Agenda item

Any county councillor may, by giving notice to the Proper Officer by 9 am on the working day before the meeting, ask a question on any matter in respect of the Cabinet’s delegated powers.

 

The number of questions which may be asked by any councillor at any one meeting is limited to two (or one question with notice and a supplementary question at the meeting) and the time for questions will be limited to 30 minutes in total. As with questions at Council, any questions which remain unanswered at the end of this item will receive a written response.

 

Questions submitted prior to the agenda being despatched are shown below and will be the subject of a response from the appropriate Cabinet Member or such other councillor or officer as is determined by the Cabinet Member, and shall not be the subject of further debate at this meeting. Questions received after the despatch of the agenda, but before the deadline, will be shown on the Schedule of Addenda circulated at the meeting, together with any written response which is available at that time.

Councillor John Sanders had given notice of the following question to the Cabinet Member for Children, Young people & Families

 

“1.  Is it the intention of the Cabinet to propose to Council that funding for the County Youth Service be cut in the next financial year?”

 

Councillor Mitchell (in the absence of Councillor Chapman:

 

Cabinet proposals to Council for the 2010/11 budget will be published on 8 January 2010.

 

Supplementary question:

 

Councillor Sanders referred to concern that in his area good work being undertaken by youth workers to combat gang related crimes such as drugs, guns and knives could be put at risk of restriction or privatisation. He sought an assurance that the problems of youths, particularly in deprived areas would be looked at carefully?

 

Councillor Mitchell replied that the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families was detained on Council business so was not here to respond in person. It was not possible to give assurances about the outcomes of the service and resource planning process.  In noting that youth work was not part of the Council’s statutory duty, he would share concerns if the process resulted in the loss of provision for young people.

 

Councillor Zoe Patrick had given notice of the following question to the Deputy Leader:

 

“2   When will the Vale County Councillors be given their Locality briefing?  This event has now been cancelled on two occasions without any further attempt to make a new date.”

 

Councillor Robertson:

 

The Senior Democracy Officer in Democratic Services has been asked by the Chief Executive to re-arrange the locality briefings for the Vale and West as both had to be cancelled a second time.  She will be contacting Group Leaders and the relevant lead officers to find suitable dates for the New Year, taking account of other councillor events due to take place.

 

Councillor Zoe Patrick had given notice of the following question to the Leader:

 

“3. The County Council's Audit Commission report was published last week and I have read the Leader's comments regarding making improvements.  However, according to the new OnePlace website Oxfordshire has no less than 70 areas in which the indicators are described as 'deteriorating' including adult social care, safeguarding children, educational achievement , NEETs etc. (far too many to list here but I am assuming he is fully aware of them all).  When is he going to address this - or is he content to take this council's rating down from 3 star to 2?”

 

 

Councillor Mitchell:

 

I must confess that I have taken little notice of the discredited CAA process and look forward to its disappearance shortly after the General Election next year.  I have not accessed the One Place web site, having been rather more pre-occupied with the future of this council in terms of its finances than its past.  I do understand that officers who have attempted to access the site have been unable to do so.

 

I will respond to the Leader of the Opposition's question although I do wonder whether she actually accessed the Oxfordshire part of the web site herself because I do not recognise a great deal of what she has to say in her question.

 

Context - The CAA inspectors use the performance information as ' part of the evidence that we use to come to our conclusions - or judgements - about how well things are going now and whether they will get better or worse in the future'.  Oxfordshire has no Red Flags which indicates that the inspectors do not seem to share Cllr Patrick's concerns on the council's direction of travel.  Furthermore, Oxfordshire received a 3 out of 4 rating for 'managing performance'.

 

CAA Report - Specific Comments on Performance  Three of the issues specifically raised in the question are addressed by the Audit Commission in their report.

 

·         On adult social care: “People in Oxfordshire get generally good social care services.”

 

·         On safeguarding children: “Children are being kept safer through better systems in Social Services that mean that children at risk or in need of help are identified faster.”

 

·         On educational achievement: “Like many parts of the country, some vulnerable children and young people do not do as well at school. This is getting better but partners recognise that more can be done and they are targeting actions to help these children fulfil their potential better”.

 

I am not clear whose report Cllr Patrick was reading on which web site?

 

Local Area Agreement   The County Council reports performance to the Public Service Board each quarter. These reports show a good performance in most of the indicators contained in the Local Area Agreement.  Among these priority targets, it is recognised that areas such as housing, benefits and NEETs are being adversely affected by the current financial situation and that targets will have to be renegotiated.

 

Where performance is below target the relevant thematic partnership is taking action, take for example the ten indictators graded Red in the latest PSB Report:

 

·         Housing/Affordable Housing: An upward trend was identified for both indicators.  Performance has been affected by the recession - with a reduction in planning applications coupled with a number of major sites where development has not being brought forward. District Councils are now progressing with actions to encourage sites to come forward The CAA finding was that “Oxfordshire councils are delivering high numbers of affordable homes.”

 

·         Teenage Conception Rate: Considered by the Audit Commission in the CAA: “Too many teenagers in Oxford are getting pregnant. Numbers are much higher that in other areas, and although there are fewer pregnancies than in the past, the numbers are not falling as fast as they are elsewhere. Partners are working with teenagers in the poorer parts of the county to help bring numbers down, but they have some way to go to meet Oxfordshire's target for reducing teenage pregnancies by 2010.” A scrutiny review on this issue has just been completed.

 

·         NEETs – Downward trend. There are detailed plans in place to mitigate against the effects of the recession and performance is being monitored in monthly reports and contract management meetings. I have been taking a personal interest in this issue since July.

 

·         Number of working age people on out of work benefits – If the global recession continues, then the current target will not be met. A meeting to discuss the refresh of the target is scheduled with GOSE.

 

·         Educational Attainment – The trend continues to be upward year on year however it is still below target and Oxfordshire continues to fall short of its statistical neighbours. A major review of educational attainment is now underway. The Children’s Services Scrutiny is also currently conducting a piece of work on this issue. The Children’s Trust has provided a list of actions to improve performance, however further scrutiny is required to determine the likely effectiveness of these plans.

 

·         Educational Attainment of LAC – two indicators have a downward trend, one indicator has an upward trend. The small cohort size means small changes in actual performance leads to large changes overall.

 

 

Councillor Jean Fooks had given notice of the following question to the Deputy Leader

 

“4.  I understand that there has been a change in the way the Council advertises for new staff. Is the local press now not used for job advertisements? What has been the effect of the apparent change in policy – has the number of applicants stayed the same, gone up as might have been expected in the current economic situation, or decreased? Will the policy be reviewed to see if it is cost-effective and attracting suitable applicants?”

 

Councillor Robertson:

 

Since September 2009 our recruitment advertising policy has been to minimise press advertising.  Adverts are placed on the Council's website which is more immediate so can reduce time to recruit and incurs no cost and also on appropriate web sites which are generally cheaper than press advertising.  There are some specialist posts which may be hard to fill that fall outside of this and advertising media is then agreed between the Recruitment Team Leaders and the Appointing manager with a view to utilizing the must cost effect recruitment advertising to fill the post and this may be a printed media. 

 

All our jobs are also advertised at the Job Centre plus, local community groups and where appropriate are advertised locally in public places.

 

As a comparison the year on year savings and applications received please see below - this is for non-schools recruitment.

 

Time Period	Spend	Jobs advertised	On-line Applicants	Off-line Applicants
June – Nov 08	£274,333	504	3856	738
June – Nov 09	£92,737	432	5862	595

                                      

 

We are continually reviewing the advertising processes and are currently investigating the possibility of using talent banks as a further more effective way to recruit to vacancies within the Council.

 

Supplementary: 

 

In noting the figures Councillor Fooks asked whether the Deputy Leader would consider a review to see if there were areas where the approach was not working?

 

Councillor Robertson replied that the responses received were regularly reviewed but that he was always interested in any examples or anecdotal evidence of how the process was working, and Councillor Fooks referred to the vacancies for Clerks to Governing Bodies.