Agenda and draft minutes

No apologies were received.

No declarations of interest were received.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 29 January were a correct record and that they be signed by the Chair.

1.    Miss Diane Morton (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health) provided an update on the following:

(a)  Miss Morton provided an update on the recent meningitis outbreak in Canterbury. She reported that a major incident had been declared on 16 March following confirmed cases within the student population. She expressed deep sadness at the loss of two young people and placed on record the Council’s heartfelt condolences to their families and friends.

Miss Morton formally thanked National Health Service staff for their rapid response in mobilising antibiotics and establishing vaccination sites, noting the professionalism and dedication shown throughout the incident. She also highlighted her own involvement as a volunteer at a local medical practice. Recognition was given to the Council’s Public Health teams for their resilience and tireless work under significant pressure, providing calm, expertise and reassurance during the outbreak.

She acknowledged the leadership of the Director of Public Health, Dr Ghosh, and thanked him, his team and the communications team for their continued efforts, noting that they had faced sustained pressure following multiple recent incidents. Miss Morton confirmed that the outbreak had moved into the recovery phase and that the Council would support ongoing investigations to ensure lessons learned were acted upon. She advised that a public helpline remained available for those seeking information between 09:00am and 5:00pm on 03442253861.

(b)  With regard to Health inequalities, Miss Morton reported that on 13 March she had attended the launch of the coastal Marmot region, alongside the Council Leader, Ms Kemkaran, Dr Ghosh and over 200 attendees. She described the event as well organised and noted the contribution of Sir Michael Marmot, whose work highlighted significant inequalities, including a life expectancy gap of up to nine years between communities. She noted that progress in life expectancy had stalled or reversed in some areas, reflecting the long-term impacts of austerity and reinforcing the importance of the Marmot approach.

(c)  Miss Morton welcomed the newly released Neighbourhood Health Framework, published as part of the National Health Service ten-year plan, and confirmed that it aligned closely with Marmot principles. She explained that this work would sit under the Health and Wellbeing Board, recently strengthened with support from the Local Government Association, and represented a significant shift towards preventative, community-based care. She highlighted mental health and social prescribing as priority areas and confirmed that a county-wide programme of engagement would ensure residents’ needs shaped service delivery.

(d)  An overview was provided of recent visits to adult social care services. Miss Morton highlighted the Technology Enabled Living project at a local library as a practical example of supporting independence and embedding assistive technology into social work practice. She also congratulated the Technology Enabled Living Service on winning a National Social Worker of the Year Award.

(e)  Miss Morton noted further innovation through the use of digital assessment tools such as ‘Magic Notes’, which had received national recognition for improving assessment quality and reducing administrative time, allowing practitioners to focus more on direct support.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 135.

Dave Shipton (Head of Finance Policy, Planning and Strategy) and Brendan Arnold (Corporate Director of Finance and S151 Officer) were in attendance for this item.

1.    The Deputy Leader, Mr Collins, reported that the final Local Government Finance Settlement was published on 9 February and was therefore not included in the budget approved by County Council on 12 February. Final business rates estimates were also unavailable at that time. Council had agreed that the resulting changes should be reported to and approved by Cabinet.

He advised that the final settlement increased the net revenue budget by £6.7m (0.4%), with a further £0.3m reduction arising from final business rates. This resulted in a revised net revenue budget for 2026–27 of £1,654.5m, compared to £1,648.1m previously approved.

Mr Collins explained that corrections to business rates pooling arrangements had increased KCC’s Revenue Support Grant by £6.57m in 2026–27 and £3.32m in 2027–28. As this funding was transitional, it was proposed that the additional sums be transferred to reserves.

He further reported the introduction of a new High Needs Stability Grant, covering 90% of accumulated Special Educational Needs deficits up to March 2026, with KCC’s allocation expected in the autumn. He commented that those authorities like Kent, that were previously part of the DfE Safety Valve Programme would not be penalised through the new grant and that the residual balances from the KCC contributions were proposed to be held in an earmarked Special Educational Needs reserve pending further clarification from Government on how deficits accrued after March 2026 would be managed when the current statutory override expired. Despite this mitigation, Mr Collins cautioned that forecast high needs deficits beyond 2026–27 could still expose the Council to financial risk in excess of £180m, posing a significant ongoing risk to financial sustainability.

Mr Collins advised that a one-off £1,000 increase in the amount for individual Member grants was possible within 2026-27 budget following the Council decision on increase in Member allowances.

2.    Mr Shipton reminded Cabinet of the business rates retention system, noting that it was often overlooked. He explained that fifty percent of locally raised business rates were retained by local government, with the remaining fifty percent returned to central government to fund grants.

He clarified that authorities only retained a share of any local growth in the business rate taxbase above an agreed baseline. This growth was generated through new businesses or changes of use, and this excluded inflationary increases and business rate revaluations.

Mr Shipton advised that a levy continued to apply to business rate growth following the Fair Funding reset, although this was now managed through tiered arrangements. He confirmed that there was no requirement to enter a business rates pool for the 2026–27 financial year, but noted that pooling could be reconsidered in future if parts of the county experienced high growth as a pool would enable a greater proportion of business rate income to be retained locally.

3.    It was RESOLVED that Cabinet agree to:

a)      APPROVE the revised net  ...  view the full minutes text for item 136.

Matthew Wagner (Chief Analyst) was in attendance for this item

1.    Mr Wagner outlined the report for Quarter 3 (Q3, 2025/26) which covered the period up until December 2025. Of the 39 KPIs reported, 18 were rated Green (2 fewer than the previous quarter) 15 were rated Amber (one more than the previous quarter) and 6 were rated Red (one more than the previous quarter). With regards to Direction of Travel, 6  indicators showed a positive trend, 29 were stable or with no clear trend, and 4 showed a negative trend. Mr Wagner addressed the KPIs that were rated RED and the mitigating actions for these were set out in the report. In comparison to the most recent six quarters, more indicators showed a positive direction of travel than a negative one, indicating overall stabilisation and improvement in performance over time.

2.    A full review of KPIs has been undertaken across Kent County Council as part of preparation for 2026/27 (as detailed in Appendix 2); 7 indicators were proposed for removal and 11 new indicators were proposed for addition which represented a net increase of 4 indicators.

3.    A new Commercial and Procurement section had been introduced to the Quarterly Performance Report, with three new KPIs, which aimed to provide greater transparency and scrutiny around commercial activity and the value for money being achieved.

4.    Work was also underway to review how far KCC’s indicators aligned with the new Local Outcomes Framework recently announced by Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). This framework included around 130 national metrics intended to measure progress across government priority areas. While KCC did not need to align fully, given that the Council already held data not captured nationally, officers were assessing overlap and gaps. A further report on this alignment would be brought to the Policy & Resources Cabinet Committee in July.

5.    Mr Watts (Deputy Chief Executive) highlighted that performance against FoI and SAR indicators had improved despite a continued increase in volume and complexity of requests. The work that had been undertaken to improve SAR performance was now starting to show results. Mr Wagner also commented that whilst the FoI volumes had also increased, improved performance has been achieved through sustained effort from service teams.

6.    Further to questions and comments from Members the discussion included the following:

(a)  In response to whether the detail had been published on the Local Outcomes Framework, Mr Wagner confirmed that the proposed metrics were published in mid-February, noting that some measures were still in development, particularly where new or non-standard datasets were required. The intention was to draw as far as possible on existing national statistics and data KCC already reported on.

(b)  With regard to whether there would be an additional burden on the organisation, given the scale of the proposed metrics, Mr Wagner confirmed that while much of the framework drew on existing data, there was still uncertainty around whether some new measures could create additional reporting pressures. This would only become  ...  view the full minutes text for item 137.