Items
No. |
Item |
8. |
Apologies and Substitutions
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Apologies were received from David Cockburn,
Corporate Director of Strategic and Corporate Services and Andrew
Scott Clark, Director of Public Health.
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9. |
Declarations of interest
Additional documents:
Minutes:
No declarations of interest were received.
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10. |
Minutes of the Meeting held on 12 December 2016 PDF 93 KB
To approve the minutes of the previous
meeting.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The minutes of the meeting held on 12 December
2016 were agreed and signed by the Chairman accordingly.
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11. |
Revenue and Budget Monitoring - November 2016-17 PDF 2 MB
To receive the latest 2016-17 budget
monitoring position.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
(Item 5 – Report of Mr John
Simmonds, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance
& Procurement and Andy
Wood, Corporate Director of Finance and
Procurement).
Cabinet received a report
detailing the latest 2016-17 budget monitoring position.
Mr John
Simmonds, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and
Procurement introduced the item for members. In particular he referred to the
following:
-
A forecast pressure of £5.51m was reported
which would increase to approximately £6m if roll forwards
were applied
-
Further funding toward the cost of supporting
Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) was expected from the
Government. This was expected to
relieve the pressure by around £1.9m, although historically
the Government had not been prompt in issuing such
payments. He reiterated, the previously reported concern that even with
additional funding there would be a significant increase in cost as
those UASC reached the age of 18 because of the resultant care
leaver commitments inherited by KCC at that point. Members continued to lobby government on this
matter.
-
Overall there had been an improvement of £2m
in the month.
-
Rigorous controls continued to operate in order to
achieve a balanced budget, such as holding vacancies, working with
staff to stop non-essential expenditure and officers continued to
undertake work focused on increasing income generation
-
SEN transport continued to report an overspend, currently estimated at
£2.7million, which was the subject of detailed investigation
by officers as to the source and potential solution.
-
That savings targets allocated to the Young
Person’s Travel Pass budget, of £500,000 were proving
difficult to achieve.
-
That the Finance Department reported an estimated
underspend of £3.3m
-
There was capacity within the council’s
reserves to manage any overspend but
pressure was being maintained to bring the budget back into
balance.
-
The Capital programme was showing a variation of
£28m largely as a result of rephasing of projects
It was RESOLVED
CABINET
Revenue and Budget Monitoring - November 2016-17
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1.
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That the forecast revenue
budget monitoring position for 2016-17 and the seriousness of the
position, and the capital budget monitoring position for 2016-17 to
2018-19 and that the forecast pressure on the revenue budget needs
to be eliminated as we progress through the year be
noted.
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2.
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That the changes to the capital
programme as detailed in section 6.4 of the report be
agreed.
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REASON
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1.
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In
order that Cabinet could properly conduct its monitoring
activities.
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2.
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In
order that the Capital budget accurately reflected the real time
position and met fully the needs of the council.
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ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS CONSIDERED
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None.
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CONFLICTS OF INTEREST
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None.
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DISPENSATIONS GRANTED
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None.
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12. |
Budget 2017/18 and Medium Term Financial Plan 2017/20 PDF 172 KB
To receive the draft budget for 2017-18 and
Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2017-20 to be presented to County
Council on 9th February 2016.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
(Item 6 –
Report of Mr John Simmonds, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for
Finance & Procurement and Andy Wood, Corporate Director of
Finance and Procurement).
Cabinet received the draft budget for 2017-18
and Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) 2017-20 which was to be
presented to County Council on 9 February 2017.
Mr John Simmonds, Deputy Leader and Cabinet
Member for Finance and Procurement introduced the item for
members. In particular he referred to
the following:
- That Cabinet should have regard to
any amendments arising from debate of the budget by Cabinet
Committees.
- That the decision on the level of
Council Tax precept would also be taken by the County Council on 9
February 2017.
- That 2017-18 would be an even more
challenging budget to deliver.
Additional spending demands continued to accrue and combined with a
‘flat cash’ approach from government and against the
background of lost government grants would ensure that further
savings and income generation would be essential to delivering a
balanced budget. It was estimated that
£78million of savings would be necessary, which given
cumulative savings since 2010 would be very challenging. By the end
of 2017-18 the Council would have delivered over £600m in
savings over 7 years/
- He welcomed the additional one off
payment of £6.2m for social care support included in the
latest grant settlement but reported that it also contained a loss
of £1.6m in the new homes bonus.
- Government had allowed a total of 6%
increase in Council tax over three years towards the cost of adult
social care; KCC believed that this should be allocated in three
equal tranches of 2%.
- It was proposed to increase the
council tax by just under 2%, plus the
2% social care levy. Consultation had
been undertaken with the public, businesses, trades unions, care
associations and the youth council, there was sympathy for the 2%
social care levy so long as it was spent exclusively on those
services.
Andy Wood, Corporate Director of Finance and
Procurement added the following:
- That of the £66million
pressures reported in the proposed 2017-18 budget £51million
of those were not negotiable and must be
included. In addition, the loss of
£46m in Government grants was not within the control of Kent
County Council. Therefore, there was
£97million loss to mitigate before any other emerging factors
were considered.
- County Councils had reported in a
recent survey that they intended to use an average of
£20million of reserves to balance the 2017-18 budget. That would
equate to £30million of Kent County Council’s
reserves. Therefore he believed that
the intended use of £11m of KCC reserves was
appropriate.
- Along with the flexibility to vary
the social care levy by a further percent (within the 6% three year
maximum), the Department of Communities and Local Government had
indicated that tighter scrutiny and control of this levy was to be
introduced.
The Leader summed up by restating that
achieving this balanced budget in the difficult financial climate
had been challenging and he thanked all those ...
view the full minutes text for item 12.
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13. |
The Commissioning Plan for Education Provision in Kent 2017-21 PDF 97 KB
To receive and consider for
approval the Commissioning Plan for Education Provision in Kent
2017-21
Additional documents:
Minutes:
(Item 7 – Report of Mr Roger Gough,
Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform
and Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director for
Education and Young People's Services).
Cabinet received a report on
the Commissioning Plan for Education Provision in Kent 2017-21.
Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Education
and Health Reform, introduced the item for members. In particular
he referred to the following:
- The plan had been the subject of a
County-wide consultation
- The plan looked to find ways to
provide places for the rapidly increasing numbers of school
children
- The anticipated demand for 23,000
additional school places by 2023 (85 FE for primary, 79 FE for
secondary schools) which would include 5% spare capacity to allow
for greater parental choice
- The financing of the plan through
Government grant for basic need and developer contributions
- The excellent cooperation from Kent
schools in supporting the programme
- The impact of the free school
programme which added complexities and uncertainties to
planning
- Forecasting and monitoring that
forecasting was critical to ensure that the long term planning was
accurate
- Delivering the necessary building
programmes efficiently was vital including securing adequate
developer contributions
- Seeking consent from Government to
apply maximum flexibility in terms of the free school programme and
the interaction between basic need funding and the free school
programme
Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director for
Education and Young People's Services, emphasised the following
points:
- This ongoing programme had been very
successful not only in delivering overall numbers of places but
also in continuing to provide good quality school places in every
locality in Kent
- The fact that this programme would
not be possible without the support and cooperation of Kent schools
which had been exemplary
- That the authority was approaching
tipping point in respect of delivery alongside the free schools
programme, some of which schools were a year behind programme which
could potentially jeopardise the ability to meet the statutory
responsibility
- Challenges in terms of finding new
sites and sponsors for secondary schools
In response to questions from Cabinet Members,
Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform,
made the following comments:
- Agreeing that in the light of the
size and scale of future provision it was likely that the expansion
of existing schools would not be sufficient and that therefore the
Authority would need to speak to various partners, including
district councils, to secure timely planning approvals
- Noting that the provision of special
schools and other specialist provision had been a success
- Noting that prudential borrowing had
been an effective method of funding new school building in the past
but which was not longer available.
Further noting that the Authority was left with the burden of the
interest payments from past prudential borrowing even where the
school had transferred to academy status.
It was RESOLVED:
CABINET
The Commissioning
Plan for Education Provision in Kent 2017-21
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1.
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That the Commissioning Plan for Education
Provision in Kent 2017-21 be approved
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REASON
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In order for the Council to meet its statutory
duty to plan and ...
view the full minutes text for item 13.
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14. |
Update on Hospital Delayed Discharges in Kent and Social Care Activities PDF 316 KB
Additional documents:
Minutes:
URGENCY
The Leader advised that this item was urgent
in the light of the ongoing winter problems within the NHS
especially as it coincided with the circulation of two virulent
influenza outbreaks. He indicated that
it was important for the Cabinet to understand the pressures on
hospitals and the social care market and on how social services
were responding.
(Item 8 –
Andrew Ireland, Corporate Director of Social Care,
Health and Wellbeing).
This matter had received a great deal of media
attention and was therefore drawn to the Cabinet’s
attention. Cabinet were invited to
consider what had been done by health and social care services to
care for local residents. This paper was intended to update Cabinet
on related issues including the hospital delayed discharges
position in Kent.
The Leader opened the discussion by reminding
Cabinet Members of the numerous and complex issues behind the
current crisis including:
- The level of cuts in local
government funding compared with the increased demand and whether
this needed to be recalibrated against the increases in foreign aid
which was due to be significantly increased.
- The need for the Government to
revisit the best of the Dilnot
recommendations
- The need for the care markets to
expand and not contract which would need for the market to be
financially viable
- The need to ensure that there was
adequate funding for state funded adults as well as those in the
independent sector both in domiciliary and residential care
- The Sustainable Transformation Plan
that identified that 30% of hospital beds could be freed up for
better and cheaper treatment of people in their own homes through
greater use of community based services
- Noting that the second stage of
funding under the Better Care Fund was part of the “flat
cash” funding for local government.
Andrew Ireland, Corporate
Director of Social Care, Health and Wellbeing, formally presented
the report and raised the following points:
- The current winter crisis was worse
than usual in terms of demand including pressure on accident and
emergency departments
- The extent and seriousness of
illness within many of the older patients attending hospital
- Concern about the flow of patients
through hospitals
- Measures that had been implemented
– more staff in hospitals, investment in schemes to
facilitate discharge, work with partners in emergency plan
exercises, seven day working of social care teams, support for
increased enablement at home, step up/step down beds, extra care
sheltered housing
- Recognition that the NHS had managed
to reduce bed occupancy to 85% before Christmas 2016 which had
helped prevent the crisis from being even deeper
- In terms of markets there was a real
issue in terms of domiciliary care albeit with geographical
variations with agencies unable to recruit sufficient staff
- Looking at alternative models for
commissioning domiciliary care
- That the problems within this area
were fundamental and long term and were not likely to be able to be
fixed in the short term
Cabinet Members endorsed the issues raised in
the paper
It was RESOLVED:
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