Meeting documents
Cabinet
Wednesday, 22 June 2005
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To Members of the Cabinet Notice of a Meeting of the CabinetWednesday 22 June 2005 at 2.00 pm County Hall, Oxford
Contact officer: (Tel: 01865 815902; E-mail)
Membership
Decisions taken at the meeting will become effective at the end of the working day on 30 June 2005 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.
AGENDAAddenda
To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 7 June 12005 (CA3) and to receive for information any matters arising therefrom.
Cabinet
Member: Finance Report by Head of Finance & Procurement (CA5). This report presents the provisional outturn for revenue (Part 1) and capital (Part 2) for the 2004/05 financial year, as reported at the end of April 2005, and identifies variations to be carried forward into 2005/06 under the Council’s budget management arrangements. Figures reported at this stage are provisional and subject to amendment up to production of the Council’s Statement of Accounts. The provisional outturn for the Council shows consolidated balances of £12.114m. This is made up of £5.295m in general reserves and £6.819m in Directorate carry forwards. This represents an increase of £2.906m from the position at the end of 2003/04, which is made up of increases of £2.842m in general reserves and £0.064m in carry forward. The increase in general reserves is in line with the Council’s strategy to strengthen balances and to restore the position to 2% of net budget by 2006/07. Schools’ balances at year end are expected to be £10.340m, an increase of £5.048m from the position at 31 March 2004. A further report will be brought to the Cabinet in July giving fuller explanations of variations to budget in terms of unit costs and activity level. This information was not available in time to be included in the present report. This report will also present a formal application for the allocation of carry forwards to Directorates. A final outturn publication will be produced later in the summer. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet
Member: Finance Report by Head of Finance & Procurement (CA6). This is the first financial monitoring report for the 2005/06 financial year and covers the period up to the end of April 2005 for revenue and capital. Given the difficulties involved in forecasting year-end outturn based on a single month’s actuals, this report is largely on an exceptions basis, highlighting significant known variations which may affect the revenue budget or the capital programme in 2005/06. The projected year end position on revenue balances (net of the City Schools’ Reorganisation) is £11.723m. This is £2.415m higher than the estimated position in the 2005/06 Medium Term Financial Plan and would represent the achievement of the Council’s objective of restoring balances to 2% of net budget. However, we are only a month into the financial year and it is likely that additional calls on balances will emerge during the year and that the final position will be in line with budget. The initial projection for directorate outturn is that there will be an overspend of £2.216m to carry forward to 2006/07. However, it is difficult to make accurate projections based on a single month’s actuals and the trend in Directorate reports at this stage is to focus on potential pressures without quantifying possible offsetting underspends. Based on previous trends it is almost certain that this position will improve as the year goes on and the actual year end position is highly likely to be breakeven or better. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet
Member: Leader of the Council The attached report by the Leader of the Council sets out the way in which the new administration’s manifesto pledges will be taken forward in the short and medium term. Appendix 1 sets out its vision for Oxfordshire. The report addresses the manifesto topics in turn, under the overarching principles of ‘low taxes’, ‘real choice’ and ‘value for money’. The Leader of the Council RECOMMENDS the Cabinet to: (a) endorse the report; (b) receive further reports on the specific items for implementation.
Cabinet
Member: Children's Services Contact: Gillian Tee, Head of Children’s Services (01865 815125), Sarah Ainsworth, Children's Disability & Partnerships (01865 815892) Report
by Director for Learning & Culture, Director for Social & Health
Care (CA8). There is a new statutory requirement to produce a single, strategic plan for all local services for children and young people. This includes services provided by the local authority and all relevant partners. The duty to prepare the Children and Young People’s Plan (CYPP) is given to the County Council, alongside its duty to secure co-operation among partners to improve the wellbeing of children and young people. The local authority is expected to prepare the plan jointly with partners. The first Plan must be in place by 1 April 2006. The plan should support local authorities and their partners to agree clear targets and priorities for all their services to children and young people, to identify the action needed to achieve them and to ensure delivery. An early draft of the Outline CYPP as developed to date is included at Annex 3. This illustrates the proposed scope and format of the Plan and is intended as the basis for further work and development. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet
Member: Schools Improvement, Health & Community Services Report by Director for Learning & Culture (CA9). The Oxfordshire 14-19 area wide inspection report was published on 6 October 2003. The Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Learning and Skills Council and Oxfordshire County Council as the Local Education Authority were charged to take the lead in developing and implementing a Post Inspection Action Plan responding to the findings of the area wide inspection report. The recommendations of the area wide inspection report and the contents of the post inspection action plan were reported to the Executive on 14 January 2004. The Executive resolved to note these recommendations and resolved to approve the submission of the 14-19 Action Plan to the DfES and partner bodies. The 2004 inspection of Oxfordshire’s Education Service criticised slow progress in constructing a 14-19 Strategy for Oxfordshire. Recent appointments have enabled progress to be made since February 2005. The Oxfordshire 14-19 Strategy was developed in Spring 2005 and published for consultation in March 2005. The Strategy has been drawn up in the light of the 14-19 area wide inspection report, the 14-19 area wide action plan, the unfolding requirements for the Children and Young People’s Plan and the indicators to be used in joint area reviews. The Oxfordshire 14-19 Strategy seeks to address the recommendations of the 14-19 area wide inspection. These are reproduced in Annex 1 for reference. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet
Member: Community Safety Report by Director for Community Safety (CA10). The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 requires that a Youth Justice Plan be produced annually. Previous plans have been required by March, reporting on performance in the previous calendar year. From 2005/06, the Plan addresses performance in the current financial year and is thus aligned with other planning frameworks required within Children’s Services. The draft Plan for 2005/06 is circulated with the agenda (circulated to members only and available for public inspection). It is written to a template provided by the Youth Justice Board, which is responsible to the Home Office for the performance of Youth Offending Services. This format, and some of the measures, have altered since last year and direct comparisons are therefore not always possible. This report provides an overview of the Youth Justice Plan, which, following approval by the statutory partner agencies, has to be submitted to the Youth Justice Board by 30 June 2005. The Board recognises, however, that plans may at that stage still require further member approval. The Plan is one of the strategic plans which are subject to approval by full Council following consideration by both the Cabinet and relevant Scrutiny Committee in accordance with the Budget and Policy Framework Procedure Rules set out in the Constitution. There is evidence from the continued reduction in youth offending, improved performance against Key Performance Indicators and the outcome of the recent Joint Inspection, that the Youth Offending Service is having a positive impact upon crime in Oxfordshire. It is, however, clear that increased demands from government (e.g. to respond to the major anti-social behaviour initiative) without further resources pose considerable challenges to performance in the future. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet
Member: Community Safety Report by Director for Community Safety and Chief Fire Officer (CA11). The Fire & Rescue Service Integrated Risk Management Plan 2004/05 (IRMP) indicated a need to consider Local Response Standards to replace the old National Response Standards that were becoming obsolete. The Executive agreed a number of actions within the 2005/06 IRMP, which included the development and introduction of Local Response Standards for the County. These Local Response Standards have been trialled since 1 April 2005 to ensure that they are clearly understood by local fire crews. Performance data will be used for future improvement planning and prioritising Community Safety work. The Local Response Standards will also provide opportunities to seek service delivery improvements in the future, with highest priority to reducing the number of life threatening emergencies and improving the response times to those which occur. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet
Member: Health & Community Services Report by Director for Learning & Culture (CA12). The County Council’s grant scheme for the improvement of village halls and other community buildings is administered by the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, who assess applications according to the established eligibility criteria. This report summarises the applications received for grants in 2005/06 and recommends allocation of grants totalling £62,900 to 14 village and community halls. Full details of the applications are lodged in the Members’ Resource Centre. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to approve the grants proposed in Annex 2 to the report.
Cabinet
Member: All 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 CA13. 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.
June
2005 |
