Agenda and draft minutes

Copies of the procurement documents relating to the award of contract for the Young Carers Service.  

To receive apologies for absence and notification of any substitutes present

Apologies had been received from Mr Oakford, Mr Brunning, Mr Roper, and Mr Tear.  Mr Lymer attended as Deputy Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services, in place of Mr Oakford.

To receive any declarations of interest made by Members in relation to any matter on the agenda.  Members are reminded to specify the agenda item number to which it refers and the nature of the interest being declared

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform and the Corporate Director for Education and Young People's Services, and to consider and endorse or make proposals to the Cabinet Member on the proposed decision to allocate £2.2m from the Education and Young People’s Services Capital budget, and to authorise the relevant officers to issue a public notice, enter into any necessary contracts/agreements on behalf of the County Council and to enter into variations as envisaged under the contracts.

(Mr David Adams, Area Education Officer (South Kent), attended the meeting for this item).

1.    Mr Adams presented the report which set out results following public consultation on the proposal to expand Palmarsh Primary School for September 2018.

2.    RESOLVED that the proposed decision to be taken by the Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform, as set out below, be endorsed:

a)    To authorise the Corporate Director - Education and Young People's Services to issue Public Notice to expand Palmarsh Primary School to 1FE, with a published admissions number of 30 from September 2018 (subject to planning permission being granted);

b)    To allocate £2.2m from the Education and Young People’s Service Capital budget;

c)    To authorise the Director of Infrastructure, in consultation  with General Counsel, to enter into any necessary contracts/ agreements on behalf of the County Council; and

d)    To authorise the Director of Infrastructure to be the nominated Authority Representative within the relevant agreements and to enter into variations as envisaged under the contracts. Variations to contract value to be no more than 10% above the capital funding agreed by the Cabinet Member without requiring a new Record of Decision.

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services and the Corporate Director of Education and Young People’s Services, and to consider and endorse or make recommendations to the Cabinet Member on the proposed decision to retrospectively award the contract for the delivery of the Young Carers Service.

(Stuart Collins, Interim Director of Early Help and Preventative Services, attended the meeting for this item).

1.    Mr Collins introduced his report which explained that following a review of governance in the procurement of Early Help and Preventative Services contracts, to ensure full compliance with KCC’s Governance process, some actions had been identified.  Early Help and Preventative Services procured a Young Carers Service in March 2016.  The purpose of the service was to provide direct support to young carers and their families and raise awareness and train the wider workforce that come into contact with young carers.

2.    Mr Collins then responded to the questions raised by Committee Members, and made points including the following:

·         A report showing performance of IMAGO against performance indicators could be provided at the March meeting of the Cabinet Committee.

·         Regular contract monitoring took place, and the supplier was performing well, providing a good service and meeting specifications.

3.    Mr Leeson then added the following points:

·         Delegation to the Corporate Director of the extension of contract after a three year period was simply a provision for the option to extend.

4.   The Chairman proposed to endorse the recommendations set out in the report. Upon being put to the vote, this was carried, with 10 for, 0 against and 1 abstention.

RESOLVED that the decision proposed to be taken by the Cabinet Member, as set out below, be endorsed:

(a)  Retrospectively make the award of the contract for the Young Carers Service to IMAGO Community with the total lifetime value (36 plus 12 months of £1,316,550.73, as set out in the Approval to Award report (in the exempt part of this report);

(b)  Delegate the extension of the contract after three years to the Corporate Director for Education and Young People’s Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member.

To receive a report from the Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform, Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services, Cabinet Member for Community Services, and Cabinet Member for Finance & Procurement and Deputy Leader which asks the Committee to note the draft budget and Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP), including responses to consultation and Government announcements and invites suggestions on any issues which should be reflected in the documentation.

(Dave Shipton, Head of Financial Strategy, and Simon Pleace, Revenue Finance Manager attended the meeting for this item).

1.    Mr Shipton introduced the report which set out an update to the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2017/18 and 18-19 including progress on proposals to close the unidentified budget gaps in the original plan. The report provided further information on the key assumptions which underpinned the budget proposals and savings relevant to the remit of the Education and Young People’s Services Cabinet Committee.  The report also included information from KCC’s budget consultation, the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget Statement and provisional local government finance settlement.

2.    Mr Shipton responded to the questions of the Committee Members and made points including the following:

·         The social care levy enabled local authorities to increase Council Tax by up to 6% over a three year period, providing there was no more than 3% increase in any one year period, without a referendum. 

·         Consultation showed that 70% of respondents supported increasing Council Tax provided it was used to protect Social Care services. Only 20% had supported an increase which would exceed the referendum trigger.

·         The consultation on the KCC website had only referred to contribution towards the totality of the Social Care budget, and did not mention the complexities of what this included.

3.    Mr Gough, the Cabinet Member for Education and Health Reform then responded to questions of the Committee Members and made points including the following:

·         The main area of concern was the Basic Need programme, and in particular whether or not the delivery of the Free School programme by the EFA could meet Basic Need.

4.      Mr Leeson then added the following points:

·         The amount of money shown in the budget for the school building priority programme was part of the DfE programme. The building was yet to commence, but the money was held in the budget for when it did.

·         There would not be any cuts to children’s centre budgets, but £500k was being moved from the public health budget to support public health work.

·         There were cuts to the school improvement resource, but it continued to meet the standards required.  NEET figures were one of the current challenges.

·         A proposal would be coming to the Committee Members at the February meeting around setting up an Education Services Company, which would allow greater capacity to gain more funding.

5.   RESOLVED that the draft budget and MTFP, including responses to consultation and Government announcements, be noted.