Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Carter and Councillor Hibbert Biles

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 26 May 2015 (CA3 – to be circulated separately) and to receive information arising from them.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 26 May were approved and signed as a correct record.

Councillor  Howson had given notice of the following question to Councillor Tilley:

" What are the consequences for Oxfordshire of the letter from Lord Nash, the PUS at the DfE taking away the responsibility of the local authority to help choose sponsors for new schools from 1st July 2015?"

Councillor Tilley replied:

"Up until now decisions about sponsors for underperforming schools have, ultimately, been taken by the Secretary of State acting on the advice of 'brokers' who have worked with Council officers to identify the most appropriate sponsor to tackle the underlying issues and to support long term sustained improvements. Delegating the decision making to the Regional Schools Commissioner who will, over time, develop an understanding of the 'education landscape' of Oxfordshire, strikes me as much more sensible than a remote Secretary of State, or PUS, making the decision. Officers will be meeting with the Regional Schools Commissioner next week and Lord Nash's letter will be on the agenda. I hope that we can build upon our already positive working relationship with him and I am confident that he will wish to call upon officers' local knowledge and expertise in order to make the best possible decisions about which organisations are best placed to sponsor Oxfordshire schools in need of support."

Supplementary: Councillor Tilley responding to a further question from Councillor Howson replied that no, she was unable to give an assurance that the Regional Schools Commissioner will take decisions based on the suggestions of council officers.

Councillor  Godden had given notice of the following question to Councillor Carter:

“The message below was received from Botley School on 1 June. My question is not What has happened since then, but How did this happen in the first place, and what measures are we taking to improve performance and communication?

“The building work has been delayed unfortunately, as it should have been finished by now. The initial delay was due to the steel structure (to support the new reception classroom) being built to incorrect measurements which caused a 12 week delay. There was supposed to be a meeting with Carillion staff to complete a snagging list on 20th May, but this was cancelled as the build wasn't sufficiently advanced for that meeting to happen.  I have not had a response from Carillion with an update, since my last meeting with them on 20th April.”

Councillor Carter replied:

“The last progress meeting with Botley School was held by the Project Manager on the 18^th of June, as part of regular formal monthly progress meetings, in addition to weekly site meetings which are held between the construction lead and the School site representative, during this meeting the practical completion date was communicated to the school as being the 15^th of July, the team also agreed that a snagging session would be completed on the 25^th of June, with the school invited, with a view to have all outstanding snagging items cleared by the practical completion date.

The delays during construction have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 52/15

Item 6 – Councillor Fooks, local councilllor

At the invitation of the Chairman, Councillors Brighouse and Webber together with Councillors Godden, Gray, and Gill Sanders, as members of the Early Intervention Cabinet Advisory Group were invited to the table during discussion of this item.

Item 7 – Councillor Hards, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance

Cabinet Member: Children, Education & Families

Forward Plan Ref: 2015/2022

Contact: Lucy Butler, Deputy Director for Children’s Social Care Tel: (01865) 815165

Report by Chairman of the Early Intervention Cabinet Advisory Group (CA6).

The current budget for the Early Intervention Service including Children’s Centres is approximately £16M. As part of the service and resource planning process for the period 2014/15-2017/18 savings of £6 million were identified for the Early Intervention Service to be achieved through integration with Children’s Social Care.

A cross-party Cabinet Advisory Group (CAG)  was established to support development of proposals to achieve a £6M budget reduction and fundamental redesign of early intervention services was agreed.

This report provides some background into the work of the CAG and makes recommendations to Cabinet for changes to the children’s early intervention service in order to realise the savings mentioned above .

It is RECOMMENDED that Cabinet consults with potential partners on the proposals set out below:

a.     The current service needs to be streamlined and refocused to respond to (i) financial pressures to achieve savings of £6m by 2017/18; (ii) increases in demand for statutory services.

b.    A robust and sustainable service should be developed that delivers an integrated response to families’ needs and focus on the prevention of the escalation of need.

c.     One coherent 0-19 years’ service be created rather than continuing with an early intervention service divided by age groups. This allows for better joined up working and use of limited resources.

d.    Location of services and funding should be determined based on need as defined by Index of Multiple Deprivation, Children on Protection Plans, Children in Need and percentage under 5 (2015-20). See Annex 1 for draft summary of the needs analysis providing detailed information on the data.

e.     In addition to centres being located on the basis of need considerations of access and geographical spread of centres is critical given the rural nature of the county. The existing locality model should be used as a basis for future service design.

f.      Children & Family Resource Centres be developed in line with County Council localities. Locality based centres targeted to those areas of greatest need will be developed and combined with outreach services so as to allow for a good geographical spread of resources. Locality modelling which is based on natural communities means limited resources can be allocated on a needs basis at a local level. Locality modelling is a robust model which can be flexible to meet changes in need and population.  It also allows for local communities/groups and parishes to play a part in service delivery.

g.    Early intervention services must not be duplicated. Close working is required with partners, especially schools and Public Health to ensure an effective service.

h.    Outreach of early intervention work from main service centres should be a means to ensure service provision in both urban and rural areas.

i.      Early intervention services need to focus on providing evidence based prevention work in particular to prevent  ...  view the full agenda text for item 54/15

Cabinet considered the report of the Early Intervention CAG which provided some background into the work of the CAG and made recommendations to Cabinet for changes to the children’s early intervention service in order to realise the necessary savings.

Councillor Fooks referred to the huge concerns within communities and commented that the report would not allay those fears. Within her Division there were areas that were very deprived with high numbers of single parents, children on free school meals and families on income support or job seekers allowance. She believed that the proposals on early intervention centres needed re-consideration and that it would be a mistake to close them. There was a need to provide at lower cost but the Centres themselves should be asked for their suggestions to achieve this. In response to concern that the consultation was over the summer period when schools were closed the Leader explained that there would be a full consultation on proposals to come back to Cabinet following initial conversations with stakeholders over the summer period.

Councillor Gray, as Vice Chairman of the CAG highlighted the seriousness with which they approached their task and outlined how their work had been carried out. He was pleased to see the move to a 0-19 service and he did feel that going forward the Council would need to focus on the statutory services and work with the most vulnerable families.

Councillor Brighouse, Leader of the Opposition, stated that there was more information that she would have liked to have seen, for instance around the finances of the individual centres. As someone heavily involved in her own local centre she was aware of the value of the stay and play services, which encouraged people into the centres. The question was how to work in the local areas to ensure children were safeguarded and that the most vulnerable were not disadvantaged by the new service. The Council was facing very difficult decisions in a time of financial constraint and increasing need.

Councillor Godden, speaking as a recently resigned member of the CAG commented that she had a minority view, feeling that further information was needed before being able to say that the proposals in the report were the best way forward.. She felt uncomfortable and embarrassed not to be in a position to understand the funding of individual centres and at the lack of information on the changing policies and the impact on health partners. She would have liked to see more being done to explore what was possible with the current model before suggesting a new model. She had formally written with her views but received no acknowledgement.

Councillor Gill Sanders, Shadow Cabinet Member for Children, Education & Families and member of the CAG, recognised the need for cuts. The CAG had recognised that it was vital that children & young people received the support they needed and the question was how to best provide that in the face of such cuts and to assure the public that needs  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54/15

Cabinet Member: Finance

Forward Plan Ref: 2015/001

Contact: Stephanie Skivington, Corporate Finance Manager Tel: (01865) 323995

Report by Chief Finance Officer (CA7).

The report sets out the provisional revenue and capital outturn position for 2014/15 and shows how actual expenditure and income for the year compares to the budgeted position.  Figures shown in the report reflect the Council’s draft Statement of Accounts for 2014/15.  This will be submitted to the Audit and Governance Committee on 8 July 2015 following certification by the Chief Finance Officer, prior to external audit.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED:

(a)         in respect of the 2014/15 outturn to:

                 i.            note the provisional revenue and capital outturn for 2014/15 along with the year end position on balances and reserves as set out in the report;

                ii.            approve the carry-forwards and virements as set out in Annex 2a;

              iii.            recommend Council to approve the virements greater than £1.0m for Children, Education & Families, Social & Community Services, Chief Executive’s Office, and Environment & Economy Directorates as set out in Annex 2a;

              iv.            agree that the surplus on the On-Street Parking Account at the end of the 2014/15 financial year, so far as not applied to particular eligible purposes in accordance with Section 55(4) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, be carried forward in the account to the 2015/16 financial year;

               v.            Agree the use of £0.825m one off funding from  Children, Education & Families reserves to offset the overspend within Children’s Social Care; 

(b)        in respect of the 2015/16 revenue budget and Capital Programme to:

                 i.          approve the virements for 2015/16 as set out in Annex 7;

               ii.          recommend Council to approve supplementary estimates of £2.0m to the Efficiency Reserve and £2.7m to the Budget Reserve as set out in paragraph 90.

             iii.          Approve the entry into the capital programme of the Riverside routes to Oxford city centre cycling scheme with a total budget of £3.667m and release of £0.336m project development budget to proceed with feasibility and preliminary design works.

             iv.          Approve the increase in budget of the Cutteslowe roundabout scheme by £1.077m to £5.177m and the increase in budget of the Wolvercote roundabout scheme by £0.538m to £5.632m and to contractually commit to construction of both schemes;

               v.          Approve the increase in the Universal Infant Free School Meals Programme by £2.053m to £4.046m.

Cabinet considered a report that set out the provisional revenue and capital outturn position for 2014/15 and showed how actual expenditure and income for the year compared to the budgeted position. Figures shown in the report reflect the Council’s draft Statement of Accounts for 2014/15.

Councillor Hards, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance by reference to Annex 2 and the overspend on Social & Community Services highlighted as a general point that the end position was impressive but that the use of reserves, in this case the pooled budget reserve was not sustainable. He made detailed comments on the position across Directorates and asked a number of questions related to actions being taken.

Councillor Stratford, Cabinet Member for Finance, agreed that the outturn was extremely close and detailed the actions taken to achieve such a good outcome. It had been a difficult year and finance officers and heads of service had worked hard for the final result. He accepted that the coming year would be as hard or harder.

The Leader thanked Councillor Stratford, Lorna Baxter and the Finance Team for their work.

Cabinet Members responded to the individual questions but noted that it would be helpful to have notice of them in order to respond fully.

RESOLVED:

(a)       in respect of the 2014/15 outturn to:

              i.          note the provisional revenue and capital outturn for 2014/15 along with the year end position on balances and reserves as set out in the report;

             ii.          approve the carry-forwards and virements as set out in Annex 2a;

            iii.          recommend Council to approve the virements greater than £1.0m for Children, Education & Families, Social & Community Services, Chief Executive’s Office, and Environment & Economy Directorates as set out in Annex 2a;

            iv.          agree that the surplus on the On-Street Parking Account at the end of the 2014/15 financial year, so far as not applied to particular eligible purposes in accordance with Section 55(4) of the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, be carried forward in the account to the 2015/16 financial year;

             v.          Agree the use of £0.825m one off funding from Children, Education & Families reserves to offset the overspend within Children’s Social Care;

(b)       in respect of the 2015/16 revenue budget and Capital Programme to:

              i.        approve the virements for 2015/16 as set out in Annex 7;

            ii.        recommend Council to approve supplementary estimates of £2.0m to the Efficiency Reserve and £2.7m to the Budget Reserve as set out in paragraph 90.

           iii.        Approve the entry into the capital programme of the Riverside routes to Oxford city centre cycling scheme with a total budget of £3.667m and release of £0.336m project development budget to proceed with feasibility and preliminary design works.

           iv.        Approve the increase in budget of the Cutteslowe roundabout scheme by £1.077m to £5.177m and the increase in budget of the Wolvercote roundabout scheme by £0.538m to £5.632m and to contractually commit to construction of both schemes;

            v.        Approve the increase in the Universal Infant Free School Meals Programme by £2.053m to £4.046m. 

Cabinet Member: Public Health & the Voluntary Sector

Forward Plan Ref: 2015/040

Contact: Val Messenger, Deputy Director of Public Health Tel: (01865) 328660/Clare Dodwell, Health Improvement Principal Tel: (01865) 815162

Report by Director of Public Health (CA8).

A ministerial announcement on 29 January 2014 confirmed that the responsibility for the commissioning of some elements of the 0-5 Healthy Child Programme (HCP), as defined under the Section 7A agreement and GP contract 2006 NHS Act, is transferring out of NHS England to Local Authorities on 01 October 2015.

The commissioning responsibilities moving from NHS England to Local Authorities are

•Health visiting services (universal and targeted services)

•Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) programmes (targeted service for first time teenage mothers)

This nationally mandated service is currently commissioned by NHS England and Provided through Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. The current contract runs until 31 March 2017.

The public health grant for 2015/16 has been increased to take account of the transfer of these responsibilities. From 2016/17 onwards, the 0-5 baseline will be added to existing public health grant allocations to local government to form an overall public health grant allocation including 0-5 services. As with current public health grant allocations, areas will be brought towards their fair share allocations through the existing process.

In line with National guidance we are securing the safe transfer of these commissioning responsibilities, and maintenance of a transformed and expanded service, through  contractual stability in 2015/16 and 2016/17. The preferred approach to deliver this is through contract novation.

Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to ratify the approach being taken to novate the Health Visiting contract in line with the transfer of commissioning responsibility for 0-5 public health services to local authorities from the 1st October 2015.

A ministerial announcement on 29 January 2014 confirmed that the responsibility for the commissioning of some elements of the 0-5 Healthy Child Programme (HCP) (including health visiting), are transferring out of NHS England to Local Authorities on 01 October 2015.

Cabinet considered a reportseeking ratification of the approach being taken to novate the Health Visiting contract in line with the transfer of commissioning responsibility for 0-5 public health services to local authorities from the 1st October 2015.

RESOLVED:             to ratify the approach being taken to novate the Health Visiting contract in line with the transfer of commissioning responsibility for 0-5 public health services to local authorities from the 1st October 2015.

Cabinet Member: Leader

Forward Plan Ref: 2015/041

Contact: Sue Whitehead, Principal Committee Officer Tel: (01865) 810262

Report by County Solicitor & Monitoring Officer (CA9).

To consider member appointments to a variety of bodies which in different ways support the discharge of the Council’s Executive function.

The Cabinet is RECOMMENDED to agree the appointments as set out in the Annex to this report, subject to any changes reported in any amended schedule and at the meeting.

Cabinet considered a report on member appointments to a variety of bodies which in different ways support the discharge of the Council’s Executive function.

RESOLVED:             to agree the appointments set out in the annex to the report with the following additional appointments to existing vacancies:

Adoption & Permanency Panel – Councillor Mills

Oxfordshire Association of Local Councils – Councillor Nimmo Smith

Cabinet Member: All

Contact Officer: Sue Whitehead, Committee Services Manager (01865 810262)

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 CA10.  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.

The Cabinet considered a list of items (CA) for the immediately forthcoming meetings of the Cabinet together with changes and additions set out in the schedule of addenda.

RESOLVED:            to note the items currently identified for forthcoming meetings.