Agenda and minutes

The Minutes of the meeting held on 8 February 2007 were agreed as a true record.

(Item 2 – Report by Mr Nick Chard, Cabinet Member for Finance, and Lynda McMullan, Director of Finance and Managing Directors)

(1)       This Exception Report, based upon returns from Directorates, highlighted the main movements since the report to Cabinet in February.

(2)       Mr Chard said that currently the Revenue Budget was showing an overspend of £0.5m but this did not take into account £2.6m related to asylum costs.  The Council continued to robustly pursue with the Home Office and the DfES its case regarding the underpayment of asylum costs and seeking the Government’s assurance that the matter would be resolved quickly and fairly.  Mr Chard also said that the continuing slippage on the Capital Programme needed to be carefully monitored.

(3)       Mr Carter placed on record his congratulations to the Adult Services Directorate for the reductions which have been achieved in its revenue budget.  Mr Carter also said that together with Mr Chard he would be meeting with Managing Directors in order to get a better understanding as to why there was a slippage on the Capital Budget and what could be done to accelerate the programme.

(4)       Cabinet noted the latest forecast revenue and budgetary monitoring position for 2006/07.

(Report by Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Supporting Independence and Mr Pete Raine, Managing Director, Environment and Regeneration) (Mr Nigel Smith, Head of Development Investment was present for this item)

(Report by Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Supporting Independence and Mr Pete Raine, Managing Director, Environment and Regeneration)

(1)       Mr Gough said that Kent Prospects provided a county-wide framework to guide economic development and regeneration activity.  The future prospects for Kent’s economy had never been better with projects such as the CTRL International Station at Ebbsfleet opening this year and the adjacent Thames Gateway Development, which would provide 20,000 jobs over the next 20 years.  Ashford would double in size and provide 28,000 jobs by 2030.  There is also strong regeneration taking place in other parts of the county and business infrastructure is also improving leading to rising levels of inwards investment.  In addition, the 2012 Olympics and Para-Olympics offers further potential to enhance Kent’s Gateway location serving the UK, London and Europe.  In addition, Kent Prospects provides a further level of detail to support delivery of the “Vision for Kent” the Kent Agreement and KCC’s Towards 2010 aspirations for developing economic prosperity.

(2)       Mr Carter said the draft Kent Prospects document was to be submitted to the Kent Partnership and the Kent Economic Development Board before being published as a final document.  This was agreed.

(3)       Taking account of the above, Cabinet noted the timetable for producing the published version of Kent Prospects 2006 to 2012.

(Report by Mr Keith Ferrin, Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste and Mr Pete Raine, Managing Director for Environment and Regeneration)

(1)       This report proposed the adoption by KCC of targets for reducing carbon dioxide emissions caused by energy use in buildings.  The proposed targets are to reduce total KCC carbon dioxide emissions from buildings by 10% by 2010 and 20% by 2015.  2004 emissions will be used as the base line year.

(2)       Mr Ferrin said that the 2010 and 2015 targets are the first steps towards a long term vision for KCC of 60% reductions by 2050.  Mr Ferrin said the Council needed to take a clear view as to what the opportunities are and it was already looking at a number of options to ensure its emission targets were met.  Mr Ferrin said the emissions from KCC transport, street lighting and traffic signals had not been included at this stage because the County Council did not currently have a robust base line against which to measure reductions in those areas, but such emissions would be included in the targets for 2008/09 or as soon as possible after that.  Among the options that KCC was looking at was changing traffic signal lights to LED’s.  The cost of that would be some £2m but would reduce emissions and provide savings on electricity costs.  There would be a further report on these matters when there was more data.

(3)       Cabinet then endorsed the targets to reduce total KCC carbon dioxide emissions from buildings by:-

·                    10% by 2010

·                    20% by 2015

As absolute reductions in CO2 emissions from energy use in KCC buildings and schools from a base line of 2004 it was envisaged that these targets would be met through genuine reductions in energy use, plus the use of on-site renewables rather than procuring “greed badged” electricity or “off-setting” by investing in overseas projects.

(Report by Mr John Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Education and School Improvement, Dr Tony Robinson, Cabinet Member for Children and Family Services and Mr Graham Badman, Managing Director, Children, Families and Education) (Joanna Wainwright, Director, Commissioning (Specialist Services) was present for this item)

(1)       This report updated Cabinet on developments to date with the Unit Review (including designated and specialist provision and very severe and complex needs support for children and young people with special and education need at mainstream schools).  Dr Robinson said that this was an interim report and that planning and consultation with the Clusters would continue in phases throughout the remainder of 2007 with a more detailed report on the provision that was proposed in Phase 1 being submitted to Cabinet in the Autumn.  Currently, there were 63 specialist units and designations covering the six need type categories.  There were 690 children with statements accessing this provision with 485 of those travelling outside the cluster in which they lived to access that provision.  Dr Robinson said that it was important that through the Review the pattern of provision focussed on ensuring vulnerable pupils had access to appropriate provision in their locality.  Mr Gilroy said that this was a good report but the Council also needed to look at the issue of transition for 14-19 year olds and 19-24 year olds.  Mr Mills said that tied in with the work of the Select Committee reviewing Transition Arrangements which was due to publish its report in May.

(2)       Mr Chard said that whilst the revenue funding for the Review was secure, the Capital funding still needed to be put in place and therefore it was important not to raise expectations only to find that funding for the capital element of the Review was not affordable.  Mr Carter said that the County Council had already made provision to improve school buildings through the modernisation allocation but that may need to be added to.  Mr Badman said that any capital resources needed to implement the Review would be detailed in proposals from clusters and that would be submitted to Members.  Also, subject to Member agreement, proposals may include refurbishment of existing premises, new provision (eg for autism) and may be linked with BSF/PFI plans for school buildings in each locality.  Mr Lynes emphasised the importance of keeping parents and carers closely informed and involved in the Review as their views were critical to this process.  Joanna Wainwright said that having an ongoing dialogue with parents and carers was something which was recognised as being of great importance.  Joanna Wainwright also confirmed that no child would be moved against the wishes of its parents and for that reason the transition arrangements may take some considerable time to fully implement.  At all stages it was important to ensure that parents were given full support and confidence in the process.

(3)       Cabinet:-

(i)         noted the progress of the Review;

(ii)        agreed the proposed next stages as detailed in paragraph 4  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

(Report by Mr John Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Education and School Improvement and Mr Graham Badman, Managing Director, Children, Families and Education)

(Item 8- Report by Mr John Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Education and School Improvement and Mr Graham Badman, Managing Director, Children, Families and Education)

(Report by Mr Peter Gilroy, Chief Executive)

This report summarised the outcomes and progress on matters arising from the meeting of the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee held on 20 February 2007 and also detailed the overall work programme for Select Committee Topic Reviews as agreed by the Policy Overview Committee.