Agenda item

Any county councillor may, by giving notice to the Proper Officer by 9 am two working days 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 Alan Armitage had given notice of the following question to Councillor Rodney Rose:

“Why were the local councillors not informed at the right time of the demise RH Transport and the effects on the local bus services for their divisions?”

Councillor Rose replied:

“County council staff briefed councillors and made sure all updates on the hard work undertaken to find new bus operators for RH Routes were emailed to county councillors throughout Thursday, 4 October and Friday, 5 October. The website was updated promptly at each important juncture and the media linked in with the council as part of a managed public information exercise – both inside and outside of normal working hours. The initial suggestion that RH Transport were facing problems only came to the attention of officers during the course of Wednesday, 3 October.”

Supplementary: Councillor Armitage asked whether Councillor Rose accepted that the answer was not correct as key members including the Opposition Leader had not been informed for some time and that a review would allow lessons to be learnt. Councillor Rose replied that that was not his understanding. Huw Jones had phoned members personally all evening although Councillor Rose accepted that the order may not have been as some would have wished. Cabinet Members commended the work undertaken by Huw Jones and his Team in difficult circumstances.

Councillor Roz Smith had given notice of the following question to Councillor Charles Shouler

“Will the failure of RH Transport end up costing the council more for the services provided?”

In Councillor Shouler’s absence the Leader replied:

“The cost to the Council is likely to be more than £400,000 although absolute final costs are still to be settled.”

Supplementary: Councillor Hannaby asked whether monitoring arrangements would be changed in the light of the failure of RH Transport. The Leader replied that all contracts went through checks and due diligence. The Council supported the contract as much as possible. On Friday officers ensured that children got to school and he passed his personal compliments to everyone involved.

Councillor Jenny Hannaby had given notice of the following question to Councillor Arash Fatemian

“Would he agree that putting up the charges for Day Centres, some as high as 700%, might lead to the demise of our centres so vital for the health and wellbeing of elderly residents?”

Councillor Fatemian replied:

“Increasing charges is a difficult issue but we are committed to finding a way to continue providing these services and it is important to note that these charges will only apply to people who do not meet the criteria to receive services under FACS (Fair Access to Care). Those in greatest need and those who cannot afford to pay will continue to have their care funded by the council.

As you say the proposed changes do appear to be a high increase and that is mainly due to the fact that charges have not been reviewed or increased to date. The current charge of £4.81 in the seven social and community managed centres is not sustainable and we are consulting on an increase of £15 per day for 5 hours of attendance. This represents approximately half of the actual cost to provide the service so the County Council would continue to subsidise the centres by up to 50%. I think the 700% you refer to must be in regards to the Centre run by Leonard Cheshire in Witney, which currently charges a much lower rate, so there will be a bigger gap between current and proposed charges.

We have looked at how best to sustain these centres, which we know provide important support to people, their families and carers in local communities and as such have had to look at all options regarding funding. As part of that work, we looked at what other similar Local Authorities are doing and we found  that many are charging the full cost, which we believe would be too cost prohibitive, so in Oxfordshire we are only consulting on an increase in charges to people,  as we have decided not  to charge at full cost.

I am mindful of the potential risks due to the proposed increases and our aim is to avoid, as you say, “the demise of our centres” by finding a pragmatic outcome, which can sustain these services into the future.

As you know the consultation ends on 31^st October and we will need to analyse the feedback and including whether customers are indicating they could not use the centres if the proposed rates were introduced. At that point we can fully assess the risks and consider options to mitigate those accordingly and report to cabinet in the New Year.

We are statutorily obliged to consult with the people who would be directly affected by any policy change. For that reason we have gone directly to the resource centre users and asked for their views and also held a number of face-to-face events. People using the centres have been given all the information they need to take part, using a variety of methods in this consultation and over 50% of service users have given us their views so far ( that is 459 out of 800). Organisations such as Age UK and other stakeholders have also asked to consult directly with their members.”

In thanking Councillor Fatemian for his comprehensive answer Councillor Hannaby indicated that it would be a case of looking forward to what would happen on 31 October and she invited Councillor Fatemian to visit the newly refurbished Day Centre at Wantage.