Meeting documents
Cabinet
Tuesday, 20 September 2005
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To Members of the Cabinet Notice of a Meeting of the CabinetTuesday 20 September 2005 at 2.00 pm County Hall, Oxford
Contact officer: Kath Coldwell (Tel: 01865 815902; E-mail ) Membership
Decisions taken at the meeting will become effective at the end of the working day on 28 September 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 6 September 2005 (CA3) and to receive for information any matters arising therefrom. Cabinet Member:
Finance Report by Head of Finance & Procurement (CA5). This report covers the period up to the end of July 2005 for revenue and capital. There has been a net increase of £0.309m in the projected year-end position for consolidated balances since the last report. This is due to increases in the forecast for general balances following the return of £0.724m of the 2004/05 carry forward to balances and an increase of £0.700m in the forecast surplus of interest on cash balances. There is a further call on balances relating to the supplementary estimate for £0.118m approved by Cabinet on 19 July and there are potential calls on balances totalling £0.900m but the position is expected to remain in line with the projections set out in the Service and Financial Planning 2006/07 – 2010/11 report considered elsewhere on the agenda. The Directorate outturn projections currently indicate a year-end overspend. While there are genuine pressures on a number of services which Directorates are working hard to contain within budgets, in many cases there is still a reluctance to quantify potential offsetting areas of underspending at this stage in the financial year, and the effects of management action being taken to contain pressures has yet to be seen. It is likely that the forecast Directorate overspends will reduce as the year goes on. An updated Capital Programme Booklet is circulated with the agenda. The booklet contains all amendments that have been reported in the Monthly Monitoring Reports since the 18 May Cabinet meeting. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet Member:
Finance Report by Director for Resources (CA6). This report is the first in a series that will inform members on the service and financial planning process and issues for 2006/07 and the medium term. The report sets out the current Medium Term Financial Plan as amended by Cabinet on 5 July and provides the latest information on the Council’s financial position. It also sets out the County Council Management Team’s budget management proposals for 2006/07, outlines some of the risks within the proposals and other areas of uncertainty and provides a proposed timetable for the budget process. A Financial Strategy for the Council was produced for the period 2003/04 to 2006/07. The document provides an overarching statement about how the Council intends to conduct its finances. This was adopted by the Executive in October 2002 and has been reviewed on an annual basis to ensure its accuracy. The strategy has now been in place for three years and has been updated by the Head of Finance & Procurement for the period 2006/07 to 2008/09. The updated strategy is presented at Annex 1 to the report. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet Member:
Leader of the Council Report by Assistant Chief Executive (CA7). The Assistant Chief Executive reports as follows: The Government has agreed to negotiate a Local Area Agreement (LAA) in Oxfordshire for 2006/07. The LAA will be focused on four themes: Children & Young People; Safer & Stronger Communities; Older People & Health; and Enterprise & Economic Development. The Government sees LAAs as a tool for delivering national and local priorities through better partnership arrangements and pooled resources to support key objectives. LAA reward funding (worth c £15m after 3 years) provides the incentive to deliver agreed targets. An outline LAA submission is required to be made to the Government Office for the South East by the end of September. A draft is attached (CA7) for the Cabinet’s approval. The document summarises the general approach to the LAA and includes an explanation of the governance arrangements which are already being put in place. The draft will have been considered by the Oxfordshire Public Services Board prior to the meeting of the Cabinet and any comments on the Board’s part will be reported at the meeting. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED, subject to consideration of any comments on the part of the Public Services Board, to approve the draft outline submission to be made to the Government Office for the South East.
Cabinet Member:
Leader of the Council, Policy Co-ordination Report by Assistant Chief Executive (CA8). The Funding Code is the first of five items of supplementary guidance to the Oxfordshire Compact to be published. The Oxfordshire Compact is a partnership agreement between the statutory and voluntary and community sectors in Oxfordshire for assisting the development of effective working relationships. The Leader of the Council signed the Compact in September 2004 on behalf of the County Council. Alongside all 5 district councils, the County Council has played a significant role in the implementation of the Compact countywide and in the development of this Funding Code. The Funding Code has been written by a partnership of statutory and voluntary organisations including the County Council (represented by the Communities Team), all 5 district councils and representatives from the Oxfordshire Rural Community Council, Oxfordshire Community and Voluntary Action and Age Concern Oxfordshire.
Following a consultation period from 16 May to 15 July 2005 the Compact Steering Group approved the draft Funding Code for publication and its members agreed to take the Code through their Management Team, Cabinet or Executive for adoption. A copy of the Funding Code is appended at Annex 1 (download as .doc file). The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet Member:
Health & Community Services Work has been undertaken over the last 3 years by Oxfordshire County Council, Oxfordshire Mental Healthcare NHS Trust and the Oxfordshire PCTs to develop improved joint working and to move towards a fully integrated mental health service for adults of working age. This report advises Cabinet on the progress made and seeks approval to proceed to the conclusion of the project which will result in two Partnership Agreements under S31 of the Health Act 1999 for:
The report also gives the outcome of the formal review of the current staff secondment arrangements and recommends the continuing secondment of staff linked to the two partnership agreements. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED:
This paper outlines some of the implications for Oxfordshire of a recent Department of Health paper on the NHS. This set out proposals for supporting a faster roll-out of Practice Based Commissioning, with a changing role for Primary Care Trusts and a reduction in their number. In addition, the Patient-led NHS also envisages fewer Strategic Health Authorities and Ambulance NHS Trusts. For Oxfordshire, the Chief Executive of the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority has indicated a preference to see only one PCT in Oxfordshire compared with five currently in place. Informal comments have been invited on the basis of three possible options: no change; three PCTs based on North, City and South; and a single PCT for the whole County. The Director for Social & Health Care’s view is that only one PCT for Oxfordshire gives the Health system a commissioning body of sufficient size to be effective.
The Practice Based Commissioning element of the proposals will see GP practices take on the responsibility from PCTs for commissioning services that meet the health needs of their local population. This will include designing improved patient pathways; creating community based services which are convenient for patients; and budgets covering acute, community and emergency care. The changes which the Government are proposing to make to the organisation of NHS services will have major implications for residents in Oxfordshire. They will also almost certainly lead to increased demand for services from the Social & Health Care Directorate as more patients are treated by primary care. This report is brought forward as the Chief Executive of the Thames Valley Strategic Health Authority (in a letter dated 31 August) has asked for comments, particularly on the PCT configuration issue, by 30 September, in order to make a submission to the Department of Health. The item has therefore not been signalled in the Cabinet’s Forward Plan. It is not however considered to amount to a key decision as defined in the Constitution. The issue is also being referred to the Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee on 15 September. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet Member:
Sustainable Development Report by Head of Sustainable Development Service, Head of Finance & Procurement and Head of Resources, Learning & Culture (CA11). This report responds to a Council resolution on 5 April 2005, on a motion by former Councillor Robert Evans, in the following terms: "This Council agrees to support the principle of fair trade and also to encourage the production and use of local produce. To further these objectives, the Council asks the Executive to consider ways in which it can:
The report outlines current practice by County Facilities Management, both in schools and the other catering services it provides, and makes recommendations to the Cabinet for the increased use of fairly traded and local produce across the Council, including cost implications. The report also considers ways of raising awareness of the environmental, social and economic benefits of purchasing fairly traded and local produce to staff and councillors. The report also notes the wider sustainability implications of catering, for example, the use of bottled water and of disposable plates and cups, which generate unnecessary waste and expense. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:
Cabinet Member:
Health & Community Services Report by Director for Learning & Culture (CA12) (download as .doc file). Under current arrangements Local Learning and Skills Councils (LSCs) purchase learning provision from a variety of local providers, ensuring a balance and mix of provision. There is no longer an obligation on them to purchase provision from local authority adult learning services and currently Local LSCs have ceased to do so from 17 councils across the country. Local authorities’ adult learning services are obliged to both compete with and work in partnership with other local providers. This report summarises the present position with regard to the Council’s contracts with the Local LSC for Oxfordshire (the Milton Keynes, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire LSC -MKOBLSC); notes the outcome of the recent inspection by the Adult Learning Inspectorate of the Oxfordshire Service; and outlines the Service’s proposals for the negotiation with MKOBLSC of contracts for the three year period 2005/06 to 2007/08. These proposals are incorporated in a three-year "development plan" which all prospective providers are required to prepare according to a formula prescribed by the LSC, setting out how the organisation expects to provide the service in line with national priorities. In the first instance therefore this functions as a bidding document in competition with other potential providers. This report seeks endorsement of the general approach adopted in submitting Oxfordshire’s bid. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED, subject to consideration of any comments on the part of the Health & Community Services Scrutiny Committee, to endorse the approach and change agenda outlined in the report in respect of the Council’s Adult Learning contracts. Cabinet Member:
Schools Improvement Report by Director for Learning & Culture (CA13). One of the actions identified in Oxfordshire’s SEN Strategy (2004) was ‘to explore, with schools, the delegation of the statementing budget in order to ensure that practical support is available to meet children’s needs as quickly and flexibly as possible’. National policy initiatives have in recent years been encouraging LEAs to move away from over reliance on the statutory assessment process and statementing as a means of delivering resources to pupils with SEN. Statements give assurance to parents by providing detailed assessments of a child’s needs and allocating resources to meet those needs. However it is possible to develop alternative ways of providing this assurance without recourse to the statutory process. A working group has developed an initial scheme for the delegation of the statementing budget and schools have been informally consulted on these suggestions. There has been widespread support for the principles and some of the methodology suggested. Further models have been produced and the scheme modified in the light of feedback received. Cabinet are being asked to agree a formal consultation on proposals to delegate a significant amount of the statementing budget. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to agree to a formal consultation on the scheme outlined in paragraphs 16 to 26 of this report.
Cabinet Member:
Schools Improvement Report by Director for Learning & Culture (CA14). This report presents two project appraisals, for schemes within the Learning & Culture Capital Programme. The first appraisal is in respect of a scheme to provide a new six-classroom block to cater for Basic Need. The accommodation will provide six new general teaching classrooms with three on the ground floor and three on the first floor with provisions for a lift, toilets and storage. This is the next phase of development at the College under its Site Development Plan. The second appraisal is for the final phase of the co-location of Mabel Prichard Special School (primary aged section) with Orchard Meadow Primary School, Blackbird Leys, Oxford. This involves the refurbishment and conversion of accommodation currently occupied by Orchard Meadow Primary School that will become vacant in November 2005 when the primary school moves into fully refurbished and converted accommodation previously occupied by Wesley Green Middle School. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to approve project appraisals ED626 and ED627. Cabinet Member:
Transport Report by Head of Transport (CA15). Various agency arrangements exist with district, town and parish councils whereby they carry out minor highway functions such as grass cutting and vegetation clearance by agreement with the County Council as local highway authority. This report seeks to update the existing arrangements. Because some of the arrangements are of considerable age and their documentation is scant, there is currently a lack of clarity regarding who does what and on what terms and it is considered important that we formalise the arrangements and seek consistency of operation by the introduction of standard agreements. At the same time it would be helpful to update the standard list of functions that may be undertaken by district, town or parish councils. The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED:
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 CA16. 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.
September 2005 |
