Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Andrew Scott-Clark, Alison Duggal was substituting, and Penny Southern, Janice Duff was substituting. 

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2019 were correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman. 

Richard Fitzgerald (Head of Performance and Analytics) was in attendance for this item.

1.            Miss Carey introduced this report which set out the key areas of performance for the authority. 

2.            Richard Fitzgerald set out the highlights of the report, it was the Quarter 3 report with results up to the end of December ‘18.  Performance was generally good for the quarter with the majority of indicators rated as green and a higher number of improving indicators than those showing a decline.  Richard drew out the highlights of the report as follows:

a.    Customer Services

                                  i.    Good performance was maintained for caller satisfaction and call answering but complaints responded to in timescale fell below target – action was in place to address this.

b.    Economic Development

                                  i.    Jobs created and safeguarded from the Regional Growth Fundstood at 4379 and repaid loans were being recycled through new loan schemes for increasing leverage and job creation. 

c.    Environment and Transport

                                  i.    Highways maintenance - the backlog of work continued to reduce, but remained above expected levels for this time of year. 

                                ii.    Waste Management - performance was maintained with only 1% of waste going to landfill.

                               iii.    Carbon emissions continued to reduce ahead of target with the roll out of LED street lighting helping to deliver this. 

d.    Children, Young People and Education

                                  i.    Percentage of schools good or outstanding was ahead of target at 93% and 97% of early years settings were good or outstanding. 

                                ii.    The performance area of completion of Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) was red, there were very high levels of demand and this had not reduced.

e.    Integrated Children’s Services.

                                  i.    All indicators in this area were above target or very close to target.  There had been an increase in the number of qualified social workers who were permanent staff and this was now above target. 

                                ii.    Case loads remained stable, but there had been an increase in the number of care leavers being supported. 

f.     Adult Social Care

                                  i.    Contacts resolved at first point of contact was above target along with the number of referrals to enablement.

                                ii.    Admissions to residential nursing care was higher than the target level and there was a focus on moving people out of hospital which affected this number. 

g.    Public Health

                                  i.    Health Checks completed in year remained below target but further work was in place to understand why the take up had not been as high this year as in previous years.

                                ii.    The number of universal checks delivered by the health visiting service continued to be ahead of target.

3.            In conclusion there were many positive results, there were areas where

performance was lower than expected, these were being monitored and were subject to management action.

4.            The Leader spoke about clients being placed into nursing care and rising budgets and whether health partners were paying their share.  He requested that this be monitored closely through the budget monitoring report.

5.            Janice Duff explained  ...  view the full minutes text for item 97.

1.            Mr Oakford (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Traded Services) introduced this report which contained information to the end of January 2019.  There was a revenue underspend of £15k before the roll over, which showed a pressure of £2.6million.  There was a £1.2million improvement since the last monitoring report and it was hoped there would be a balanced budget this year. 

2.            The identified £50million savings had been realised and Mr Oakford praised the outstanding work of everyone at KCC to achieve that.  CYPE was still under pressure with a £5.7million pressure at the end of January 2019.  £2.7million of this was related to Asylum. 

3.            Dave Shipton referred to the schools reserves and the £8.4million overspend on high needs funding, the Council had received confirmation from the DfE that there would be a limit on the amount of deficit that could be accrued and if that limit was breached the Council would have to submit a 3year recovery plan. 

4.            Matt Dunkley explained that all County Councils were struggling to contain high needs spend, it was necessary to continue to monitor government policy on how this would be addressed.

5.            The Leader thanked the Senior Directors and staff for their considerable efforts in balancing the budget. 

RESOLVED that Cabinet note the forecast revenue budget monitoring position for 2018-19 and capital budget monitoring position for 2018-19 to 2020-21, and that the forecast pressure on the revenue budget needs to be eliminated as we progress through the remainder of 2018-19.  

1.            Mr Gibbens, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health, introduced this report.  He asked that there be an additional recommendation, that there be a report to Cabinet in late Nov/early Dec and a further review in one year’s time. 

2.            There were concerns about DTOC delayed days attributed to KMPT and it was suggested that this be monitored closely. 

3.            Janice Duff confirmed that across winter there been a high level of partnership working across all organisations with very good dialogue.  There had been investment in promoting wellbeing, promoting independence and supporting independence.  With a focus on admission avoidance as much as supporting discharge from the acute sector.  There were pressures within mental health and officers were confident that it was possible to address the delays in transfers of care. 

4.            Miss Carey asked whether there were any general lessons which could be learned by KCC about better working with the NHS, Janice Duff explained that good preparation beforehand and pre-planning had worked well this year.

5.            The Leader asked that information be made available setting out the total number of all social care delays and the proportion attributed to each provider on a hospital by hospital basis.  This would be included in the next report to Cabinet in November 2019.      

RESOLVED that Cabinet consider and note:

-       the current position on DTOC;

-       the impact of the Additional Social Care Winter Monies Plan; and

-       the development of the Integrated Local Care arrangements

-       that a report be brought back in Nov/Dec ’19 with a further review in March 2020.