Tackling their shortfall and estimated £250million funding gap is now a matter of “urgency” for Surrey County Council.

A ‘deep-dive’ review carried out by the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accoutancy (CIPFA) has reported that without major change, SCC will not have sufficient income or reserves to meet existing spending plans in the Medium Term Financial Plan.

The report into the council’s finances has been published and will be presented to cabinet members on Tuesday, September 25.

Here are extracts from the headline findings of the review:

- The council will not have sufficient reserves to meet its expected budget gap in 2019-20 unless it acts now.

- Despite some additional central government funding, SCC needs to reform fundamentally how it provides services to its communities. Some initiatives will necessitate difficult decision.

- The onus is on achieving savings in 2018-19 without the volatility in estimates and unexpected surprises experienced last year.

- As it stands, the pattern in 2017-18 is likely to repeat in 2018-19 with considerable uncertainties over the delivery of a number of the planned savings and utilisation of capital receipts.

- There are no plans currently in place to resolve the data uncertainties in the estimates for 2018-18 and no plan B to deal with unanticipated demand increases or the possible failure to deliver some of the proposed savings.

- The former Director of Finance developed a strong team bond within the finance function, but drawing on interviews with staff, the auditors found the team lacks sufficient drive and initiative to tackle the issues above.

- Service directorates were appreciative of the support they received from Finance, but it was concluded that the team was too passive in its approach.

- Whatever the reason for such passivity, a re-structuring of the finance team is overdue.

- Uncertainties in the role of Orbis have contributed to the absence of changes to the finance team.

- If SCC wants to generate economies of scale from integration of back office services, then it will need to invest in driving that change.

- Greater clarity of direction and creation of ‘centres of expertise’ represent an opportunity for cultural change and once direction is confirmed the pace of change will be quicker.

The report says there is an urgency in the need to build financial resilience and suggests the following five points to tackle the financial difficulties:

- Securing the commitment of everyone connected to Surrey County Council to resolving the financial difficulties faced

- Re-structuring the finance team so that it has a more dynamic, central role in driving change across the organisation

- Planning now for the known uncertainties in the estimates for 2018-19

- Implementing the structural changes needed to maintain a balanced budget in 2019-20 and 2020-21

- Building a more robust approach to business management so that the changes made can be sustained