Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Janet Godden (Councillor Jenny Hannaby substituting).

The Chairman agreed the requests to address the meeting on Agenda Item 5, Service & Resource Planning 2016/17-2019/20 as detailed below. Prior to the speakers Peter Clark, Head of Paid Service and Lorna Baxter, Chief Finance Officer gave a presentation setting the context of the service and resource planning report and papers.

Petition - Anne Thieba (in place of Mara Ranieri Davey), Terrence Higgins Trust, submitted a petition consisting of both hard copies and online signatures with over 1,000 signatures lobbying against Oxfordshire County Council's cuts to HIV Prevention and Support Services. She highlighted that they worked mostly with two groups of people: black and minority ethnic peple and bisexual, transgender, lesbian and gay people. These groups were more likely to face difficulties accessing health care and to delay seeking health.  In response to questions she outlined the support provided by the Trust

Richard Turner, a user of the HIV Prevention and support services spoke about the impact of the proposed cut of funding. He noted that it was the only specialised service outside the NHS in the County. It remained a complex condition and his experience was that the stigma of the condition still remained.

In advance of hearing from Paul Cann, Chief Executive, Age UK Oxfordshire the Committee was shown a video of older people expressing their views on the impact of the proposed cuts on day services such as community clubs, on advice and information services and on support for carers. Paul Cann challenged the Committee to prove that the consultation on the proposals was not a sham with the Council being able to think again.  He outlined a number of actions he would wish to see considered. This included closer working between NHS and the County Council, structural change to bring services together and a transformation plan/fund involving stakeholders. Responding to questions from members Paul Cann stated that he did not think that voluntary help was sufficient to fill the gap that would be created by the proposed savings. It was not possible to replace the expert skills that would be lost. With regard to falls he noted that hip fractures resulting from falls were expensive but that over the last 10 years the figures in Oxfordshire were good due to the falls prevention service.

Mark Thompson, CEO of Connection Floating Support and Lesley Dewhurst, CEO of Oxford Homeless Pathways spoke against the proposed cuts to the Housing Related Support budget, on behalf of homelessness services.  They highlighted the scale and complexity of the issues involved and the support provided on both a short term crisis basis and in the longer term. The impact of the proposed savings would be more rough sleeping and more early deaths. They would create pressure on other services such as the health and social services. They both responded to questions concerning the proportion of funding provided by the County Council and also in response to questions about other funding indicated that funding was received from Oxford City Council but not from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 46/15

The report of the Chief Finance Officer forms part of a series relating to the Service and Resource Planning process for 2016/17-2019/20.

The Committee will consider in turn the savings proposed by each directorate for their service areas. Comments from the Committee will then be fed back to Cabinet in order that they can take the comments into consideration in proposing their budget and Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) on 26 January 2016. Council will meet to agree the budget and MTFP on 16 February 2016.

RECOMMENDATION

The Performance Scrutiny Committee is invited to consider and comment on:

(a)            the savings options and in light of the feedback from the public consultation identify those savings that are the least acceptable, and

(b)            the LGA report and the Council response.

During the meeting the Director together with the Cabinet Member for the relevant Directorate will be available to respond to questions as follows:

Indicative timings

10am                      Introduction – consultation feedback and financial position – Chief Finance Officer/ Head of Paid Service

10.30                      Children, Education and Families

11.40                      Adult Social Care

12.50 – 1.20           Lunch break

1.20                        Corporate Services

1.40                        Community Services including FRS

2.00                        Environment and Economy

3.10                        Concluding session for the committee to review the comments they have made on individual options and agree an overall ranked list of options that they consider to be the least desirable to present to Cabinet  

4.15                        Close

Following the presentations from speakers the Performance Scrutiny Committee considered a report that formed part of a series relating to the Service and Resource Planning process for 2016/17 to 2019/20.

The Committee considered in turn the savings proposed by each directorate for their service areas. The Committee were invited to consider and comment on: the savings options and in light of the feedback from the public consultation to identify those savings that are the least acceptable; and the LGA report and the Council response.

Following lengthy discussions of the individual directorate proposals it was proposed by Councillor Harrod that Cabinet be requested to consider a 12% increase in Council Tax. Having been seconded it was put to a vote by a show of hands and by 3 votes for, to 6 against, with 1 abstention the recommendation was lost.

It was then proposed by Councillor Fawcett that cabinet be asked to consider the merits of a council tax increases requiring a referendum. Having been seconded it was put to a vote by a show of hands and by 5 votes for, to 6 against the recommendation was lost.

The Committee identified the following saving proposals as those that are least acceptable: