Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Andrew Ireland, Corporate Director of Families and Social Care.  Mairead MacNeil was in attendance as his substitute.

(Item 6 – report by Mr Paul Carter, Leader of the County Council and Mr Andrew Ireland, Corporate Director of Families and Social Care)

Cabinet considered a report of the of the above named Member and officer detailing the history and current position of the financial costs incurred by the County Council when supporting those young people in the County who had been declared to be ‘Appeals Rights Exhausted’ (ARE) by the UK Border Agency (UKBA) and therefore had no right to claim financial or housing benefits, but who had yet to be deported.

The Leader of the County Council introduced the item for consideration and in particular he made the following observations and statements:

(i)        That Kent County Council had pursued ongoing and lengthy negotiations with various Home office Ministers and more recently with Mark Harper MP, Minister of State for Immigration in order to highlight, and seek a solution to, the costs incurred by Kent County Council in supporting ARE young people who had not yet been deported over the last three years.

(ii)       That the cost of supporting these young people, who numbered between 120 and 130 should not fall to the citizens of Kent but should be funded by the Treasury.

(iii)      There had for some time been conflict between the advice received from the Home Office on the matter of support for these young people and the requirements of the Children’s Act to support children or young adults who were once looked after children, up to in some cases the age of 24.  In addition the Leader referred to the moral issues which would influence any debate of this kind.  When questioned about the anomalies between the advice from the Home Office and the requirements of the Children’s Act the Minister was not able to provide a definitive answer which could direct the Kent County Council’s actions. 

(iv)      Numbers of ARE young people, being supported by the County Council remained consistent at just over 100.  This was owing to the fact that once a young person classed as ARE reached 24 and had not been deported by UKBA they would cease to be registered as an unaccompanied asylum seeker and become an unsupported adult.  At approximately the same time they would have been replaced on the list of ARE young people by and individual in care reaching the age of 18 and leaving care.  The financial burden to Kent county Council was running at £2 million a year and had been for the last 2 years and 9 months.  This created an outstanding balance of £5-6 million which Kent County Council believed was owed to it by the Government.

(v)       The Home office had suggested that Human Rights tests be applied to the young people in question and this had been carried out.  The results showed that 70% of the young people in question would have their human rights infringed should the County Council withdraw all financial support.  A further request to the government  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

(Item 7 – report of Mr John Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support and Mr A Wood, Corporate Director of Finance and Procurement)

Cabinet received a report of the above named Member and officer reporting the council’s financial position as of quarter three and highlighting for consideration any significant issues.

The Cabinet member for Finance and Business Support introduced the report for Cabinet and in particular he referred to the following information contained therein:

·                That the underspend was forecast at £8.5 million for the present financial year, which was an increase of 1.3m. However on consideration of rolled forward costs for rephrased projects a reduction must be made and the net underspend forecast became £6.4 million.  He reminded Cabinet that £5 million of this underspend was committee in to the 2013/14 budget as approved by County Council.

·                Pressure of approximately £6 million in value, remained on the Specialist Children’s Services budget.  This particularly related to the areas of fostering and residential services.  Provision had been made in the 2013.14 budget to acknowledge these pressures and this combined with further plans for early intervention work would help to balance the budget in this difficult area.

·                Adult Social Care reported an underspend of £1.6million but the demands in this directorate were hard to predict and therefore that figure was subject to change.

·                School reserves had depleted by a further £5.7million which affected the cash balance report but was a result of the transfer of school from LEA control to academy status.

·                The Directorate for Education, Learning and Skills had reported a 4m underspend, largely accounted for by the rephasing of youth employment programme but also as a result of increased purchases via Edukent for the psychology service, by which he was encouraged.

·                Transport continued to show savings following the changes to Home to School transport policy and the introduction of the Freedom pass but SEN transport remained under pressure.

·                The Directorate for Environment, Highways and Waste continued to show savings made by the reduction in the tonnage of waste that went to landfill however, the Directorate had incurred necessary but unplanned costs from works required during and after snowfalls. IN addition £1.15million had been allocated to the budget in order that pothole repairs, required after the recent bad weather, could be undertaken.  The investment to date had proven its worth in keeping the Kent economy running in difficult conditions but also by helping to achieve a reduction in costs attributed to insurance claim payouts.

·                Commercial Services showed a reduced contribution to the council’s budget owing to the restructure recently undertaken and it was forecast that this would be recovered in future years.

·                The Finance Directorate continued to report less borrowing and there has been some necessary rephrasing of the Capital programme.  A £2.3million underspend was reported which was largely attributed to extremely good practice in the area of vacancy management.

·                A further £4.78million had been recovered from our principle deposits lost in the Icelandic bank collapse

·                The Council had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 43.

(Item 8 – report of Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance and Health Reform and Mr D Cockburn, Corporate Director for Business Strategy and Support)

Cabinet received a report of the above named Member and officer which detailed the performance of the Council against key targets in the third quarter of the financial year and highlighted any areas of significant change or concern.

Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance and Health Reform spoke to the report; in particular he referred to the following:

·                That the report contained the 30 Key Performance Indicators as identified by Kent County Council and a range other Lead Indicators.  In addition information was included on Organisational Development and on the Council’s Risk Register.

·                Within the KPI’s red indicators were reduced by 4. Those that remained were showing a positive direction of travel.  In addition, some of those targets which remained at red were acknowledged as being extremely hard to achieve but remained a commitment of the council.

·                The Contact Centre had reported significant improvement as a result of work conducted recently, particularly by the Performance and Evaluation Board to improve target achievement.

·                Corporate Risk Register included a systematic report of how risks were mitigated.  The report had improved over the last 18 months and now recorded and reported actions as a result of issues raised.

The Leader of the Council expressed particular pleasure that an improvement had been shown in days lost to sickness absence.  This showed, he argued, that more staff were being better supported in work and throughout episodes of sickness and that productivity was improved as a result.

Mrs Jenny Whittle, Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services updated the panel on figures for children in care who were placed with families as the report was no slightly out of date.  At this time last year 70 children had been placed, this year that figure would be 105.  She accredited this improvement largely to the vast improvements that had been made in relations between KCC and its partners and the genuine and dynamic partnership working that had ensued.

In addition Voluntary organisations were now referring potential adopters to the KCC coffee mornings and she hoped this would lead to further successful placements of children into loving families.

Finally she thanked the members of the Adoption Improvement Panel for providing a valuable and robust check on the service. 

These things combined she hoped would lead to a ‘good’ rating when ofsted had inspected the service later that day.

Amanda Honey, Corporate Director of Customer and Communities highlighted the number of first time entrants to the youth justice system and throughout the period reported a significant reduction had been achieved.  From1900 in March to 770 at present and like Mrs Whittle she praised the excellent partnership working, particularly with the police that had helped to secure that success.

Mr Mike Whiting, Cabinet member for Education, Learning and Skills expressed his gratitude for the work of the Education team at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

(Item 9 – Report of Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance and Health Reform and Mr D Cockburn, Corporate Director for Business Strategy and Support)

This is an open minute for publication of an exempt item considered in closed session.

Mr Gough, Cabinet member for Business Strategy performance and Health Reform introduced the item for Cabinet and in particular he referred to the following points:

·                That there had been a delay in the pursuance of this project owing to changes in academy status of schools and the Building Schools for the Future programme but he was pleased that this part of the planned work could now continue, on condition that planning permission is secured in June 2013.

Having also heard from the Cabinet Member, information pertaining to exempt information contained within the report;

It was RESOLVED