Agenda and minutes

Resolved that subject to last sentence of paragraph 29(2) being amended to clarify that the Council was seeking to reduce the burden of costs on the Council Tax payers of Kent, the Minutes of the meeting held on 23 May 2011 be agreed and signed by the Chairman as a true record.

– report by Mr John Simmonds  – Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support and Mr Andy Wood, Acting Corporate Director, Finance and Procurement) (A revised schedule relating to staffing levels was circulated at the meeting)

(1) Mr Simmonds highlighted the main areas of this report which set out the provisional revenue and capital outturn for 2010/11.  The report also detailed revenue projects which had been rescheduled and where there was under or overspending.  Mr Simmonds also highlighted the monitoring of key activity as detailed in appendix 4 of the report. Mr Wood referred to page 14 of the report and said that the reserves which had been identified were a one-off so therefore would not be available in future years.

(2) On behalf of Cabinet Mr Carter placed on record his thanks to the Corporate Management Team and other members of Staff for the part they had played in managing and delivering this budget.

 (3) CabinetResolved that:

(i) the provisional outturn position for 2010-11 be noted.

(ii) agreement be given to £8.721m of the 2010-11 revenue under spend being rolled forward to fund existing commitments, as detailed in sections 1 to 4 of Appendix 2 to the Cabinet Report.

(iii) agreement be given for£0.250m of the 2010-11 roll forward being  used to contribute towards the Bold Steps for Health agenda, as detailed in section 6a of Appendix 2 of the Cabinet Report.

(iv) agreement be given to £0.250m of the 2010-11 roll forward being used to contribute towards the Elections Reserve, as detailed in section 6b of Appendix 2 to the Cabinet Report.

(v) agreement be given for the £2.128m remainder of the 2010-11 revenue under spending being set aside in the Economic Downturn reserve.

(vi) agreement be given to the following contributions to reserves all of which were reflected in the outturn position presented in the Cabinet report.

(a)       Kent Adult Social Services portfolio paragraph 3.2.5.6, transfer of £1.128m to the Social Care Supported Living costs reserve reflecting a delay in legal opinion regarding responsibility for a number of clients in supporting living arrangements in Kent who are currently funded by other authorities.

(b)       Corporate Support & Performance Management portfolio paragraph 3.2.9.1, transfer of £2.270m to a new Libraries IT PFI grant reserve to reflect a change in the treatment of this grant by Government from quarterly payments until 2016-17 to a final lump sum settlement;

(c)  Corporate Support & Performance Management portfolio paragraph 3.2.9.2, transfer of £1.042m to a new KPSN development reserve to fund the re-phased upgrades to core IT infrastructure; and,

(d)       Finance portfolio paragraph 3.2.10.1, transfer of £6.8m to the Economic Downturn reserve for potential aborted capital costs.

(vii)  that £3.346m of capital re-phasing from 2010-11  be added into 2011-12 and later years, as detailed in Appendix 3 of the Cabinet Report and the 2011-12 Capital Programme be adjusted to reflect other 2010-11 variances as reported in the outturn.

(viii) Note the final monitoring of the key activity indicators for 2010-11 as detailed in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

– Report by Mr John  Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Finance & Procurement; and Mr Andy Wood, Acting Corporate Director of Finance and Procurement) (Mr David Tonks, Head of Audit and Risk was present for this item)

(1)       The Annual Governance Statement explains how the Council had complied with its Code of Corporate Governance and identified any gaps in control or significant weaknesses that may have arisen in year.  The completed statement was included within the Council’s Annual Accounts that are subject to external audit. A report on this matter would also be submitted to the Governance and Audit Committee at its meeting on 30 June.

Cabinet resolved to:

(1)               agree the overall wording of the Annual Governance Statement, including the description of the Governance Framework and the significant weaknesses disclosed; and.

(2)               Agreed that the statement can be approved by the Leader on behalf of the County Council.

6 – Report by Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance & Health Reform; and Ms Katherine Kerswell, Managing Director)

(1)       Mr Gough said as part of the restructuring through ‘Change to Keep Succeeding’ and the launch of the Council’s medium term plan, Bold Steps for Kent, the opportunity had been taken to review the current officer performance arrangements and to introduce an improved performance management framework that will enable effective briefing of Cabinet and into Scrutiny.

(2)       Ms Kerswell referred to paragraph 2 of the report which set out the overall objectives of the Council’s new performance management framework and spoke of the importance of developing the new framework through the involvement of staff at all levels and the links the framework would have to members through the scrutiny process.

(3)        Cabinet resolved 

(a)       to note the key elements of the performance management framework as set out in the Cabinet report and that this would be further refined over time.  In the meant time the new Corporate Management Team and Performance Assurance Team arrangements would come into effect during June and the arrangements with regard to the Delivery Assurance Team would follow in July; and.   

(b)       to note the framework for delivering the strategic priorities in Bold Steps would   be developed further using feedback from the POSC workshops held during  May  and would be  reported to June/July Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committees and then onto Cabinet and the County Council for approval in July.  The first quarterly performance report using the single performance framework would be available for Quarter 1, 2011/12 and would go to the September meeting of Cabinet and POSCs.

Report by Mr Roger Gough, Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance & Health Reform; and Katherine Kerswell, Managing Director)

(1) This report provided Cabinet with information on the key areas of performance and activity across the authority. Mr Gough referred in particular to the issues raised in the report regarding the retention of young employees while the monitoring of sickness levels continues to show good progress. Mr Sweetland said the ‘red’ status of the Kent Freedom Pass was a reflection of its success but that in turn had resulted in a budget pressure. Mr Fitzgerald said for situations like that in the future it may be better to have some disagregation so that service delivery and any related budget issues are rated separately.  Mr Carter supported this approach and also spoke of the importance of ensuring key core monitoring information continues to be reported to members under the revised arrangements described in the previous item. 

(2)       Cabinet resolved to note the report.

Report by Mrs Jenny Whittle, Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services; and Mr Malcolm Newsam, Interim Corporate Director, Families & Social Care)

(1)       This report provided Cabinet with the first Ministerial report from Liz Railton the independent chair of the Kent Safeguarding and Looked after Children Improvement Board.

(2)       Mrs Whittle said the report from the Improvement Board showed that significant progress was being made in respect of the targets which had been set. However there was no room for complacency and the Council remained fully focused on the targets and actions which had been identified in the Improvement Plan. Mrs Whittle placed on record her thanks to all staff involved in this area for their hard work and commitment. Mr Newsam said the report showed the Council was taking the right approach and the actions taken were those which the Improvement Board were looking for. He also said that it would take time before these actions took full effect.  Mr Carter spoke of the need to recruit the right social work staff with the right competencies. He also spoke of the Council’s commitment to achieving the objectives of the Improvement Plan.  

(3)       Resolved that the first ministerial report of the independent chair of the Improvement Board be noted.

– Report by Mr Graham Gibbens, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health; Mr Roger Gough – Cabinet Member for Business Strategy, Performance & Health Reform; and Meradin Peachey, Director of Public Health) (Mr B Sweetland made a personal declaration of interest in that he is a non executive Director of Kent Community Health NHS Trust).

(1)       Mr Gibbens said that with the proposal to transfer responsibility for public health from the NHS to local authorities, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) had been drawn up between KCC and the Kent PCT’s designed to facilitate the alignment of PCT staff to KCC management. The proposals would not see any changes to staff terms and conditions of employment or the accountabilities of the PCTs, which would remain responsible for public health until 2013. Mr Gibbens also spoke of the important role which the Health and Wellbeing Board would have in the future delivery of public health.

(2)       Following further discussion Cabinet resolved to note the alignment of the PCT staff and posts to KCC management structures under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding  as detailed in the Cabinet report and noted this matter would now be reported to the County Council.  

– Report by Mrs Sarah  Hohler, Cabinet Member for Education, Learning & Skills; and Mr Andy Roberts, Interim Corporate Director for Education, Learning & Skills) (Mr Scott Bagshaw Head of Admissions and Transport was present for this item)

(1)       This report informed Cabinet on the outcomes from the consultation on proposals to remove the discretionary elements of home to school transport provision.  The report included an analysis on the impact of the proposals and put forward recommendations for the future provision of home to school transport. 

(2)       Mrs Hohler said that this wide consultation had demonstrated there was a general acceptance there needed to be changes to the current arrangements. The changes which were needed not only reflected the need to reduce expenditure on the discretionary elements of home to school transport but also to make the system fairer as the existing arrangements perpetuated an inequality in provision which was appropriate to address. Kent was not alone in taking this stance. Some local authorities had already made changes to their pattern of provison whilst others had changes under active consideration.  Mrs Hohler also said that at some point in the future the County Council would need to undertake a further review to reflect likely changes in future transport policies and how those may impact on parental preferences for schools.

(3)       Whilst the County Council was looking to stop discretionary transport subsidy for children going to selective or denominational schools from Setember 2012 this would not apply to those in receipt of free school meals or Looked After Children. Mr Hill raised concerns that children in some of the non selective areas would not be able to access transport to grammar schools because they do not live in selective areas.  On this point Mr Carter suggested  KCC should write to Mr Michael Gove to see if the selective and non selective schemes can simply be abolished and Kent have a single county wide admissions scheme of education. Mr Roberts said officers would explore this further and prepare an appropriate letter to Mr Gove.

(4)       At the conclusion of discussion Mr Lynes said, and it was agreed, that for the purpose of being clear as to which group of pupils this policy would refer to, the word “current” be inserted in line four of paragraph 9 (iii) of the recommendations between the words of and statutory. .

(5)       Cabinet resolved

(a)       that from 1 September 2012, Kent County Council would not provide home to school transport provision on denominational or selective grounds other than where there is a statutory requirement to provide transport.

(b)               For children of low income families where the child is defined as an "eligible child" by schedule 35B of the Education Act 1996 (e.g. entitled to Free School Meals) and is resident in a selective area of education and aged between 11 and 16 years; Kent County Council would fund transport to the nearest grammar school provided that the child had met the entry requirements of the school and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

– Report by Mr M Hill, Cabinet Member for Communities; and Amanda Honey, Managing Director Communities) (Wayne Gough, Interim SIP Manager and Lucy-Ann Bett, Project Manager SIP and Anna Davis, who is on the KCC Apprenticeship Programme were present for this item.

(1)       Mr Hill said the primary objective of the Apprenticeship Strategy was to increase the number of Apprenticeships that are undertaken by young people in Kent during what is a challenging time. Whilst the programme had made significant progress over the past 4 years more needed to be done and the Strategy and Action Plan identified ways in which that would be achieved. Ms Bett said the Council was working in partnership with a number of organisations both internal and external to KCC, promoting the benefits of Apprenticeships but also filling gaps in delivery such as helping employers, particularly small employers overcome the hurdles of recruiting Apprentices.  Anna Davies a KCC Apprentice spoke about how this scheme was helping her to gain valuable training leading to a recognised qualification and work place experience. 

(2)       Mr Sweetland said that through the newly let Highways Term Contract KCC had insisted the contractor took an active part in providing apprenticeship places. Mr Carter said the Council should be active in promoting the scheme in innovative ways such as using the Looked after Children Improvement Plan as a way of highlighting apprenticeship opportunities. It was also said links could be made through the Public Service Board and by linking with other sectors such as the NHS. 

(3)       Cabinet Resolved to agree the draft Apprenticeship Strategy and Action Plan 2011-2014.

– report by Mr Alex King – Deputy Leader and Mr Peter Sass - Head of Democratic Services)

The Chairman declared consideration of this item to be urgent as it was not available at the time of the despatch of the main agenda because there was insufficient time following the last meeting of the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee for the Cabinet Member responses to be  to be formulated and agreed.

(1)       Mrs Whittle referred to paragraph 3 of the item on Putting Children First and said the Council was being very open in its reporting and the Improvement Plan had been made available to members of the Council at the earliest opportunity. The Improvement Plan had also been widely discussed at meetings of the Specialist Children Services POSC, Cabinet and the Council.

(2)       Resolvedthat the comments and actions detailed in the report be noted.

The following are the unrestricted minutes and records of decisions of matters which were declared exempt pursuant to the provisions of the Local Government Act 1972