Agenda, decisions and minutes

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 17 March 2015 (CA3) and to receive information arising from them.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 17 March 2015 were approved and signed.

Councillor Phillips had given notice of the following question to Councillor Hibbert Biles:

‘I am disappointed to note in the Business Management and Monitoring Report Q3 that all Public Health indicators are below target. How long is the Cabinet Member going to tolerate this situation and when can we expect targets to be met in the following areas ?
-       % of Primary School children classed as obese in Year 6
-       % of people offered a health check who have taken up the offer
-       Number of people who have received a health check that were identified as high cardiovascular risk
-       Support 3800 people to become ‘’4 week quitters per annum
-       Number of opiate users who left drug treatment successfully who do not represent for treatment again within 6 months as a percentage of the total number of non-opiate users in treatment
-       Number of non-opiate users who left drug treatment successfully who do not represent again within 6 months as a percentage of the total number of non-opiate users in treatment’

Councillor Hibbert Biles replied:

“The Cabinet member does not tolerate the situation, but has deliberately approved ambitious targets through the Health and Wellbeing Board to help the many organisations who are responsible to take a serious approach to Public Health issues and so keep an upward pressure on improvement.. The red targets should therefore be seen as the cabinet's fearless determination to tackle these problems head -on. The truth is that either Oxfordshire is already successful compared with elsewhere or is taking vigorous and successful action to improve the health of local people.

For example:

Childhood obesity: Oxfordshire already is well ahead of the national average and obesity is low (16.9% compared with 19.1%.). Obesity is everyone's business and all individuals, families and organisations have a role to play. The target is deliberately ambitious to encourage partners such as schools and District councils to continue to play their part. We have worked closely with schools to make sure that a very high proportion of our children are weighed and measured each year, and we believe that this thoroughness makes Oxfordshire's figure slightly higher than in authorities where more children opt out of the test.

Health checks: we have the best performance on health checks in the Region and outstrip national performance (48.3%  for Oxfordshire compared to 47.5% for Thames Valley and 46.4% for England). We pay general practices to carry out these checks and we keep the target ambitiously high to get the best performance from general practice and so give the people of Oxfordshire the best value for money. Oxfordshire has used an innovative approach to monitoring these contracts and is a leader on the national stage.

Smoking cessation: There has been a national trend which has shown a 20% fall in successful quitters across the board In 2014/15 and the numbers of smoking quitters in Oxfordshire followed this trend.. We were not complacent about this however and so we have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31/15

The following petitions were submitted:

A petition from Mr Rob Whitty, resident of Wolvercote requesting a sound barrier is finally installed between Wolvercote and the A34.

A petition from Ms Harriet Milles, resident of Wolvercote & Councillor Jean Fooks requesting traffic calming in Wolvercote Green.

The following requests to speak had been agreed:

Item 6 - Councillor Nick Hards, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance

Item 7 – Councillor Liz Brighouse, Chairman Performance Scrutiny Committee.

Cabinet Member: Finance

Forward Plan Ref: 2014/176

Contact: Kathy Wilcox, Chief Accountant Tel: (01865) 323981

Report by Chief Finance Officer (CA6).

Financial report on revenue and capital spending against budget allocations, including virements between budget heads.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)            note the report and annexes;

(b)            approve the return of £0.640m Supplementary Estimate relating to the Severe Weather Recovery Grant as set out in paragraph 64;

(c)            approve the creation of the Government Initiatives Reserve and the  contribution of £0.840m as set out in paragraph 77;

(d)            approve the write off part of the developer contribution as set out in paragraph 69;

(e)            approve the changes to fees and charges set out in Part 4 and Annex 7a and 7b;

(f)             Approve the changes to the Capital Programme set out in Annex 8c;

(g)            approve the release of £3.9m to expand the Broadband programme and to contractually commit to the construction of the revised programme as set out in paragraph 97; and

(h)            Approve allocation of £2.450m Local Growth Fund capital funding as a contribution towards the construction of stages 1 and 2 of the Wantage Eastern Link Road by the developer of the Crab Hill development as set out in paragraphs 98 to 100.

Cabinet had before them a financial report on revenue and capital spending against budget allocations, including virements between budget heads.

Cabinet were advised of an amendment set out in the addenda of the introduction of the pre-application charging for highways advice set out in Part 4 and Annex 7b to 1 July 2015.

Councillor Nick Hards, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance, welcomed the reduction in the overspend to £1.2m although noted that use of reserves was a one-off measure. He highlighted the measures taken to reduce the deficit and queried how this would impact on services such as Children’s Centres and home to school transport. There would be an on-going issues with services that were not statutory and there would need to be meaningful discussions with the next government. Councillor Hards highlighted a number of individual matters referred to in the report including: the good news on the home support package set out in paragraph 26; the correct use of the parking reserve account; the sensible approach taken to monies received for specific purposes as set out in paragraph 77 and recognition of the one-off set up costs of the Hampshire Partnership.

Councillor Stratford, Cabinet Member for Finance responded to the comments made and recognised the challenge for services and in particular for Children, Education & Families. He had asked that the Council look at the impact of measures taken on the front line services.

Councillor Stratford introduced the contents of the report and advised that it was his expectation that there would be a further reduction in the overspend once the end of year figures were available.

Councillor Judith Heathcoat, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care paid tribute to the hard work of staff in Social and Community Services.

Following a question from Councillor Carter, Cabinet Member for Business and Customer Services in relation to paragraph 79 on schools revenue balances, Cabinet was advised of the ongoing work looking at the baances held. It was noted that the position was very complex with reserves held for a number of reasons.

RESOLVED:           to:

(a)            note the report and annexes;

(b)            approve the return of £0.640m Supplementary Estimate relating to the Severe Weather Recovery Grant as set out in paragraph 64;

(c)            approve the creation of the Government Initiatives Reserve and the contribution of £0.840m as set out in paragraph 77;

(d)            approve the write off part of the developer contribution as set out in paragraph 69;

(e)            approve the changes to fees and charges set out in Part 4 and Annex 7a and 7b, subject to the introduction of the pre-application charging for highways advice being amended to 1 July 2015;

(f)              Approve the changes to the Capital Programme set out in Annex 8c;

(g)            approve the release of £3.9m to expand the Broadband programme and to contractually commit to the construction of the revised programme as set out in paragraph 97; and

(h)            Approve allocation of £2.450m Local Growth Fund capital funding as a contribution towards the construction  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33/15

Cabinet Member: Deputy Leader

Forward Plan Ref: 23014/177

Contact: Maggie Scott, Head of Policy Tel: (01865) 816081

Report by Head of Policy (CA7).

This paper provides details of performance for quarter three (2014-15) for the Cabinet to consider. The report is required so that the Cabinet can monitor the performance of the Council in key service areas and be assured that progress is being made to improve areas where performance is below the expected level.

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to note and discuss the performance reported in the dashboards.

Cabinet had before them a report that detailed performance for quarter three (2014-15) for the Cabinet to consider. The report is required so that the Cabinet can monitor the performance of the Council in key service areas and be assured that progress is being made to improve areas where performance is below the expected level.

Councillor Brighouse, Chairman of the Performance Scrutiny Committee reported on the discussions held at a meeting of the Performance Scrutiny Committee on 26 March, a note of which is attached as an annex to the minutes.

Councillor Rose introduced the contents of the report noting that the targets were stretching but that with regard to the fire and rescue service emergency response times (paragraph 21) their response to the recent fire at The Randolph Hotel in central Oxford had been exemplary.

Cabinet Members highlighted individual areas of performance within their areas of responsibility.

Following discussion of the performance reported in the dashboards it was:

RESOLVED:           to note the performance reported in the dashboards.

Cabinet Member: Leader

Forward Plan Ref: 2014/178

Contact: Sue Whitehead, Principal Committee Officer Tel (01865) 810262

To report on a quarterly basis any executive decisions taken by the Chief Executive under the specific powers and functions delegated to her under the terms of Part 7.3 of the Council’s Constitution – Paragraph 6.3(c)(i).  It is not for scrutiny call in.

RESOLVED: to note the executive decision taken by the Chief Executive under the specific powers and functions delegated to her under the terms of Part 7.4 of the Council’s Constitution– Paragraph 6.3(c)(i):

Cabinet Member: All

Contact Officer: Sue Whitehead, Committee Services Manager (01865 810262)

The Cabinet Procedure Rules provide that the business of each meeting at the Cabinet is to include “updating of the Forward Plan and proposals for business to be conducted at the following meeting”.   Items from the Forward Plan for the immediately forthcoming meetings of the Cabinet appear in the Schedule at CA9.  This includes any updated information relating to the business for those meetings that has already been identified for inclusion in the next Forward Plan update.

The Schedule is for noting, but Cabinet Members may also wish to take this opportunity to identify any further changes they would wish to be incorporated in the next Forward Plan update.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to note the items currently identified for forthcoming meetings.

The Cabinet considered a list of items for the immediately forthcoming meetings of the Cabinet together with changes and additions set out in the schedule of addenda.

RESOLVED: to note the items currently identified for forthcoming meetings.