Minutes:
1. Mrs Bell (Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health) provided an update on the Kent Drug & Alcohol Strategy 2023- 2028 Consultation which was launched on 6th September. The Consultation sought the views and experiences of Kent residents regarding local drug and alcohol services in order to help shape a new five-year strategy. This was overseen by the Kent Substance Misuse Alliance - a partnership of key organisations including councils, Kent Police, emergency services and health providers. The consultation focused on the 30 strategic priorities which were grouped under 3 areas: prevention, treatment and recovery, and community safety. All the priorities in the Kent strategy were taken from local needs and were also aligned to the National Drug Strategy: “From Harm to Hope”. Figures for 2021 estimated that nearly 308,000 people in Kent were drinking above the recommended levels of alcohol and an estimated 15% were binge drinkers, with around 10% of adults reporting drug use within the past year. The consultation was due to close on 31 October 2022. Further information was available via: www.kent.gov.uk/drugandalcoholstrategy
World Suicide Prevention Day took place on 10th September 2022. A Maidstone-based mental health charity, which was part funded by Kent County Council, urged people to access free suicide prevention and awareness training. Information regarding the training was available on their website: www.maidstonemind.org and sessions lasted about 3.5 hours. People were also reminded of the help available in Kent including an easy-to-use mental health text service and helpline ‘Release The Pressure’ which was free to call on 0800 107 0160 or people could text the word ‘Kent’ to 85258. Further information was available via: www.releasethepressure.uk
Kent County Council’s Counter Fraud team joined Swale Borough Council’s Parking team as they visited several streets and car parks on Thursday 4 August to check that Blue badges were being used by the authorised person and in the correct way. Blue badge holders who were spoken to throughout the day welcomed the news and gave positive feedback about the need for badges to be inspected in the Borough. In total 209 people had badges inspected and most people spoken to were using the badge in accordance with the scheme. The civil enforcement officers ceased 13 badges that had expired. Changes in the eligibility criteria meant there had been an increase in the number of badges used in Kent. It was therefore paramount that available spaces were used for legitimate purposes. Abuse of the scheme would not be tolerated, and members of the public could report the misuse of a blue badge online via: www.kent.gov.uk/reportfraud
To conclude, the council’s commissioned digital care programme project ‘Kara’ won another award at the Health Tech Digital Awards (1 August) coming first in the “Best COVID-19 Solution for Safeguarding the Vulnerable” category. Mrs Bell reminded Members that in March 2020, Kent County Council commissioned healthcare transformation consultancy Rethink Partners and pioneers of virtual care Alcove to launch a programme to deliver up to 2,000 Video Carephone devices to vulnerable people in the county as part of a swift and innovative social care response to the COVID-19 outbreak, enabling vulnerable adults to talk to friends, family, carers and professionals when they were unable to meet due to COVID-19 restrictions. This project had been nationally recognised again and was a testament to the huge positive difference that digital solutions could make to Kent’s vulnerable residents.
2. Mrs Chandler (Cabinet Member for Integrated Children’s Services) reported that Ofsted were in the process of carrying out a revisit of Kent’s SEND services from 26th to 30th September, looking at how the county had progressed since the inspection in 2019. An update on the outcomes of this visit would be provided in due course.
With regard to the National Transfer Scheme (NTS) on 24th August 2022, the Minister for Safe and Legal Migration announced that the percentage threshold under this scheme would rise from 0.07% to 0.1%. This change took Kent County Council’s quota from 242 to 346 children in care. KCC continued to operate over capacity at the 0.07% level, however, preparations were being made to accept the additional children into the Council’s care service. The Safe Care and Reception Service from which children and young people were allocated to other Local authorities through the National Transfer Scheme was still in operation. A request to government had been made to ensure that allocations were spread more evenly. It was noted that Ukrainian children placed into local authority care would not be included in the UASC threshold.
Alongside this change, the government also announced that the deadline for transfers of UASC not currently in local authority care had been reduced from ten to five working days. For transfers between local authorities, this would remain at ten working days. This had been designed to reduce the need for using hotels; however, due to increasing numbers, a new hotel specifically for receiving minors had been opened in Coventry.
It was noted that as of 23rd September, there had been 1035 UASC referrals in 2022, which was already more than the previous record set in 2015. The largest proportion of arrivals was currently from Albania (around 80%). Furthermore, due to KCC’s retention of safeguarding responsibilities whilst waiting for UASC to be relocated by the Home Office from hotels, this also created additional workload.
Mrs Chandler went on to report that phase 2 of the Newly Qualified Social Worker recruitment campaign had gone live from 1st September and was hopeful that this would bolster Kent’s pool of talented social workers. Furthermore, KCC staff interested in undertaking a Social Work degree apprenticeship, were encouraged to attend a webinar. Details of this were available on KNet.
To conclude, Mrs Chandler expressed her thanks to the Chairs of the 12 Local Children’s Partnership Groups for their hard work and input.
3. Mrs Prendergast (Cabinet Member for Education and Skills) offered her congratulations to all pupils who received their GCSE, BTEC, A Level and T Level results. Detailed statistics of the results would be available in November and would be reported at a future meeting. Mrs Prendergast also paid tribute to primary school staff and pupils for their work to prepare for the SATs this summer.
With regard to the Kent Test, 8,298 pupils sat the test on Thursday 8th September and Saturday 10th September. The results were due to be shared with families on 18th October. The outcomes would be reported at a future meeting.
To conclude, Mrs Prendergast provided an update on the economic challenges and skills shortages in the county. Approximately 7,000 people across Kent participated in Adult Education funded courses run by KCC's Community Learning Service and the 3 Further Education Colleges, East Kent College Group, Mid Kent and North Kent Colleges (all rated Good by Ofsted). Assistance in helping people to gain new skills was also available through programmes delivered via the Department for Work and Pensions or independent providers. However, despite areas of excellent work, gaps in provision or duplication continued to result in missed opportunities to help people progress into employment. Assurance was provided that work was being done to improve collaboration between all parties, to ensure the courses met employer demand (as set out in the business-led Local Skills Improvement Plan and KCC’s own Workforce Skills Evidence Base), and that resources were shared. Progress on this work would be reported at a future meeting.
4. Mr Brazier (Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport) reported on his recent visit to Dover on 9th August to participate in the formal opening of the £3.6m Dover Public Rail Improvement project within the market square. The development was partly financed through the government’s Coastal Communities fund, with contributions from Kent County Council and was constructed by FM Conway Limited with works supported by the Kent Highways Project Management Team.
Brompton Bikes, an ambitious, innovative company that specialised in folding bicycles recently revealed plans to open a revolutionary and sustainable factory in Ashford by 2032, with the aim of producing 200,000 bicycles a year and expanding its campaign for active travel in Kent. This was a concept that Kent County Council were eager to explore further, and meetings would be held in the near future.
Mr Brazier addressed the withdrawal of the 80 commercial bus services across Kent and advised that this was separate to the withdrawal of the 37 subsidised buses agreed at the budget County Council meeting in February 2022. The UK operated a deregulated bus industry whereby service profitability dictated service supply, which in turn created a huge degree of concern for Kent residents particularly for those who lived in rural areas. More recently, the principal independent operator in Sevenoaks lost their operator hub in Otford and had to relocate to Swanley, making services to and from Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells, which were heavily relied upon by secondary school pupils, increasingly difficult. Whilst KCC had no obligation to mitigate the consequences of this, the Public Transport Team worked tirelessly to identify operators who were prepared to provide the service and ensure that sufficient travel facilities were in place for those children. Mr Brazier gave thanks to the team for their continued hard work.
To conclude, Mr Brazier also welcomed HaroonaChughtai, Director of Highways and Transportation to Kent County Council.
5. Miss Carey (Cabinet Member for Environment) announced that Kent County Council had been awarded £98,500 from the government’s Local Authority Treescapes Fund (LATF), which would help to support the Council’s Net Zero project.
It was further reported that recent data taken from the solar energy farm in Somerset revealed that for the 3 days in August whereby the park operated at full capacity (100%), it provided 55% of Kent County Council’s energy requirement for that month. The project which was commissioned to run over a 40-year period would help to significantly reduce Kent County Council’s carbon footprint and create considerable savings to electricity costs.
On 28th September, Miss Carey attended a tour of the Old Chalk New Downs projects which aimed to restore and reconnect remaining fragments of threatened chalk grassland habitats. The project, which had been funded through the Heritage Lottery Fund, was due to come to an end and a conference was due to be held on 4th October to both celebrate the project’s success, but also review the lessons learned.
Members were also advised of the free-to-attend Southeast Retrofit Summit, which was due to be held from 18th to 20th October. These were online sessions and provided attendees with the opportunity to hear and network with the UK’s low carbon leaders. Retrofitting which adopts a whole-house approach, helps to create warmer homes which in turn reduces carbon emissions. This was one of the many examples of projects which Kent County Council were involved in which helped both residents and the Council in achieving reduced carbon emissions.
Solar Together Kent, which was a solar panel and battery storage group-purchase scheme was in the mobilisation phase. The scheme had proved to be hugely popular this year amongst the increase in energy costs and there was scope for Kent County Council to do more work around this to help residents reduce energy cost and carbon emissions.
Miss Carey concluded by thanking staff who continued to work tirelessly on delivering the various projects across the Environment and Waste portfolio, and for their efforts in finding additional savings.
6. The Leader provided an update on behalf of Mr Murphy (Cabinet Member for Economic Development) on the No Use Empty Scheme and reported on the recent success of the scheme in Margate whereby a derelict property had been redeveloped to a home standard. The scheme had also supported the rejuvenation of an empty commercial building in Dover Business Park which would be utilised by Tridax Limited, a Kent-based civil engineering firm.
Members were reminded of the site-visit to Mesaroli on 13th October; a logistics company based at Discovery Park in Sandwich which specialised in the transportation of food, clothes, livestock and pharmaceuticals.
The first Rural Partnership Board was due to meet on 5th October and would bring together key partners from across the rural sector in Kent.
With regard to nutrient neutrality, Dover District Council had been advised that their development plans did not have a significant impact on the quality of Stodmarsh nature reserve and therefore the planning applications which had been put on hold could now be determined. Government’s plans released on 20th July provided further clarity around the funding from the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) and the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), which allowed planning authorities to take positive steps forward.
To conclude, Members were reminded of the ongoing endeavours of the Economic Development Working Group, in bringing together Kent County Council and Folkestone and Hythe District Council, to put forward a detailed case to ministers as to the suitability of Dungeness for a modular reactor site.
7. Mr Hill (Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services) announced that Kent Country Parks had retained all 8 of their Green Flag Awards which was a testament to the team’s hard work and the quality of the parks. New and improved play areas were also being provided across most of KCC’s country parks, through a £1.1million investment from Public Health Covid-19 recovery funding. The play area included several carefully considered inclusive elements for those with disabilities. Two additional Changing Places facilities had also been installed at Brockhill and Lullingstone Country Parks.
The summer reading challenge “Gadgeteers” ran between 9th July and 10th September. Participation reached pre-covid levels with 18,419 children taking part. Mr Hill provided feedback from families about how the Summer Reading Challenge helped them.
On 8th September 2022, Mr Hill attended the opening ceremony for the state-of-the-art dance centre for the internationally renowned Jasmin Vardimon Company, based in Ashford. The development was largely financed through an innovative approach by KCC, which utilised income from 26 commercial units on an adjoining site to provide investment for the new building. Further capital investment had been secured from Arts Council England, Ashford Borough Council (ABC) and the South-East Local Enterprise Partnership (SELEP). Kent Music was also due to move into one of the existing units next to Jasmin Vardimon. A formal opening event was due to take place in December.
To conclude, Mr Hill reported that the Kent County Council led Southeast consortium had been selected as one of the six regions to participate in the Create Growth Programme, an initiative under the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS). The programme would provide a bespoke package of business and investor support to assist creative businesses to scale and access finance outside London.
8. Mr Kite (Deputy Cabinet Member for Communications and Engagement) reported that the Great Big Green Week, a UK wide celebration of community action to tackle climate change, was taking place from 24th September to 2nd October 2022. The KCC Communications Team had launched an interactive map to help spread the word of community events taking place and encourage widespread participation.
The Digital Champion campaign, which was established as part of the Helping Hands Scheme to tackle digital exclusion, had been put forward for a national award. Applicants would be notified of the outcome of their submission in December 2022.
The Communications Team continued to provide Kent residents with information on how to stay well protected through its Winter Campaign and assurance was provided that Kent County Council was well placed to deal with any outbreaks. This was closely tied into the cost-of-living crisis, and again, ensuring that the Communications Team continued to provide crucial information, support and assurance to Kent residents.
A number of innovative approaches continued to be adopted by the Kent Communications Team to ensure residents were fully sighted on the Winter Service plans impacting Kent’s roads and highways.
National Inclusion Week ran from 26th to 30th September and provided directorates and staff with an opportunity to celebrate inclusion but also reinforce Kent County Council’s commitments to inclusivity. Again, the Communications Team were instrumental in ensuring that our work and commitment was shared amongst staff.
To conclude, a review of staff satisfaction and support was being carried out, with feedback to date identifying pay and career progression as priorities on the agenda for change. This was an important area of focus and work was ongoing.
9. The Leader announced that Kent County Council had been approached by the Department for Levelling up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) regarding government’s proposal to introduce Investment Zones, a scheme that would support the acceleration of housing and infrastructure growth. All Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCA) and Upper Tier Local Authorities (UTLA) were invited to complete an Expression of Interest to submit to government to indicate their desire to be involved in preliminary discussions. The Leader assured Members that the submission of interest did not commit Kent County Council to any further actions. Close examination of the opportunities and challenges would be carried out and Kent County Council would look to work closely with District and Borough Councils, along with Kent MPs to help inform those discussions with government. The Leader thanked Simon Jones (Corporate Director of Growth, Environment and Transport) and his team for their expeditious response to the request.