ITEM CC11COUNTY COUNCIL – 1 APRIL 2003REPORT OF THE EXECUTIVE7 January 2003
The Executive has reviewed its aspirations for the passenger rail network in the County in the light of recommendations put forward by the Rail Development Officer, parish representatives and the Environment Scrutiny Committee. This has resulted in the identification of a number of items, selected according to their likely achievability within a reasonable timescale, which will be a first call on available officer time: these include the development of the Oxford-Bicester and Cotswold/Malvern lines, the proposed Grove/Wantage Station, the relocation of Oxford Station and improved interchange facilities at Didcot Station. For a full list members are referred to the repoem1rt with the papers for the 7 January Executive. Among the aspirations identified was the future re-opening of the former rail station at Littlemore, on which the Executive received representations from Councillor McIntosh-Stedman. It was noted that a context for this could be the possibility of future reinstatement of the Oxford-Princes Risborough line, which is one of the secondary franchise commitments made by Chiltern Railways. Funding for rail projects is for the most part a matter for the rail industry. The Strategic Rail Authority is now the key investor in the industry and will decide where to direct its investment in line with its strategic policies and best value objectives. The most recent advice from the Government is that local authority capital allocations in support of the Local Transport Plan should only be used for passenger interchange works.
Over the past two years – following the Best Value Review of Early Years and Childcare in February 2001 – the County Council has been carrying out research and development, public discussion and consultation on proposals to implement the Foundation Stage of Learning in Oxfordshire, including the introduction of a single point of admission in September each year to Oxfordshire primary schools. At the heart of the proposals is the desire to make more coherent provision for the Foundation Stage of Learning across the whole of the County, and particularly in LEA primary schools. Because of the wide variations in admissions policy, and because of the differences in funding levels between pupils at different points within the reception year, many primary schools find it difficult to offer coherent and good quality provision for young children in the Foundation Stage. If young children are to get the best possible start in learning within Oxfordshire’s maintained schools system, this needs to change. The Executive has now approved the introduction of the single point of admission proposals from September 2004, on the basis of the budgetary provision agreed by the Council in February. It is intended to consider priorities for further development of the proposals in the context of the 2004/05 budget.
21 January 2003
The EYDCP Implementation Plan is required to be submitted annually to the DfES in order to highlight achievements against strategic targets and goals and to set out significant areas of need and activity for the year ahead. Proposals in this year’s Plan reflect the County Council’s success at bidding for new funding to develop innovative schemes for integrated early years and childcare. In approving the Plan the Executive was pleased to receive comments from the Social & Health Care Scrutiny Committee appreciating the hard work devoted by the officers in producing the Plan and expressing congratulations to the officers for winning two national awards for their work in linkage with employers and for the development of a Children’s Information Service.
As part of the establishment of the new strategic health authorities from 1 April 2002, the Department of Health required that all health authorities have an agreed set of eligibility criteria and assessment tools for all adult client groups. In the Thames Valley Health Authority this has required agreement across 16 primary care trusts and 9 local authorities. This has been steered by a group of representatives taken from each organisation with final agreement being reached between the parties on 11 December 2002. Approval has been given by the Executive to the eligibility criteria and assessment tool which have resulted from that work.
The Executive has agreed a proposal further to develop the integration of mental health services for adults of working age between the County Council and the Oxfordshire Mental Healthcare NHS Trust. The Director for Social & Health Care will be developing the project brief and the detailed proposals for the integration of services in partnership with the Chief Executive of Oxfordshire Mental Health Care NHS Trust and commissioning a three-month period of consultation with staff and key stakeholders before presenting the outcome to the Executive. 5 February 2002
In February 2002, the Executive asked officers to undertake a review of the problems in operating the present three-site school structure in Wantage; to look into PFI as a financing source; to review research into the effect of secondary school size on performance; and to undertake further exploratory work on options costing. The Executive has considered four options: re-modelling existing King Alfred’s building stock to provide two 11-16 units, with a separate sixth form; a single new school (the option favoured by the Governing Body); creation of two separate schools, one serving Wantage, and one Grove; and creation of a "lower" and "upper" school model, on the lines of the structure of Lord Williams’s School, Thame. Having considered the four options the Executive resolved to undertake a publicity campaign to provide detailed information on the relative merits of a new single-site school in Grove and a two school option based on Wantage and Grove, followed by a survey of public opinion during September 2003. A further report will come forward to a future meeting on the outcome of the survey and the sources of funding for both options.
The Executive has approved an Arts Strategy 2003-2006 and has agreed that the priority actions within arts development for this period should be:
The Executive has agreed to allocate £150,000 in the 2003/04 Capital Programme for the extension of the National Cycle Network in Oxfordshire. The Network has been very successful in encouraging increased levels of cycling by providing high quality new cycle route infrastructure. There are currently over 100 miles of the Network in Oxfordshire and the extension will continue to contribute towards the achievement of the aims and objectives of the adopted County Cycling Strategy. The proposed extensions are Thame-Oxford-Witney-Lechlade; Didcot to Wantage; and Oxford to Chipping Norton via Charlbury. 18 February 2003
The Premium Routes network is a set of high frequency routes that could be commercially self-sustaining by 2011, given some capital investment to provide bus priority measures and quality bus stop infrastructure, together with some ‘pump priming’ revenue funding in some cases, so as to bring the frequency of buses on all routes up to a ‘turn up and go’ threshold of four buses per hour. The Executive has endorsed a list of Premium Routes schemes for future implementation and has asked the Executive Members for Transport and Strategic Planning & Waste Management to select schemes from the list for inclusion in the 2003/04 and 2005/06 Transport Capital Programme which will be considered by the Executive on 15 April 2003.
In July 2002 the Executive agreed to allow the experimental traffic order controlling coach stopping in St. Giles and Beaumont Street to lapse. Since September 2002 there have been no formal stopping places for coaches in the City Centre. This means that the present arrangements will continue for 2003 with additional monitoring taking place, which will form the basis for the development of medium and longer term plans. Consultation is seen as key in finding an acceptable solution. To support the retention of the status quo this year authority has been given to carry out any necessary minor alterations to signing in Oxford City to ensure coaches entering the city are adequately informed of the existing situation. Officers have also been asked to look at measures to prevent the use of the Taylorian layby by coaches and report to the Transport Implementation Committee at the earliest opportunity.
In November 2002, arising from the Special Educational Needs Scrutiny Review, the Executive called for a report back on the use and status of the existing draft "resources matrix" to address concerns expressed about its use in decision making on SEN provision. The Executive has now received advice from the Solicitor to the Council that the document could help ensure that decisions are made from a consistent base, provided it is applied as guidance and not as a rigid set of rules and the different circumstances and needs of individual children are taken into account. In this light the Executive has endorsed the use of the document as guidelines in determining SEN provision subject to:
The Executive will look at the frequency and effectiveness of the use of the guidelines in a year’s time.
The Job Evaluation Project was instigated as part of the implementation of the national move towards Single Status employment and to address the County Council’s identified need for a more rational transparent grading system which ensures that pay is free of sex bias and avoids the risk of successful equal pay claims against the Council. The Executive has now agreed detailed proposals for implementing the scheme within the budget allocation agreed by the Council. Job evaluation is a joint exercise with Unison and implementation of the scheme will rely on reaching a local agreement with Unison. Negotiations are continuing on this agreement and Unison are balloting its membership in March. It is anticipated that, subject to a positive ballot result, a draft local agreement can be reached in April 2003. A further report will then come to the Executive to ratify the agreement. Notification of new grades will then take place in May 2003 and the new grading structure implemented, subject to phasing and pay protection where appropriate, on 1 June 2003. 4 March 2003
Early last year the Executive commissioned the Environment Scrutiny Committee to examine the County Council’s bus service procurement policy and practice. The Executive has received the Scrutiny Committee’s report – following studies carried out by the consultants Halcrow – and has given full consideration to the Committee’s recommendations. These cover a wide range of detailed aspects and members are referred to the report by the Executive Members for Transport and Strategic Planning & Waste Management included in the 4 March Executive papers for a full description. However some of the more significant decisions made by the Executive in the light of the Scrutiny Committee’s recommendations include:
Many of these issues will require further reports to the Executive in due course, some in the context of the Strategy to be produced and consulted upon as part of the Local Transport Plan.
Following the detrunking of the A40 the County Council issued a commission in May 2002 to consultants for a detailed traffic study to be undertaken to identify options for short, medium and long-term measures to improve conditions on the Green Road roundabout by reducing traffic congestion, improving bus priority and journey times and addressing accident and safety issues. The consultants concluded that the option that would best meet the aims and objectives of the brief was the provision of a "hamburger roundabout" whereby the roundabout is signalised but includes a straight-through section of carriageway for one of the major routes together with specific measures to assist buses on the approaches to and in the vicinity of the roundabout. The Executive has endorsed these long-term measures for further development and consultation and sees them very much as a positive start to finding a solution to the problems at Green Road by affording positive controls for traffic using the roundabout. Other short and medium term measures agreed involve:
In July 2002 the Executive agreed to work being undertaken to develop and consult on proposals in three areas of services for adults with a learning disability:
The main element of the resulting proposal is that three Joint Community Teams will be established in Oxfordshire comprising the following services (with "one front door" access):
Full consultation has been undertaken with staff and other stakeholders. There will be no changes to the employment conditions for staff employed by the Social & Health Care Directorate or the Trust and all staff will remain employed by their current employers with no TUPE or staff redundancy implications. The proposals, although identifying changes in structures and posts, will be cost neutral. The Executive has authorised the Director for Social & Health Care to implement the proposals.
Additional Matter
A response has been made to a consultation by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister which sought to ascertain the likely level of interest in each region in holding a referendum about establishing an elected regional assembly. The response draws on a MORI poll conducted jointly with other south eastern counties, which showed a degree of support for the principle of a referendum, although this was markedly weaker when respondents were informed of likely implications, such as the costs likely to arise and the remoteness of any regional organisation. The core response sent to ODPM was that an elected regional assembly:
The response was considered by all three group leaders, but the Leader of the Labour Group felt unable to subscribe to it. It has therefore been submitted to ODPM on the authority of the Leader and Deputy Leader of the Council. A copy is in the Members’ Resource Centre.
KEITH
R. MITCHELL
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