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To Members of the Cabinet

Notice of a Meeting of the Cabinet

Tuesday 21 November 2006 at 2.00 pm County Hall, Oxford

Derek Bishop
Head of Democratic Services

November 2006

Contact officer: Matt Bayliss Tel: 01865 815384 E-mail

Membership

Decisions taken at the meeting will become effective at the end of the working day on 29 November 2006 unless called in by that date for review by the appropriate Scrutiny Committee.

Copies of this Notice, Agenda and supporting papers are circulated to all Members of the County Council.

AGENDA

Apologies for Absence



Declarations of Interest

– see guidance note

Minutes

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 17 October 2006 (CA3) and to receive for information any matters arising therefrom.

Petitions and Public Address



Financial Monitoring

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

1. note the report;
2. approve the £0.317m virement within Children, Young People & Families to move Disabilities service agreements to Childrens Services (paragraph 20);
3. approve the £0.800m supplementary estimate to Agency Placements (paragraph 23);
4. confirm that any underspend arising on the Joint Use budget in 2006/07 (paragraph 34) is not required to be contributed to the capital cost of redeveloping the Cherwell centres; and,
5. approve the changes to the Capital Programme as set out in paragraphs 90 to 97 of the report.

Service and Resource Planning 2007/08 – 2011/12

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

1. note the report; and
2. refer the identified budget pressures in the respective service areas and how these could be funded, to the appropriate Scrutiny Committees for consideration and advice, on the basis of schedules to be drawn up and presented to the committees by the Head of Finance & Procurement with the relevant service officers, following consultation with the appropriate Cabinet Members.

Taking Forward the Change Agenda

Cabinet Member: Change Management
Forward Plan Ref: 2006/148
Contact: Hilary Simpson, Corporate Change Manager (01865 815487)

Report by Chief Executive (CA7)

The Cabinet considered a report entitled "Taking Forward the Change Agenda" at its meeting on 15 November 2005 and formally adopted revised objectives and values. At the same time the Cabinet confirmed the setting up of the Change Management Board as the body responsible for overseeing the coordination of change management within the authority and agreed its terms of reference. The Cabinet also requested a further report outlining a new organisational development programme. The Change Management Board are responding to this request through the submission of a first Annual Report outlining its work over the past year.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to receive the first Annual Report of the Change Management Board and agree the Board’s priorities for its second year of operation, subject to any changes that the Cabinet Member for Change Management would wish to make in light of any comments by the Cabinet.

External Review of Children’s Social Care

• The budget and spend issues in children’s social care, a service with repeated overspends in previous years.
• The service strategy, including a review of the "Placement Matters" strategy adopted by the Council in 2005.
• Benchmark and comparator data relating to performance, activity and expenditure.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

1. endorse the strategy and service modernisation recommendations emerging from the external review, enabling the Directorate to take these forward;
2. endorse the policy shift towards the development of services and decision-making models that mandate family-based decision-making strategy and practice; and
3. endorse the Action Plan as outlined in Annex 1 to the report.

Education Project Appraisal – East Oxford Primary School

Cabinet Member: Children, Young People & Families, Adult Learning & Cultural Services
Forward Plan Ref: 2006/131
Contact: John Phipps, Service Manager, Property & Assets (01865 816455) Sue Ryde, Property Services Manager, Social & Community Services (01865 862529)

Report by Director for Children, Young People & Families, Director for Social & Community Services (CA9).

( DETAILED PROJECT APPRAISAL APPRAISAL NO. ED 667 - download as .doc file)
(RESOURCE APPRAISAL - download as .doc file)


The joint report by the Director for Children, Young people and Families and the Director for Social and Community Services is in respect of a Detailed Project Appraisal (ED667) for a New Children's Centre and Adult & Community Learning Centre at East Oxford Primary School site.

The project will provide a new 2-storey building and the conversion of the existing building to provide adult learning classrooms, specialist classrooms, meeting rooms and a children's centre including a family room, creche and kitchen together with storage, staff and toilet facilities.

The project is the result of a major capital bid to the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) to provide Adult Learning Services from the East Oxford site and a major Department for Education and Skills (DfES) grant to provide new children's centres that are easily accessible by families living in the most disadvantaged communities.

The joint provision for adult learning and the planned children's centre recognises the synergy that exists between the two services together with the willingness and agreement of the current users of the site namely, East Oxford Primary School, the Council's Youth Service and Adult Learning Service.

The Cabinet is RECCOMENDED to approve the detailed project appraisal ED 667.

Disability Equality Scheme

The key elements of the draft Disability Equality Scheme are:

• The involvement of disabled people;
• The implementation of the impact assessment process;
• Encouraging positive attitudes towards disabled people; and
• Promoting and monitoring equal opportunities in employment for disabled people.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

1. agree the Disability Equality Scheme as set out at Annex 1 to this report; and
2. agree that annual progress reports should be submitted to the Cabinet Member for Social Care & Policy Co-ordination for consideration under Delegated Decisions.

Minerals and Waste Development Framework: Core Strategy

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

1. approve the Aims, Objectives and Preferred Options for the Minerals and Waste Core Strategy set out at Annex 3 to the report and approve in principal the supporting text of the Preferred Options document as set out at Annex 4 and referred to in paragraph 9 of this report;
2. authorise the Head of Sustainable Development, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, to finalise the Core Strategy Preferred Options document for publication and consultation in accordance with Regulation 26 of the Town and Country Planning (Local Development) (England) Regulations 2004;
3. authorise the Head of Sustainable Development, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, to prepare and publish the Sustainability Appraisal report to accompany the Core Strategy Preferred Options document; and
4. authorise the Head of Sustainable Development, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Sustainable Development, to finalise arrangements for consultation on the Core Strategy Preferred Options document.

Gifted Children Scrutiny Review

Cabinet Member: Schools Improvement
Forward Plan Ref: 2006/057
Contact: Julian Hehir, Scrutiny Review Officer (01865 815673)

Report by Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee (CA12) (download as .pdf file).

The Children's Services Committee agreed, in its Work Programme, to undertake a scrutiny review of Gifted Children and appointed Councillor Deborah Glass-Woodin, Hilary Hibbert-Biles, Val Smith and Melinda Tilley to the Lead Member Review Group. Having collected a wide variety of evidence the review group has presented its findings and recommendations to the Committee. These have been adopted in their entirety. The review report is now before the Cabinet for consideration of the Committee's recommendations.

The report argues for a specific programme to be implemented in Oxfordshire's schools for academically gifted children. There is evidence that attention to the needs of these children will help them to achieve their maximum potential, less among them will "slip through the net" and the attainment levels of peer group pupils across the board will be raised. Gifted children have not been regarded as having special needs to the extent that other groups of pupils have and the Review suggests that this position should change.

Central local authority resources, in the form of Co-ordinators for gifted (and talented) pupils have been demonstrated to work well elsewhere and the case is made for a similar role and supporting lead teachers in Oxfordshire. Elsewhere, the Review refers to best practice with regard to gifted children and the authority, schools and governing bodies are encouraged to adopt these.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to consider the Scrutiny Review Report and communicate to the Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee its response to the Review's Recommendations.

Forward Plan and Future Business