Meeting documents

Apologies were received from Mr J Chilver and Ms S Ashmead.

 Mr G Williams attended as  substitute for Mr Chilver and Ms Forsythe attended as  substitute for Ms Ashmead.

Mr B Chapple declared that his son worked within Children’s Services which was relevant to item 10.

Minutes of the meeting of Cabinet held on 24 April to be agreed by Cabinet and signed by the Chairman

The minutes from 24 April 2017 were agreed as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman.

• The Chairman commented on the tragic events of the attack in London. There were many who worked in London but resided in Buckinghamshire and the Chairman had sent his commiserations on behalf of the Council to those who had been impacted by events. The County flag would be flown at half-mast as a mark of respect and there would be a minutes silence on 6 June 2017 at 11am.
• Mr M Shaw stated that the road surfacing campaign had begun and some roads across the County would be temporarily closed whilst works were undertaken.
• Mr G Williams reported that the County Council systems had been protected during the recent malware ICT attack, which had been due to the investment made in our ICT systems.
• Lin Hazell explained that she had visited Missenden Abbey Garden with Mr M Appleyard on 1 June 2017. The project was for adults with learning disabilities and Lin Hazell had been very impressed with the scheme. The Chairman wished the project well.

There were no questions.

For Cabinet to consider the Forward Plan

Cabinet noted the report.

Cabinet noted the report.

For Cabinet to consider the Select Committee Work Programme

Cabinet noted the report.

For Cabinet to consider the report

Mr N Brown and Dr J O’Grady, Director of Public Health presented the Director of Public Health Annual Report and highlighted the following:

• The report focused on the importance of a healthy pregnancy and the first months of life.
• Being a healthy weight, eating well and having a good mental health during pregnancy were essential. Maternal smoking, use of alcohol and drug use at this time could cause significant risks to both mother and baby.
• The mental wellbeing of mothers and fathers was paramount. Up to a quarter of women experience a mental health problem during pregnancy or in the year after birth and 10% of new fathers develop post-natal depression.

The quality of parenting is also of vital importance as this helps children develop well and grow up happy and secure. Poorer quality parenting can lead to poorer development and result in children having a range of behavioural and mental health problems.

Domestic abuse can often start or escalate during pregnancy and causes significant harm to mother and baby and other children in the home.

It is important to screen for all factors that have an impact on babies and their families so that appropriate help can be offered as early as possible.

• 71% of pregnant women had their body mass index (BMI) recoded when they booked into their antenatal care. 55% of pregnant women recorded a healthy weight, 27% were overweight and 17% were obese.
• 432 pregnant women in Buckinghamshire had been recorded as smoking at the time their baby was born (in 2015/16). 252 had been referred to smoking cessation services, 95 women set a quit date with 40 reported as quitting. All women should be offered a referral to smoking cessation, but not all will accept.

·         The report highlighted recommendations for all partners in Buckinghamshire as everyone has a role to play.

• The Baby Buddy App had received positive feedback but there was not any specific feedback on the Family Information Service.
• Members thanked Dr O’Grady for the detailed and informative report.

RESOLVED: Cabinet AGREED with the recommendations in principle but referred them to the Chief Executive to review and ensure compatibility with other Council policies.

For Cabinet to consider the report

Mr W Whyte and Ms C Douch, Service Director Children’s Social Care, presented the Children’s Services Update and the following was highlighted:

• The report had set out the national, regional and local picture within Children’s Social Care.
• The Chairman noted the volume of changes in legislation especially which would be challenging but it would be vital that the Council deliver good outcomes for young people.
• Mr M Appleyard noted the increase in exclusions in primary schools and this is being looked into.
• The number of agency social workers had decreased and when the Council had initially been inspected by Ofsted the number of agency workers was above the national average. The number of agency workers currently stood at 21%, which had fallen from37%. Lin Hazell wished to thank all of the social workers and officers who had worked hard to reduce the number of interim workers.

·         The Social Work Academy partnership with the Buckinghamshire New University supports the continuous learning of social workers and a pipeline for new recruits.

• The Chairman noted that the Member Induction programme had covered Children’s Social Care and new Members had commented how dedicated social workers were in a very challenging environment.
• Mr M Shaw suggested that some young people could attend a future Cabinet to talk about their experience with Social Care. The Chairman agreed and stated that this could be done in private session without webcasting if young people felt comfortable in doing this.
• There would be an update to Cabinet in six months’ time.

ACTION: Ms C Douch

RESOLVED: Cabinet noted the report on the national, regional and local developments in relation to Children’s Services and requested that there be an update in 6 months’ time.

For Cabinet to consider the report

Mr W Whyte and Ms C Douch presented the Corporate Parenting Strategy and the following was highlighted:

• Corporate Parenting was the responsibility of all Members who were required to work closely with their partners to ensure that the needs of Buckinghamshire’s children are clearly identified and met at every level.
• Lin Hazell stated that the recent Member Induction session on Corporate Parenting had highlighted what being a Corporate Parent meant and the Strategy would help move this going forward.
• The Corporate Parenting Panel would meet regularly throughout the year.
• Mr G Williams suggested that it would be helpful for there to be District Council representatives on the Corporate Parenting Panel to ensure that issues such as accommodation received a joined up approach.

ACTION: Ms C Douch

RESOLVED: Cabinet APPROVED the Corporate Parenting Strategy to be implemented in July 2017.

For Cabinet to consider the report

The Chairman, Mr G Williams and Mr R Ambrose, Director of Finance and Assets, highlighted the following:

• The financial situation within Local Government had been extremely challenging and would continue to be so due to the revenue support grants being repeatedly cut.
• Buckinghamshire would be one of the first council’s to lose its Revenue Support Grant, with a negative Better Care Fund; the Council would remain in a difficult situation with pressure on service budgets.
• The overall revenue outturn showed an underspend of £6.02m. This comprised of portfolio overspends of £4.09m, offset by underspends in Corporate Costs of £10.11m.
• The most significant variances were mainly due to home to school transport costs (Education and Skills); Bucks Care’s losses following insourcing (Health and Wellbeing) and placement and agency costs within Children’s Social Care.
• The significant underspend in Corporate Cost reflected contingencies that had not been released (-£5.6m), the impact of the revised MRP policy (-£3.6m) and £1m saving in borrowing costs due to the active management of borrowing following the Energy from Waste plant.
• The Capital Programme showed a gross slippage of £13.92m against planned budgets for the year.

The following items were highlighted by portfolio holders:

• Mr M Shaw stated that there had been a £46,000 underspend on revenue within Transportation. On capital there had been a £4m underspend/slippage mostly attributed to delays on developer schemes and George Green Junction traffic signals.
• Mr M Appleyard stated that home to school transport caused pressure within the Education and Skills portfolio. The cost of providing transport continued to increase and required a review.
• Mr Whyte explained that the overspend forecast had increased to £1.5m. The appointment of a new Finance Director and the Change 4 Children Programme should improve management of the budget in the future.
•  Mr Williams stated that he had been impressed with the business professionalism demonstrated within the Resources portfolio. Only 7pence in every pound went towards resources when usually in other similar councils this figure would be 13 or 14pence in every pound. Commercial Services already sells council services to a number of schools and authorities.
• Mr Brown’s Community Engagement & Public Health portfolio had delivered an overspend of £13k at outturn and a capital underspend of £267k.
• Lin Hazell stated there had been some emerging pressures within the Health and Wellbeing portfolio. There had been an overspend of £1.8m at year end.
• Mr B Chapple stated that the Planning and Environment portfolio had an underspend for the year of £62k. For capital last year there had been a spend of £175m and therefore the end year result had been good.

RESOLVED: Cabinet AGREED with the recommendations.

26 June 2017

26 June 2017.