Agenda, decisions and minutes

Councillor Hudspeth declared a non-pecuniary interest in Item 9 Youth Opportunity Fund as a Trustee of the Oxford United Community Trust.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 21 January 2020 (CA3) and to receive information arising from them.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 21 January 2020 were approved and signed as a correct record.

Councillor Nicholas Field-Johnson had given written notice of the following question to Councillor Yvonne Constance:

‘I have been asked by the St. Johns Street Resident Association to put forward their case re: the exclusion zone.

These residents are among the worst and most directly affected by the congestion and poor air quality in Oxford city centre. As such, they welcome serious efforts by the City and County Councils to tackle both problems. 

They are however concerned that the following aspects of the current proposals will have a disproportionately disadvantageous effect on their members: 

 1. The Worcester Street “bus gate” would mean that St John Street Area residents needing to travel west or south by car would have no option but to drive a long way north to join the southbound A34 at the Pear Tree interchange. To give one practical example: the Botley Road Retail Park and our nearest large supermarket are currently just over a mile away; that journey would become seven miles via the proposed detour. Adding 12 miles to the round trip would increase rather than decrease congestion and air pollution.

 2. The Marston Ferry Road and South Parks Road “bus gates” would also lengthen our residents’ eastbound routes by forcing them north to join the ring road at Cutteslowe. The journey to the Headington roundabout for the southbound M40 would be about 20% longer, but of greater concern is the doubling of the distance to the hospitals, to which bus travel is not always appropriate 

 What appropriate help is being given to those residents living inside the exclusion zone?’

Councillor Constance replied:

‘Connecting Oxford could deliver many benefits for residents and businesses including reduced congestion and improved public transport connectivity, better air quality and reduced carbon emissions, and more people participating in active and healthy travel.

It is however fully acknowledged that the proposals, including a further “bus gate” in the city centre and Oxford’s Eastern Arc, will need to be carefully designed and assessed to ensure any adverse impacts are mitigated and those directly affected, whether residents, employers or businesses, also benefit.

Proposals are still at a relatively early stage with more detailed feasibility work and consultation required before any decisions to implement them can be made.

The feasibility work will however consider when the “bus gates” should operate (days of the week and times of day) and whether there should be exemptions and how these would be administered in practice, with the supporting transport improvements required to maintain accessibility and connectivity also being developed.’

And before carrying out any consultation, the above will be informed by engaging directly with those affected including St. Johns Street Residents Association, with details of this to be announced once plans for engagement have been sufficiently developed.

Supplementary question: When will the consultation process start and end?

The intention was that the consultation would take place in late Summer. This was to give time to analyse the findings of the first engagement at the end of 2019 where 300  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14/20

The Chairman had agreed the following requests to speak:

Cabinet Member: Adult Social Care and Public Health

Forward Plan Ref: 2019/162

Contact: Lorraine Donnachie, Senior Strategic Commissioning Officer Tel: 07795 291338

Report by Corporate Director Adults & Housing Services (CA6).

It is proposed that the council considers working towards becoming a dementia friendly organisation and helps to create and support dementia friendly communities.   This will help to develop further awareness, understanding and support for people in the community and staff in the workforce who are living with dementia.  Many people living with dementia feel that the support they need to participate in their community is not available and they are not able to do the everyday things they want to. Many feel isolated and do not feel they are part of their local communities.  The creation of dementia friendly communities is an attempt to meet this need and, as a leader, commissioner, planner, regulator and service provider, the council has a key role in supporting and facilitating these.

The report sets out the stages recommended by Alzheimer's Society and the Local Government Association that the council needs to complete in order to become more dementia friendly.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)          approve the council working towards becoming a dementia friendly organisation and developing dementia friendly communities; and

(b)          endorse the funding for Dementia Friendly Community Coordinators to develop and deliver a programme for dementia friendly communities.

Cabinet considered a report proposing that the council considers working towards becoming a dementia friendly organisation and helping to create and support dementia friendly communities.    The report set out the stages recommended by Alzheimer's Society and the Local Government Association that the council needs to complete in order to become more dementia friendly.

Councillor Sobia Afridi, Shadow Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care spoke in support of the proposals, commenting that dementia was an umbrella term covering over 200 types of dementia. From personal experience of a family member Councillor Afridi highlighted the importance of raising awareness particularly in the BAME community as people often lived with the condition for some years before diagnosis. Councillor Afridi welcomed that there were 27 dementia friendly members of staff and queried whether there were any dementia friendly councillors, commenting that this would be helpful.

In response to a question from Councillor Afridi, Councillor Lawrie Stratford, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health explained that in setting out measures of success it would be important to engage with people living with dementia, to identify their needs and to use these as a benchmark for measurement. Councillor Ian Corkin, Cabinet Member for Partnerships and Council Business referred to the ongoing significant redesign of communications that was in part to allow the Council to be more proactive in its messages. He would be happy to discuss with Councillor Afridi ways of improving the reach and content of messaging around this matter.

Councillor Stratford welcomed the proposals and moved the recommendations.

Rachel Pirie, Lead for Older People Commissioning Markets, responding to the comments from Councillor Afridi agreed that it was important to capture measures of success in the action plan and explained that a number of measures already existed such as NHS diagnostic rates and those available through the work of the Health & Wellbeing Board and Health Improvement Board.

Councillor Stratford highlighted that part of the challenge would be identifying people isolated in their own homes who may be unknown to the Council and the Council’s partners. The work on awareness was not necessarily big changes– it could be about being patient and ensuring there were safe places in our buildings. He added that Witney was a dementia friendly town and could provide a role model for taking this work forward.

During discussion Cabinet unanimously supported the proposals making the following points:

·         Young carers were a hidden group, often going unnoticed. It was important to highlight the plight of carers as well as sufferers from dementia.

·         Acceptance of the need for a diagnosis was a challenge with family members often unwilling to recognise that a loved one had a problem.

·         People were living longer but the average age to which people were living well rather than in ill health had not changed. This meant people were living with illnesses such as dementia for longer.

RESOLVED:             to:

(a)          approve the council working towards becoming a dementia friendly organisation and developing dementia friendly communities; and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16/20

Cabinet Member: Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Finance

Forward Plan Ref: 2019/149

Contact: Steven Fairhurst Jones, Corporate Performance & Risk Manager Tel: 07932 318890/Hannah Doney, Strategic Finance Manager (Assurance & Reporting) Tel: 07584 174654

Report by Corporate Director Customers & Organisational Development and Director of Finance (CA8).

This report sets out Oxfordshire County Council's (OCC's) progress towards Corporate Plan priorities and provides an update on the delivery of the Medium Term Financial Plan, at 31 December. A summary of overall performance and description of change is contained within the report. The report contains three annexes:

·         Annex A shows our current performance against targets and summarises progress towards overall outcomes set out in our Corporate Plan.

·         Annex B sets out the Leadership Risk Register which has been developed as part of the Council’s work to strengthen risk and opportunities management

·         Annex C sets out the current financial position, providing detailed explanations of significant budget variations and an update on the Medium-Term Financial Plan including the delivery of savings agreed by Council in February 2019 

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)       note the contents of this report; and

(b)       note the virements set out in Annex C – 2b.

Cabinet had before them a report that set out Oxfordshire County Council's (OCC's) progress towards Corporate Plan priorities and that provided an update on the delivery of the Medium-Term Financial Plan, at 31 December 2019.

Councillor Glynis Phillips, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance highlighted the following areas which had moved from green to amber.:

·         Funding secured through planning obligations which requires a minimum of 70% of S106 agreements are completed with 6 months of District Committee resolutions - Councillor Phillips was satisfied with the commentary so, this was not an area of concern for her.

·         The amount of household waste which is recycled, composted and reused - Councillor Phillips noted that the commentary referred to the change in behaviour and asked what the change was.

·         The level of educational attainment was also of concern (maths was at red) and Councillor Phillips asked for an explanation for this statistic?

·         The percentage of completed Education, Health and Care Plans in December was referred to as an anomaly and Councillor Phillips questioned what the anomaly was and sought an explanation for the monthly variations.

Councillor Phillips noted that on page 63 under performance highlights it was acknowledged that the rate of conversion from existing street lights to LED lanterns was not enough to deliver the energy saving financial commitments required and a greater rate of conversion was now being planned. She asked for further information.

Councillor Phillips referred to the red indicator - the ‘Number of people delayed leaving hospital awaiting social care’ and queried when the promised improvement would be delivered. Linked to this issue Councillor Phillips queried why reablement was the preferred pathway out of hospital for people needing care when the service was performing below contract levels and other more successful areas had found more effective methods to address it.

Councillor Phillips commented on the financial aspects of the report noting that Children’s Services continued to be a red indicator with a £2.8m overspend because of an increase in demand for higher cost placements impacting the Corporate Parenting budget this year. She noted the analysis taking place but thought it would be useful to see a Business Case as to whether the Council could provide in-house care for this small number of children with significant and specialised needs.

Finally, Councillor Phillips asked whether information about the Public Health Grant had been received?

Cabinet Members responded to the comments made:

·         The changes in behaviour impacting on household waste recycling were explained. Weight was a determining factor and people were using much less paper and plastic and that affected weight. In addition, District Councils were responsible for collecting waste and for example West Oxfordshire was now charging for garden waste. She noted that the County was still a leader in recycling and outlined some of the current initiatives.

·         Maths attainment was impacted by the chronic shortage of maths teachers. It was a priority area.

·         The reason for the anomaly in the percentage of completed Education, Health and Care Plans was being investigated.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17/20

Cabinet Member: Deputy Leader of the Council

Forward Plan Ref: 2019/198

Contact: Sarah Currell, HR Manager – Business Systems Tel: 07793 242888

Report by Deputy Director – Human Resources (CA9).

This report gives a snapshot of the workforce profile including headcount and fte comparison, equality, apprenticeships, sickness, turnover and agency spend for the quarter ending 31 December 2019.  Headcount, FTE, turnover and agency spend are provided in Appendix 1. In addition, the report provides information on the cost of posts being covered by agency staff and a 4 year Agency Trend analysis in Appendices 2 and 3. 

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to note the report.

Cabinet considered a report that gave a snapshot of the workforce profile including headcount and full-time equivalent comparison, equality, apprenticeships, sickness, turnover and agency spend for the quarter ending 31 December 2019. In addition, the report provided information on the cost of posts being covered by agency staff and a 4-year agency trend analysis.

Councillor Laura Price, Opposition Deputy Leader welcomed the way that the presentation and information provided was evolving.

Councillor Price thanked HR for their sensitive work on the service redesigns taking place. Their efforts were appreciated at a difficult time.

Referring to agency staff Councillor Phillips was pleased to see that the Comensura contract was saving money. There was an ongoing issue around CEF agency spend and she queried whether this was a sustainable solution in the longer term. Councillor Price noted the off contract spend and asked whether future reports could contain greater clarity about the specific posts concerned. Referring to the workforce profile information Councillor Price queried whether it would be possible to see pay analysis by BAME community as well as by gender.

Councillor Judith Heathcoat, Deputy Leader of the Council thanked Councillor Price and understood the request for greater identification of posts but would not put anything in to the public domain that identified individuals.

Councillor Heathcoat introduced the report and in moving the recommendations thanked Karen Edwards and her team for the improved format.

RESOLVED:             to note the report.

Cabinet Member: Local Communities

Forward Plan Ref: 2019/192

Contact: Fulya Markham, Senior Strategic Commissioning Officer Tel: 07776 997956

Report by Corporate Director of Children’s Services (CA10).

The Youth Opportunity Fund was introduced by Cabinet in 2019 to increase opportunities for young people across Oxfordshire. This fund aims to support voluntary and community organisations to establish new youth opportunities and extend existing activities to additional sessions, areas or groups of young people between the ages of 11 to 18 (25 where young people have special educational needs). The total value of the Fund is £1 million for two years from the date of award, and up to a maximum of £70,000 per application across the two years. Once the available resource is used the Youth Opportunity Fund will be closed.

Following the application process, as per the agreed cross-party decision-making process, the cross-party panel reviewed the applications and assessed them against grant criteria.

This paper sets out the final cross-party panel recommendations for allocation of the Youth Opportunity Fund for decision by Cabinet.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)          award a total of £999,800 (details can be found at Annex 2); and

(b)          close the Youth Opportunity Fund.

The Youth Opportunity Fund was introduced by Cabinet in 2019 to increase opportunities for young people across Oxfordshire. Following the application process, as per the agreed cross-party decision-making process, the cross-party panel reviewed the applications and assessed them against grant criteria.

Cabinet had before them a report that set out the final cross-party panel recommendations for allocation of the Youth Opportunity Fund for decision by Cabinet.

Councillor Gill Sanders, local councillor for Rose Hill & Littlemore, thanked the cross-party panel for their work and for supporting the bid from the Rose Hill Junior Youth Club. The funding to this Group and other successful groups would be put to good use. She sympathised with the unsuccessful bidders and referred to the funding agreed at full Council in February to develop an up to date assessment of need and of the services young people in Oxfordshire want and need; to identify whether these services are currently being delivered and to investigate future service delivery options to meet that need. She hoped that this might be a start to replace those services lost as a result of cuts to local government funding.

Councillor Liz Brighouse, speaking as the Opposition Leader and local councillor for Churchill & Ley Valley thanked all those on the cross-party working panel for sifting through all the 95 applications. The volume of applications was an indication of the need to recognise that youth work in Oxfordshire needed to be funded. Organisations were struggling and the grant funding would make a difference.

Referring to her local project it was recommended for funding. In the past her area had had a full-time youth worker who had supported a number of volunteers in addition to young people on the street. There was a video available of the work done. She hoped that some of that legacy could be picked up again.

In thanking Cabinet for the money, she stressed that it was important to learn from how the money was used, with schemes being well evaluated.

Councillor Richard Webber, local councillor for Sutton Courtenay & Marcham, spoke as someone who had served on other panels and was fully aware of the difficult task they faced and the heavy time commitment. There were 71 unsuccessful bids, almost all doing wonderful work. Many of these groups did not understand why they were falling short. No one had heard why they were unsuccessful. In his area the DAMASCUS Youth Project was unsuccessful, but he was speaking for all those unsuccessful groups. Lack of funding could damage groups’ further opportunities to attract funding as they would be unable to demonstrate council support.

Councillor Webber added that the fund seemed to be about innovation with no support for sustainability. He hoped that the Council budget decision referred to by Councillor Sanders would be carried out to understand sustainability issues.

Councillor Webber suggested that Cabinet was being asked to ratify the decisions without all the information in front of them.  He also queried why the Fund had taken so long to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19/20

Cabinet Member: All

Contact Officer: Sue Whitehead, Committee Services Manager Tel: 07393 001213

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 CA.  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.