Issue - meetings

1.         Mr Mills announced that the White Paper would be published at lunchtime on the same day as the POSC meeting, and undertook to send all POSC Members a copy of the Paper and any responses to it which were issued in the following days.  He added that the presentation on Active Lives at the County Council meeting on 1 April would be updated to take account of the impact of the White Paper, although Mr Gibbens added that he hoped the latter would not make any significant change to the County Council’s Active Lives strategy.

2.         Mr Mills reported that the Personal Care at Home Bill was continuing its progress through Parliament, and was due to return to the House of Commons shortly, so it would soon be possible to see its implications for the KCC.  Mr Gibbens said the proposals in the Bill were continuing to receive media coverage so were being kept in the public eye. He repeated the view that he had voiced when the Bill had been debated by the POSC at its January meeting, that the Bill’s proposals were simply not affordable in the current economic climate.

3.         Mr Mills reassured Members that the post of Director of Operations would not be deleted from the establishment but would be appointed to as soon as a suitable candidate could be found.  Unfortunately, it had not been possible to shortlist any of the candidates who responded to the advertisement, so the post was still unfilled.  There was a shortage of suitable candidates for this sort of post, so other local authorities across the UK were experiencing the same problem, but Mr Gibbens emphasised that it was this and not any financial issue which had prevented the post from being filled.  Mr Mills set out how the work would be allocated in the interim period, with himself taking a lead on mental health issues and Margaret Howard taking on a general deputy role.