Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the previous meeting held on 21 January 2014, were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

None

The Leader introduced the Learning Disability Partnership in attendance to make a presentation to Cabinet and welcomed the opportunity to hear from its members.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health, Mr Gibbens spoke to the item.  He also welcomed the officers and partnership members present.  He explained that he co-chaired the Learning Disability Partnership Board and he stressed the importance of the Board and the issues which it considered, such as transition, employment and skills.  He commended the recommendation to continue the work of the Board and further strengthen its activities.

Tina Walker, Co-Chair of the Learning Disability Partnership Board, asked that Penny Southern, Director of Learning Disability and Mental Health, address Cabinet.  Ms Southern thanked Cabinet for the opportunity afforded to the partnership to put forward the views of its members and to highlight issues of importance for people with Learning Disabilities in Kent.  She emphasised that people with Learning Disabilities not only wanted to be heard but wanted to participate in the improvement of services for themselves and their peers.

Members of the partnership and Ms Southern made representations on Health Services, Employment, Housing, Keeping Safe, Transport, Transition, Safeguarding, Finance and Voting; highlighting one issue, asking one question and evidencing one way in which people with Learning Disabilities had already helped to address the issue.  [The full presentation is published on line as an appendix to these minutes].

The Leader acknowledged the depth and breadth of the issues covered and the importance of the questions put to Cabinet.  Owing to the time constraints of the formal meeting environment he suggested that Cabinet Members provide full responses for those questions following the meeting.

He hoped that year on year services for those people with learning, and physical, disabilities were improving, acknowledging that there was more that could be done to support people to engage in the activities about which they had spoken.

The Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services, Mrs Whittle spoke to the item.  She requested an opportunity to attend the Partnership Board in order to address the issues of transition and the newly produced single plan for Education, Health and Social Care more fully.   

The Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform, Mr Gough, reported that the Health and Wellbeing Board had received a presentation from Ms Southern in October.  He conceded that take up of Health Checks by people with Learning Disabilities was not as high as he would like and work toward better understanding the health needs of people with Learning Disabilities, and to provide training of GPs and nurses was underway and would continue.  He welcomed the opening of new facilities at East Kent College, to which the Leader had previously referred and hoped that more, similar, facilities would be available in the future.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development, Mr Dance addressed the issue of housing, raised during the presentation.  He was pleased to have been made aware of the issues that were being faced and would like to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

Mr King, Select Committee Chairman, Mr Truelove and Mr Daley were in attendance to speak to the report of the Select Committee.

Mr King introduced the report to Cabinet.  In particular he referred to the following:

      i.        That the committee had achieved a great deal in a short time.  The condensed timetable had been necessary in order that any recommendations from the Committee could be in place before the latest round of EU funding (2014 – 2020) began.

    ii.        That in a time of financial austerity, EU funding was crucial to finance some areas of the Council’s work.

   iii.        The report had cross-party support from the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat Groups but that regretfully UKIP had withdrawn from the process after the first meeting, citing concerns about the timetable.  To that end he assured members that the procedures followed by the committee in order to manage the timely production of the report were in order and adequate.

   iv.        That the potential funding available over the next 6 years was in the region of £100million and the thrust of the recommendations within the report was that the County Council must work in a way that maximises income and influence.

    v.        That two specific recommendations were worthy of note at this time, firstly ensuring the necessary infrastructure was in place to allow the Eurostar to continue to stop at Ashford as it would be crucial to the future economic success of Kent, and specifically East Kent.  Secondly, the International Affairs Group had long achieved cultural benefits and provided opportunities for school children to learn about Europe.  Building relationships such as these with our European neighbours would, he believed, strengthen our community in financially and politically uncertain global times.

Mr Truelove also spoke to the item, he highlighted:

       i.       That the Select Committee had been a constructive investigation into a complex and often technical matter but that the parties involved had found consensus on the recommendations and he thanked officers and those who gave evidence for helping to facilitate that consensus.  The recommendations were evidence based, it was clear that the County had benefited considerably from EU funding in the recent past and that this could not only continue but increase over the next six years. 

      ii.       It would not only be necessary to maintain the skills already possessed in-house but potentially to add to the skills and resources available to enable the Council to benefit from EU funding.

    iii.       The need to convince businesses in Kent of the benefits of the export market in order that economic growth was not limited to Kent, or even to the U.K.

    iv.       That the recommendations within the report were not affected by the possibility of a referendum on EU membership.  Should a referendum take place the result could not be predicted at this stage, but if it were to signal an exit by the UK it was unlikely that funding streams already accessed would be ceased.

Finally Mr Daley spoke to the item and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 48.

Cabinet received a report providing the budget monitoring position for December 2013-14 for both revenue and capital budgets and which also included an update on key activity data.

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, Mr Simmonds introduced the report and in particular referred to the following:

Revenue Budget:

      i.        That the underspend had increased, since the last report, to £9.5 million before management action but monies ring-fenced for Social Fund spending for 2013-14 and 2014-15 would reduce this figure to £6.3million, increasing to £6.8million with management action.

     ii.        That £4million of the predicted underspend had already been committed to the 2014-15 budget and therefore it would be crucial that this minimum underspend figure were achieved.

    iii.        It was important to note that the report being considered did not include the full financial impact of the flooding at Christmas and New Year, but the recent announcement that a grant of £8.6million would be received from Central Government would reduce any impact and allow work on road maintenance and other repairs to continue at pace.  In addition, work continued to produce a bid to the Bellwin Scheme to further negate any impact of the floods and help with recovery costs.

   iv.        That a return of £2.1million of costs related to unaccompanied young people seeking asylum continued to be pursued from the Government and that although negotiations were complicated and on-going he was cautiously optimistic that some agreement could be reached following positive results for other local authorities with the same issue.  

    v.        Pressures remained on SEN transport and Children Services but both areas showed slight improvement in this round of reporting.

   vi.        Government funding had increased by £1million since the last report.

Capital Budget:

      i.        A working budget of £315million was reported with a forecast spend of £253million, creating a variance of £62million.  However, a large proportion of this, £60million, was a result of rephasing, the reasons for which were included within the report.

Corporate Director for Finance, Andy Wood added to the comments made; he reported that:

      i.        That of the £174million distributed by Government to those areas worst affected by flooding, £45million was allocated to councils in the South East and £47million to Councils in the South West.  Allocations were being assessed by Finance officers to ensure that they were fair and correct.

     ii.        That the underspend continued to increase and an important contribution had been made, approximately £2million, by managers reviewing and limiting spending where possible over the last two months.

It was RESOLVED that:

Cabinet received a report providing the performance monitoring position for Quarter 3 of 2013-14.

Richard Fitzgerald, Performance Manager, Strategic and Corporate Services was in attendance to speak to the item and raised the following points for particular consideration by members:

      i.        That 60% of indicators were improving and over 50% on target or performing above target.

     ii.        Children’s Social Services was now achieving good performance and in particular adoption services had shown significant improvement.

    iii.        That the percentage of schools in Kent rated as ‘good’ or ‘improving’ continued to rise and the number of schools falling below the government floor target for GCSE results had significantly reduced and was close to national average.

   iv.        That the figures showed continued good performance in highway repairs, despite the challenges presented by the poor weather and recent floods.

    v.        That a significant increase in jobs created from monies secured through the Regional Growth Fund had been recorded.

The Cabinet Member for Economic Development spoke to the item; he referred to the work carried out in relation to the Regional Growth Fund and the real benefits that had been for businesses and job creation in the County.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform, Mr Gough, added the following information for consideration:

      i.        That the general performance trend in Education continued to be positive.  Overall attainment data and schools rated ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ both continued to improve.

     ii.        That the number of schools ‘in category’ was still above target but had improved since the turn of the year and it was predicted that the target would be met by the end of the year.

    iii.        That figures relating to those young people not in education, employment or trainings (NEETS) had been subject to a statistical blip in the last report; a result of new capturing methods related to the raise in participation age, but had now returned to expected levels.

   iv.        That the number of young people in apprenticeships had declined in 2013 but that this had been a national trend during which Kent had continued to perform better than many of its peers.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health commented to highlight the following points:

      i.        That performance relating to delivery of NHS Health Checks was still below target.  Work continued with the main provider, Kent Community Health Trust to improve performance and the Secretary of State had also highlighted this as a key priority.

It was RESOLVED that the performance report be noted.

Cabinet received a report containing for consideration the proposed scheme for transfer to Primary and Secondary schools in September 2015 including the proposed process for non-coordinated In-Year Admissions, and seeking determination of the various criteria and proposed admission numbers there in.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform introduced the report, and asked Head of Admissions & Transport, Scott Bagshaw to relay the detail before reporting that admissions performance had been very strong; secondary admissions currently sat at 83.5% parents achieving first preference and 97.4% receiving one of their stated preferences.  Pressures in this area would continue to grow and it was crucial that the schemes put forward continued to be robust in order to avoid families missing out on their preferred schools.

Mr Bagshaw addressed the committee to expand on the comments of the Cabinet Member, he reported:

      i.        That no changes to the scheme were proposed for 2015, other than minor variances to some of the dates in order to simplify operational matters for some of the schools. 

    ii.        That as the co-ordinated schemes were not subject to change this year, no public consultation had been undertaken in line with legislative requirements, but schools had been consulted and all had agreed to the proposals set out in the report.

Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director for Early Years reiterated that all schools in Kent had signed up to the scheme and welcomed this continued co-operation in light of the varied and changing nature of education provision in the county.

It was RESOLVED:

Cabinet received a report containing a summary of the consultation responses received regarding the proposed Early Years and Childcare Strategy 2014 - 2017 and seeking approval of the draft Strategy.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform introduced the item and put forward the following information for particular consideration:

      i.        That the consultation responses received had been largely positive.

    ii.        That the strategy was intended to build on achievements already made in attainment and the closing of attainment gaps

   iii.        That the strategy reflected the development of national government policy and in particular the policy direction relating to the expansion of provision for two year olds and the improvement of settings for delivery.

   iv.        That the strategy included a focus on integration with children’s centres and developing 0-11 provision and boosting collaborations between settings to improve provision by creating a self-sustaining system of improvement.

Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director for Education, Learning and Skills added to the comments of the Cabinet Member he referred to:

       i.        The ambitious strategy target, the highest in the country, for provision of early education and childcare provision for two year olds of 6,500 places over two years

      ii.        The achievement of 87% of early years provision in Kent now being considered to be ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ and the reduction of the achievement gap to be amongst the lowest in the country.

    iii.        The need for continued work to ensure that vulnerable families in Kent could access and benefit from the provision available, through strengthened targeting methods.

Alex Gamby spoke to draw the attention of members to the inclusion in the strategy of focused supported interventions that would enable providers to better identify possible gaps in achievement before they had occurred and also provide support for a heightened response to those potential gaps by providers.

The Leader welcomed the strategy and reminded members that it would continue to be developed over its lifetime.  It would be modified to drive and react to changes in the preventative arena in particular.  He considered that it would be necessary as part of the preventative agenda to link the strategy with Children’s Centres, CCG’s and the Health agenda more fully,  in order that the Council could provide joined-up services for parents and families.  In response Patrick Leeson assured the Leader that the document would be refreshed on an annual basis. 

It was RESOLVED: