Agenda and minutes

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 May 2012 were agreed and signed by the Chairman as a true record. 

– Report by Mr J Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support and Mr A Wood the Corporate Director of Finance and Procurement)

(1)       This report set out the provisional revenue and capital budget outturn for 2011-12 and detailed :

·         where revenue projects had been rescheduled and/or were committed

·         where there was under or overspending.

(2)       The provisional outturn on the revenue budget showed an under spend of £8.242m (excluding schools). This under spend was £4.213m lower than the projected under spend reported in May but is after £8m had been transferred to reserves for highways maintenance (£6m) and investment in technology and communications (£2m) to deliver further savings. The proposals for the use of the £8.242m of the Revenue budget were detailed in Appendix 2 of the Cabinet report.

(3)       Mr Carter said that the budget for last year had been a difficult one and he placed on record his thanks to all who had supported its delivery. Mr Carter also spoke in particular about the investment undertaken by the County Council to improve the condition of Kent’s roads.  Mr Wood said the accounts and the budget outturn would be reported to the next meeting of the Governance and Audit Committee.

 (4)   Cabinet resolved to;

(i)   note the provisional outturn position for 2011-12

(ii)  Agree that £2.526m of the 2011-12 revenue under spending be rolled forward to fund existing commitments, as detailed in section 2 of Appendix 2 of the Cabinet report.

(iii) Agree that £0.4m of the 2011-12 roll forward be used for a central communications and engagement budget within the Customer & Communities directorate, as detailed in section 4 of Appendix 2 of the Cabinet report.

(iv)  Agree that the £5.316m remainder of the 2011-12 revenue under spending be set aside in the Economic Downturn reserve.

(v)  Note that £9.774m of capital re-phasing from 2011-12 would be added into 2012-13 and later years, as detailed in Appendix 3 and the 2012-13 Capital Programme would also be adjusted to reflect other 2011-12 variances as reported in the outturn.

(vi)  Note the final monitoring of the key activity indicators for 2011-12 as detailed in Appendix 4 of the Cabinet report.

(vii)   Note the final financial health indicators for 2011-12 as detailed in Appendix 5 of the Cabinet report.

(viii)  Note the final monitoring of the prudential indicators for 2011-12 as detailed in Appendix 6 of the Cabinet report.

(ix)  Note the impact of the 2011-12 provisional revenue budget outturn on reserves as detailed in section 3.6.

(x)  Note that the schools’ revenue and capital reserves had reduced by some £1.381m. The details being set out in the Cabinet report.

– Report by Mr J Simmonds, Cabinet Member for Finance and Business Support and Mr A Wood the Corporate Director of Finance and Procurement)

(1)       This was the first exception report for 2012-13 and reflected the position for each of the portfolios. The initial forecast for the year reflected an overall under spending position for the authority which was very promising position at this stage of the year, especially considering a £100m savings requirement. The net £2.732m under spending shown in the report reflected pressures within Specialist Children’s Services. These are well known and reflected a continuation of the issues experienced in 2011-12, but these were more than offset by under spending on Adult Social Care, waste and treasury costs.

(2)       Cabinet resolved:

(i)  to note the initial forecast revenue and capital budget monitoring position for 2012-13.         

(ii)   note the changes to the capital programme.

(iii)  agreed that £0.114m of saving on the Transforming Short Breaks for Disabled Children be used to ease the pressures on the MASH projects.

– report by Mr Alex King, Deputy Leader and Mr G Wild, Director of Governance and Law) (The Chairman declared consideration of this item to be urgent on the grounds that the report contained information that needed to be presented to members at this meeting prior to being submitted to the next meeting of the Governance and Audit Committee)

(1)       The Annual Governance Statement (AGS) explains how the Council has complied with its Code of Corporate Governance and identifies any gaps in control or significant weaknesses that have arisen in year.  The completed statement was included within the Council’s Annual Accounts that are subject to external audit. The statement is required by regulation 4(2) of the Accounts and Audit Regulations 2003 as amended by the Accounts and Audit (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2006 in relation to the publication of a statement on internal control.

(2)       Resolved that endorsement be given to the overall wording of the Annual Governance Statement, including the description of the Governance Framework and the specific weaknesses disclosed. The report would now be submitted to the next meeting of the Governance and Audit Committee.

Report attached.  Presentation by Jenny Whittle, Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services

– report by Mrs Jenny Whittle, Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services and Mr Andrew Ireland Corporate Director for Families and Social Care)

(1)       This was the fourth report to Cabinet on progress made in implementing the Children’s Services Improvement Plan, and improving practice and performance in services provided to children and care leavers in Kent. The last report was in December 2011 and this report outlined progress since then.

(2)       Mrs Whittle supported this report with a presentation and spoke of the key areas and actions which were being taken on a number of fronts and said the Council had continued to make significant progress and sustain levels of good performance. The County Council was now attaining the majority of the targets set out in Kent’s Improvement Notice and those areas which were proving challenging were being robustly addressed, with clear action plans in place to improve performance. With a clear sense of direction and continued close scrutiny and management oversight, the clear aim of all those involved was to continue to make significant improvements over the next year.

(3)       Mr Carter said it was pleasing to note the continuing good levels of progress which were being made and in particular it was very pleasing to note that staff were actively embracing the changes and challenges that the Improvement Programme presented. He also welcomed the fact that the multi-agency work was going so well.

(4)       Cabinet resolved to note the report.

8 – report by Mr Mike Hill, Cabinet Member for Customer and Communities and Mrs Amanda Honey, Corporate Director for Customer and Communities) (Mr Nigel Baker was present for this item)

(1)    The Youth Justice Plan sets out how the Integrated Youth Service (IYS) will work during 2012/13 towards the principal aim for the youth justice system, “the prevention of offending by children and young people”. The Plan is a statutory requirement (Section 40, Crime & Disorder Act 1998) for local authorities and is submitted to the Youth Justice Board for England & Wales for their approval. The Plan will also be submitted to the full County Council in the Autumn following its consideration by the Corporate Board and the Cabinet Committee for the Customer and Communities Directorate. 

(2)       The key themes in the Plan include:

(i)             the partnership arrangements within the county which are responsible for the management of youth justice services 

(ii)           the targets for the performance of the Service

(iii)         planned new developments and the activity forecasts for the core youth justice services

(iv)          the resources the Service has available to deliver the objectives of the Plan.

(3)       Mrs Honey said the Plan supported the ongoing work in Children services and had amongst its key objectives early intervention measures aimed at reducing the number of young people entering the Youth Justice System. Mr Baker spoke of the links the Plan had with the Troubled Families programme and to supporting young people engaging in education and employment.

(4)       Cabinet resolved to endorse the Youth Justice Plan 2012/13 for the integrated Youth Service prior to its submission to the County Council for approval as the statutory Annual Youth Justice Plan.

 – report by Mr Mike Hill, Cabinet Member for Customer and Communities and Mrs Amanda Honey, Corporate Director for Customer and Communities) (Mr Stuart Beaumont the Head of Community Safety and Emergency Planning was present for this item)

(1)       This framework document covered the period 2012 to 2015 and is intended to provide a clear roadmap of how the numerous and complex services within KCC contributed towards the Community Safety landscape in Kent through prevention, protection and intervention. It was intended to be a handbook for County Councillors and senior and operational managers to help raise awareness of community safety issues within County Council service areas and clarified:

·       An overview of who does what in community safety;

·       How all the different agencies work together

·       What has been achieved so far; and

·         What the policies and plans and key issues are for the future.

(2)       Cabinet resolved to endorse the draft Kent County Council Framework for Community Safety 2012 – 2015 which would now be submitted to the County Council for final approval.

Cabinet resolved to note and endorse the minutes of the Children’s Services Improvement Panel held on 7 June 2012.

Cabinet resolved that under Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they contained information that could lead to the disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.   

–report by Mr Mike Whiting, Cabinet Member for Education, Learning and Skills, Mr Roger Gough Cabinet Member for Business Strategy and Support and Mr Patrick Leeson, Corporate Director for Education, Learning and Skills) Mrs Rebecca Spore, the Director of Property and Infrastructure was present for this item)

See Record of Decision on page 6.

– report by Graham Gibbens: Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health and Andrew Ireland: Corporate Director, Families and Social Care) (Mr David Weiss, Ms Sara Naylor and Ms Andrea Melvin were present for this item)

See record of Decision on page 8.