Meeting documents

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To Members of the Cabinet

Notice of a Meeting of the Cabinet

Tuesday 7 February 2006 at 2.00 pm

County Hall, Oxford

Derek Bishop
Head of Democratic Services

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 15 February 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

Addenda

1. Apologies for Absence
   
   
2. Declarations of Interest – see guidance note
   
   
3. Minutes

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

4. Petitions and Public Address
   
   (See Addenda)
   
   
5. Capital Programme 2006/07 to 2008/09

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

(a) approve the updated capital programme for submission to the Council for approval subject to:

(1) addition of the revenue contribution for non-schools and transport capital expenditure when finally ascertained;

(2) the Capital Steering Group being asked to make recommendations to a future meeting of the Cabinet as to which highest priority capital projects should be recommended to Council for inclusion in the capital programme in line with the available resources;

(b) recommend the Council to agree to the use of forward borrowing for 2006/07 in 2005/06 up to a maximum of £10m;

(c) ask officers to report back to Cabinet on the implications of continuing to maximise its borrowing allocations in the light of the removal of supported borrowing under the changed revenue support grant arrangements.

6. Local Area Agreement
   
   (See also Addenda)
   

Cabinet Member: Leader of the Council
Forward Plan Ref: 2005/137
Contact: Claire Evans, Oxfordshire Community Partnership Manager (01865 816077)

The Assistant Chief Executive reports as follows:

The Government has agreed to negotiate a Local Area Agreement (LAA) for Oxfordshire. The LAA is a three year agreement between central and local government setting out the priorities for a given area. It is agreed between central government - represented by the Government Office for the South East (GOSE)), and the local area represented by the County Council, the Oxfordshire Community Partnership and other key local partners. The LAA is focused on four themes: Children and Young People, Safer and Stronger Communities, Older People and Health and Enterprise and Economic Development.

The Cabinet received a copy of the first submission to GOSE at the end of September. Since that time much work has gone on to engage relevant partners for each target and to work up the detail of what is to be delivered. The draft is appended (CA6) (download as .doc file). It is being considered by the Public Service Board on 31 January and an amended version will be circulated highlighting the PSB comments. The present draft is therefore circulated to Cabinet Members only, but copies are in the Members’ Resource Centre and are available for public inspection.

Cabinet is recommended, subject to consideration of any comments on the part of the Public Service Board, to approve the submission to be made to GOSE.

7. Fair Funding Formula in Schools
   

Cabinet Member: Schools Improvement
Forward Plan Ref: 2005/174
Contact: Matt Bowmer, Strategic Finance Manager 01865 815474

Report by Director for Children, Young People & Families, Head of Finance & Procurement (CA7).

Consultation with schools and the Schools Forum has taken place on proposed changes to the Fair Funding Formula for the coming year. There are three elements to the Review: firstly, there are a number of areas brought forward by schools and officers which were considered by the Schools Forum on 14 September 2005; secondly, there are issues brought about by the changes to the Financing Regulations drafted in November 2005 and set also as a result of specific funding announced in the provisional local government finance settlement in December 2005; and thirdly, arrangements for place-led funding for nursery schools and protection for pupil numbers in nursery classes agreed for 2004/05 subject to review this year.

The report sets out the results of consultation with schools and the Schools Forum and makes a series of recommendations for changes in that light. On the basis of the provisional local government finance settlement it is anticipated that sufficient headroom does exist to make the changes outlined. However, this cannot be said with 100% certainty until the data from the January PLASC (Pupil Level Annual Schools Census) is available and the formula run.

1. to allocate the current £100k for Social Deprivation using a measure of socio economic deprivation and target it to the 4 secondary schools and 12 primary schools having the greatest need.
2. to direct the first £200k of headroom for 2006/07 and 2007/08 to the Social Deprivation factor.
3. to allocate new schools in their first year of operation the SEN Index at the higher of 6.75% or the partnership average. In subsequent years the one or two year data should be uplifted appropriately.
4. to reinstate a school farm factor with a value of £37k funded from available headroom to be updated by inflation annually.
5. to allocate funding for pay grants through the formula based on an annual headcount of staff at the end of January.
6. to recalculate the Post 16 fixed cost clawback for secondary schools annually with any resources reallocates to KS3 AWPUs.
7. to bring special school funding into line with our Statistical Neighbours for 2006/07.
8. to fund F2 and F3 places in nursery classes be on a planned place basis.
9. to fund F1 foundation pupils on a combination of the January PLASC and the preceding April count.
10. to allocate infant class size funding on the basis of the January PLASC only.
11. to separately set out funding for Personalised Learning in the formula and that it be allocated through a combination of socio economic deprivation and prior attainment data (KS1 teacher assessment for primary and numbers of pupils not attaining level 4+ at KS2 before entry to secondary for secondary)
12. to continue to fund nursery schools on a place led basis.
    
    
8. SEEDA: Regional Economic Strategy

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to:

1. thank SEEDA for the opportunity to comment on the draft Regional Economic Strategy for the South East;
2. endorse, subject to the comments in the report, its recommendations concerning key issues and drivers influencing the future of the economy;
3. reject the designation of Inner and Outer areas insofar as they relate to Oxfordshire on the grounds that they are not justified by the evidence, are at odds with other geographies based around Oxfordshire or Central Oxfordshire that are already in use, and will not help improve the partnership working that SEEDA rightly suggests is necessary;
4. invite SEEDA to collaborate with the Council in making the case for the investment in infrastructure necessary to support further growth;
5. approve the comments made in the report and Annex 2 as the substance of the County Council’s feedback to SEEDA.

9. Forward Plan and Future Business
   
   (See also Addenda)
   

January 2006

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