Minutes:
(1) The Leader updated the Council on events since the previous meeting.
(2) Mr Carter thanked the County Council for his re-appointment as Leader of Kent County Council and undertook to exercise the role to the best of his ability. He expressed thanks to Mr Watts, the County Returning Officer, for a smooth well run election. He referred to the election result and acknowledged the work of those who had not been returned to the Chamber.
(3) Mr Carter referred to the three core strategic objectives of the County Council for the next 3 to 4 years which were:
· to deliver services that enable children and young people in Kent to get the best start in life,
· to ensure our older and vulnerable residents are safe and supported with choices to live independently and wherever possible are supported in their own home, and
· to provide services that supported Kent communities to feel the benefit of economic growth and that supported Kent Businesses to expand and grow, providing increased job opportunities and prosperity for all.
He reminded Members that everything the County Council did was designed to deliver those objectives and to provide strong stable leadership, not just on the political side but through the inter-dependencies between elected Member and dedicated officers. He acknowledged the integrity of and expressed gratitude to officers who had served for many years.
(4) Mr Carter emphasised the need to focus on delivering savings within this year’s budget and reminded Members that this encompassed an additional £73 million of savings in year and it was intended to pull the budget together by the Autumn as had been done last year.
(5) Mr Carter referred to the continuing financial pressure which made it imperative that the current traded services delivered the anticipated £10 million worth of profitability to help support the delivery of services and were grown in future years to achieve targets in excess of the current year. In addition he outlined one of his priorities was, in discussion with Mr Wood, to set aside monies to invest in good strategic investments such as commercial sites and residential housing sites, to help support housing delivery. He gave the examples of the profitable investment made by the County Council in Kings Hill and East Kent.
(6) Mr Carter welcomed the additional £2 billion going into Social Care for the next 3 years which would be considered later in the meeting.
(7) In relation to Social Care, Mr Carter expressed the view that there needed to be an acceptance by all parties that the current system of accessing social care in this Country was broken, unfair and needed fixing. He stated that it was unfair for the 25% on low incomes and benefits to be supported and have entitlement to state support whilst the “just about managing” who were unfortunate to have dementia or long term disabilities were failed by the system.
(8) Regarding Education and Young People Mr Carter referred to the awaited report from the recent Ofsted Inspection of Children’s Services and also the need to move forward with implementing the new structure agreed by the County Council once the report was received. He emphasised the importance of continuing to campaign for a fair funding mechanism for schools in Kent, with a guarantee that no schools would be worse off and more importantly to make sure that the fair funding formula distribution method targeted genuine need and demand in schools in Kent.
(9) In conclusion, Mr Carter referred to a campaign to make sure that the potholes on KCC’s 5000 miles of roads were fixed well and in addition to take bus operators to task to ensure that they delivered sensible and intelligent bus services that served both the rural and the urban economy of Kent.
(10) Mr Bird, the Leader of the Opposition, started by welcoming new Members to the Chamber and remarked upon how important it was that the Council reflected the demographic of the people of Kent. He congratulated the Leader and his group on their success in the election and expressed his gratitude for the Leaders acknowledgement that opposition Members could and should make a valuable contribution to the Council’s Committee business. He stated that his Group would acknowledge the good work of the Council but if something was wrong, or something could be done better or if something was unfair his Group would speak up. He hoped that the administration would listen as Members were all here to serve the best interests of the people of Kent.
(11) Mr Bird expressed the hope that the Government would listen to local government as its services were vital for society and had been adversely impacted by over-zealous measures and the unfair and unsustainable approach to social care. Whilst not advocating a return to free spending he expressed the view that Government needed to understand that there was a limit to the efficiency gains that could be made by Local Authorities.
(12) Regarding social care, Mr Bird stated that this was a huge financial burden and that it was clear that in future NHS and social care services must be better linked, fairly offered and fairly financed. He continued that it should not matter whether the elderly person needed a clinical procedure or support in dementia, or where the person lived. His Group advocated a broad brush approach to the financing of these services.
(13) In conclusion Mr Bird stated that he welcomed the prospect of investing in residential property as long as it was for the people of Kent and not a purely commercial exercise. His party believed that every citizen should have the right to live in decent affordable accommodation.
(14) Mr Farrell, Leader of the Labour Group, began by sending his condolences to all those affected by the Manchester attack and also referred to colleagues across local government both in Manchester and in Kent, in charge of planning and enacting the response to such atrocities.
(15) Mr Farrell congratulated the Chairman on his election and on behalf of his group he recorded thanks for the work of the dedicated team of officers who had been involved in induction since the election. He stated that the authority and existing Members had been welcoming and supportive.
(16) Mr Farrell referred to concerns over the significant challenges facing social care and stated that policy in this area must not be poorly developed. He highlighted the difference in care for those relying on social care with conditions such as Alzheimer’s and those with other illness’s that qualified for NHS treatment. He welcomed the additional Government grant for adult social care but stated that local authorities needed greater support to meet social care needs and reduce the pressures on the national health service. He stated that adult social care needed a fundamental, all-encompassing structured approach, with a national care service working alongside the NHS and a clear step change in the current short term funding approach.
(17) Mr Farrell appealed to all sides of the Chamber to put the most vulnerable residents of the County at the centre of every decision taken.
(18) In conclusion Mr Farrell stated that the biggest issues facing the county over the next four years were national issues such as social care, education and the issues presented by population growth and that local government would be at the forefront of these challenges. His Group were aware of the important role that they must take in representing residents of their divisions and holding the administration to account. Therefore in the life of this Council his group would acknowledge and highlight the right course of action, scrutinise when the approach was unjust and criticise when policy was ill conceived.
(19) Mr Whybrow, Leader of the Independents Group, welcomed the new Chairman and Vice-Chairman on behalf of the Independents Group, although the opposition ranks had been depleted he hoped that what they lacked in numbers they would make up for in quality. He referred to the good hard working members from all political parties that had been lost at the last election, some through boundary changes.
(20) Mr Whybrow welcomed the good news that the Turner Prize was coming to the Turner Contemporary in 2019.
(21) In relation to social care, Mr Whybrow, stated that he was not sure how this was going to be funded going forward. There seemed to be an acknowledgement at national level that social care was in crisis and that there was a major funding gap. He expressed the view that whatever the solution for social care it should not be down to chance as to who had to pay for social care.
(22) Mr Whybrow referred to the challenge of re-connecting with the electorate, across Kent fewer than one in three people actually voted in the County Council elections. KCC was highly relevant to all residents and that message did not seem to be getting across. He wondered if there was a strategic piece of work that might be done with the commissioning team, with a cross party Member group to look at how this could be improved including the relevance of messages from KCC, the success of this would be measured by turnout at the 2021 election.
(23) In conclusion Mr Whybrow stated that he was delighted to provide advice on the environment, which he considered was much needed and looked forward to working with all Members going forward over the next 4 years.
(24) In replying to the other Leaders’ comments, Mr Carter stated that he agreed with Mr Bird that there was a limit to the amount of efficiencies that Local Government could take and the fact that tax levels in inner London were set at roughly half of what the council tax payers of Kent had to pay and this could not be allowed to continue. The opportunity to reorganise the way that funding was distributed could release an additional £1billion to help and support counties such as Kent.
(25) Regarding health and social care integration, he hoped that in the coming months and years there would be some experimenting with pooled resources, subject to the right governance arrangements. In his new portfolio for health reform, Mr Carter expressed the view that the health economy could learn from the local government experience in financial management, which would give local government more confidence in working with them in pooling resources, joint commissioning and co-commissioning.
(26) Finally Mr Carter referred to the dreadful events in Manchester, and to a briefing that he had received on the Prevent agenda. He stated that there was going to be a seminar where senior figures representing all the faith organisations in Kent would be coming together to discuss how to ensure that Prevent was making sure that there was good racial cohesion across Kent. He stated that everyone should be involved in ensuring that there was racial tolerance and racial cohesion across the county.