example, expenditure relating to the ‘Rough Sleeper Drugs & Alcohol Treatment Grant’ should be recorded in Homelessness Services.

Line 61 Sexual health - STI testing and treatment (prescribed functions)

STI testing and treatment, including prophylaxis, chlamydia screening as part of the National Chlamydia Screening Programme, and HIV testing. For example, costs should include STI testing and treatment in GUM clinics, community programmes (including pharmacies), any local contracts with GPs (eg as part of the National Chlamydia Screening Programme), any testing service (eg postal testing for chlamydia), and any laboratory costs associated with STI/HIV testing.

Line 62 Sexual health - Contraception (prescribed functions)

Provision of contraceptive advice and the provision of all methods of contraception and emergency contraception for people of all ages. For example, include contraceptive provision in genitourinary medicine (GUM) clinics, sexual health clinics and/or the community, any local arrangements made with GPs for the provision of advice and supplies of contraception which are not covered by the GP contract (eg in relation to the fitting and removal of implants, intrauterine systems and devices) and any local contracts with pharmacies.

Line 63 Sexual health - Advice, prevention and promotion (non-prescribed functions)

Provision of sexual health advice, promotional activities or interventions
Outreach work
Locally developed information or campaigns and/or materials for promoting good sexual health
HIV prevention and sexual health promotion work, preventative intervention services in schools, colleges, pharmacies and help lines
Sexual health elements of teenage pregnancy prevention
Other elements of sexual health and reproductive healthcare, eg pregnancy testing, assessment and referral for abortion as part of local authority commissioned sexual health services, and sexual health aspects of psycho-sexual counselling.

Line 65 NHS Health Check Programme (prescribed functions)

Risk assessment elements of the NHS Health Check Programme
Cohort identification and management
Marketing specific to the NHS Health Check programme

Exclude smoking cessation lifestyle intervention following NHS Health Check risk assessment (include in the ‘Stop smoking services and interventions’ (line 81) subdivision).

Exclude weight management lifestyle intervention following NHS Health Check risk assessment (include in the ‘Adult obesity’ (line 71) subdivision).

Exclude physical activity lifestyle intervention following NHS Health Check risk assessment (include in the ‘Physical activity for adults’ (line 73) subdivision).

Exclude intensive lifestyle management for non-diabetic hyperglycaemia, impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance (include in ‘Other public health services’ (line 89) subdivision).

Exclude alcohol lifestyle intervention following the NHS Health Check risk assessment (include in the substance misuse’ (line 79) subdivision).

Exclude memory services following the NHS Health Check risk assessment include in older people (65+) (lines 33, 35, 37, 41 and 45) subdivisions).

Line 66 Health protection - Local authority role in health protection (prescribed functions)

Steps carried out to protect the health of the population; for example, advising on health protection planning.

Exclude any costs related to duties under the Public Health (Control of Disease) Act 1984 (which should be recorded on RO5 line 229).

Line 68 National child measurement programme (prescribed functions)

Delivery of the mandatory elements of the National Child Measurement Programme – weighing and measuring of eligible children and the central return of the data.

Exclude the cost of any services that the child or family may be referred to (spend recorded elsewhere).

Line 70 Public health advice (prescribed functions)

The provision of healthcare public health advice to NHS commissioners on the commissioning of NHS services.
Any general data collection, collation, management, analysis and interpretation, or data presentation and reporting towards the provision of this duty to NHS commissioners.

Exclude any general information and intelligence not related to the provision of population-based public health advice to NHS commissioners on the commissioning of NHS services (the mandatory function) which should be recorded under Miscellaneous Public Health Services (line 89).

Obesity

Line 71 Obesity - adults

BMI assessment/identification of the overweight and obese.
Commissioned brief/community lifestyle weight management interventions for adults.
Specialised weight management interventions for adults (eg dietetics and community dietetics, obesity clinics, etc).
Workplace weight management programmes.
Obesity prevention programmes, which may include programmes focusing on healthy eating/cooking, physical activity or healthy lifestyles.
Social marketing in relation to obesity, including Change4Life initiatives and work with local Change4Life supporters.

Line 72 Obesity - children

Follow-up to the National Child Measurement Programme (non-mandatory element) – providing result letters to parents and/or proactive follow-up.
Commissioned brief/community lifestyle weight management interventions for children up to age 19.
Specialised weight management interventions for children up to age 19 (eg dietetics and community dietetics, obesity clinics, etc).
Obesity prevention programmes, which may include activities in early years settings such as children’s centres.
Obesity prevention programmes in schools or in partnership with schools (including healthy meals initiatives).

Line 73 Physical activity – adults

Let’s Get Moving/commissioned physical activity brief interventions.
Active travel (ie travelling actively for everyday journeys) initiatives.
Community-based recreational walking and cycling schemes.
Sports-based interventions.
Investment in county sport partnerships.
Other physical activity interventions.
Local information campaigns to promote physical activity and sport.

Line 74 Physical activity - children

As above (‘Physical activity for adults’), but for anything solely aimed at children aged up to 18 years.

Exclude BMI assessment undertaken specifically as part of an NHS Health Check (record under NHS Health Check Programme – line 65).

Exclude any interventions which are covered in the Physical Activity service division (lines 73-74) or in the ‘Nutrition initiatives’ subdivision of Miscellaneous Public Health Services (line 86) or as part of the Healthy Schools Programme (include in the Children 5–19 Public Health Programmes (line 83) division of service).

Exclude breastfeeding support and the baby-friendly initiative (spend should be recorded under the ‘Nutrition initiatives’ subdivision of Miscellaneous Public Health Services - Children’s 0-5 services (line 85).

Substance misuse

Exclude the costs of implementing local young people’s substance misuse strategies; the cost of specialist substance misuse treatment services and placements for under 18s; and targeted prevention initiatives, which should be accounted for under the relevant subdivisions within Children’s and Education Services.

Exclude any spend on reintegration or homeless outreach services funded through other means.

Exclude residential rehabilitation funded through other means, eg from the community care budget.

Exclude any social-service-funded interventions such as case management and day treatment programmes.

Exclude any general universal or targeted prevention activity funded through the Early Intervention Grant.

Line 76 Substance misuse - Treatment for drug misuse in adults

All structured drug treatment, eg care-planned psycho-social and pharmacological intervention including in-patient treatment.
Residential rehabilitation (include any public health spend that is pooled alongside adult community care budgets for this purpose).

Line 77 Substance misuse - Treatment for alcohol misuse in adults

Tier 3 interventions, eg community-based, structured, care-planned alcohol treatment, such as counselling services and day treatment programmes; and community detoxification.
Tier 4 interventions, eg alcohol specialist inpatient treatment such as detoxification.

Line 78 Substance misuse - Preventing and reducing harm from drug misuse in adults

Harm reduction and open access services, eg harm reduction strategy activities; needle and syringe programmes and equipment; and any programmes to prevent drug misuse through targeted health improvement activity.

Line 79 Substance misuse - Preventing and reducing harm from alcohol misuse in adults

Tier 1 interventions, eg alcohol-related information, any locally commissioned identification and brief advice.
Tier 2 interventions, eg open-access non-care-planned alcohol-specific advice and counselling.
Reducing alcohol harm in the population through targeted health improvement activity.

Line 80 Substance misuse - Specialist drug and alcohol misuse services for children and young people

Include spend on any specialist substance misuse (drug and alcohol) intervention activities that are solely aimed at children and young people aged up to 18.

Line 81 Smoking and tobacco - Stop smoking services and interventions

Local stop smoking services.
Local incentive schemes to encourage brief interventions and referrals to local stop smoking services.

Line 82 Smoking and tobacco - Wider tobacco control

Preventing uptake (including schools-based activity).
Smoke-free places initiatives.
Regulatory and enforcement activity. -Tackling illicit tobacco in the community including contributions to multi-local- authority (eg regional) activities.
Communications and marketing campaigns including contributions to multi-local-authority (eg regional) activities.

Exclude normal regulatory and enforcement activity carried out by local authority regulatory services eg trading standards (line 519).

Line 83 Children 5–19 public health programmes

School health promotion, eg Healthy Schools Programme.
Health promotion and prevention interventions.
School nursing services.
Healthy Child Programme 5–19.

Exclude drug or sexual health intervention services to children and young people, which are accounted for under the relevant headings in Children’s Services.

Line 84 Mandated 0-5 children’s services (prescribed functions)

Include:

Antenatal health promoting visits

This includes the antenatal health promoting visits which support preparation for parenthood. They are delivered by a Health Visitor (or at their discretion a suitably qualified health professional), a Family Nurse (where the family is accessing FNP) or a person who is trained in child health and development.

New baby review

This includes the face-to-face review completed by 14 days with the mother and father. The Health Visitor (or at their discretion a suitably qualified health professional), a Family Nurse (where the family is accessing FNP) or a person who is trained in child health and development will include in the review:

infant feeding
promoting sensitive parenting
promoting development
assessing maternal mental health
sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS)
keeping safe

At the parents wish or if there are professional concerns this review could also include:

an assessment of baby’s growth
ongoing review and monitoring of the baby’s health
safeguarding

6–8-week assessment

This includes the 6-8 week assessment led by a Health Visitor (or at their discretion a suitably qualified health professional), a Family Nurse (where the family is accessing FNP) or a person who is trained in child health and development. The assessment provides ongoing support with breastfeeding (involving both parents) and an assessment of maternal mental health.

1-year assessment

This includes by one year an assessment of the baby’s physical, emotional and social needs in the context of their family, to include:

predictive risk factors
supporting parenting (providing parents with information about attachment and the type of developmental issues that they may now encounter)
monitoring growth, and health promotion (including raising awareness of dental health and prevention)
healthy eating, and injury and accident prevention (relating to mobility, safety in cars and skin cancer prevention)

Led by a Health Visitor (or at their discretion a suitably qualified health professional), a Family Nurse (where the family is accessing FNP) or a person who is trained in child health and development.

2–2½-year review

This includes between two and two and half years a review which:

reviews with parents the child’s social, emotional, behavioural and language development
responds to any parental concerns about physical health, growth, development, hearing and vision
offers parents guidance on behaviour management and opportunity to share concerns
offers parents information on what to do if worried about their child, promotes language development
encourages and supports take up of early years education, gives health information and guidance
reviews immunisation status, offers advice on nutrition and physical activity for the family
raises awareness of dental care, accident prevention, sleep management, toilet training and sources of parenting advice and family information

Led by a Health visitor (FNP finishes when the child turns 2) or a person who is trained in child health and development.

Line 85 All Other 0-5 children’s services (non-prescribed functions)

Include all universal elements of the healthy child programme. Also include targeted services and the family nurse partnership (FNP).

This includes:

Delivery of the wider Healthy Child Programme, including:

Community services: linking families and resources and building community capacity.
Universal service (excluding the specific five universal health visitor reviews): primary prevention and early intervention provided for all families and children aged 0-5 as per the Healthy Child Programme universal schedule of visits, assessments and developmental reviews.
Universal plus services: time limited support on specific issues offered to families with children aged 0-5 where there has been an assessed or expressed need for more targeted support.
Universal partnership plus services: offered to families with children aged 0-5 where there is a need for ongoing support and interagency partnership working; particularly for families with more complex needs.

Delivery of the Family Nurse Partnership Programme

Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) preventive programme for vulnerable first time young mothers, excluding the elements in the prescribed functions.

For more information please see the Scope of 0-5 public health services document.

Line 86 Health at work

External workplace health (eg advice to employers on commissioning occupational health support, but excluding internal workplace interventions and occupational health).
Initiatives aimed at getting workers or the unemployed back to work more quickly following a period of ill health.
Staff education around workplace health.
Workplace award schemes.

Line 87 Public mental health

Mental wellbeing promotion.
Mental illness prevention.
Anti-stigma and discrimination.
Suicide and self-harm prevention.

Line 89 Miscellaneous public health services - other

Nutrition initiatives

Promoting a balanced diet.
Five a Day (all activity, including grants to other organisations).
Breastfeeding support.
School fruit and veg scheme.
Baby-friendly initiative.

Accident prevention

For example, identification of people at risk from falling.

Exclude any activity that contributes to accident prevention quantified in other categories (eg Obesity and Physical Activity (lines 71 to 74) divisions).

General prevention

General behavioural/lifestyle campaigns/services to prevent cancer (including skin cancer) and long-term conditions.
Cardiovascular disease prevention additional to the NHS Health Check Programme.
General initiatives targeted at particular groups vulnerable to poor health outcomes.
General health promotion activities.

Exclude specific activity quantified in other categories, eg NHS Health Check spend (line 65).

Outreach workers, targeted preventative activities, and victim support for activities tackling crime and disorder, community safety and new entrants to the youth justice system.
Specialist services for victims of domestic violence. -Specific support for families with multiple problems (note: only include contribution from public health grant, ie exclude spend from other sources), -Specific public health initiatives to tackle social isolation.

Dental public health

Supervised tooth-brushing schemes.
Milk fluoridation scheme.
Fluoride varnish programmes.
Brushing for Life.
Intra-regional co-ordination of dental epidemiology programme.
Any data collection, collation, co-ordination and staff calibration for any national or local surveys of public dental health.

Fluoridation

Water fluoridation costs (revenue).

Infectious disease surveillance and control

Include awareness raising or behaviour change initiatives and public health support for communicable disease control programmes;
And any training in the community (eg about healthcare associated infections).

Environmental hazards protection

This subdivision should only include spend from the public health grant.

Seasonal death reduction initiatives

This subdivision should only include spend from the public health grant. Some social care services may contribute to this area, but are accounted for elsewhere.

Birth defect prevention

Any population-level interventions to reduce and prevent birth defects.

Other public health services.

Any spend from the public health grant used to tackle the wider and social determinants of health and health inequalities not already recorded in any other category.
NHS Health Check Programme – intensive lifestyle management for non-diabetic hyper-glycaemia, impaired fasting glucose or impaired glucose tolerance.

Exclude the mandatory elements of the NHS Health Check programme, which should be recorded under the NHS Health Check Programme (line 65) division of service.

Line 90 Total Public Health

The sum of lines 61 to 86 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 390.

Additional information: Public health spend by primary care service provider

The provision of the information for lines 93 to 96 is mandatory. Queries should be sent to england.pcfinancegroup@nhs.net.

The amount to be included here is all spend on public health included in the 18 categories above, which has been spent with a primary care provider, ie a GP practice, dentist, pharmacist or provider of eye care services.

The total entered in column 7 cannot exceed the Department of Health total public health ring fenced grant issued to the local authority. Details of the grant can be found in the local authority circular.

Line 93 General Practice services

Expenditure included in the 18 categories of public health above, spent with GP practices.

Line 94 Dental services

Expenditure included in the 18 categories of public health above, spent with NHS dental practices.

Line 95 Pharmaceutical services and locally commissioned services from pharmacies

Expenditure on pharmaceutical services and locally commissioned services from pharmacies, included in the 18 categories of public health above.

Line 96 Eye care services

Expenditure on services from NHS eye care providers included in the 18 categories of public health above.

All entries should be in thousands as noted in para 1.4 in the General guidance notes

Additional information: Supporting people

If authorities identify expenditure in occasional or ancillary services within the above Children Social Care lines as Supporting People, then the expenditure should remain within the above lines, but also be separately identified within the additional information section.

Care should be taken to distinguish this expenditure from other grant-aided expenditure such as the Leaving Care Grant and the Community Care Grant.

For core Supporting People expenditure within Housing Services, see RO4 line 75.

If authorities identify expenditure in occasional or ancillary services within the above Adult Social Care lines as Supporting People, then the expenditure should remain within the above lines, but also be separately identified within the additional information section.

Care should be taken to distinguish this expenditure from other grant-aided expenditure such as the Leaving Care Grant and the Community Care Grant.

For core Supporting People expenditure within Housing Services, see RO4 line 75.

Line 91 Test, track & trace and outbreak planning

Self-explanatory category which was among the batch of changes agreed and announced in autumn 2020.

Line 92 Other Public health spend relating to COVID-19

Self-explanatory category which was among the batch of changes agreed and announced in autumn 2020.

These services must either be allocated directly, or apportioned and recharged to the individual service lines above, in accordance with SeRCOP Section 3. The gross cost and its allocation/apportionment should also be included on RO6 line 489 and its memorandum box.

Question 4

RO4: Housing services

Accepted Answer

Housing services - GFRA

Line 10 Housing strategy, advice and enabling

Housing strategy

Review of housing needs, eg Housing Investment Programme (AHIP), housing conditions survey
Preparation of strategic plans; eg home energy conservation plan
Government initiative bids, eg Housing Market Renewal
Preparing joint ventures
Liaison with external bodies
Costs incurred as a consequence of a LSVT (large scale voluntary transfer), except the costs of the statutory duty to consult

A share of housing strategy costs should also be charged to the HRA.

Record environmental health housing standards on RO5 line 223 . ####Housing advice Advisory service provided to people housed privately (non-HRA). Exclude advice covering homelessness – this should be on the appropriate Homelessness lines.

Enabling

Costs associated with the enabling function of the authority including Registered Social Landlords:

Day-to-day liaison costs
Nomination fees paid, except where related to homelessness
Waiting list management

Line 20 Housing advances

Advances under the Housing & Small Dwellings Acquisitions Acts, etc
Administration of advances to individuals to purchase their property

Exclude: Amortised deferred charges falls under capital items (not collected anymore).

Group 30 Private sector housing renewal

Line 31 Administration of financial support for repairs and improvements

Including:

Home improvement grants
Home insulation grants
Housing renovation grants including home repair and minor works assistance (see line 38 – renewal activity, for group repair schemes)
Houses in multiple occupancy (HMO) grant
Grants Agency arrangements
Issuing deferred action notices

Line 38 Other private sector housing renewal

Renewal activity

Renewal areas
Housing action areas
General improvement areas
Group repair schemes
Compulsory purchase orders

Management orders

Prohibition and improvement notices

Empty homes and dwellings

Slum clearance

Including the cost of demolition orders and compulsory purchase activities.

Other neighbourhood regeneration

Include any other costs associated with neighbourhood regeneration and other initiatives not accounted for under slum clearance.

Home improvement agencies – revenue costs

Licensing of private sector landlords

Licensing of houses in multiple occupation (HMOs)
Selective licensing of other private rented properties

Group 80 Homelessness

Include associated costs such as the provision of furniture, property maintenance, rent guarantees, nomination fees, and payment of housing benefits to homeless people.

Include all expenditure funded through the Homelessness Prevention Grant.

Income from the Homelessness Prevention Grant and other government grants must not be included as either income from “sales, fees and charges” nor as “other income” in the RO4 forms. This should be accounted for in the Specific and Special Revenue Grants (RG) section of the RO form..

Housing benefit subsidy for temporary accommodation must be included in the “other income” column for each type of temporary accommodation in RO4. Contributions from tenants/licensees must be included in the “sales, fees and charges” column in RO4.

Include all expenditure associated with rough sleeping support that is not part of homelessness statutory duties in “Support”. This should include activity funded by central government funded programmes such as the Rough Sleeping Initiative.

Line 80 Nightly paid, privately managed accommodation, self-contained

This is a new category which is exclusively self-contained accommodation. Whereas previous Line 39 of a similar name also included annexes (eg to hotels) where “households shared at least some basic facilities”.

Line 81 Private sector accommodation leased by authority or by a registered provider

This category combines previous Lines 40 and 43. This covers dwellings leased on short-term arrangements from the private sector by your authority and by an RSL. Include accommodation leased and managed by local authorities or leased by the authority but managed by another organisation such as an RSL. Also include accommodation leased by an RSL under a housing association leasing scheme (HALS).

Line 82 Hostels (including reception centres, emergency units and refuges)

Only include hostels used mainly to house the homeless, including women’s refuges. Exclude any other hostel, although the cost of housing a homeless person in other types of hostel should, if significant, be identified and included as ‘Other temporary accommodation’, below.

Line 83 Bed and breakfast hotels (including shared annexes)

Include privately owned/managed hotels or guest houses with some shared facilities. All annexes with shared facilities should be reported here.

Line 84 Local authority or housing association (LA/HA) stock

This category combines previous Lines 45 and 48. Covers households placed in your own authority’s stock and in RSL stock (as RSL tenants) as temporary accommodation.

Line 85 Any other type of temporary accommodation (including private landlord and not known)

This category combines previous lines 44 and 46. Include any other expenditure on housing for homeless people including payments to/for:

Caravans
Demountables
Portacabins
Transportables
Supported lodgings placements

This section should not be used to record cases where the accommodation is not provided as temporary accommodation to discharge a homelessness duty (eg where people have been assisted to obtain accommodation for themselves, perhaps through rent deposit, rent in advance, or rent direct schemes).

Line 86 Temporary accommodation administration

Temporary accommodation administration expenditure to be reported specifically here. Previously there was a wider ‘Homelessness administration’ category which is now split across lines 86, 87 & 88.

Line 87 Homeless Reduction Act: Administration, Prevention, Relief & Support

This is a new category within which spend related to a duty under the Homelessness Reduction Act should be included.

Line 88 Non Homeless Reduction Act: Administration and Support

This is a new category (comparable to previous Lines 47, 49 & 50) within which spend should relate primarily to rough sleeping, bus also to other homelessness related activities. This should include:

Employee and running expenses to provide services for rough sleepers – outreach teams, assessment hubs, anything to develop and implement a housing pathway for rough sleepers
Specific costs of rough sleeping hostels and accommodation (excluding TA accounted for under the HRA provisions above)
In “Other Income” any rental income received, housing benefit or rent rebates ###Group 50 Housing benefits payments

Line 51 Rent allowances – discretionary payments

Discretionary rent allowances paid to the tenants of private landlords and registered social landlords.

Record mandatory payments of rent allowances on RS line 711.

Line 52 Non-HRA rent rebates – discretionary payments

Discretionary rent rebates paid to council tenants living in non-HRA dwellings.

Record mandatory payments of non-HRA rent rebates on RS line 712.

Record housing benefit paid to the homeless on the appropriate line of group 40.

Line 53 Rent rebates to HRA tenants – discretionary payments

Discretionary enhancements to statutory rent rebates, eg for war widows.

Record mandatory payments of rent rebates to HRA tenants on RS line 713.

Discretionary housing payments

Subsidy limitation transfers from HRA

Record such transfers between the HRA and GFRA on RS line 714.

Line 57 Housing benefits administration

Administration costs of assessing and paying housing benefits (rent allowances and rent rebates), regardless of whether benefits were accounted within the HRA or GFRA.

Authorities should provide their best estimate of the split between estimated gross expenditure (inclusive of Fraud Incentive Scheme costs) on administering housing benefit and council tax support, with housing benefits only recorded on this line. Council tax support should be recorded on RO6 line 425.

Record income from the housing benefit subsidy administration grant on RG line 406.

Contribution to the HRA re items shared by the whole community

Record such contributions and other GFRA/HRA transfers on RS line 718.

Line 60 Other council property

Council property held under powers other than section 74 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989, and used for non-HRA housing purposes.

Travellers’ sites – accommodation and associated costs
Non-HRA council property

Group 70 Housing welfare

Line 75 Supporting people

Housing welfare services provided under the Supporting People programme.

Refer to SeRCOP, and to Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities RO Guidance: Supporting People: Identifying Support Service Cost and the Amount of Pooled Rent Income Financing Support Services.

Supporting people welfare services to vulnerable service users include:

Preventative housing-related support
Tenancy or housing-related support to tenants or householders
The housing-related support services element of services funded by certain legacy funding streams

Supporting people services are provided for the following purposes:

Developing a person’s capacity to live independently in the community, or sustaining their capacity to do so
Expanding tenure choices for persons who might remain in institutional care, or become homeless in breach of their terms of tenancy, if support were not provided
Providing immediate refuge in the case of domestic violence

Exclude supporting people expenditure attributable to the HRA.

Record any non-housing ancillary supporting people expenditure on appropriate Social Care RO3 lines 10 to 27 and 32 to 56, with their total recorded on RO3 lines 98 and 99.

Line 78 Other welfare services

Essential Care Services (ECS) provided by wardens in sheltered housing, and other situations where Best Value is achieved if welfare services are provided by housing staff, including:

Assistance with mobility
Assistance at meal times
Assistance with personal appearance and hygiene
Administration of medication
Nursing care

Any non-ECS Social Care should be recorded on appropriate lines on RO3.

Line 90 Total Housing Services (GFRA only)

The sum of lines 10 to 78 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 490.

Management and support services for housing services

These services must either be allocated directly, or apportioned and recharged to the individual service lines above, in accordance with SeRCOP Section 3. The gross cost and its allocation/apportionment should also be included on RO6 line 489 and its memorandum box.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

Principles

1. The figures are to be completed on a non IAS 19 basis in respect of retirement benefits. Short term accumulating compensated absences should be reflected in the same way as in the RA form with the reversal in line 111, and generally paragraph 2.14 of the general guidance notes is applicable, except there is no memorandum box for alternative treatments.

PFI unitary charges - these should be dealt with in accordance with section 2.17 of the general guidance notes on the RO suite. The charge should go to whichever of lines 121-123 is most appropriate.

With exception of short term accumulating compensated absences mentioned above, items that do not affect the balance on the HRA, such as the surplus/deficit on disposal of property, plant and equipment, should not be included in the HRA lines.

2. If the authority maintains a Housing Repairs Account (HRepA), transactions in it are to be treated as if they had been consolidated with the HRA. This means:

any transfers between the two accounts are to be excluded from the figures
any expenditure from HRepA is to be included in Repairs and Maintenance
any income credited to HRepA is to included in the appropriate HRA line
the balance on the HRepA is to be included in line 146

Line 101 Dwelling rents (gross)

General needs housing
Sheltered accommodation
Temporary accommodation
Social Homebuy

Line 102 Non-dwelling rents (gross)

Garages
Shops
Land
Other (eg pubs, telephone masts, wayleaves)

Line 103 Tenants’ leaseholders’ and other charges for services and facilities

Tenants’ charges for services and facilities

Service charges: Since 2002-03 authorities have been able to unpool service charges as part of rent restructuring and, where this has been done, service charges should be included here, along with those which have always been levied as a separate service charge. Service charges that remain pooled should be included within Dwelling Rents (Gross) – line 101.)
Heating and utility charges
Charges to tenants for Supporting People services
Charges for other welfare services (activities that at present could be charged to either the HRA or the GF) (excluding essential care)
Other charges to tenants (include items such as laundry and cleaning not identified above).

Leaseholders’ charges for services and facilities

Other charges for services and facilities

Community centres
Public houses

Line 104 Contributions towards expenditure (other than government grants and assistance)

Contributions towards expenditure

From social services authorities
In respect of transferred dwellings
Rechargeable repairs
Grants for Supporting People initiative
Compensation payments from contractors and settlement of insurance claims
Financial assistance from the Government for repair of HRA property damaged as a result of an emergency or disaster

Reimbursement of costs

Court costs, insurance and other income

Line 105 Government grants and assistance (including downward adjustments)

Grants and other assistance receivable from central government, including any adjustments relating to HRA Subsidy.

Line 106 Interest on investments credited direct to the HRA

HRA Investment Income (Calculated in accordance with the item 8 determination)

Mortgage interest on HRA properties sold under RTB
Interest on capital cash balances
Interest on revenue cash balances.

Line 107 Transfers from GF only

Transfers to the HRA from the GF required or permitted by legislation, including Schedule 4 to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and determinations and directions made under it.

Include the HRA share of interest receivable initially credited to the GF.

Line 108 Transfers from MRR and other transfers permitted or required by legislation

Transfers to the HRA from the MRR permitted by legislation, including Schedule 4 to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and determinations and directions made under it.

Line 111 HRA - Appropriation to/from Accumulated Absences Account

Short-term accumulated compensated absences refers to benefits that employees receive as part of their contract of employment, entitlement to which is built up as they provide services to the council. The most significant benefit covered by this heading is holiday pay, where employees build up an entitlement to paid holidays as they work. Under the Code, the cost of providing holidays and similar benefits is required to be recognised when employees render services that increase their entitlement to future compensated absences.

The Accumulated Absences Account absorbs the differences that would otherwise arise from accruing for compensated absences earned but not taken in the year, eg annual leave entitlement carried forward at 31 March. Regulation 30H of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003 No 3146, as amended by SI 2010 No 454) requires that the impact revenue account to be neutralised in this way.

The appropriations to/from the account should be entered in this line.

Line 115 Total Housing Revenue Account (HRA) income

The sum of lines 101 to 111 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 980.

Line 121 Repairs and maintenance

Responsive
Planned
Associated costs: (Refer to SeRCOP table in Part Four, paragraph 4.9) - it is recommended that the planning and clerical processing of repairs be classified as a management item, not repairs. However, it is acknowledged that there may be other types of cost associated with repairs, such as professional fees for specifying and inspecting work, which may be included under repairs.

Line 122 Supervision and management (including CDC)

Supervision and management

Policy and management
Managing tenancies
Right to buy administration
Rent collection, recovery and accounting
HRA Non-distributed costs

Line 123 Special services

Communal heating
Communal lighting
Lifts
Laundry services
Caretaking
Concierge schemes
Cleaning
Ground maintenance
Welfare services (excluding essential care)
Other special services (eg CCTV)

Line 124 Rents, rates, taxes and other charges

Lease rentals on property
Properties where local authority landlord is responsible for the council tax
Rates and water charges payable in non-dwellings
Insurance costs paid by the landlord

Line 125 Direct charges to the HRA - Interest payable and similar charges including amortisation of premiums and discounts

Exclude transfers to General Fund (GF). This should be included in line 129.

Line 126 Charges to the HRA for debt repayment or non-interest charges in respect of credit arrangements (including on balance sheet PFI schemes)

Include any debt repayment associated with the Housing Revenue Account (HRA). PFI schemes should be treated in the same way as on the General Fund Revenue Account part of the form (See RO General Guidance 2.17).

Include the charge for depreciation in the HRA.

Impairment charges should also be included in this line unless the authority has reversed the impairment charge out in reliance on the Impairment Adjustment item in the credit section of the HRA Item 8 Credit and Item 8 Debit (General) Determination from 1 April 2012, in which case both the impairment charge and the reversal should be excluded from the return.

Line 127 HRA - Capital expenditure charged to the HRA (CERA)

Capital expenditure met from the HRA or from reserves. Record expenditure only in respect of the year in which it was incurred, not when it is put into reserves in anticipation of future years’ capital expenditure.

Line 128 Debt management costs

Line 129 Transfers to GF only

Transfers from the HRA to the GF required or permitted by the legislation, including Schedule 4 to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and determinations and directions made under it.

Include the HRA share of interest payable and similar charges initially charged to the GF.

Line 130 Transfers to MRR and other transfers permitted or required by legislation

Transfers from the HRA to the MRR required or permitted by legislation, including Schedule 4 to the Local Government and Housing Act 1989 and determinations and directions made under it.

Exclude any amount in respect of depreciation charged to the HRA. This should be included in line 126

Line 133 HRA - Provision for bad debts (+/-)

Provision made for bad debts charged to the HRA.

Line 135 Total Housing Revenue Account (HRA) expenditure

The sum of lines 121 to 133 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 981.

Line 140 Surplus or deficit for the year on HRA services

This automatic calculation equals line 115 minus line 135, and is transferred automatically to RS line 982.

Line 146 Housing Revenue Account (HRA) reserves

Include earmarked reserves and any balances on the HRA and the Housing Repairs Account. Exclude: balance on the Major Repairs Reserve.

These figures are transferred automatically to RS line 983.

Question 5

RO5: Cultural, environmental, regulatory and planning services

Accepted Answer

Group 110 Culture and heritage

Income earned from visitors to the authority’s historic buildings, museums, galleries, arts events, etc should be recorded in column 4, not netted off against expenditure.

Line 111 Archives

Archive services provided under the Local Government (Records) Act. Include contributions made to authorities with archive powers in column 2.

Record archive services not provided under the LG (Records) Act on line 150.

Line 112 Arts development and support

Direct expenditure on the arts, including photography, purchases of works of art, and temporary exhibitions (record purchases for museums and galleries on line 114)
Grants or other contributions to individuals or voluntary organisations for the development and support of the arts;
The costs of artists in residence.

Line 113 Heritage

Repair and maintenance of the authority’s historic buildings and ancient monuments, including recovery of expenses
Costs of compulsory purchase orders and income from sales of properties so acquired
Initiatives or services designed to develop or maintain an awareness of local history, including grants to certain voluntary groups
Special events to celebrate historical events

Record conservation and listed buildings development control under town and country planning legislation on line 320 and planning policy on line 335.

Line 114 Museums and galleries

All museums and galleries provided by the authority, with permanent collections open to the public
Museum services
Grants to independent museums

Line 115 Theatres and public entertainment

Theatres
Concert and dance halls
Other entertainment premises, including arts centres and community centres for the arts (see line 121 for community centres and public halls for recreation)
Holding dances
Maintaining a band or orchestra
Arts and crafts fairs, festivals and other events
Arranging and promoting events, eg: concerts, opera, pantomimes, etc
Providing refreshments at events
Making grants to others who provide entertainment such as dance, drama and music (including both amateur and professional societies)

Group 120 Recreation and sport

Line 121 Community centres and public halls

Expenditure on premises provided for residents of an area to use for recreation, normally in return for a hire charge (record in column 4).

Include public halls that offer services such as wedding receptions, local drama group plays and badminton, etc

Hire of sports pitches should be recorded under line 129, unless they are within the boundaries of larger community parks in which case they should be reported under line 131.

Exclude premises for hire which are integral with libraries which should be included in Line 150.

Record community centres and public halls used mainly for arts purposes on line 115.

Exclude community centres and public halls for Housing Revenue Account council housing tenants.

Line 122 Foreshore

Expenditure on the foreshore (land between the high water limit and the coastline proper) and associated promenade and piers.

Exclude toilets (record on line 228), street cleansing (record on line 270), and other expenditure covered more specifically elsewhere.

Expenditure on coastal parks should be recorded under line 131 Parks and open spaces.

Line 123 Sports development and community recreation

Sports development staff and outreach teams, including coaching, training and sports sessions; associated travel costs
Holiday play scheme for children
Planning, marketing and staging of sports events
Purchase and maintenance of sports and recreational equipment
Grants and rate relief to voluntary or other groups, including sports people and committees; school, community and volunteer initiatives

Line 129 Sports and leisure facilities (including golf courses)

Indoor sports and recreation facilities

Sports halls, physical recreation and leisure centres
Indoor swimming pools; saunas
Any attached slipper baths, laundry services, hydrotherapy pools, etc

Outdoor sports and recreation facilities

Sports grounds to which there is not free physical access
Running tracks
Artificial skiing
Outdoor swimming pools, lidos and water recreation facilities.

Record facilities within the boundaries of community parks and open spaces on line 131.

Golf courses

Include gross expenditure and income from golf players, refreshments, etc

If a pitch and putt course is part of a park or other community open space, record in line 131 Parks and open spaces.

Line 131 Parks and open spaces (including play areas), community parks and open spaces

All public open spaces, including:

Play areas
Nature corners
Playing fields including - eg football pitches - to which there is generally free physical access
Sports facilities that are an integral part of the park (otherwise, record on line 129)

Record open spaces solely for educational purposes on the appropriate line of RO1.

Countryside recreation and management

Facilities in country areas that are aimed at visitors but provide recreation facilities for residents as well, including:

National parks and other country parks including coastal parks
Camping / caravan parks (record travellers’/gypsies’ sites on RO4 line 60)
Picnic areas
Nature reserves
Canal work
Footpaths, bridleways and towpaths (including maintaining a map of, and enforcing, public rights of way) (if part of a highway, record within RO2 groups 20/30/40)

Line 137 Allotments

Expenditure on allotments and rents collected from tenants.

Line 140 Tourism

Tourism policy, marketing and development

Drawing up policies and strategies to develop and promote tourism in the area
Promoting and advertising the area to potential visitors
Developing and managing public/private tourism partnership
Contributions to regional tourist boards, area tourism partnership and destination management organisations
Grants and loans given to support organisations offering attractions or other tourist-related facilities
Tourist conference facilities
Undertaking qualitative and quantitative tourist research

Visitor information

Tourist maps and guides, what’s on leaflets, etc

Visitor centres

Tourist information offices, bureaux and dedicated tourism staff for the provision of information to visitors.

Line 150 Library services

Library buildings

Premises, staff and other costs associated with the provision of permanent libraries
Fees for overdue books, etc – record as gross income in column 4
Reference materials for student research
Archives and records not kept under the Local Government (Records) Act 1962 (record archive services provided under the LG (Records) Act on Line 111)
Community services and income earned, including:
- Room hire for local clubs and meetings, drop-in centres
- Exhibitions, bring and buy fetes, etc

Mobile and household library services

Libraries operating from vans, buses, trailers or any other mobile base
Services to house-bound library users
Fees for overdue books, etc – record as gross income in column 4

The sum of lines 111 to 150 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 509.

Environmental and regulatory services

Line 210 Cemetery, cremation and mortuary services

Cemeteries
Crematoria
Mortuaries – including post-mortem services
Closed churchyards – maintained by the local authority

Regulatory services

Line 219 Trading standards

Consumer pricing

Includes inspection, advice and enforcement activity to ensure prices are accurately displayed where required and that consumers are not misled as to the price of goods, services or accommodation.

Fair trading

Includes activity under a wide range of legislation aimed at protecting consumers and legitimate businesses and preventing unfair commercial practices. Activities include:

Investigation and enforcement based on complaints or intelligence
Good trader schemes and controls on door-to door selling activity
Provision of legal advice to businesses and to individual members of the public

Food labelling

Includes inspection, advice to businesses, sampling and other activities aimed at ensuring that food sold is correctly labelled and meets compositional standards where applicable.

Product safety

Includes inspection, advice to businesses, sampling and other activities aimed at ensuring that products placed on the market are safe.

Weights and measures

Includes inspection and enforcement activity aimed at ensuring that weighing and measuring equipment used for trade is accurate and that goods sold by quantity are correct.

Line 220 Water safety

Includes all activity that aims to reduce the incidence of water-based poisoning as required by the Water Industry Act 1991. Likely activity to be accounted for here includes monitoring drinking water.

Line 221 Food safety

All activities aiming to reduce the incidence of food and water based poisoning, including administration, research and report writing.

Regular hygiene inspections of food premises
Routine inspection and testing of food samples
Food hygiene courses for people handling food at work, in local communities and ethnic minorities, including training to implement Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP)
Food safety advice on planning applications related to food premises
Production of advisory literature and training materials for food handlers
The cost of licensing butchers’ shops and other premises identified under the Pennington report on food hygiene
The operation of a ‘good hygiene’ certificate scheme
Investigations into food poisoning outbreaks and food-borne illness

Record any licence fee income on line 230.

Line 222 Environmental protection; noise and nuisance

Include work performed to reduce:

Noise pollution: including noisy party patrols, investigating complaints and where necessary the costs of seizing noisy equipment. Any action under the Noise and Statutory Nuisance Act 1993 or the Noise Act 1996 is included here.
Air pollution: including responsibilities under the Environment Protection Act 1990, the Clean Air Act 1993 and Part IV of the Environment Act 1995. Include work on the air quality management plan here.

Also include:

Light pollution powers under the Clean Neighbourhoods and Environment Act 2005
Pollution prevention and control: includes permitting business under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulation 2007
Contaminated land: the Environment Act 1995 requires local authorities to have a formal strategy to identify and deal with contaminated land. Include the costs of preparing and implementing this strategy including the costs of:
- identifying contaminated land
- assessing the degree of contamination
- maintaining a register of contaminated land
- monitoring levels of contamination
- assessing the health risks associated with contaminated land
Anti-fly-tipping work: include publicity costs, telephone hotlines and the costs of court actions. Note: exclude the removal of fly-tipped waste. It is included in Waste Collection, below
Environmental crime: includes littering, dog fouling, fly-tipping, enforcement of trade waste contract and graffiti

Line 223 Housing standards

Include all costs associated with work to ensure that the residents of private sector accommodation live in safe and sanitary conditions. Likely activities to include here are:

Inspections in response to complaints from residents
Checks on the quality of houses in multiple occupation
Licensing of houses in multiple occupation
Checks on conditions at traveller sites
Inspections of hotels, guest and boarding houses
Validation certification

Line 224 Health and safety

Include expenditure on health and safety at work inspections, investigations of notified incidents and enforcement work. The work will mostly be undertaken under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. The precise areas covered are detailed in the Enforcing Authority Regulations (SI 746/1977) and include shops, offices, some warehouses and some other commercial premises, eg launderettes.

Line 225 Port health (excluding levies)

Checks on the fitness of food and animals in transit at ports and airports.

The issuing of de-ratting certificates. Include income from the certificates.

Line 226 Port health levies

Line 227 Pest control

Include the costs of rodent and other pest control activity including mice, wasps, etc

Line 228 Public conveniences

The running, cleaning and maintenance of public toilets. Where the authority acts as an agent of a water company, refer to RO general guidance 4.3.2.

Line 229 Animal and public health; infectious disease control

This category includes expenditure on a number of small activities as follows. Local records are likely to identify each service separately:

Animal welfare
Dog control
Cesspool emptying
Contributions to sewerage schemes
Temporary caravan sites
Checking conditions at travellers’ sites
Health education activity, eg leaflets, exhibitions, etc

Infectious disease

This category includes expenditure on the control of infectious diseases under the Public Health (Control of Diseases) Act 1984 and associated 1988 regulations, except for port health provisions that are included in the ‘Port health’ lines 225 / 226.

Line 230 Licensing - Alcohol and entertainment licensing; taxi licensing

Gross expenditure and gross income relating to the issue of licences where there is no direct link between the payment, and the acquisition by the payer of specific goods and services, including:

Public entertainment, eg: music, dancing, theatres, cinemas
Amusements, eg bingo
Late licences, eg night clubs
Street trading and shops
Hackney carriages, minicabs and other private hire vehicles
Skips and scaffolding
Hoardings
Felling
Animals
New responsibilities under the Licensing Act 2003 and Gambling Act 2005

Income from licence fees should be accounted for here.

Record firearms, liquor & explosives licences issued by the police on RO6 line 100.

Record petroleum & explosives licences issued by fire authorities on RO6 line 210.

Record the registration of births, deaths, and marriages on RO6 line 430.

Record licensing of private sector landlords on RO4 line 38.

Group 230 Community safety

Line 231 Crime reduction

Record Crime reduction expenditure here that cannot be clearly or properly allocated to any other specific service. Exclude crime reduction appropriate to the HRA (Housing revenue account).

Fees paid to police forces to secure extra police for a particular area
Providing crime prevention advice

Record levies paid by police and crime commissioners to the National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) and the National Crime Squad (NCS) on RS line 728.

Line 232 Safety services

Include Safety Services expenditure that cannot be clearly or properly allocated to a specific service. Examples of types of expenditure to include here are:

Lighting in non-highways and non-HRA areas
Provision of safety railings
Providing home safety advice
Community or neighbourhood wardens

Line 233 CCTV

Exclude CCTV that can be set against specific services, eg: CCTV in car parks would be recorded on RO2 line 61 and RO2 line 62; security items for schools would be recorded on the appropriate service line of form RO1; CCTV used for Traffic Management should be included in RO2 line 58.

CCTV cameras

Group 240 Flood defence, land drainage and coast protection

Line 241 Defences against flooding

Revenue expenditure and capital charges on the construction, alteration, improvement, repair, maintenance, demolition and removal of defences
Maintenance and testing of flood warning systems
Provision of advice and information to the public on flooding

Record Environment Agency flood defence levy on RS line 759.

Drainage works undertaken by local councils acting as drainage boards for:

Drainage works, including land drainage
Routine maintenance of watercourses including removal of obstructions

Special levies paid to Internal Drainage Boards (IDBs) or to the Environment Agency acting as an IDB.

Line 247 Coast protection

Protection of coastal areas against erosion and sea encroachment including:

Revenue expenditure and capital charges on construction, alteration, improvement, repair, maintenance, demolition and removal works
The sowing or planting of vegetation for this purpose

For county council contributions to district councils in respect of coast protection expenditure, refer to RO general guidance 4.3.2.

Line 250 Agricultural and fisheries services

The support of agriculture, including:

The provision and maintenance of farms and smallholdings
Costs of rent collection, and rent income, from farms and smallholdings
Fishery harbours and fisheries at ports

Record animal welfare, pest and dog control on line 229.

Record inspections / enforcement relating to fertilisers, food, and animal diseases on line 221 or 224, where appropriate.

Line 270 Street cleansing (not chargeable to Highways)

Street cleaning, sweeping and removal of litter and refuse from land, litter bins, etc in public areas (including shopping centres and towpaths) that are required to comply with the Environmental Protection Act
Collection of illegally fly-tipped rubbish
Removal of dead animals
Removal of abandoned vehicles which do not constitute a traffic hazard
Cleansing of foreshores
Graffiti removal

Record any clearance to keep carriageways free of litter or hazards for road safety purposes, under Highways environmental maintenance on RO2 lines 41 or 44.

Group 280 Waste management

Waste collection and disposal activities undertaken in respect of responsibilities under the Environmental Protection Act (EPA).

Record waste control on line 320; record waste planning on line 338.

Line 281 Waste collection

Include all expenditure on the collection of household waste.

Exclude expenditure on the collection of trade waste (included under Trade Waste, below) or expenditure on the separate collection of recyclable, re-useable or compostable waste (to be included under Recycling, below).

Household waste collection

Collection of waste from private dwellings and community skips, including garden waste, bulky items, and clinical or hazardous waste. Under Environmental Protection Act, the following types of premises are classed as households:

Residential care home premises
Nursing care home premises
School or other educational establishments

Waste strategy

Include the cost of preparing, monitoring and reviewing the Joint Waste Strategy.

Line 282 Waste disposal

Costs of household waste disposal, including landfill, incineration, centralised composting, new technologies, salvaging and processing of recycled waste. Exclude expenditure on the treatment of recyclable waste or compostable waste – these are to be included under Recycling line 284.

Disposal of waste

Costs of waste disposal
Transport of waste to disposal sites
Treatment and disposal of controlled waste collected by Waste Collection Authorities, including expenditure on the Landfill Tax

Transfer stations

Include the costs of operating transfer stations, including transport to disposal sites.

Civic amenity sites

Include the costs of operating civic amenity sites (household recycling centres) including transport costs.

Waste strategy

Include the cost of preparing, monitoring and reviewing the Joint Waste Strategy.

Closed landfill sites

Include cost of restoration and monitoring.

Trading of landfill allowances

Include the costs and income.

Line 283 Trade waste

Collection

Include the costs of collecting refuse from commercial properties. Income earned from this activity should also be included.

Disposal

Expenditure on the disposal of commercial and industrial waste.

Include payments to Waste Disposal Authorities (WDA) for the disposal of trade waste.

Income from Waste Collection Authorities in respect of commercial and industrial waste collected by them and disposed of by the WDA.

Line 284 Recycling

Collection

Include all of the costs of collecting items separately (eg doorstep collections or banks), for recycling. Exclude the costs of processing recycled waste except for those which are borne solely by the waste collection authority (WCA) and cannot be attributed to the waste disposal authority (WDA).

Disposal/recovery

Include the costs of processing recyclable or compostable waste and the costs of material sorting (material recovery facilities – MRFs). Include the costs of re-processing, where recyclables are used as secondary raw materials, and composting/organic reprocessing such as windrow composting, in-vessel composting or anaerobic digestion. Include the cost of new recycling technologies. Include the payment of reuse and recycling credits and income from disposal credits or the sale of recyclables. Costs shown here may be direct costs or payments to contractors.

Line 285 Waste minimisation

Include the costs of initiatives and actions to encourage the minimisation of waste through the reuse, exchange and shared use of goods. Include the costs of initiatives and actions to prevent/reduce waste through consumer purchasing.

Exclude costs of recycling (should be entered in line 284 above).

Exclude any process that takes raw waste and following treatment reduces its volume, minimising the quantity of waste going to landfill. These costs are to be included under Waste Disposal (line 282 above).

Line 286 Climate change costs

A division of service for costs associated with the Climate Change Act 2008.

Waste Disposal Authorities in London, Greater Manchester and Merseyside (ie those established under the Waste Regulation and Disposal order) should complete line 282; and they should also report income received from the Waste Disposal Authority levy on RS line 724.

London Boroughs which carry out their own waste disposal should complete line 282; but they should not complete RS line 724.

Metropolitan Districts in Greater Manchester and Merseyside should not complete line 282; but they should record payment of the Waste Disposal Authority levy on RS line 724.

Other authorities who operate joint arrangements should complete line 282 in accordance with RO General Guidance 4.3.1, but they should not complete RS line 724.

Line 290 Total environmental and regulatory services

The sum of groups 210 to 286 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 590.

Planning and development services

Line 310 Building control

The authority’s role in the monitoring and enforcement of building regulations.

Building regulations

Enforcement – of building regulations

Other building control work

Pre-submission advice and administration of legislation relating to dangerous structures; access for disabled people; street naming and numbering
Structural design
Fire safety and energy auditing
Planning condition checks and enforcement

Also Include activities which earn no fees, such as register of building works which would include approved, inspectors and other works such as FENSA window fittings.

Line 320 Development control

The authority’s role in development control under town and country planning legislation.

Advice

Dealing with applications

Advertisements
Applications made under the town and country planning legislation, as specified in SeRCOP 2012-13
Appeals, which include those in relation to handling planning, ie Advertising and listed building appeals and the collection of statistics in relation to appeals
Environmental assessments
Conservation and listed buildings, including:
- Applications made under town and country planning legislation
- Buildings preservation orders
- Urgent works and repairs notices, and spot listings
- Listed building and conservation appeals
Tree and forestry regulations

Enforcement

Regulation of other special topics – including minerals and waste control

Group 330 Planning policy

Line 335 Conservation and listed buildings planning policy

The determination of policy or guidelines for conservation (outside the development plan process)
The designation of conservation areas and the preparation and implementation of any schemes for their enhancement, including conservation area appraisals
Building risk assessment and general advice on historic buildings and conservation areas

Line 338 Other planning policy

Regional and sub-regional planning – including development and town centre plans

Responses to consultations
Involvement in planning policy matters from other authorities and bodies.
Preparation or contribution to the preparation of Sub-regional planning policy.

Local development framework – including minerals and waste plans

Supplementary planning guidance

Planning projects and implementation

Trees and forestry policy

Sustainable development strategies

Include the collection of statistics relating to environmental audits and the preparation and carrying out of:

Local Authority Agenda 21 Strategy
Biodiversity Action Plan
Environmental audits
State of the environment reports
Environmental management strategies under the label of agenda 21 activities

Line 340 Environmental initiatives

Initiatives for the protection or improvement of the natural environment.

Environmental education
Grants – related to environmental initiatives
Individual environmental projects

For travellers’ (gypsies etc) sites, see line 229 re private accommodation line 223.

Line 350 Economic development

Understanding, promoting and supporting the economic well-being of the area.

Market undertakings – facilities for market traders and collection of their rents.
Training and employment
Government initiatives
Promotion and marketing of the area

Line 351 Economic research

Economic research includes:

Need surveys
Collation of information on economic analysis, including census data
Specific investigations into areas where new policy is being developed

Line 352 Business support

Premises development

Building and letting of subsidised units for start-up businesses etc
Maintenance and repairs of public furniture in pedestrianised areas where this is not the function of the Highways service (see RO2 Group 30)
Conference centres
Shopping centres
Other non-service based premises held for future development. Exclude surplus properties awaiting disposal or being held as investment properties
Implementation of development on particular sites in pursuit of a proposal in the development plan, or a departure from it

Grants, loans and guarantees

The handling of financial incentives to persuade firms to set up or expand business in the area, including:

Giving grants
Making loans
Providing guarantees

Support to business and enterprise

Include:

Grants to voluntary organisations that provide support and advice
Careers advice to adults
In-house costs of advisory services provided

Line 360 Community development

Initiatives to build community, rather than physical structures. Include community strategy formulation, community development initiatives and projects, social inclusion, promoting e-functionality, neighbourhood resources.

Line 390 Total planning and development services

The sum of groups 310 to 360 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 599.

Line 400 Total cultural, environmental, regulatory and planning services

The sum of section totals 190, 290 and 390 is calculated automatically.

Management and support services for cultural, environmental, regulatory and planning services

These services must either be allocated directly, or apportioned and recharged to the individual service lines above, in accordance with SeRCOP Section 3. The gross cost and its allocation/apportionment should also be included on RO6 line 489 and its memorandum box.

Question 6

RO6: Protective, central and other services

Accepted Answer

Protective services

Line 100 Police services

The RO6 does not attempt to break down Police Services into SeRCOP service divisions, but all divisions listed below should be included in line 100. Totals for net current expenditure are transferred automatically to RS line 601.

Record police general grant on RS line 856; and any specific police grants on appropriate RG lines.

Local policing

Neighbourhood policing
Incident (response) management
Community liaison
Local command team and support overheads

Dealing with the public

Local call centres/front desk
Central communications unit
Contact management units
Dealing with the public command team and support overheads

Criminal justice arrangements

Custody
Police doctors, nurses and surgeons
Interpreters and translators
Other custody costs
Criminal justice arrangements
Police National Computer (PNC)
Civil disclosure/Criminal Records Bureau (CRB)
Coroner assistance
Fixed penalty scheme (central ticket office)
Property officer/stores
Criminal justice arrangements command team and support overheads

Road policing

Traffic units
Traffic wardens/police community support officer traffic
Vehicle recovery
Casualty reduction partnership
Road policing command team and support overheads

Specialist operations

Air operations
Mounted police
Specialist terrain
Dogs section
Level 1 advanced public order
Airport and ports policing unit
Firearms unit
Civil contingencies
Operational support team and support overheads

Intelligence

Intelligence command team and support overheads
Intelligence analyst/threat assessments
Intelligence gathering

Investigation

Major investigation unit
Economic crime (including regional asset recovery team)
Specialist investigation
Serious and organised crime unit
Public protection.
Local investigation/prisoner processing
Investigations command team and support overheads

Investigative support

Scenes of crime officers
External forensic costs
Fingerprint/internal forensic costs
Photographic image recovery
Other forensic services
Investigative support command team and support overheads

National policing

Secondments (out of force)
Counter-terrorism/Special Branch
ACPO projects/initiatives
Hosting national services
Other national policing requirements

Police pension top-up grant should not be included in the RG form. The payment by Secretary of State should be shown as income and the transfer into the Police Pension Fund should be shown as expenditure on this line. Where the payment goes the other way the flows are in reverse ie the payment to the Secretary of State is expenditure and the transfer from the Police Pension Fund is income. The net effect on this line would be nil.

Management and support services for police services

Management and support services would normally be spread across the service divisions above in accordance with SeRCOP Section 3. Include the gross cost and its allocation/apportionment on line 489 and in the breakdown lines 491-495.

Record police authorities’ corporate and democratic core costs on line 410.

Record police authorities’ non-distributed costs on lines 481 and 482.

Record levy payments to the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA) on RS line 728.

Group 200 Fire & rescue services

These services relate to the regular Fire & Rescue Service.

Firefighters’ pensions - include in column 1 all transfers to the Firefighters’ Pension Fund and charges for any termination and post employment benefits taken direct to the General Fund.

Where an authority provides fire cover for another authority, refer to RO general guidance 4.3.2.

Line 210 Community safety

Statutory inspection, certification and enforcement

Fire safety inspections and issuing certificates
Inspecting and licencing premises for petroleum or explosives storage
Enforcement work associated with above licensing/inspection activities
Providing fire safety advice to planning and licensing authorities
Gross income earned from licence fees or for giving advice

Prevention and education

Carrying out fire investigations
Providing free fire prevention advice under the Fire & Rescue Services Act
Community fire safety officers or advisors
Schools liaison
Liaison & co-operation with the National Community Fire Safety Centre
Production and distribution of fire safety leaflets, posters, videos, etc
Chip pan fire simulators and other fire safety demonstration equipment
Joint fire safety initiatives with voluntary bodies such as Age Concern, Association of British Insurers, Fire Protection Association, Industrial Fire Protection Association and the British Fire & Rescue Services Association
Provision of free smoke alarms
Any other fire prevention and education activity

Line 220 Fire fighting and rescue operations

Operational responses

Include the costs of whole-time fire fighters and retained fire fighters; charges made to revenue in respect of capital investment in appliances.

Attending primary, secondary, and chimney fires, road traffic collisions
Attending special services incidents, eg road accidents, spills, flood pumping out, animal rescues, lift releases. Record any income gross
False alarms and malicious calls

Communications and mobilising

Telephony; the handling of emergency calls and despatch of resources
Ongoing incident management and provision of incidents information
Control room operators and staff working directly in the control room
Secondary or standby systems
IT hardware and software-related costs (eg maintenance agreements)
Charges from operators
Primary and secondary station links
Personnel links (eg mobile phones); radio communications; data links
Telephony, eg 999 calls
Mobile control and incident rooms

The costs of the general switchboard, database management and systems support should be attributed to management and support services in the first instance.

Securing water supplies

Ensure adequate water supplies in case of fires
Location of and fitting/maintaining fire hydrants in convenient places

Line 230 Fire & rescue service emergency planning and civil defence

Production, maintenance and testing of integrated emergency plans to cope with major incidents (natural disasters, industrial accidents, serious transportation crashes, oil or chemical pollution).

Fire brigade emergency planning staff and their training
Premises and other assets used by emergency planning staff
The costs of any exercises to test plans
Emergency planning literature and publicity

Record all other emergency planning under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 on line 450.

Line 290 Total Fire & rescue services

The sum of group 200 is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 602.

Management and support services for Fire & rescue services

These services must either be allocated directly, or apportioned and recharged to the individual service lines above, in accordance with SeRCOP Section 3. The gross cost and its allocation/apportionment should also be included on line 489 and in the breakdown lines 491-495.

Record fire authorities’ corporate and democratic core costs on line 410.

Record fire authorities’ non-distributed costs on lines 481 and 482.

Central services

Line 410 Corporate and democratic core

Democratic representation and management

All councillors’/members’ allowances and expenses, including telephone calls, postage, equipment costs, hospitality, accommodation, training, conference fees etc incurred when undertaking activities on behalf of the authority, as local representatives or to represent local interests
Costs associated with local government reorganisation
Costs associated with officer time spent on appropriate advice and support activities
Subscriptions to local authority associations and provincial councils

Corporate management

The functions of the individual who is designated to be the head of the paid service (frequently the chief executive), except those concerned with the direct management of services or the provision of advice and support to members
Maintaining statutory registers, eg of politically sensitive posts, unused land, payments to members and members’ interests
Providing information required by members of the public in the exercise of statutory rights (other than about specific services)
Completing and submitting and/or publishing all service staffing returns, statements of accounts, annual reports, public performance reports and Best Value performance plans
Estimating, negotiating, accounting for and allocating corporate level resources such as credit approvals and other sources of capital finance, precepts, block grants and taxes
The costs of statutory external audit
The costs of external inspections
The costs of treasury management
Bank charges, other than those which relate to accounts operated on a decentralised basis
The costs associated with supporting a local strategic partnership

Groups 420 to 470 Central services to the public

Group 420 Local tax collection

Line 421 Council tax collection

The gross administration costs of collecting council tax. Also include any costs relating to the collection of past domestic rates and community charge.

Line 422 Council tax discounts for prompt payment

Discounts given by authorities for prompt payment of council tax, which are not a charge on the Collection Fund.

Line 423 Council tax discounts locally funded

Locally funded council tax discounts made under section 13A of the Local Government Finance Act 1992, which was inserted by section 76 of the Local Government Act 2003. These are not a charge on the Collection Fund.

Line 425 Council tax support administration

The gross administration costs of local council tax support schemes.

Record income from the Localised Council Tax Support Admin Subsidy on SG543.

Authorities administering housing benefit and local council tax support schemes together, should allocate an appropriate estimate of gross expenditure (inclusive of Fraud Incentive Scheme costs) to both this line, and to RO4 line 57.

Local council tax support scheme

Since April 2013, authorities have been responsible for delivering localised schemes which provide support with paying council tax bills to those households with low incomes.

Line 426 Non-domestic rates (NDR) collection

The gross administration costs of collecting NDR.

Do not record losses on rate collection, eg from bankruptcies, absconders.

Line 428 Business improvement district (BID) ballots

The gross administration costs of BID ballots. Also record any reimbursements from the BID Revenue Account as other income (column 5).

Line 430 Registration of births, deaths and marriages

Record gross expenditure on the registration of births, deaths and marriages; and gross income (in column 4) from fees paid by the Registrar General and by members of the public for registrations, certificates and copies.

Group 440 Elections

Line 441 Registration of electors

Costs of maintaining the register of electors.

Line 442 Conducting elections

Costs of conducting local, parish and national elections.

Line 450 Emergency planning

The provision of integrated emergency planning under the Civil Contingencies Act 2004.

Civil emergency and disaster planning and support
Maintenance of emergency networks
Conducting of exercises

Record expenditure on the production, maintenance and testing of integrated emergency plans by the Fire & Rescue Service on line 230.

Line 460 Local land charges

Maintenance of the register of local land charges
Dealing with requests for certificates of search and other enquiries
Gross income (in column 4) from search charges etc

Line 465 Local welfare assistance schemes

The discretionary social fund (ie Community Care Grant and Crisis Loan schemes) that supported vulnerable people was abolished from April 2013 as a result of Welfare Reform Act and replaced with local schemes administered by local authorities.

Include gross expenditure on:

administration of the local schemes
local welfare provision

Record income from the “Social Fund administrative funding” on RG line 812 and Local Welfare Provision through formula funding on RS line 851.

Line 470 General grants, bequests and donations

Grants which are not related to any specific functions of the authority and which are given under powers that are not service-specific, eg grants to support Citizens Advice
Miscellaneous non-government grants, bequests and donations received by the authority, where no specific service is intended
The payment to Parish Councils in respect of income foregone due to Council Tax Support reductions to bills. (Also see RS line 997)

Line 475 Coroners’ court services

Coroners’ court services provided by County Councils, Unitary Authorities, Metropolitan District Councils, London Boroughs, the Corporation of London.

The Coroner and his/her deputies
The Coroner’s Office expenses
Premises costs
Inquests
Juries where required
Post-mortems

Record mortuary costs on RO5 line 210, but note that the mortuary service may recharge the Coroner’s court for its services, which would then be recorded here.

Line 476 Other court services

Maintenance of and rent income from Judges’ residences
Maintenance by the Corporation of London of the Mayor’s and City Crown Court and the Central Criminal Court
Other court-related expenditure that does not fit into the Coroners categories

Management and support services for court services

These services must either be allocated directly, or apportioned and recharged to the individual service lines above, in accordance with SeRCOP Section 3. The gross cost and its allocation/apportionment should also be included on line 489 and in the breakdown lines 491-495.

Group 480 Non-distributed costs

Costs and overheads as defined in SeRCOP, which are specifically excluded from management and support services, and should not be charged, recharged, allocated or apportioned to any other service divisions.

Line 481 Retirement benefits

This should include elements of retirement benefits that are not allocated to services.

In pre-IAS 19 editions of BVACOP the following elements of retirement benefits were treated as unapportionable central overheads:

the whole amount of any past service contribution to meet a pension fund deficit, however arising
the amount of any reduction in contribution to apply a pension fund surplus
charges (however calculated) for added years and early retirement

Line 482 Costs of unused shares of IT facilities and other assets

The costs of unused shares of IT (information technology) facilities
The costs of shares of other long-term unused but unrealisable assets

Line 484 Revenue expenditure on surplus assets

The revenue expenditure involved in holding surplus assets (eg security costs).

Line 489 Management and support services

Including breakdown: lines 491 to 495

Central management, administrative and support services expenditure must either be allocated directly, or apportioned and recharged to all appropriate service lines on forms RO1 to RO6, in accordance with SeRCOP Section 3.

The gross cost of all management and support services (before recharging) should also be recorded on RO6 line 489 in columns 1 and 2 as appropriate.

Any income received in respect of management and support services should be recorded gross (also before recharging):

record sales, fees, rents and charges on line 489 column 4
record other income on line 495 column 5 Then record the net amounts (expenditure less income), either directly allocated or recharged to all other accounts, on lines 491 to 494 column 5 (other income):
record amounts allocated or recharged to other lines within Central Services (groups 410 to 470 above) on line 491
record amounts allocated or recharged to other GRFA services (on forms RO1 to RO5 and groups 100, 200 and 300 of RO6) on line 492
record amounts allocated / recharged to central government on line 493
record amounts allocated / recharged to any other accounts on line 494

The above allocation and recharging should ideally reduce the balance on line 489 column 7 (net current expenditure) to NIL, but may leave a small residual balance.

Line 490 Total central services

The sum of groups 410 to 480 (including any balance remaining in line 489), is calculated and transferred automatically to RS line 690.

Other services

Group 500 Other services

Including breakdown: lines 501 to 520

The SeRCOP Service Expenditure Analysis (Section 3) provides an extensive list of services. Every SeRCOP service division and sub-division has now been included in the RO suite of forms and detailed throughout the RO Guidance Notes. The intention of SeRCOP is that all services should be included and all items should be attributed to specific services, in accordance with CIPFA guidelines.

In exceptional circumstances where authorities cannot identify the appropriate service to allocate items, these items should be recorded on line 500 and a description of the service given in the Other services breakdown, lines 501 to 520 (where there are insufficient lines to list every item separately, amalgamate smaller items into single lines).

Totals for net current expenditure in line 500 are transferred automatically to RS line 698.

Exclude public relations and press costs which should be apportioned across appropriate service lines. Record local authority reorganisation costs on RS line 748.

Question 7

RS:  Revenue outturn summary

Accepted Answer

Service expenditure

Lines 190–698 Specific service expenditure

Column 1 of these lines is completed automatically with totals of net current expenditure for each main service as defined in SeRCOP, from forms RO1 to RO6, completed on an non-IAS19 and PFI ‘Off-Balance Sheet’ basis (relevant line totals on these forms are asterisked and cells carried forward are boxed in red).

Line 699 Total service expenditure

This automatic calculation equals the sum of lines 190 to 698. It comprises all direct revenue payments and income from services for which the authority alone is responsible, as opposed to transfers to and from, or expenditure on behalf of, other accounts, funds, authorities or miscellaneous bodies.

Other operating income and expenditure

Group 710 Housing benefits and transfers between HRA and GFRA

Note that SeRCOP treats the following lines as Service Expenditure.

Record all housing benefits administration costs on RO4 line 57.

Line 711 Rent allowances – mandatory payments

Mandatory rent allowances paid to the tenants of private landlords and registered social landlords.

Record discretionary payments of rent allowances on RO4 line 51.

Record income from mandatory rent allowances subsidy on RG line 745.

Line 712 Non-HRA rent rebates – mandatory payments

Mandatory rent rebates paid to local authority tenants living in non-HRA dwellings.

Record discretionary payments of non-HRA rent rebates on RO4 line 52.

Record income from mandatory non-HRA rent rebates subsidy on RG line 746.

Housing Benefits relating to Homelessness should be recharged to appropriate Homelessness lines on RO4 as “other income”.

Line 713 Rent rebates to HRA tenants – mandatory payments

Mandatory rent rebates paid to local authority tenants living in HRA dwellings.

Record discretionary payments of rent rebates to HRA tenants on RO4 line 53.

Record income from mandatory HRA rent rebates subsidy on RG line 747.

Line 714 Subsidy limitation transfers from HRA

Transfers from the HRA to the GFRA resulting from the operation of Rent Rebate Subsidy Limitation.

Line 718 Contribution to the HRA re items shared by the whole community

Contributions made to the HRA where amenities in the HRA benefit the wider community, which may include:

Play and other recreational areas
Grassed areas
Gardens
Community centres
Play schemes

Also include any other GFRA contributions to/from the HRA.

Record HRA interest receipts and payments on lines 783 or 786, as appropriate.

Exclude prior year adjustments from transfers between HRA & GFRA: record these on line 920

Group 720 Precepts and levies

Line 721 Parish precepts

These should be recorded by Billing Authorities only, and comprise the aggregate amounts of any precepts from local precepting authorities, issued to or anticipated by the Billing Authority, which were taken into account in calculating its Council Tax Requirement. Include amounts under the Local Government Finance (Miscellaneous Provisions) (England) Order 1993 and amounts under the Local Government Finance (New Parishes) Regulation 1998 and 2008. This line must agree with the figure provided previously in the Council Tax Requirement return in line 4 on sheet ‘CTR1_Form_Local.’

Line 722 Integrated Transport Authority (ITA) levy

Metropolitan districts should record levy payments to (+) ITAs; ITAs should record such levies received as income (-).

Line 724 Waste Disposal Authority (WDA) levy

Authorities in London, Greater Manchester and Merseyside should record levy payments to (+) WDAs in respect of waste disposal functions in those areas established under the Waste Regulation and Disposal (Authorities) Order; WDAs should record such levies received as income (-).

Record payments to / receipts by Waste Disposal Authorities (WDA) for the disposal of trade waste on RO5 line 283.

Line 727 London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) levy

London boroughs and the Corporation of London should record levy paid in respect of compensation payment liabilities inherited following the abolition of the Greater London Council (GLC) and the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA). The LPFA is a body corporate, accountable to the Mayor of London, to maintain the superannuation fund which was originally the responsibility of the GLC.

Line 728 Other levies

Levies paid by police and crime commissioners to other bodies
National Parks and Broads Authority levies
Garden levies
Apprenticeship levies
Levies made by Residuary Bodies

Record Port Health levies on RO5 line 226.

Record Internal Drainage Board levies on RO5 line 244.

Record Environment Agency flood defence levy on RS line 759.

The redistribution of the surplus on the levy / safety net account grant amount should not be included in the grant section of the RO, and should be included within the retained business rates income line (Line 870)

Group 730 Trading account surpluses and deficits

Also see related guidance regarding capital items recorded on lines 741 to 742 (automatic); and appropriations to(+)/from(-) financial reserves which are related to trading accounts net surplus(-) / deficit(+) on lines 811 to 816 (manual).

Line 731 External Trading Accounts net surplus/deficit

This line is completed automatically from TSR line 698 with the net surplus to (-) or net deficit from (+) the GFRA, arising from external trading services.

Line 732 Internal Trading Accounts net surplus/deficit

This line is completed automatically from TSR line 898 with the net surplus to (-) or net deficit from (+) the GFRA, arising from internal trading services.

Line 741 Capital items accounted for in External Trading Accounts

This line is completed automatically from TSR line 697, as a negative total in order to remove the capital items element from line 731 above.

Line 742 Capital items accounted for in Internal Trading Accounts

This line is completed automatically from TSR line 897, as a negative total in order to remove the capital items element from line 732 above.

Line 747 Appropriations to (+) / from (-) Accumulated Absences Account

Short-term accumulated compensated absences refers to benefits that employees receive as part of their contract of employment, entitlement to which is built up as they provide services to the council. The most significant benefit covered by this heading is holiday pay, where employees build up an entitlement to paid holidays as they work. Under the Code, the cost of providing holidays and similar benefits is required to be recognised when employees render services that increase their entitlement to future compensated absences.

The Accumulated Absences Account absorbs the differences that would otherwise arise on the General Fund Balance from accruing for compensated absences earned but not taken in the year, eg annual leave entitlement carried forward at 31 March. Regulation 30H of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003 No 3146, as amended by SI 2010 No 454 ) requires that the impact on the General Fund Balance is neutralised in this way .

The appropriations to/from the account should be entered in this line.

Line 748 Adjustments to net current expenditure

Agency arrangements for government departments and health authorities or trusts, as defined in RO General Guidance 4.1 and 4.2.1
Town Development – transactions between authorities under the Housing, Rent and Subsidies Act; transitional town redevelopment subsidy and other overspill
Local authority reorganisation costs (record transfers between reorganised authorities on line 806)
Any surplus or deficit on a Trading Account in respect of a joint undertaking for which the authority is not the account holder
Irrecoverable input VAT on revenue services

Exclude irrecoverable VAT directly attributable to the supply of VAT-exempt revenue services – include this on relevant RO service lines.

Record prior year adjustments on line 920.

Line 749 Net current expenditure

This automatic calculation is the sum of lines 699 to 748. It comprises Total Service Expenditure plus other items of current expenditure and income within the GFRA.

Line 759 Levy: Environment Agency flood defence

Levies demanded by the Environment Agency (EA) as successor to the National Rivers Authority, in accordance with the National Rivers Authority (Levies) Regulations.

Record levy payments to the EA acting as an Internal Drainage Board on RO5 line 244.

Group 760 Capital expenditure

Line 765 Capital expenditure charged to the GF Revenue Account (CERA) (exclude Public Health)

Capital expenditure met from the GFRA, including Trading Accounts; or from revenue reserves (for which there should be a corresponding entry in lines 811, 813, 815 or 816). Record expenditure only in respect of the year in which it was incurred, not when it is put into reserves in anticipation of future years’ capital expenditure (that should be recorded as an appropriation to reserves on lines 811, 813, 815 or 816).

Line 766 Capital expenditure charged to the GF Revenue Account (CERA) – Public Health

Capital expenditure met from the GFRA, or from revenue reserves (for which there should be a corresponding entry in line 814). Record expenditure only in respect of the year in which it was incurred, not when it is put into reserves in anticipation of future years’ capital expenditure (that should be recorded as an appropriation to reserves on line 814)

There are restrictions on the type of Capital the Public Health grant can be used for ie it can only be used on capital spend that does not involve borrowing or a finance lease. Planned capital expenditure should be noted here as a separate public health CERA.

The sum of these two figures should be consistent with the corresponding figure on line 25 of the COR4 form.

Line 767 Capital receipts used to finance revenue expenditure under receipts flexibility

The 2015 Spending Review gave local authorities the right to use capital receipts on the revenue costs of reform projects and improving service delivery.

See detailed guidance on the types of projects that qualify for this.

Line 768 Adjustment for expenditure capitalised by a direction under section 16(2)b)

Where expenditure financed by a direction under section 16(2)b) of the Local Government Act 2003 has been included in lines prior to Line 749 Net Current Expenditure, please put the total of such amounts here, so that it is netted off in the calculation of Revenue Expenditure.

N.B. There is a capital items memorandum section at the foot the RO and RA (budget) returns. This includes an item ‘Revenue Expenditure Financed by Capital Under Statute’ (REFCUS, also known as RECS), of which expenditure capitalised under a section 16(2)b) direction is one constituent component.

The Capital Outturn Return includes a memorandum item for expenditure capitalised under a section 16(2)b) direction as follows:

This table in the Capital Outturn Return shows cases of section 16(2)b) directions for specific purposes. In those cases, it is not necessary to start to record the expenditure in RO & RA returns, provided that these amounts are correctly reported in this Capital Outturn Return table. As of COR, this table will prompt for a description of amounts recorded in the ‘r04’ ‘other’ category.

Line 771 Provision for bad debts

Provision made for bad debts charged to the GFRA.

Line 773 Provision for repayment of principal

Any charge made to the GFRA in respect of past years’ capital expenditure under regulation 27 of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003.

Include both the minimum revenue provision calculated in accordance with regulation 28, and any additional voluntary provision.

Any charge to GFRA for the current year’s capital expenditure should be included in line 765.

Exclude any element that relates to a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme – see line 788.

Line 776 Leasing payments

The financing element of finance leasing charges should be included here.

Any MRP generated by a finance lease will be part of the general MRP calculation and so included in line 773 along with any additional voluntary provision.

Charges against operating leases will be included under the relevant service heading.

Group 780 Interest and investment income

Line 781 Interest payable and similar charges

The treatment in the accounts, in terms of amounts relating to particular years, should follow the appropriate CIPFA guidance.

Interest payable by the authority on all external borrowings, including external interest payments in respect of the HRA and Trading Accounts
Interest payable to Local authority superannuation funds and trust funds
Interest on all deferred purchase schemes entered into before 7/7/1988
Interest on deferred purchase schemes entered into between 8/7/1988 and 31/3/1990 falling within regulation 8 of the Local Government (Prescribed Expenditure) (Consolidation and Amendment), which were not transitional credit arrangements under Part 4 of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989
Interest paid by the local authority on external borrowing re Housing Act Advances
Gains (discounts) or losses (premiums) arising on the repurchase or early settlement of debt: treat as expenditure or a negative offset
Impairment losses arising on financial asset.

Exclude any element that relates to a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) scheme – see line 788.

Note on the value pre-populated into this cell: The figure that is pre-filled into this cell is interest payments relating only to lending from the Public Works Loan Board. This is as provided by the Treasury’s Debt Management Office. You should edit this figure, add other relevant amounts.

Line 783 HRA item 8 payments and receipts

Calculate interest in accordance with the formula in the HRA General Determination of the Item 8 Credit and Item 8 Debit. Enter a net figure, being total interest receipts credited to the HRA under Item 8 Part I, less charges made to the HRA under Item 8 Part II. Where receipts credited to the HRA are higher than charges made to the HRA, record as expenditure (+), otherwise record as income (-).

Line 785 Sub-total

This automatic calculation is the sum of lines 749 to 783.

Line 786 Interest and investment income: external receipts and dividends

All external interest receipts and dividends, including those on Housing Act Advances from mortgagees; interest on HRA and Collection Fund balances.

Exclude interest receipts from internal lending, which should not be recorded on RO forms.

820 Income from Treasury Management activities

Income recognised for the financial year under proper accounting practices for investments that meet the definition of treasury management, as specified in CIPFA’s Treasury Management in the Public Services Code of Practice. Income recorded in this category should NOT include income from investments that score as capital spend under the Prudential Framework.

821 Income from non-Treasury Management activities (GF only, exc. HRA)

All investment income that is not Treasury Management income, and which comprises the following 8 sub-categories.

822 Investment properties

Net income from investment properties owned directly by the authority. Investment properties has the same meaning as defined under IAS 40 interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. Income recorded here should be the same as the income recognised from investment properties in the statement of accounts.

823 Dividends from subsidiaries

Dividend income has the same meaning as dividend income recognised in the statement of accounts under proper accounting practices. Dividend income recorded here should be income received from equity investments in the authority’s subsidiaries . Subsidiaries has the same meaning as defined in IAS 27 and interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting.

824 Dividends from equity other than subsidiaries

Dividend income has the same meaning as dividend income recognised in the statement of accounts under proper accounting practices. Dividend income recorded here should be for all other equity investments other than those in the authority’s subsidiaries. Income from pooled equity investments that are part of Treasury Management (and which do not score as capital expenditure) must be excluded from this line and recorded in ‘Income from Treasury Management’.

825 Income from joint ventures

Income recognised for the financial year under proper accounting practices from joint venture arrangements that has not been recorded in equity or loan interest. Joint venture has the same meaning as defined in IAS 28 and interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting.

826 Interest from capital loans

Interest income has the same meaning as interest income recognised in the statement of accounts in accordance with IFRS 9 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. This should include only those loans that score as capital expenditure in accordance with the Prudential Framework.

827 Interest from revenue loans

Interest income has the same meaning as interest income recognised in the statement of accounts in accordance with IFRS 9 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. This should include only those loans that do not score as capital expenditure in accordance with the Prudential Framework.

828 Income from bonds

Interest income as recognised in the statement of accounts under proper accounting practices. Income should be recorded here from investments in bonds that are not part of Treasury Management practices.

829 Other

To record investment income which does not fall into any of the above categories. LAs are asked to provide commentary on the nature of the investment/s for any value recorded here.

Line 788 Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes - difference from service charge

It is expected that most authorities will be following the DLUHC MRP guidance and making an MRP charge equal to the element of the service charge that goes to reduce the balance sheet liability for the project. Where exceptionally this is not so authorities should ensure that the entry for the project in the service expenditure equals the service charge, and enter the difference between the service charge and the total charge to the revenue account for the scheme on this line.

Line 789 Appropriations to / from financial instruments adjustment account

Regulations 30B to 30F of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003 No 3146, as amended by SI 2007 No 573 and SI 2008 No 414) allow authorities to offset some of the financial consequences of the new accounting treatment for financial instruments. Where authorities take advantage of these regulations the Accounting Code requires the entries in the Income and Expenditure Account to comply with the relevant Financial Reporting Standards, and the adjustments permitted by the regulations to be implemented by appropriations to or from the financial instruments adjustment account in the Statement of Movement on the General Fund Balance. The appropriations should be entered in this line.

Line 790 Appropriations to / from unequal pay back pay account

Regulation 30A of the Local Authorities (Capital Finance and Accounting) (England) Regulations 2003 (SI 2003 No 3146, as amended by SI 2007 No 573) allows authorities to defer the impact on the revenue account of certain provisions made for unequal pay back pay. The Accounting Code provides for this deferral to be achieved by appropriations to and from an unequal pay back pay account. The appropriations should be entered in this line.

Line 791 Specific and special grants outside AEF

This line is completed automatically from RG line 799.

Line 793 Business Rates Supplement

Record any income (-) which relates to Business Rates Supplement applied to specific projects expected to promote economic development. This includes income from levying a local supplement on the business rate and using the proceeds for investment in the local area. This line was introduced for such income for the GLA. Other authorities should reference the arrangements for income reported in this line.

Accounting for Business Rates Supplement should follow the principal and agent relationship as in the case of Council Tax.

The amount recorded on this line should only be the element of income that relates to your authority. For example, if you are a billing authority, regardless of the total amount collected the income recorded should be the amount that relates to your authority only. If you are precepting authority, then the income collected by your respective billing authority on behalf of your authority should be reported on your form.

Line 794 Community Infrastructure Levy

Record any income (-) which relates to Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) to be spent on infrastructure to support development in the area. The Community Infrastructure Levy is a new levy that local authorities can choose to charge on new developments in their area. The money can be used to support development by funding infrastructure that the local authority, community and neighbourhoods want.

This should include all income related to the scheme not just component of this revenue intended to cover the up to 5% administration cost of CIL. A warning will flag if you are a charging authority and you are recording a zero. Please update the figure or add a comment to the memo tab.

Accounting for CIL should follow the principal and agent relationship as in the case of Council Tax.

Line 795 Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) transactions (expenditure)

The SeRCOP recommends that the cost of CRC allowances is charged (apportioned) to services in accordance with the method of apportionment used to allocate other energy cost charges, as part of premises costs.

However, despite this recommendation local authorities should record CRC transactions (expenditure) separately on this line.

Line 796 Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) transactions (Income)

The SeRCOP recommends that the cost of CRC allowances is charged (apportioned) to services in accordance with the method of apportionment used to allocate other energy cost charges, as part of premises costs.

However, despite this recommendation local authorities should record CRC transactions (income) separately on this line.

Line 797 Appropriations to(+)/from(-) dedicated schools grant adjustment account

Paragraphs 14.1-14.4 of CIPFA Bulletin 10: Closure of the 2021/22 financial statements and paragraphs 52-64 of CIPFA’s Bulletin 09 year end closure 2020-21 refer.

Government announced in the Local government finance policy statement 2023-24 to 2024-25 that it will be extending the Statutory Override for the Dedicated Schools Grant for the next 3 years from 2023-24 to 2025-26.

Line 800 Revenue expenditure

This automatic calculation is the sum of lines 785 to 797.

Line 803 Local Services Support Grant (LSSG)

An unringfenced grant paid under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003 to support local government functions. The grants listed below should not be reported in lines 791 or 804, or anywhere on the RG form. The compounded income from these grants in respect of your authority should be reported on this line.

Extended Rights to Free Travel (DfE)
Inshore Fisheries Conservation Authorities (DEFRA)
Lead Local Flood Authorities (DEFRA)

Line 804 Specific and special grants inside AEF

This line is completed automatically from RG line 699.

Line 805 Net revenue expenditure

This automatic calculation is the sum of lines 800 to 804.

The Council Tax Requirement

Line 806 Inter-authority transfers in respect of reorganisation

Transfer of funds between authorities in respect of boundary changes and other forms of reorganisation. Record local government reorganisation costs on RO6, line 410.

Group 810 Appropriations to / from financial reserves

Line 811 Appropriations to / from schools’ reserves

Additions to(+) and withdrawals(-) from schools reserves are calculated from the change in reserves levels (RS911) from 1 April to 31 March

Line 813 Appropriations to / from Dedicated schools grant reserves

Additions to(+) and withdrawals(-) from dedicated schools grant reserves are calculated from the change in reserves levels (RS913) from 1 April to 31 March. This should be consistent with data provided to DfE’s S251 outturn return.

Line 814 Appropriations to / from public health financial reserves

Additions to(+) and withdrawals(-) from public health reserves are calculated from the change in reserves levels (RS914) from 1 April to 31 March

Line 815 Appropriations to / from other earmarked financial reserves

Additions to(+) and withdrawals(-) from other earmarked reserves are calculated from the change in reserves levels (RS915) from 1 April to 31 March

Line 815d ’of which: COVID additional business rate relief grants from reserves lines 1028 & 1029 (-)’ is calculated from the change in reserves levels from 1 April to 31 March of lines RS1028 and RS 1029

Line 816 Appropriations to / from unallocated financial reserves

Additions to(+) and withdrawals(-) from unallocated reserves are calculated from the change in reserves levels (RS916) from 1 April to 31 March

Trading account balances are counted as appropriations to reserves (for surpluses) or from reserves (for deficits), thus opposite entries amounting to the same surpluses/ deficits recorded above on lines 731 and 732, must be included within lines 811 to 816 (broken down as appropriate), that is:

a negative (surplus) entry above should be added to the reserves figure
a positive (deficit) entry above should be subtracted from the reserves figure

Record as a withdrawal: the amount spent in cases where internal reserves are spent on capital items, without the use of a credit approval (also record on line 765).

Money set aside for provisions should be recorded on the appropriate RO service line when it is set aside. Prior year adjustments to reserves should be recorded on line 920.

Line 851 Revenue Support Grant

Revenue Support Grant, and any additional grant (in accordance with s85 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988), payable to the GFRA.

The department has prepopulated this figure with the figure from the the Local Government Finance Settlement figures published on the DLUHC website.

Line 856 Police Grant

Please check and update the pre-populated figure.

Other police specific grants should be recorded on form RG.

Line 870 Retained income from Rate Retention Scheme

The figure in this line should reflect the authority’s income from the business rates retention scheme in 2023-24, including tariff/top-up payments and Section 31 compensation grants for the cost of changes to the business rates system.

NEW - NB Note that appropriations from reserves line 815d ‘of which: COVID additional business rate relief grants from reserves lines 1028 & 1029 (-)’ will cause line 870 to be lower than it otherwise would have been.

A Business Rates calculator has been provided to help with this calculation.

The figure in this line should consist of the following lines:

the local authority’s share of Non-Domestic Rating Income for 2023-24 (Part 1B, Line 13 of the NNDR1 for 2023-24)
plus the tariff/top-up adjustment as a result of the decision to cap the increase in the small business multiplier to 2% in each of 2014-15 and 2015-16, by the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) from 2018-19 to 2020-21 and for the freezing of the multiplier in 2021-22, 2022-23, and 2023-24.
plus the local authority’s share of Section 31 compensation grant for the cost of changes to the business rates system announced at Autumn Statements and Budget since 2013 (Part 4, line 66 of the NNDR3 for 2023-24)
plus the local authority’s share of the estimated Surplus/Deficit on the collection fund at end of 2021-22 (Part 1B, line 23 of the NNDR1 for 2023-24)
plus the safety net due to and minus any levy due from the authority (calculated on the basis of the Non-Domestic Rating (Levy and Safety Net) Regulations 2013 (as amended)
plus the amounts retained in respect of Designated Areas (Part 4, line 7 of the NNDR3 for 2023-24)
plus the amounts retained in respect of renewable energy schemes (Part 4, line 10 of the NNDR3 for 2023-24)
plus the amounts retained in respect of shale oil and gas schemes (Part 4, line 13 of the NNDR3 for 2023-24)
plus qualifying relief in Designated Areas (Part 4, line 16 of the NNDR3 for 2023-24)
plus (for the City of London only) the City of London Offset for 2022-23 (Part 1B, line 21 of the NNDR1 for 2023-24)
plus (for North Somerset only) any amount in respect of Port of Bristol hereditament (Part 4, line 19 of the NNDR3 for 2023-24)

The cost of collection allowance should not be included within this line. This income should be netted off the non-domestic rates (NDR) collection amount within line RO 426.

The above calculation does not account for transfers of income between authorities due to pooling arrangements. Authorities should also account for transfers of income due to pooling arrangements where this occurs. Authorities should also account for instances where their calculation of retained business rates income differs from that set out above (such as where business rate income is passed directly to a Local Enterprise Partnership and not retained by the local authority). Where these adjustments are carried out, authorities should confirm the new calculation in the notes (Memo) section of the form.

See Non-domestic rates collected as part of the NNDR1 form for 2023-24

See the NNDR3 form for 2023-24

Line 880 Collection fund surpluses and deficits for council tax

These are amounts in respect of council tax Collection Fund surpluses / deficits for 2023-24, transferable from / to the Collection Fund in 2023-24.

For major precepting authorities (including the GLA) the amounts will be the amounts payable to or from the collection funds of the relevant billing authorities.

This figure should not take account of the adjustments required by the Accounting Code, but should agree with the Council Tax Requirement data given on the CTR forms.

Line 885 Other Items - please provide a description of anything recorded under this category

Line 890 Council Tax Requirement

This automatic calculation is the sum of lines 805 to 885.

This figure should agree with the Council Tax Requirement data given on the CTR forms:

CTR1 line 1 for billing authorities
CTR2 line 1 for precepting authorities
CTR3 line 1 (column 3) for the Greater London Authority
CTR4 line 1 (column 3) for the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and West Yorkshire Combined Authority

This figure must be zero for authorities that are neither billing authorities nor major precepting authorities, including all Parks and Broads Authorities, and single-purpose Waste Disposal Authorities.

Financial reserves

Lines 911 to 916 General Fund Revenue Reserves at start and end of financial year

All revenue reserves of the authority, including earmarked reserves and Trading Account reserves. Record any surplus as (+) and any deficit as (-). Reserves levels at start of year should reflect the position:

before any appropriations to / from other authorities
before any transfers to / from other authorities
before any transfers to schools opting out

Exclude: pension fund reserves; HRA and housing repairs account balances; the Major Repairs Reserve; provisions; unused capital receipts; unapplied capital grants and other balances legally restricted to use for capital purposes; Collection Fund balances (of billing authorities).

Line 911 Schools’ Financial Reserves at 1 April and 31 March

Record those balances which a scheme, made under section 48 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, provides must be carried forward to be used for the purpose of schools. These amounts represent the amount of unspent schools’ budgets.

Line 912 Dedicated Schools Grant Adjustment account level at 1 April and 31 March

Government announced in the Local government finance policy statement 2023-24 to 2024-25 that it will be extending the Statutory Override for the Dedicated Schools Grant for the next 3 years from 2023-24 to 2025-26. This was confirmed in the Local government finance policy statement 2024 to 2025.

Paragraphs 14.1-14.4 of CIPFA Bulletin 10: Closure of the 2021/22 financial statements and paragraphs 52-64 of CIPFA’s Bulletin 09 year end closure 2020-21 refer.

Government announced in the Local government finance policy statement 2023-24 to 2024-25 that it will be extending the Statutory Override for the Dedicated Schools Grant for the next 3 years from 2023-24 to 2025-26.

Line 913 Estimated dedicated schools grant reserves at 1 April and 31 March

This must not be negative. Any negative balance should instead be recorded in line 912.

Line 914 Public Health Financial Reserves at 1 April and 31 March

There is no fixed limit on how much can be carried over to the next financial year, however, where there are large repeated underspends the Department of Health may decide to reduce allocations in future years.

This is a ring-fenced grant so any future spends from these reserves still have to be used for public health, and in line with the conditions on the grant, when they are subsequently used.

Line 915 Other Earmarked Financial Reserves at 1 April and 31 March

All usable reserves excluding those ringfenced for Public Health Grant, school’s or Dedicated Schools Grant and those included within unallocated reserves.

Sub-categories of total other earmarked financial reserves level

If a reserve is held that cuts across a number of categories (e.g. business rates related reserves), disaggregate and allocate proportions to categories where possible. If this is level of granularity is not feasible, please make approximations for the split, or decide the category based on the majority holding of the reserve e.g. if 90% falls under contractual commitment, label the entire sum as contractual commitments.

i. Line 1023: Earmarked reserves: Contractual commitments

Guidance: Record any contractual commitments such as PFI schemes, contracts for construction, or refurbishment.

ii. Line 1024 Earmarked reserves: Planned future revenue and capital spending

Guidance: Record any reserves held for planned future revenue spending. “Planned” may permissibly refer to timeframes beyond a year and should refer to future spend that is referenced in budgets or financial strategies. A formal commitment such as a business case is not a requirement to meet the criteria of “planned”. Also include planned capital spending financed by revenue reserves. Do not include unapplied capital grants or capital receipts.

iii. Line 1025 Earmarked reserves: Specific risks

Guidance: Only include reserves held for specific risks that can/could be named here. Reserves held for general contingency or to stabilise budget against a reduction or budget support.in funding should be reported either in unallocated reserves or in earmarked reserves: budget stabilisation

iv. Line 1026: Earmarked reserves: Budget stabilisation

Guidance: Record any earmarked reserves held to stabilise budget against a reduction in funding or pressures and risks inherent to the budget. These may include funds set aside to manage estimates within the budget, to level out payments over time, or address other non-controllable changes in the budget position specifically. Do not include any reserves held in unallocated reserves.

v. Line 1027: Earmarked reserves: Other

Guidance: any other earmarked reserves.

NB line 1027 is the sum of lines 1028, 1029 and 1030.

Exceptional elements within 1027 ‘Other earmarked reserves: Other’.

1028 - Other Earmarked reserves: due to authority’s share of expanded retail relief grants 2020-21 and 2021-22 for billing and precepting authorities.

1029 - Other Earmarked reserves: Authority’s share of COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund (2021-22) for billing and precepting authorities. See cell note and explanatory guidance document.

Items 1028 and 1029 have been retained since any balances may not have yet returned to zero. Please note:

The Key Points notes of previous years explained why these were included, and that the use of these lines was optional. They did not affect income/financing when taken together with line 870 (retained business rates income).
Where these lines have balances and these balances decrease, then the appropriation from reserves means that line 870 (retained business rates income) will be less than it would otherwise have been.

Line 1030 ‘Other earmarked reserves: other exceptional elements
If you record any amount in this line, you must enter a description into the box under the row description.

Line 916 Unallocated Financial Reserves at 1 April and 31 March

Those revenue reserves which have not been earmarked or ringfenced, and are available for unforeseen events.

Line 920 Prior Year Adjustments

This line is only for prior year adjustments, and must be distinguished from adjustments line 748.

Capital items

Include capital items on the GFRA, but not on internal and external Trading Services.

Line 931 Depreciation

The measure of the cost or revalued amount of the benefits of fixed assets consumed during the year of account.

Line 933 Loss on Impairment of assets

Unexpected downward shifts in the value of assets (eg major structural damage or technological obsolescence)

Line 934 Revaluations taken to surplus or deficit on the provision of services

Amounts for revaluations that are taken to the Consolidated Income and Expenditure Account (Surplus or Deficit on the Provision of Services). There can be gains as well as losses that are taken to this part of the C I & E Account.

Line 935 Credit for capital grants

Include any grant or contribution towards capital expenditure recognised as income in the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement. In the authority’s statement of accounts these are amounts that will be transferred to the Capital Adjustment Account in the Movement in Reserves Statement.

Line 936 Revenue Expenditure funded from Capital by Statute (RECS)

Expenditure which is classified as total amount of RECS funded from capital resources that under IFRS and normal accounting practice would be charged to Surplus or Deficit on the Provision of Services.

Line 943 Loss on impairment of loans to subsidiaries

Losses recognised in the statement of accounts in accordance with IFRS 9 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. Record only loans that score as capital under the Prudential Framework and are to authority owned subsidiaries. Subsidiary has the same meaning as defined in IAS 27 and interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting.

Line 944 Loss on impairment of loans to other parties (exc. subsidiaries)

Losses recognised in the statement of accounts in accordance with IFRS 9 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. Record only loans that score as capital under the Prudential Framework and which are not recorded under impairment of loans to subsidiaries.

Line 945 Gain/(loss) on fair value movements in investment properties

Fair value of movements in investment properties as recognised in the statement of accounts under IAS 40 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting.

Line 946 Gain/(loss) on fair value movements on equity in subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures

Fair value of movements in equity as recognised in the statement of accounts under IFRS 9 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. For equity investments in subsidiaries, associates and joint ventures only. Subsidiary, associate and joint venture has the same meaning as defined in IAS 27 and IAS 28 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting.

Line 947 Gain/(loss) on fair value movements on other investment assets

Fair value of movements in assets held at fair value as recognised in the statement of accounts under IFRS 9 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. For fair value movements on all financial assets not included in fair value movements on equity or investment properties recorded above.

Line 948 Gain/(loss) on financial derivatives

Fair value of movements in financial derivatives as recognised in the statement of accounts under IFRS 9 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. This will only include derivatives that are not part of effective hedging arrangements and the ineffective portion of otherwise effective hedges.

Line 939 Total capital items

This automatic calculation equals the sum of lines 931 to 936 and 943 to 948.

Equal pay costs

Line 941 One off equal pay costs - falling on the schools budget

Record information on all one off equal pay costs for all employees which fall on the Schools Budget as defined in the School Finance (England) Regulations. These costs should already be included elsewhere under the appropriate service heading in the RO suite of forms. Include all transitional, compensatory and back pay costs related to equal pay claims. It is understood that the powers to charge the financing costs of capitalised one off equal pay costs to the Schools Budget only apply from 2007-08 onwards.

Line 942 One off equal pay costs - chargeable to any other revenue account

Record information on all one off equal pay costs for all employees which are chargeable to any other revenue account (ie excluding the Schools Budget as defined in the School Finance (England) Regulations). These costs should already be included elsewhere under the appropriate service heading in the RO suite of forms. Include all transitional, compensatory and back pay costs related to equal pay claims but exclude all costs that are capitalised under a capitalisation direction. These capitalised costs should be included in row R03 in table Expenditure & Receipts 1E (E&R1E) in the Capital Outturn Return suite of forms.

Line 960 Please confirm the form is completed on non-IAS19 and PFI “Off-Balance Sheet” basis

The whole RO suite of forms should be completed on a non-International Accounting Standard 19 (non-IAS19) and PFI on an “off balance sheet” basis (except where specified).

Please select “YES” or “NO” from the drop down menu by clicking on the cell. Select “YES” to confirm the form is completed on non-IAS19 and PFI “Off-Balance Sheet” basis.

Housing Revenue Account (HRA)

Lines 980 to 983 are completed automatically with net total cost for total HRA income, total HRA expenditure, surplus or deficit on HRA services and HRA reserves, from RO4 form (relevant line totals on these forms are asterisked and cells carried forward are boxed in red).

Local Council Tax Support Scheme

This section should be completed by billing authorities only.

The questions that ask about ‘council tax foregone’ should be completed on an area basis and should include council tax foregone due to council tax support in the billing authority and all precepting authorities (ie police, fire, county, parish etc) within their area.

The individuals who complete your authorities Council Tax Requirement return early each spring may be better placed to provide the figures required in this section.

In lines 994 to 997, the definition of a pensioner is as set out in regulation 3 of the Council Tax Reduction Schemes (Prescribed Requirements) (England) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012 / 2885).

A person is a “pensioner” if—

(i) he has attained the qualifying age for state pension credit; and
(ii) he is not, or, if he has a partner, his partner is not—
(aa) a person on income support, on an income-based jobseeker’s allowance or on an income-related employment and support allowance; or
(bb) a person with an award of universal credit; and

A working age person is a “person who is not a pensioner” if—
(i) he has not attained the qualifying age for state pension credit; or
(ii) he has attained the qualifying age for state pension credit and he, or if he has a partner, his partner, is—
(aa) a person on income support, on income-based jobseeker’s allowance or an income-related employment and support allowance; or
(bb) a person with an award of universal credit

Line 994 Total council tax revenue foregone – pensioners

This number should be a monetary amount (£000).

It should be the difference between the amount of council tax pensioners would have been charged if your Local Council Tax Support scheme did not exist and the amount they are actually billed.

This figure should be the total amount of council tax forgone from 1 April to 31 March from every pensioner who receives a discount due to local council tax support.

Line 995 Total council tax revenue foregone - working age people

This number should be a monetary amount (£000).

It should be the difference between the amount of council tax working age people would have been charged if your Local Council Tax Support scheme did not exist and the amount they are actually billed.

This figure should be the total amount of council tax forgone from 1 April to 31 March from every working age claimant who receives a discount due to local council tax support.

Line 996 Total amount of council tax revenue foregone

This automatic calculation is the sum of lines 994 and 995.

Line 997 The total amount paid to local parishes (by the billing authority) with respect to their council tax support allocation

Please enter here the amount (in £000) that you distributed to parish councils in respect of income foregone due to council tax support reductions to bills from 1 April to 31 March. (Also see RO6 line 470).

Memorandum section on investment properties

Local authorities should record here information on all investment properties owned directly by the authority. This must include investment properties recorded in the TSR and the Revenue Outturn Summary.

Investments properties

Investment properties has the same meaning as defined in IAS 40 interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. Include only investment properties that are accounted for as the authority’s own assets i.e. not owned through companies or joint ventures.

Within LA boundary: Investment properties within the council’s electoral boundary area.
Outside boundary but with LEP: Investment properties within the bounds of the authority’s Local Economic Partnership region but outside the electoral boundary.
Outside LEP: Investment properties outside of the authority’s Local Economic Partnership area. Councils should provide a brief description of the rationale for any properties in this category, noting the intended rationale for the council holding these assets and the benefit for the council’s residents.

Income

Income from investment properties has the same meaning as income defined in IAS 40 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. The amount recorded should be the same as that recorded in the statement of accounts under the relevant disclosures.

Direct costs

Costs from investment properties has the same meaning as direct operating expenses defined in IAS 40 as interpreted by the CIPFA Code of Practice on Local Authority Accounting. The amount recorded should be the same as that recorded in the statement of accounts under the relevant disclosures.

Attributable Minimum Revenue Provision

Where there is outstanding financing associated with one or more of the authority’s investment properties, the council should record the associated MRP costs here. Where the council uses an asset life model to determine the MRP charge, the amount recorded here should be consistent with the amount of provision calculated for its investment property assets as recorded in the statement of accounts. If the council does not attribute MRP to specific assets, then the council should apply a reasonable apportionment of its total MRP costs to its investment assets; the amount apportioned should reflect the investment assets contribution to the authority’s outstanding capital financing requirement. An LA should only record no value here if none of its investment properties are financed by debt.

Attributable interest costs

Where the authority has external borrowing directly attributable to its investment properties, the interest cost should be recorded here. The interest cost should be the same as recognised under proper accounting practices in the statement of accounts. Where the authority has external borrowing, but cannot attribute specific loans to the investment properties, it should apply a reasonable apportionment of the relevant interest costs to its investment properties; the amount apportioned should reflect the investment assets contribution to the authority’s external borrowing.

Total costs

Sum of direct and financing costs.

Net Income

Income less Total costs.

Question 8

RG: Specific and special revenue grants

Accepted Answer

Local Services Support Grant (LSSG): This should be excluded from this form. The total of LSSG should be reported as income on the Revenue Summary (RS) form on line 803. Please refer the RS guidance notes for details.

1. Lists of revenue grants within and outside AEF

The lists of revenue grants given here are not comprehensive, so space has been left in the memorandum boxes that populate lines 698 and 798 to record and identify any other grants received.

2. Inclusions

All specific and special revenue grants taken to the General Fund Revenue Account (GFRA), Trading Account Services or DLO/DSO accounts, except those listed under “exclusions” at the end of this notes.

Also include grants transferred to other accounts from the GFRA, eg. Mandatory Rent Allowances.

3. No negative entries

No negative entries are expected anywhere on the RG form. When these figures are carried over to the Revenue Summary (RS) form they are automatically converted to negative / income figures.

A. Grants within AEF (aggregate external finance)

Generally these are revenue grants which are paid to local authorities by individual government departments, for which the local authority has sole responsibility for decisions on how the grant is allocated. The main purpose for the provision of these grants is to deliver core local authority services.

Line 102 Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) - DfE

Grant paid under Section 14 of the Education Act 2002 to local authorities in support of Schools Budgets. The figure should agree with that entered on the local authority’s Section 251 budget statement for this year. See the terms and conditions of the DSG and technical guidance.

This figure has been pre-populated using the latest available published allocation figures. However in any instance where this figure differs with your own please overwrite this figure and add a comment to the memo.

Line 103 Pupil Premium Grant - DfE

The Pupil Premium is provided to help raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap with their peers, and to support children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces. It is available to pupils who are currently eligible for Free School Meals or have been in any of the previous 6 years, children looked after for over 6 months, children adopted from care, and service children. See the rates for 2023-24.

Line 107 Universal Infants Free School Meals - DfE

The universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) grant enables schools to provide free school meals to all pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2. See information on how the grant will be paid to local authorities for maintained schools.

Line 313 Public Health Grant - DHSC

The public health grant is being provided to give local authorities the funding needed to discharge their new public heath responsibilities. The funds are to be used to:

improve the health of local populations
carry out health protection functions delegated from the Secretary of State
reduce health inequalities across the life course, including within hard to reach groups
ensure the provision of population healthcare advice

The grant will be made to upper-tier and unitary local authorities in England and paid in quarterly instalments. Expenditure from the grant should comply with the Conditions that have been placed on how it can be used. The grant is recorded on line 313 in the RG form and is prepopulated with the final allocations for the year.

Authorities in receipt of the Public Health Grant should ensure that all spend from this ringfenced grant is accounted for.

This can be through Public Health expenditure (RO3 line 90), through Capital Expenditure from the Revenue Account (CERA) for public health (RS line 766) and through appropriations to the public health reserves (RS line 814).

Essentially, the sum of RO3 line 90 (column 7), RS line 766 and RS line 814 must be greater than or equal to the grant recorded in RG line 313

This grant is in recognition of pressures on adult and children’s social care. The allocations have been pre-populated from the Core Spending Power Supporting Information table.

Line 317 Rural Services Delivery Grant - DLUHC

The 2023-24 settlement confirms that the Rural Services Delivery Grant will continue to be £85 million in 2023-24. See grant allocations (Excel, 1.17MB).

Line 323 Improved Better Care Fund - DLUHC

The allocations have been pre-populated from the Core Spending Power Supporting Information.

The iBCF was first announced in the 2015 Spending Review, and is a paid as a direct grant to local government, with a condition that it is pooled into the local BCF plan. See iBCF questions and answers.

The BCF is the national programme, through which local areas agree how to spend a local pooled budget in accordance with the programme’s national requirements. The pooled budget is made up of CCG funding as well as local government grants, of which one is the Improved Better Care Fund (iBCF). NB Whereas iBCF is a grant and thus shown in form RG, BCF funds from CCGs is shown as ‘other income’ in RO3.

Line 329 Lower Tier Services Grant

Un-ring-fenced Lower Tier Services Grant in 2022-23 with responsibility for lower tier services (for example, homelessness, planning, recycling and refuse collection, and leisure services) The allocations have been pre-populated from the Core Spending Power Supporting Information table.

Line 330 Former Independent Living Fund Recipient Grant - DLUHC

The purpose of the grant is to enable local authorities to continue to support service users previously in receipt of the ILF. See further information on the grant.

Line 331 Market Sustainability and Improvement Fund

Find further information

Line 338 Services grant

As announced in the 2023-24 Local Government Finance Settlement.

Line 401 Homelessness Prevention Grant (includes winter top-up)

This grant totals £432.2 million for 2023-24, including a £109 million in-year top up. This also includes an additional £9.8 million to cover the cost of new burdens associated with the expansion of priority need to those forced into homelessness by domestic abuse, following the landmark Domestic Abuse Act 2021

Line 406 Housing Benefit Subsidy Admin Grant - DWP

This includes grants toward the costs of administering the Housing Benefit schemes, including the additional amounts provided solely for the purpose of assisting local authorities in their statutory duties to administer and process Housing Benefit claims and directly related enquiries during the economic downturn.

Line 540 New Homes Bonus - DLUHC

The New Homes Bonus is a grant paid by central government to local councils to reflect and incentivise housing growth in their areas.

It is based on the amount of extra Council Tax revenue raised for new-build homes, conversions and long-term empty homes brought back into use. There is also an extra payment for providing affordable homes.

See allocations.

Find background on the policy.

Line 545 The Private Finance Initiative (PFI) - DLUHC

Record the support given for the revenue expenditure which is incurred in meeting payments to contractors for the capital element of new projects undertaken through the PFI.

Line 575 Rough sleeping initiative

In 2022, the government announced an investment of up to £500 million in funding to local authorities across England under the first multi-year funding for the Rough Sleeping Initiative (2022 to 2025). The Rough Sleeping Initiative 2022-25 funding has supported local authorities in delivering local and tailored rough sleeping services to give those in need the best chance of a safe and sustainable life off the streets. In September 2023, an additional £13.1 million of funding was allocated across the 5 London cross-council partnerships and a further 121 local authorities, to support local areas to respond to the pressures they are experiencing. This additional funding was to support areas in providing critical resources to address pressures this winter, enhance existing services, and create more opportunities to encourage people who are sleeping rough repeatedly or long term to accept offers of support. Rough Sleeping Initiative: 2022 to 2025 updated funding allocations

Line 656 Police Officer Uplift grant

The data collection form was pre-populated with provisional allocations since these were available in time for this form. Allocations for Police Uplift Programme grant are due to updated in Summer 2024. Once the updated grant amount is known, authorities should overwrite the pre-populated value and resubmit their form with the updated figure if it is materially different.

Line 698 Other Grants within AEF

Specific Grants inside AEF - These are revenue grants which are paid to local authorities by individual government departments, for which the local authority has sole responsibility for decisions on how the grant is allocated. The main purpose for the provision of these grants is to deliver core local authority services.

Record any grant within AEF for which there is no specific line in the RG form on Memorandum Box A including:

Line 801 Primary PE and Sport Premium - DfE

Grant paid under section 14 of the Education Act 2002 which local authorities are required to pass on to maintained schools. The grant must be spent by schools on improving the provision of PE and sport for the benefit of pupils so that they develop healthy lifestyles. See detailed conditions of grant.

Line 802 Promote Innovation in the Delivery of Children’s Services - DfE

The Children’s Social Care Innovation Programme supports the development, testing and spreading of more effective ways of supporting children who need help from children’s social care services. Whilst all ideas relevant to children’s social care will be welcome, the Programme has two main focus areas:

Rethinking children’s social work – improving the quality and impact of children’s social work
Rethinking support for adolescents in or on the edge of care – improving the quality and impact of services which provide a stable effective launch pad for adolescents to transition successfully into adulthood

Funding is available to LAs, charities and anyone with ideas for improvements in children’s social care.

Line 803 KS2 Monitoring and Moderation - DfE

Since 2013 local authorities have had a statutory duty to moderate Key Stage 2 teacher assessment judgements in writing in 25% of their schools. Formula funding is being provided in recognition of the new duty.

Line 804 Phonics Screening Check -DfE

Since 2012 local authorities have had a statutory duty to monitor administration of the phonics screening check in 10% of their schools and to collect schools’ data for submission to DfE. Formula funding is provided in recognition that this is a new duty from 2012.

Line 805 SEND Implementation Grant - DfE

To fund transition costs and new burdens for local authorities as a result of Bill reforms, including Personal Budgets Local Offer and Education Health and Care plans.

Line 806 Staying Put Grant - DfE

Grant relates to new legal duty on local authorities to provide financial support for every young person who wants to stay with their foster parents until their 21st birthday.

Line 807 Metropolitan Railway Passenger Services (include NEXUS Tyne and Wear Metro) - DfT

Payments to Integrated Transport Authorities to support PTE-secured rail services.

Line 808 Merseytravel - DfT

Grant for Merseytravel PTE to cover the subsidy element of the Merseyrail Electrics rail network funding under a concession let by Merseytravel ITA. Paid in turn by the PTE to the Merseyrail Electrics concessionaire.

Line 809 Local Sustainable Transport Fund - DfT

The Department for Transport established a Local Sustainable Transport Fund to challenge local authorities outside London to bid for funding to support packages of transport interventions that support economic growth and reduce carbon emissions in their communities as well as delivering cleaner environments and improved air quality, enhanced safety and reduced congestion.

Line 810 Bus Service Operator’s Grant - Local Authority Bus Subsidy Ring-Fenced (Revenue) Grant - DfT

Line 811 Better Bus Areas - DfT

The way that government supports bus services in England is being reformed through the Department for Transport Bus Service Operators Grant (BSOG) system. See guidance on BSOG and Better Bus Areas.

Line 812 Local Reform and Community Voices - DHSC

The new Local Reform and Community Voices Grant is comprised of 5 funding streams:

additional funding for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DOLS) in Hospitals
additional local Health watch funding
funding for the transfer of Independent Complaints Advocacy Service (ICAS) to local authorities
funding for the transfer of Independent Mental Health Advocacy (IMHA) to local authorities
funding for the veterans Guaranteed Income Payments (GIPs) social care charges exemption

Line 813 Housing Benefit Reform Transitional Funding - DWP

This is an additional grant to allow local authorities to proactively support people during the transition period of Housing Benefit reforms.

A grant towards the cost of administering the localised Social Fund programme funding.

Line 815 Right to Control Trailblazers - DWP

The Right to Control is a new legal right for disabled people. It gives disabled people more choice and control over the support they need to go about their daily lives. Disabled adults living in seven test areas will be able to combine the support they receive from six different sources and decide how best to spend the funding to meet their needs. Seven local authority areas are testing the Right to Control are:

Essex County Council
Leicester City Council
London Borough of Barnet
London Borough of Newham
Surrey County Council (two parts only: Epsom and Ewell Borough Council and Reigate and Banstead Borough Council)
Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council and Sheffield City Council
Greater Manchester (including Manchester City Council, Oldham Council, Bury Council, Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council and Trafford Council)

Line 816 Neighbourhood Planning Front Runners - DLUHC

The purpose of the grant is to provide assistance to local planning authorities to engage with a process of neighbourhood-level planning and to support the delivery of new neighbourhood development plans – these are a central element of the Government’s Big Society programme. The grant is needed to cover the new burdens placed upon local planning authorities by the Localism Act.

Line 817 Greater London Authority Settlement - DLUHC

The settlement for the Greater London Authority is to reflect its new housing and regeneration responsibilities from April 2012. These new responsibilities, as a result of the London reforms in the Localism Act 2011, represent a major decentralisation of power away from Whitehall to London government, enabling the capital to manage their own affairs. The London reforms will:

devolve the activities of the Homes and Communities Agency in London to the Authority
abolish the London Development Agency and fold in its activities to the Authority
enable the Mayor of London to establish a Mayoral Development Corporation to oversee the long-term development of the Olympic Park and surrounding area

Line 818 Preventing Repossessions Fund - DLUHC

The Preventing Repossession Fund, which is being allocated to every local housing authority in England, enables them to offer struggling homeowners small interest-free loans of less than £5,000 or grants to help ease debt pressures and give them the breathing space to get back top of their finances.

Line 819 Court Desk Revenue Grant - DLUHC

The funding will be distributed to 51 local authorities to commission a Court Desk scheme at their county court where one is not already provided independently or via the Legal Services Commission.

Line 820 Transition to capped costs - DLUHC

Line 821 Deferred payments - DLUHC

Line 823 Troubled Families Grants - DLUHC Various grants paid through troubled families including dedicated Troubled Families Co-ordinators, and a mix of upfront fees to attach troubled families and result payments.

Line 824 Coastal Communities Fund - DLUHC

A grant going to projects which create jobs and bring new business opportunities to coastal communities.

Line 825 New Homes Bonus: Returned Funding

This is funding that was originally held back from the Local Government Finance Settlement to fund the New Homes Bonus. As outlined in the summer 2012 Business Rates Retention: Technical Consultation any funding that was not used for this purpose has been returned to local authorities pro-rata to their 2013-14 start-up funding allocation.

Line 826 Fire Revenue Grant - DLUHC

Funding provided to Fire and Rescue Authorities to cover additional costs associated with enhancing national resilience such as New Dimension and FireLink.

Line 827 Council Tax Support Admin Subsidy - DLUHC

Line 829 Weekly Collection Support Scheme - DLUHC

The Weekly Collection Support Scheme is a challenge fund available to support local authorities in delivering better weekly collections of household waste and recycling.

Line 830 Digital Partners Programme - DLUHC

A grant to London Borough of Camden to support the Digital Partners Programme. The purpose of the programme is to support effective online services for citizens through GOV.UK, to provide local authorities and other partners with daily updates of central government news and information and to encourage and support local authorities to adopt and implement the digital by default strategy.

Line 831 Innovation Challenge Award - DLUHC

The Grant is made-up of two elements. The first (likely funding £2.3m) is a ‘reward’ element for the 7 authorities who are eligible to bid for the Efficiency Support Grant who demonstrate rapid progress on their efficiency plans. The second element (a total of £6.9m) is a fund available to all councils who can bid for funds on the basis that they are on the right track to sharing management functions.

Line 832 Community Right to Challenge - DLUHC

New Burdens payments towards funding the administration required to implement the Community Right to Challenge provisions in the Localism Act 2011.

Line 833 Community Right to Bid - DLUHC

New Burdens payments towards funding the administration required to implement the Assets of Community Value (Community Right to Bid) provisions in the Localism Act 2011.

Line 835 Commons Pioneer Authorities - Defra

The grant is to pay for the processing costs of the estimated number of public interest-type applications to be received by the authority. Public interest applications are free to applicants.

Line 836 National Parks & Broads - Defra

Grant paid to National Park Authorities and the Broads Authority.

Line 837 Commons Registration Authorities - Defra

The grant is to pay for the processing costs of the estimated number of public interest-type applications to be received by the authority and other implementation costs which are not recoverable by fees. Public interest applications are free to applicants.

Line 838 Bathing Water Regulations 2013 - Defra

The Bathing Water Regulations 2013 grant is paid to 75 local authorities plus 8 town or parish councils that are responsible for bathing waters; the amounts paid depend on how many bathing waters there are in their area.

Line 839 Asylum Seekers - Home Office

The Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) Grant sets out the conditions under which local authorities may claim reimbursement of the costs they incur in supporting and caring for UASC up to £95 per night for an under 16 and £71 for a 16/17 year old. A UASC is defined as an individual, who is under 18, has applied for asylum in his/her own right, is separated from both parents and is not being cared for by an adult who by law or custom has responsibility to do so.

The UASC Leaving Care Costs Grant is intended to assist local authorities to meet the costs of supporting young people (over 18) who were unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC) and who are now “former relevant children” within the meaning of section 23C(1) of the Children Act 1989. It is in addition to other sources of support that may be available to young people aged 18 or over and is a contribution to Local Authority costs. It will not generally affect individuals’ entitlements to other assistance.

Line 840 Counter Terrorism - Home Office

A grant to ensure that the police have the necessary resources to respond to the changing demands posed by the terrorist threat.

Line 841 Police Transformation Fund - Home Office

Grants awarded to Police & Crime Commissioners to incentivise collaboration, support improved police ICT and digital working and enable investment in other innovative delivery approaches with the potential to improve policing and deliver further efficiency in the future.

Line 842 Health Premium Incentive Scheme (HPIS) - Public Health England

Select local authorities qualified for the Health Premium Incentive Scheme (HPIS) payment. Those who received their payments should record this here and any of the HPIS receipt spent during the year should be reported as usual in the appropriate category on the RO3 form.

If this money was not spent in the financial year, the HPIS payment received (which is ring-fenced) should be included in Line 814 of the RS: Revenue Outturn Summary – “Appropriations to / from public health financial reserves”.

B. Grants outside AEF

Generally these are revenue grants, which are paid to local authorities by individual government departments. However, the local authority usually only acts as the ‘middle person’, as the grants are passed over to a third party who administers the service. The local authority does not normally have any control over the service for which the grant was intended for. This responsibility rests solely with the third party that receives the grant.

Line 715 Adult and Community Learning from Education and Skills Funding Agency

Grants made by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (previously Skills Funding Agency) for Adult Safeguarded Learning (Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities, Personal and Community Development Learning, Wider Family Learning and Family Literacy, Language & Numeracy) and Formal First Step provision.

Line 716 Sixth Form Funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency - DfE

Grants made by the EFA to fund places for 16-19 year olds in maintained school sixth forms. See latest guidance.

Line 745 Mandatory Rent Allowances: subsidy - DWP

Record the subsidies received towards the cost of those tenants living in private rented accommodation who qualify for a rent allowance covering the whole or part of their rent (depending on their financial circumstances).

Line 746 Mandatory Rent Rebates outside HRA: subsidy - DWP

Record the Subsidies received towards the cost of Rent Rebates paid for accommodation which is not covered by part VI of the Local Government and Housing Act 1989. This will include (amongst others) such accommodation as used for homeless people in board and lodging, accommodation held on a licence agreement by an authority, accommodation held on a lease of no more than 10 years, and local authority owned hostels and caravan sites.

Line 747 Rent Rebates Granted to HRA Tenants: subsidy - DWP

Record the subsidies received towards the cost of those tenants living in HRA accommodation who qualify for a rent rebates covering the whole or part of their rent (depending on their financial circumstances).

Line 798 Other grants outside AEF

Specific Grants outside AEF - These are revenue grants, which are paid to local authorities by individual government departments. However, the local authority usually only acts as the ‘middle person’, as the grants are passed over to a third party who administers the service. The local authority does not normally have any control over the service for which the grant was intended for. This responsibility rests solely with the third party that receives the grant.

Record any grants outside AEF for which there is no specific line on the RG form in Memorandum Box B including:

Line 901 The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund - DfE

The 16 to 19 Bursary Fund provides targeted financial support for young people aged 16 to 19 to ensure they can continue to participate. The majority of the fund is allocated to institutions for them to distribute according to need. A small proportion of the fund is paid to local authorities for them to distribute set amounts to local maintained schools; in line with EFA arrangements for all school sixth form funding. Local authorities may also have their own 16 to 19 Bursary allocation; if they are engaged, for example, in mainstream delivery on behalf of the Education Funding Agency. Local authorities may also be given a small pot of 16 to 19 Bursary Funding that they can distribute to any 16-19 maintained special schools that are not in receipt of EFA funding and therefore have no other access to the 16-19 Bursary Fund.

Line 902 Discretionary Housing Payments (DHPs) - DWP

Record the amount of the government contribution towards Discretionary Housing Payments that has been spent.

Line 903 Housing Acts/ Urban Developments - contributions towards cost of loan charges - DLUHC

Contributions towards the cost of loan charges incurred by local authorities in respect of:

grants they have made under the Home Improvement Grant system
costs of environmental works in General Improvement Areas and in Housing Action Areas (including enveloping schemes)
costs of giving mandatory assistance to eligible private owners of designated defective dwellings sold by the public sector
costs relating to the conversion or improvement of their non HRA dwellings
losses incurred in the exercise of their slum clearance functions. Most of these grants were commuted on 1 October 1992 ###Line 904 Local Enterprise Partnerships Core Funding - DLUHC A grant for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) to drive forward their growth priorities, allow them to do long-term resource planning and strengthen support and autonomy of the business led boards. This is paid through non-ringfenced section 31 grant to the designated local authorities acting as the accountable body.

Line 905 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) - Defra

The grant is to support local authorities in delivering their duties as set out in the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000 in respect of England’s 34 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs). It is paid to 32 ‘host’ authorities who collect it on behalf of all the local authorities with an interest in a particular AONB (around a total of 130 local authorities in all).

Line 906 Further Education funding from Skills Funding Agency - other 19+ funding - BEIS

Grants made by the Skills Funding Agency for Adult Skills provision (classroom and work based provision including apprenticeships) and associated additional learning support and learner support.

Line 907 Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) Payments - BEIS

Payments made by the Higher Education Funding Council for England to local authorities, for staff related (Crombie payments) and other inherited liabilities of higher education institutions formerly under LEA control.

Line 908 Regional Growth Fund (Revenue) - BEIS

D. Exclusions

Work Choice: This should be reported as income on the RS form on appropriate service line. Local Services Support Grant (LSSG): This should be reported as income on the RS form on line 803. Please refer the RS guidance notes for details.

Improved Better Care Fund (iBCF) and Better Care Fund (BCF): The BCF is the national programme, through which local areas agree how to spend a local pooled budget in accordance with the programme’s national requirements. The BCF income from Clinical Commissioning groups is not a grant income but an income to be netted off the appropriate service line on the RO form. See details on the Better Care Fund and the Better Care Fund policy statement.

The pooled budget is made up of CCG funding as well as local government grants, of which one is the Improved Better Care Fund (iBCF). The iBCF was first announced in the 2015 Spending Review, and is a paid as a direct grant to local government, with a condition that it is pooled into the local BCF plan. See iBCF questions and answers.

Lottery Funding is not a grant; it should be netted off expenditure recorded on appropriate RO form line.

Magistrates’ Courts are now the responsibilities of HM Courts Service (HMCS).

NDR allowance is not a grant; it should be netted off expenditure recorded on RO6 form line 426, “Non-domestic rates collection”.

Landfill Allowance Trading Scheme is not a grant. Income and expenditure in relation to landfill allowance to be recorded on RO5 form Line 282.

Firefighters’ pension top up grant should not be included in the RO forms as it is paid to the Firefighters’ Pension Fund.

Police pension top-up grant should not be included in the RG form. The payment by Secretary of State should be shown as income in the total police services line 100 on the RO6 form. The transfer into the Police Pension Fund should be shown as expenditure in the same total police services line. Where the payment goes the other way the flows are in reverse ie the payment to the Secretary of State is expenditure and the transfer from the Police Pension Fund is income. The net effect in the total police services line on the RO form would be nil.

National International and Capital City Grant is a single payment to the Greater London Authority on behalf of the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime which is included in the Police Core Settlement which is included on the RS line 856.

Question 9

SAR: Subjective analysis return

Accepted Answer

The Department’s letter of 15 January 2015 ‘Reducing Data Burdens on Local Authorities’ recommended that employees costs section (Part A) is retained as an annual form, but Running Expenses (Part B) and Income (Part C) are only required every 3 years.

SAR parts B and C will next be in scope for RO 2025-26.

1. The Subjective Analysis Return (SAR) is an extension of the subjective analysis in the General Fund Revenue Account Outturn suite. In principle, therefore, its totals are designed to agree with the Employees, Running Expenses and Total Income on the individual RO forms, and the Total Service Expenditure line on the RSX form.

2. Please refer therefore to the RO general guidance notes, as well as the following notes. Information on the Housing Revenue Account is not required. The subjective analysis is defined, as far as is possible, in terms of CIPFA’s Recommended Standard Subjective Analysis in the Service Reporting Code of Practice (SeRCOP).

Objective analysis

3. The SAR objective analysis should correspond to the divisions inherent in the RO suite of forms, as below; see the Validation Checklist for details.

General guidance

4. Price base

Actuals are to be included at Outturn price levels.

5. Transactions between local authorities

Expenditure incurred when acting as an agent for another local authority:

should be analysed subjectively in Parts A and B
the reimbursement income should be shown at Part C, within line 66

Authorities making reimbursements to another authority acting as their agent should return a single entry at Part B, line 54:

NB wherever possible, this should agree with the related income returned by the agent authority.

6. Joint financing with health authorities/ fishery bodies/outside bodies

Local authorities should report the total cost of schemes jointly financed with Health Authorities, etc, on the appropriate RO forms, and consequently on this SAR form:

direct expenditure by the authority should be recorded on the appropriate running expenses line
contributions received from the outside body should be recorded within line 66 ‘all other income’
contributions paid by the authority when another authority is incurring the direct expenditure should be recorded in line 58

7. Agency work on behalf of central government and regional health authorities

Expenditure and income in respect of work carried out as agents eg on behalf of government departments, should not be reported on the individual RO forms nor on this SAR form. This includes:

motorways
trunk roads
reception centres
youth employment
vehicle licence administration
supply of teaching staff and related services in penal establishments

8. Management and support services

a. Wherever possible the employee and running costs incurred by management and support services providers should be analysed subjectively within Parts A and B of the form; this will, however, depend upon the way in which these services are structured within the authority.

b. Where management and support services are provided ‘within a service’ (eg where a unit providing financial support services to a department is actually based within that department), then the subjective analysis of the cost of these services should be recorded within that service column.

c. Where ‘central’ management and support services are recharged out to individual services, then the costs incurred by the recipients of these ‘central’ services should be recorded on line 62 in the appropriate column. Costs incurred by central management and support service providers should be analysed subjectively in column 9.

d. The income received by ‘central’ management and support services providers for charging their services out, should also be recorded in column 1, on line 65 ‘Recharges’.

NB This line should include any income arising from the sale of management and support services to non-General Fund areas.

9. Specific grants

The expenditure recorded should be gross of specific and special revenue grants.

10. Subjective analysis and the CIPFA standard form

In accordance with the CIPFA Recommended Standard Subjective Analysis (as found in SeRCOP), actual expenditure on employees’ pay, and related employers’ costs, should be shown in Part A, under the appropriate category of staff. The remaining expenditure should, wherever possible, be analysed in detail over the appropriate subjective heads in Part B (eg equipment, vehicles etc). The costs of employing agency staff should be recorded to be consistent with Revenue Outturn and DfE Section 251 returns. Where there is some doubt as to the correct line for a particular subjective type of expenditure, the guiding principle should be to group together those items which are likely to be affected by the same inflationary trends.

11. General

Where actuals are not prepared in the detail required by this return, apportionments should be made on the best possible information. Credit entries should be preceded by a negative (-) sign.

Specific notes

Part A: Pay estimates – direct employee expenses

12. This corresponds to Group 1 of the SeRCOP Standard Subjective Analysis and includes:

Total salaries
Employer’s National Insurance contributions,
Employer’s retirement benefit costs and
Location allowances

They are to be shown separately for each group of staff detailed in section 13 below.

Important Note: Agency staff should NOT be included in Part A. They should be included in Part B: running expenses (Line 57). (Refer to the RO general guidance notes).

a. Lines 1, 6 and 11: Total salaries – These lines should include basic pay, overtime payments, pay related bonuses, back pay, all allowances such as service allowances, special allowances, shift allowances, excluding location allowances (these should be included in lines 4,9 and 14).

b. Lines 2, 7 and 12: Employer’s National Insurance contributions – These lines should be the Employer’s contribution only.

c. Lines 3, 8 and 13: Employer’s Retirement Benefit Cost – These lines should cover the employers’ contributions for all schemes, and any payments carried directly by the GFRA. In the case of the police and firefighters’ schemes show only transfers to the relevant pension fund net of (in the case of the police scheme) any top up grant taken to GFRA.

Transactions within the police and firefighters’ pension funds, including transfers, employee contributions and (in the case of the firefighters’ scheme) top up grants from central government, should not be shown in these lines

d. Lines 4, 9 and 14: Location allowances – London weighting, London allowances and any other regional allowances paid for location should all be included here.

13. The subjective analysis by type of employee is intended to reflect the broad pay negotiating groups. The service to which the employee expenditure in the RO has been allocated should be reflected in the SAR service breakdown. Where there appears to be conflict between a functional classification and the appropriate negotiating group, the latter should prevail eg if National Joint Council for Local Government Services (NJCLGS) staff were working in Fire Control Rooms, they should be recorded in Part A, lines 11-15 (All Other Staff), not lines 6-9 (Fire).

If you are unsure as to where an employee should be included, please email lgf1.revenue@levellingup.gov.uk.

a. Lines 1 to 5: Teachers Group

Include the following groups not covered under NJCLGS:

All school teachers in maintained primary, secondary and special schools, as specified in the DfE School Workforce Census return
Further Education staff employed by LEAs in adult education (mainly part time) -Teachers in Residential Establishments

Important Note: Any non-teaching staff in education other than those listed above, should be included in All Other Staff Group.

b. Lines 6 to 10: Police & Fire Group

Include the following groups not covered under NJCLGS:

Police Service: ACPO Ranks; Chief Superintendents; Superintendents; Chief Inspectors; Inspectors; Sergeants and Constables and any other uniformed Police Staff (excluding Police Community Support Officers, Traffic Wardens and Designated Officers)

Important Note: Any non-uniformed Police Staff other than those listed above, should be included in All Other Staff Group.

Fire & Rescue Service: Full Time Officers & Fire-fighters
Retained Fire-fighters
Chief Fire Officers
Fire Control Room Staff (excluding those under NJCLGS)

c. Lines 11 to 15: All Other Staff Group

This is anyone who is not covered by the Teachers and Fire and Police negotiating groups and includes:

All non teaching education support staff under NJCLGS
Soulbury Committee
Youth & Community Workers
NJCLGS Fire Support Staff
Any Fire Control Room staff under NJCLGS
Police Community Support Officers, Traffic Wardens and Designated Officers
Any other non-uniformed Police Staff
Chief Officers and Chief Executives (except Chief Police and Fire Officers)
Workshops for the Blind Staff
Craftworkers within scope of the Joint Negotiating Committee for Local Authority Craft and Associated Employees
Any other staff not listed here, but covered under NJCLGS

d. Miscellaneous Categories of Staff - Miscellaneous categories of staff not listed under any of the main negotiating groups above (including staff on locally agreed scales) should be included within the estimates of pay for those categories of staff to which their scales are linked or related.

e. Line 16: Other Pay Related Costs – Indirect employee expenses

Include:

training, relocation and interview expenses; staff advertising; employee related insurance
the cost of any gratuities and severance payments (includes redundancy payments) charged direct to the General Fund
Employee related schemes

Part B and C will be next required for 2025-26.

Part B: Running expenses

Note that SAR Part B relates to the Running Expenses column in RO1-RO6 and RSX.

The subjective analysis should follow the CIPFA Service Reporting Code of Practice (SeRCOP) Recommended Standard Subjective Analysis.

This includes all running costs expenditure on goods, services and contractors, directly related to premises and land. It corresponds to Group 2 of the Standard Subjective Analysis. Include:

the cost of materials
charges from eg architects, engineers and surveyors
expenditure on energy conservation, and health & safety

Expenditure on, for example, contracted out services relating to repairs, alterations and maintenance of buildings go in line 18, not in other premises related expenditure (line 28).

This includes all costs connected with the provision hire or use of transport for employees and clients. Include pooled transport costs, travelling allowances, home to school/college transport, and transport for social care clients. It corresponds to Group 3 of the Standard Subjective Analysis. The costs of paying private contractors to support public transport services and for concessionary fares schemes should be recorded in line 58.

Lines 38 to 53 Supplies and services

This includes all direct supplies and services expenditure incurred by the authority. It corresponds to Group 4 of the Standard Subjective Analysis.

Line 39 Catering

Include food and drink, and expenditure on contract catering.

Line 41 Printing, stationery and general office expenses

Include schools’ administrative supplies expenditure.

Line 42 Communications and computing - Postage, Telephone, Computer Costs and Other

Include postage, telephone, radio and computer costs. Include operating leases, charges for central computing facilities, and non-capitalised IT support.

Line 48 Insurance

All insurance not recorded in lines 16, 27 and 35.

Line 52 Other Supplies and Services

Include services to pupils, clients and others not recorded elsewhere. Private Finance Initiative and Public-Private Partnership expenditure that has not been recorded elsewhere should also be included here.

Lines 54 to 60 Third party payments

This includes payments to third party providers of Local Authority Services, as defined in Section 4 of the CIPFA Service Reporting Code of Practice (SeRCOP). It corresponds to Group 5 of the Standard Subjective Analysis. Where the service being contracted relates to categories of expenditure in groups 2-4 of the Standard Subjective Analysis, then the expenditure is included in lines 18-53 as appropriate.

Include in private contractors and other agencies:

government departments
voluntary associations where they are providing a contracted service
private contractors
other (non-local authority) agency and contracted services

Line 55 Payments to voluntary bodies

Include here payments to eg clubs and societies. London Boroughs should include their contributions to the London Boroughs Grants Committee of the Association of London Government.

Voluntary bodies are non-governmental organisations that are value-driven and which principally reinvest their surpluses to further social, environmental or cultural objectives.

Line 56 Professional services

Include legal, accountancy, audit, management consultancy etc

Line 57 Agency staff

HM Treasury guidance, which has been followed by DfE in the S251 data collection from schools, is for expenditure on agency staff to be counted as running expenses. However, the CIPFA SeRCOP includes agency staff in employee costs. The suggested solution is for Local Authorities to be consistent with what they do on the S251 and RO forms.

Line 58 Private contractors and other agencies: other

Examples to be included here:

Education: bought in professional services related to the curriculum
Social care: purchased care for clients
Local transport: support for public transport services, concessionary fares
Waste: refuse collection and disposal
Recreation: sports and leisure facilities

Line 59 Internal Trading Organisations

These will typically be organisations funded mainly through contracts with local authority departments, with the authority funding any loss, or receiving any surplus at the end of each year. It is possible, however, that some - but not more than 50% - of their funding might come from contracts with other local authorities or the private sector. Most will be Direct Labour/Service Organisations, but services which were not subject to CCT may be provided on a similar basis, and should be included in this category.

Line 61 Total Transfer Payments (Discretionary)

This will generally comprise three elements:

rent allowances and rebates in excess of statutory schemes (RO4 lines 51, 52 and 53)
non mandatory education awards, including those paid to school pupils and students in further education (part of RO1 line 65)
payments to social care clients

See also the validation checklist attached.

Line 62 Expenditure on Management and Support Services

Where ‘central’ management and support services are recharged out to individual services, then the costs incurred by the recipients of these ‘central’ services should be recorded here, in the appropriate column. Costs incurred by central management and support service providers should be analysed subjectively in column 4.

Part C: Income

Income should be shown separately in Part C (lines 64 to 67). It corresponds to Group 9 of the Standard Subjective Analysis.

Note that Part C relates to the sales, fees and charges and other income columns in RO1-RO6 and RSX.

Line 65 Recharges

Wherever possible and appropriate, management and support services expenditure should be recharged to specific services, and shown in the appropriate service column within Part B, Running Expenses; the corresponding recharged income to management and support services should be entered here.

Validation checks

A. Arithmetic checks (for Lines 1 to 63)

Column 1, Total All Services = the total of columns 2 to 9 for lines 1 to 17.
Column 1, Total All Services = the total of columns 2 to 4 for lines 18 to 63.

B. Arithmetic checks (for all columns)

Line 5, Total Teachers Group = the total of lines 1 to 4.
Line 10, Total Police & Fire Group = the total of lines 6 to 9.
Line 15, Total All Other Staff Group = the total of lines 11 to 14.
Line 17, Total Part A = the total of lines 5 + 10 + 15 + 16.
Line 29, Total Premises Expenses = the total of lines 18 to 28.
Line 37, Total Transport Expenses = the total of lines 30 to 36.
Line 53, Total Supplies/Services = the total of lines 38 to 52.
Line 60, Total Third Party Payments = the total of lines 54 to 59.
Line 63, Total Part B = the total of lines 29 + 37 + 53 + 60 + 61 + 62.
Line 67, Total Part C = the total of lines 64 to 66.

C. Cross checks

a) Line 17, Total Part A - Pay Estimates
Column 1 (Total All Services) = RSX, column 1, line 699
Column 2 (Education) = RO1, column 1, line 90
Column 3 (Highways and Transport Services) = RO2, column 1, line 90
Column 4 (Social Care and Public Health) = RO3, column 1, line 30 + 60 + 90
Column 5 (Housing Services) = RO4, column 1, line 90
Column 6 (Cultural, Environmental and Planning) = RO5, column 1, line 400
Column 7 (Police) = RO6, column 1, line 100
Column 8 (Fire & Rescue Services) = RO6, column 1, line 290
Column 9 (Central and Other Services) = RO6, column 1, line 490 + 500

b) Line 62, Expenditure on Management and Support Services
Column 1 (Total All Services) = RO6, column 2, line 489

c) Line 63, Total Part B - Running Expenses
Column 1 (Total All Services) = RSX, column 2, line 699
Column 2 (Social Care) = RO3, column 2, line 30 + 60
Column 3 (Police) = RO6, column 2, line 100
Column 4 (All Other Services) = Sum of: RO1, column 2, line 90 + RO2, column 2, line 90 + RO3, column 2, line 90 + RO4, column 2, line 90 + RO5, column 2, line 400 + RO6, column 2, line 290 + RO6, column 2, line 490 + RO6, column 2, line 500

d) Line 65, Recharges
Column 1 (Total All Services) = RO6, column 5, lines 491 + 492

e) Line 67, Total Part C - Income
Column 1 (Total All Services) = RSX, column 6, line 699

Question 10

TSR: Trading account services return

Accepted Answer

Trading accounts definitions

Trading accounts are maintained where services are provided on a basis other than a straightforward recharge of costs or on a cash limited vote basis, such as a quoted price or schedule of rates (see SeRCOP Section 2, paragraphs 2.28 to 2.37).

Record Trading Accounts as defined in SeRCOP Section 2, paragraph 2.35.5 on form TSR: these definitions are copied below, under the sub-headings for External and Internal Trading Accounts respectively. Also refer to SeRCOP Section 2, paragraph 2.35 for further information, including a list of possible trading activities which largely reflect the line structure of the TSR.

Using the SeRCOP definitions quoted at the beginning of Sections 1 (External) and 2 (Internal) of this TSR guidance, authorities should determine the appropriate lines for each of their trading accounts and the SeRCOP definitions should take precedence over any specific subjects listed; thus, if a trading account meets the definition but does not have a specific line, it should be included in one of the “other” lines. Note that you should avoid splitting the finances of a specific trading account over more than one line.

Gross surplus(-)/Deficit(+) = Employees + Running Expenses minus Sales Fees and Charges + Other Income

For definitions refer to RO column definitions in RO general guidance Section 3.

Exclude capital expenditure charged to the General Fund Revenue Account (CERA) which should be recorded only on form RS lines 765 and 766.

Exclude external interest receipts and dividends, which should be recorded on form RS line 786.

Reserves of External Trading Accounts should be treated as part of the General Fund Revenue Account, and included in appropriate RS lines 811 to 816 and 911 to 916.

Transactions between TSR and RO forms

Sales from trading organisations to their parent local authority should be recorded by that authority as running expenses on appropriate RO service lines, and as income on the TSR.

Payments for trading services (including services undertaken by other authorities or jointly) and funding of the authority’s own trading services, should be recorded as running expenses on appropriate RO service lines. Any payments received into the authority’s own trading account (or a joint undertaking for which it is the account holder) should be recorded as other income on the TSR.

Record any surplus or deficit on a Trading Account in respect of a joint undertaking for which the authority is not the account holder on form RS line 748, not on the TSR form.

Section 1: External trading accounts

SeRCOP Section 2, 2.33 defines the two main types of external trading accounts that may be run by authorities as:

(a) Trading services or undertakings with the public or with other third parties. These include, inter alia, catering undertakings, markets, trade refuse collection and industrial units.

(b) External trading organisations (ExTOs) which have won contracts from other public bodies, for example under the Local Authorities (Goods & Services) Act 1970.

The above types of trading account should be recorded on the following TSR lines:

Line 260 Car parks

For on-street parking see line 726.

Line 281 Airports

Line 282 Ports

For fishery harbours, see line 550.

Line 283 Piers

Line 284 Toll bridges and roads

Line 514 Museums

Line 515 Theatres

Include concert halls and other venues for public entertainment.

Line 521 Civic halls

Line 525 Civic restaurants

Line 528 Sports facilities

swimming pools, skating rinks and gymnasia
tennis / squash / badminton courts
pitches for team games, athletics grounds
bicycle tracks / centres
golf courses, putting greens, bowling greens / alleys / centres
horse racing courses, riding centres
artificial ski slopes
centres for flying / ballooning / parachuting
centres for boating / water sports on inland or coastal waters

Line 535 Crematoria

Including cemeteries.

Line 550 Fishery harbours

Including fisheries at other ports and harbours operated as trading services.

Line 580 Trade waste

Line 591 Building control

Line 594 Corporation estates

Line 595 Industrial estates

Line 596 Investment properties

Line 597 Market undertakings

Including horticultural markets.

Lines 691 to 695 Other external trading accounts

External trading accounts not covered above: type on the lines to specify each service. If you think that you need more than five entries here then please contact the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Line 696 Total external trading accounts

The sum of lines 260 to 695 is calculated.

Line 697 Total external trading accounts – Capital Items

Total capital items for external trading accounts carried forward from line 939 column 1. (The figure on this line is automatically carried forward from line 939 column 1 once capital items breakdown is completed on lines 931 to 936 column 1.)

In addition, the total capital items is reversed and transferred to RS line 741 in order to remove the capital items element.

Line 698 Total external trading accounts – Net surplus(-)/deficit(+)

The total net surplus/deficit is sum of lines 696 plus 697 calculated automatically and also transferred to RS line 731.

Section 2: Internal trading accounts

SeRCOP Section 2, 2.30 defines the three main types of internal trading accounts that may be run by authorities as:

(a) Work carried out by internal trading organisations (InTOs) arising from voluntary competitive tendering (VCT) exercises.

(b) Support services provided in a free internal market, ie to schools or to other budget holders who have been given freedom to buy externally if they wish.

(c) Support services provided in a limited internal market, eg where budget holders are free to decide the quantity and type of the work to be done on the basis of the prices quoted to them, but not to buy externally.

The above types of trading account should be recorded on the following TSR lines:

Line 716 Administrative Education support services

Line 717 Specialist Education support services

Line 723 Highways maintenance

works of construction, laying out, maintenance, improvement and repair
the gritting of, or clearing of snow from highways
the maintenance of street lighting
cleaning of traffic signs and street name plates

Line 726 On-street parking

the fixing or giving of Penalty Charge Notices
the authorisation of fixing or removal of immobilisation
making arrangements for removal of vehicles by parking attendants
making arrangements for the custody, release or disposal of vehicles whose removal was effected or arranged as above

For off-street car parks see line 260.

Line 733 Social Services: residential homes

Line 733 Social Services: home care services

Line 741 Housing management

dealing with housing applications and assignments by way of exchange
informing local authority housing tenants of or enforcing the terms of their tenancies
collecting housing rent and service charges, loan payments and arrears
arranging for the vacating of housing after termination of tenancy or licence
prevention of vandalism and unlawful occupation
removal of unlawful occupants
inspection/assessment of vacant properties and ensuring necessary works
assessing condition, maintenance, repair etc of common parts of housing, ensuring and reporting necessary works
assessing requests for repairs, ensuring and reporting necessary works
carrying out inspections and surveys
assessing compensation claims
operating reception and security services
controlling disturbances and resolving disputes

Line 752 Leisure management

Management of sports, arts and leisure facilities.

Line 757 Environmental cleaning and sweeping

removal of litter, emptying of litter bins
cleaning / sweeping of any street (if not part of highways maintenance)
emptying of gullies

Line 810 Construction and property services

architectural, engineering, valuation, surveying and property management services
advice to the authority, its committees or officers
capital and revenue programmes for the development or maintenance of relevant land, (ie land which the authority occupies, has/is seeking an interest in, for which it has assumed responsibility by agreement, highways for which it is the highways authority)
the design / planning / management of development projects and maintenance work and management of relevant land

Line 821 Building cleaning

cleaning windows (inside or outside) of any building
cleaning the interior of any building

Line 825 Building maintenance

Maintaining the parts of dwellings not residentially occupied (eg common parts of flats).

Line 830 Grounds maintenance

cutting and tending grass, returfing and reseeding
planting and tending trees, hedges, shrubs, flowers, other plants

Line 841 Vehicle maintenance

repair and maintenance of any motor vehicle or trailer
the provision for such vehicles of fuel, cleaning, repair and maintenance

Line 845 Vehicle management and transport

arranging for motor vehicles to be available to meet the requirements of the authority
securing compliance for such vehicles with statutory provisions relating to legislation, licensing, safety and insurance

Line 850 Refuse collection

The collection of both household and commercial waste, other than sewage, as defined within the Environmental Protection Act.

Line 860 Catering services (staff, welfare, education etc)

meals and refreshments for consumption in schools, day centres, residential establishments, and by staff
preparing meals for provision to persons in their own homes

Line 871 Office services (printing, security, etc)

office printing
operating security controls in relation to persons entering / leaving / moving between different parts of land in which the authority occupies or has an interest

Line 872 Information Technology

IT advice to the authority, its committees or officers
assessing and keeping under review an authority’s IT requirements
developing and arranging for the availability of IT
maintaining equipment

Line 873 Finance services

accounting services and payroll facilities
advice to the authority, its committees or officers
financial information and management systems
administration of direct/indirect taxation
income collection and debt recovery
pension fund and insurance administration
borrowing and investments
consultancy and research

Line 874 Legal services

legal advice to the authority, its committees or officers
legal work in connection with any civil or criminal proceedings
conveyancing work in relation to any property
legal work in connection with contracts, insurance, local or personal Bills

Line 875 Personnel services

personnel advice to the authority, its committees or officers
personnel research
human resources management (recruitment, monitoring, assessment, appraisal, etc)
organisational, work studies, management reviews
preparation of business plans
development and maintenance of statistical and managerial information systems
training and development programmes
development and maintenance of employee relations policies, practices and procedures

Lines 891 to 895 Other internal trading accounts

Internal trading accounts not covered above: type on the lines to specify each service. If you think that you need more than five entries here then please contact the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.

Line 896 Total internal trading accounts

The sum of lines 716 to 895.

Line 897 Total internal trading accounts – Capital Items

Total capital items for internal trading accounts carried forward from line 939 column 2. (The figure on this line is automatically carried forward from line 939 column 2 once capital items breakdown is completed on lines 931 to 936 column 2.)

In addition, the total capital items is reversed and transferred to RS line 742 in order to remove the capital items element.

Line 898 Total internal trading accounts – Net surplus(-)/deficit(+)

The total net surplus/deficit is sum of lines 896 plus 897 calculated automatically and also transferred to RS line 732.

Capital items

Total capital items in lines 697 and 897 should be broken down into the following four elements, separately for both External and Internal Trading Accounts:

Line 931 Depreciation

The measure of the cost or revalued amount of the benefits of fixed assets consumed during the year of account.

Line 933 Loss on Impairment of assets

Unexpected downward shifts in the value of assets (eg major structural damage or technological obsolescence)

Line 934 Revaluations taken to surplus or deficit on the provision of services

Amounts for revaluations that are taken to the Consolidated Income and Expenditure Account (Surplus or Deficit on the Provision of Services). There can be gains as well as losses that are taken to this part of the C I & E Account.

Line 935 Credit for capital grants

Include any grant or contribution towards capital expenditure recognised as income in the Comprehensive Income and Expenditure Statement. In the authority’s statement of accounts these are amounts that will be transferred to the Capital Adjustment Account in the Movement in Reserves Statement.

Line 936 Revenue Expenditure funded from Capital by Statute

Expenditure which is classified as total amount of RECS included in the capital items column for each of the External / Internal Trading Accounts

Line 939 Total capital items

This automatic calculation equals the sum of lines 931 to 936.

This figure must equal total Capital items on lines 697 and 897 for External and Internal Trading Accounts respectively.

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Applies to England

RO1: Education services

Lines 10 to 40 Schools

Line 10 Early years

Line 20 Primary schools – including nursery classes in primary schools

Line 30 Secondary schools

Line 40 Special schools and alternative provision

Line 45 Post-16 provision

Line 65 Other education and community budget

Young people’s learning and development

Adult and community learning

Service strategy and other educational functions

Line 90 Total Education Services

Management and support services for education services

RO2: Highways and transport services

Group 10 Transport planning, policy and strategy

Line 11 Highways maintenance planning, policy and strategy

Line 12 Public and other transport planning, policy and strategy

Groups 30 to 40 Highways and roads – maintenance

Group 30 Highways and roads – structural maintenance

Line 31 Structural maintenance – principal roads

Line 32 Structural maintenance – other local authority roads

Line 33 Structural maintenance – bridges

Group 40 Highways and roads – other maintenance

Line 41 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance – principal roads

Environmental maintenance – principal roads

Safety maintenance – principal roads

Routine maintenance – principal roads

Line 44 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance – other local authority roads

Environmental maintenance – other local authority roads

Safety maintenance – other local authority roads

Routine repairs – other local authority roads

Line 48 Winter service

Line 49 Street lighting (including energy costs)

Group 50 Traffic management and road safety

Line 51 Congestion charging

Line 52 Bus lane enforcement

Line 54 Road safety education and safe routes (including school crossing patrols)

Road safety education

Safe routes (including school crossing patrols)

Line 58 Other traffic management

Other traffic management

Group 60 Parking services

Line 61 On-street parking

Line 62 Off-street parking

Group 70 Public transport

Line 71 Statutory concessionary fares

Line 72 Discretionary concessionary fares

Line 73 Support to operators - Bus services

Line 74 Support to operators - Rail services

Line 75 Support to operators - Other public transport services

Line 76 Public transport co-ordination

Line 80 Airports, harbours and toll facilities

Airports – directly or partly owned

Harbours, ports and docks – directly owned

Piers and jetties – directly owned

Toll roads and tunnels – directly owned

Line 90 Total Highways, Roads and Transport Services

Management and support services for highways and transport services

Additional information: Joint arrangements included within maintenance

Line 101 Structural maintenance of principal roads

Line 102 Structural maintenance of other local authority roads

Line 103 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance of principal roads

Line 104 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance of other local authority roads

Additional information: Third party liability claims included within structural maintenance

Line 130 Structural maintenance (all roads)

Additional information: Unplanned patching included within maintenance

Line 141 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance of principal roads

Line 144 Environmental, safety and routine maintenance of other local authority roads

Additional information: On-street parking: breakdown of sales, fees and charges

Line 161 On-street parking

Line 162 On-street parking

For GLA only: Lines 172, 173 and 174

RO3: Social care and public health

ASC-FR reconciliation

Children’s social care (lines 10 – 30)

Line 10 Children’s social care – Sure start children’s centres and early years

Line 13 Children’s social care – Children looked after

Line 16 Children looked after - Residential care