Minutes:
1. Mr Kennedy (Deputy Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health) provided an update on the work that continued to be undertaken across Adult Social Care to identify areas of savings, including but not limited to the renegotiation and renewing of contracts, along with cost sharing measures with the NHS.
Kent County Council had also celebrated Carers Rights Day on Thursday 23 November which acknowledged the incredible and selfless contribution that the county’s unpaid carers make to the health and wellbeing of others. The event also highlighted the support services available.
Kent County Council’s Public Health Team continued to promote the nationwide winter vaccine campaign which launched in September, encouraging all those who were eligible to come forward for their seasonal flu and COVID-19 vaccines. The 2023 rollout had already delivered 11.7 million flu jabs and over 8.6 million Covid vaccinations, making it the fastest NHS flu vaccine roll out on record.
Mr Watkins had recently recorded a BBC podcast on the pressures facing Adult Social Care and was joined by the BBC on a visit to a hospital-based technology facilitator service, which enabled independent living of those who were discharged from hospital. Mr Watkins had also recently presented at the All-Party Group on empowering UK health care through digital innovation.
On 10th October, the Kent and Medway Suicide Prevention Team marked World Mental Health Day by announcing 11 projects dedicated to preventing suicide, saving lives and reducing self-harm that have secured funding to support their communities. Mr Kennedy recently had the privilege of attending the Mental Health and Wellbeing ceremony and presented a number of awards, several of which went to staff from Kent County Council.
To conclude, Kent County Council had welcomed the NHS Healthy Starts scheme, which assisted low-income parents in purchasing healthy essentials. Eligible parents would receive a heathy start card containing money which could be used to purchase heathy goods and vitamins, worth £1230 per child. The Healthy Start scheme was available to all those in receipt of benefits and at 10 weeks of pregnancy or had a child under the age of 4.
Mrs Chandler (Cabinet Member for Integrated Children’s Services) provided an update on the litigation brought by Kent County Council against the Home Office in relation to the National Transfer Scheme (NTS). Kent County Council’s claim on the reasonableness and rationality of the Home Office’s approach to the NTS went to court on 10th October 2023 and the judgement confirmed that the Home Secretary had acted unlawfully and that Kent County Council’s criticisms of the pace and urgency of the Home Secretary’s decision-making process in relation to the NTS were well founded. The judge found that the NTS and the slow-paced management of the scheme was inadequate and for large periods was unlawful. The Home Office was instructed to resolve the issues and ensure the NTS worked in a fair and sustainable manner in the future. The primary purpose of the claim brought against the Home Office was to prevent Kent’s children’s services from being overwhelmed and ensure that the care of those children coming to the UK was equitable across the entire country. In his judgement, Mr Justice Chamberlain acknowledged that the Home Office failed to develop a sound plan for a sustainable NTS model, having only made a number of minor modifications over the years, thus formulating an approach that was unlawful in the period from December 2021 to 7th July 2023. In conclusion, the Home Office had received explicit instruction to recognise and remedy their failings and create a sustainable NTS. Mrs Chandler advised that this would need to be done as a matter of urgency for the benefit of all children and Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) arriving, to ensure that Kent County Council could continue to meet its statutory duties. The Council had been in discussion with the Home Office regarding the funding required to ensure sufficient temporary accommodation for all new UASC arrivals and ensure reception centres were in place prior to the anticipated escalation of arrivals in the New Year. The total number of UASC arrivals for 2023 stood at 2067.
2. Furthermore, new legislation came into force in October requiring all providers of accommodation for children in care or care leavers up to the age 18 to be regulated by Ofsted. Mrs Chandler welcomed the change and hoped it would lead to improved standards and outcomes for children and young people.
3. Mr Love (Cabinet Member for Education and Skills) confirmed that families
had received their Kent Test results on Wednesday 18th October. This year a total of 17,037 children sat the Kent Test, 11,170 who lived in the county and the remainder from other local authority areas. Of the Kent children who sat the Test, 5,050 were assessed as being suitable for a grammar school place. Mr Love advised that passing the Kent Test was not a guarantee of a grammar school place. However, Kent County Council anticipated that the Kent children who had been assessed as suitable for grammar would, in most cases, enjoy priority of the 5,801 places available in the county over pupils from other authorities. Secondary school place applications closed on Tuesday 31 October and the results were being processed. Offer day for September 2024 school places will be on Friday 1 March 2024.
Furthermore, the SEND Information Hub Advice and Guidance roadshows were continuing to take place across the county as part of Kent County Council’s commitment to improving SEND services for Kent families. The next session was scheduled to take place be on Friday 8th December at Poppy Children’s Centre in Herne Bay.
Mr Love congratulated the Elective Home Education Team who had received the Silver Kit Award by the home education charity, Education Otherwise. This was awarded in recognition of the excellent practice across the department for the way in which it continued to support families who had opted to home educate. The award was based on nominations made by families and was a fantastic accolade to receive.
On 10th November Mr Love, along with the local MP, Helen Whately, attended an exhibition organised by Roseacre Junior School in Bearsted which focused on climate action. The school’s Eco Council exhibited a range of impressive eco themed art work and students asked a range of probing questions in relation to the environment.
In conclusion, the Department for Education (DfE) and NHS has carried out the first 6 monthly review of the SEND accelerated progress plan and the outcome of the findings was anticipated in due course.
4. Mr Baker (Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport) confirmed that the winter service was underway and that gritters had been deployed.
Furthermore, The Department for Transport (DfT) had allocated £134.5m funding over the next 10 years for road maintenance work. Kent County Council was waiting on official confirmation from the DfT and an update would be presented to Members in due course on how that funding would be deployed.
Mr Baker provided an update in relation to road closures as a result of works being carried out by utility companies and confirmed that a deep dive had been initiated. Mr Baker advised that utility companies had a significant degree of control over the work carried out on the highways network under emergency provision which can cause major disruption. Investigations were underway to look at Kent County Council’s existing powers and how best to secure additional powers to regain control over Kent’s highways and ensure the steady flow of traffic.
5. Mr Hills (Deputy Cabinet member for Environment) provided an update on the following:
· A consultation on windmills began on 21st November and was scheduled to run over a period of 9 weeks.
· A change in government legislation on stopping charging for DIY waste from residents was due to come into force on 31st December 2023
· The Environment Improvement Plan was due to be presented to Members in the New Year
· The Local Flood Risk Management Plan was out for consultation until 30th January and an updated plan was due to be presented to Members in the New Year.
· The Net Zero Plan was due to be presented to Members in the New Year.
· The Climate Change Adaption Plan would also be presented to Members in the new year.
6. Mr Murphy (Cabinet Member for Economic Development) provided an update in relation to the future of Discovery Park after pharmaceutical company, Pfizer, announced proposals to consolidate parts of the business. Kent County Council continued to seek support from Government over the future of the site and were awaiting a consultation from Pfizer in the coming months which would be critical to the economy of East Kent.
On 10th November Mr Murphy visited the new £8m route linking Station Road and Bellingham Way. The new road was delivered by Panattoni as part of its £180m redevelopment of the 90-acre former Aylesford Newsprint site.
Furthermore, on the No Use Empty (NUE) initiative, Mr Murphy confirmed that 6 contained flats were being built on the former derelict site of the dance studio in Folkestone through the NUE loan of £820k. The construction of 24 business sites had also been completed at Hollywood Place in Dover through the NUE allocation of £1.7m, which Kent County Council was due to repay in full by December 2023.
On 21st November the Kent and Medway Business Fund re-opened and since its launch, had received 47 applications to the total of £5m.
To conclude, Mr Murphy confirmed that fourteen S106 legal agreements had been completed securing a total of £47.9m in s106 contributions with a 99.6% success rate against the amounts that have been requested, the single largest amount for any quarter previously reported.
7. Mrs Bell (Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services) provided an update on the National Safeguarding Adults Board Excellence Awards which were held as part of Adult Safeguarding Week. The Maidstone and Tonbridge and Malling Community Warden Team won both the Empowerment Team Award and the Protection Team Award for their work with adults at risk within their communities and through their work identifying, supporting and empowering those vulnerable individuals. There were a number of other nominees in the categories for many of the Wardens and the Dartford & Gravesham team were also nominated. Mrs Bell congratulated all those involved.
The Customer Service Excellence (CSE) Award had been held by the Libraries, Registration and Archives (LRA) service continuously since 2010 and having completed the annual assessment for 2023, the LRA service once again received successfully achieved the award in recognition of their best practice. Mrs Bell congratulated the service for their accomplishments.
The library at Herne Bay reopened on 4th October following essential works including a new library layout and furniture. Customer feedback to date has been very positive.
The Winter Mini Challenge was due to run from 1st December until 19th February and continued under the Ready, Set, Read! theme. Kent libraries continued to promote the challenge and encourage children to keep up their reading habits over the winter break. ?
To conclude, the John Downton Awards art exhibition was scheduled to take place at Sessions House on 7th December in the Stone Hall. The John Downton exhibition was inspired by Miss Hilda Downton who approached Kent County Council in 2000 with a request to help host an annual award in memory of her brother John Downton. The exhibition commemorates the life and work of the Kent artist, celebrating the creativity and diversity of the county’s young artists.
8. Mr Jeffrey (Cabinet Member for Communications and Democratic Services) advised that the service continued to respond to the needs of delivering informed choices about reviewing, improving, adapting and modernising the services that the Council offers, including policy direction, through the use of consultations and raising awareness through campaigns.
Local Governance week ran from 27th November to 1st December which was established as part of the Annual Governance Statement. Mr Jeffrey expressed thanks to Democratic Services and the Member Hub for delivering the workshops, with attendance between 80 to 100 people at each of the events. There was ongoing work around member development and reviewing internal processes to identify ways in which the Council could utilise technology to deliver transformational and positive change in governance. These proposed changes would be presented to the Selection and Member Services Committee and would continue to be reported to Governance and Audit as work progresses.