Item

Speaker

8.        Better Offices Programme – Central Offices

Councillor Alan Armitage (speaking as Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance)

11.      Race Equality Scheme

Councillor Alan Armitage (Speaking in place of Councillor Bill Bradshaw as Shadow Cabinet Member for Change Management)

Children’s Services

The Committee:

(a)         wished to congratulate the Directorate on:

i.             its whole service approach to setting the budget this year (as opposed to a service by service approach);

ii.           the savings achieved on Home to School Transport due to the re-tendering process; and hopes that the savings will continue in future years;

(b)          recommends the Cabinet to consider the proposal for Raising Achievement (£350,000) as set out in Annex 4 subject to all members of this Committee soon receiving a copy of the Independent Review of the School Effectiveness Service;

(c)           supports the proposal for Breaking the Cycle of Deprivation (£450,000) as set out in Annex 4; and

(d)          should any funding be available, wishes the Cabinet to look at youth centre provision in both rural and urban areas of the county in order to see where it needs to be improved (this review should include consideration of factors such as opening hours and staffing).

Community Safety

(a)          The Committee wished the Cabinet to fund all of the pressures for the 2008/09 financial year (£0.270m) from the sum available to allocate.

Environment & Economy

(a)          The Committee requested the Cabinet to remove the budget pressure ‘Countywide Weed Control’ (£600,000 2008/09-2012/13) and asked Area Engineers (North / South) to undertake weed control at their discretion.

Social & Community Services

Cultural, Adult Learning & Registration Services

The Committee requests the Cabinet to:

(a)         fund Cogges Manor Farm Museum for the next financial year (April 2008) to enable a Business Plan to be produced within the next six months; and

(b)         continue current levels of funding to Victoria County Histories for the next three years;

The Committee hopes that no more than low level cuts will be made to the arts organisations (as listed in CALS 26 – 28) and hopes that the Cabinet will look carefully  at which organisations are delivering and which are not*;

*       further information became available  following the meeting and therefore the Committee (with the absence of Councillor Seale due to his prejudicial interest) also AGREED to express concern that any level of cuts in the grants carries a high risk to the County Council (particularly in terms of its influence on outcomes, reputation, leverage from other funders and deliverability); and to urge that if a cut is made, at whatever level, then this should be managed by officers reviewing the County Council’s grant aid agreements across the board, with a view to maintaining maximum effect in terms of the County Council’s priorities.

The Committee recognises that if the Cabinet continues to finance the above areas this may result in a loss of funding to the Book Fund. The Committee therefore wishes to emphasise that should this be the case it would wish the least possible cuts to be made to the County’s book stock and hopes that the Cabinet will be able to find alternative savings in order to prevent any cuts from being made.

Social Care for Adults

The Committee:

(a)         recognises that there is an inevitable imbalance between the long term funding and what is available to meet the demographic challenge and that there are significant uncertainties in the long and short term planning;

(b)         endorses the ongoing Directorate policy shift away from residential care towards funding preventative and rehabilitative services, increased support for family carers and extra care housing; and

(c)          endorses the investment proposals as set out in Annex 4.