Agenda and minutes

Subject to the correction of a typographical error in paragraph 2.1, the Minutes of the meeting held on 17 March 2008 were agreed as a true record.

(1)       Mr Chard said that this was the last Monitoring Exception report before the submission of the outturn.  There was still a forecast underspend of some £7.4m and he placed on record his thanks to officers for the part they had played in achieving this.  However, some £3,8m still remained to be recovered on asylum costs so that needed to be taken into account when looking at the final outturn figures.  Mr Carter reported on a recent meeting of the LGA Task Group on Asylum and Refugees.  He also reported that the County Council would be hosting a seminar at the House of Lords on 23 April 2008 under the Chairmanship of Lord Bruce-Lockhart with other Joint Council Members in order to make the situation more widely known to MP’s and Peers.  However, it was understood that the Government had now arranged a meeting with representatives from the LGA on 22 April 2008, and the outcome from that meeting would be fed into the discussions taking place on 23 April 2008.

(2)       Mr Chard said that there was a residual year end pressure of some £800,000 in respect of Adult Education Services and that would need to be rolled forward with progress monitored against an agreed action plan.  Mr Hill said that there were issues relating to the Adult Education budget and that would be the subject of a report to a future meeting of Cabinet.

(3)       Cabinet then noted the latest forecast Revenue and Capital Budget Monitoring position for 2007/08; the Revenue virement detailed in Section 1.2 of the Cabinet report; and the additional revenue funding from the Learning and Skills Council to fund specific projects with Health to address Teenage Pregnancy Issues, as detailed in Section 2.2.1 of the Cabinet report.

(1)       This report set out the decisions from the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee held on 26 March 2008 and invited responses from Cabinet.

Kent Health Watch

Mr Gibbens confirmed that in response to a request from the Scrutiny Committee, he would arrange to submit a monitoring report to its meeting in December 2008.  Mr Gibbens also said that data collection issues and confidentiality would be considered along with NHS colleagues as part of the implementation process and protocols and procedures would be signed off by the Kent Health Watch Policy Board.  Mr Gibbens also said that it had always been the intention that Kent Health Watch would ultimately become an independent entity and that an exit strategy would be devised once other issues became clearer around matters such as Making Experiences Count and LINk.  With regard to the Gateway programmes, discussions had already be opened with colleagues as to how that can be linked into KHW.  Mr Gibbens also confirmed the procurement arrangements and gave details of the transition period for LINk.  Also a review of LINk and Kent Health Watch would be undertaken in November 2008 to ensure there were not any operational conflicts. 

Mr Carter said that together with the Chief Executive he had met last week with the Chief Executive and Chairman of the South East Coast Strategic Health Authority to discuss the introduction of Kent Health Watch.  Mr Carter said that during these discussions the Chairman of the Health Authority was gracious enough to accept that had a Kent Health Watch been in place at the time of the problems experienced at Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells Hospitals, these may have come to light earlier and earlier action taken to address them.  Mr Carter also said that the focus now needed to be on the launch of Kent Health Watch to ensure it is effectively marketed and publicised.

A21 and East Coast Access Phase 2 – Cost Increases

Mr Ferrin said that as the A21 Improvement Scheme was being undertaken by the Highway Agency, it was difficult for KCC to argue that its costs should be lower without employing independent consultants.  He said that the cost increases were extraordinary but the proportional increase in the construction costs of the East Kent Access Phase 2, demonstrated that controlling cost increases was very difficult.  What was essential was to ensure that the A21 Scheme remained a priority with the Highways Agency road building programme and the County Council needed to do all that it could to keep up pressure on the government to ensure that the money to construct this scheme was made available.  Mr Carter said that the Highway Agency should be asked to demonstrate how it had costed this scheme and held to account as to how these costs had increased to the degree that they had.  The County Council needed to see what it could do to bring down scheme costs and understand the component parts of how the scheme had increased in price.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.