Meeting documents

Mr B Chapple

None

The minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 24 July 2017 to be agreed by the Committee and signed by the Chairman

The minutes of the meeting held on 24 July were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Mr M Shaw commented had attended the Bucks Disability Group AGM. Concern was raised around the number residents applying for blue badges who did not need them, the County Council would be working with the organisation the next 6 months to attempt to reduce this number.

Mr W Whyte commented that the Early Help Consultation had been extended to 16 October 2017, with further information being added to the Internet. All were asked to promote the consultation amongst residents.

The University of Buckingham was commended for recent recognition as a centre of excellence. The establishment came first in the County for Excellence, second for the student ratio, just behind Oxfordshire University and fourth for student experience.

It was noted that Members had signed the Safeguarding and Corporate Parenting Pledge as the last Full Council.

The Leader commented that the Growth agenda paper, due for discussion later in the meeting, had been discussed at the Local Enterprise Partnership meeting and agreed by the group.

None

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 D Carroll, Chairman of Transport, Economy and Communities Select Committee and Mr K Wright, Committee and Governance Advisor were welcomed to the meeting.

During discussion key points were highlighted as follows:

• This was the first joint report that had been presented, following all four Select Committees working together on the same inquiry 
• Recommendations combined findings from all areas
• Bucks Business First, District Councils and the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) as key stakeholders would need to be kept informed of growth agenda plans
• 7 recommendations were outlined in the report
• All Business Units and areas of the organisation would need to be aware of the Growth Agenda to reflect aims in their local business plans
• There were a number of external partners who would also need to be aware of the County Council’s growth agenda plans, to work together to achieve outcomes
• The type of housing to be provided  in the local area would need to explored,  to ensure support was planned to meet the changing demographic needs (e.g. vulnerable adults)
• NHS plans should be feed into the plan as this develops
• Reporting and progress checking on the growth plans would  need to be embedded into existing reporting processes within the County Council. The Business Intelligence function would lead on the reporting approach to ensure consistency of data throughout the organisation
• Each portfolio would be required to take into account potential growth agenda implications for their services
• It was noted the organisation should be maximising all funding opportunities available
• It was important to work collaboratively with key partners and stakeholders; an overarching comment outlining this would be added to the report

RESOLVED

Cabinet AGREED with the recommendations outlined in the report.

For Cabinet to consider the report

Mr M Tett, Leader, Ms J Hancox, Head of Transport Strategy and Mr M Kemp, Director of Growth Strategy and Highways were welcomed to the meeting.

During discussion key points were highlighted as follows:

• An amendment to the final report was noted that ‘Final agreement to the bid must be in consultation with the Leader’
• It was noted the expression of interest needed agreement in consultation with the Leader along with a business case for stage two of the bidding process
• Were the bid progressed to the next stage a further report would be presented to Cabinet prior to submission of the business case
• That the Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF) was a Government initiated scheme with national funding available for local government to bid to invest in local infrastructure
• Both District and County Councils were able to bid for HIF funding through separate bidding systems
• It was noted the County Council would be supporting bids submitted by Buckinghamshire’s District Councils
• The bid outlined in the report would support the delivery of infrastructure for additional houses being developed in Aylesbury
• Infrastructure would need to be delivered by 2021, which had led to only 1 bid being submitted
• Resources would need to be reassessed were the bid successful

RESOLVED

Cabinet AGREED with the recommendations, subject to the following amendments:

Ø  Final agreement to the bid must be in consultation with the Leader

Ø  Recommendation 1 to read ‘Cabinet APPROVES submission of an expression of interest Housing Infrastructure Fund (Forward Funding) application of up to £250m to support the development of Aylesbury Garden Town and other relevant schemes and, if successful, to develop and submit a business case for the final stage in Spring 2018’.

For Cabinet to consider the report

Mr J Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources, Mr R Ambrose, Director of Finance and Assets and Mr Oster Milambo, Deputy Head of Strategic Assets were welcomed to the meeting.

A confidential and full discussion was had by Cabinet to establish the proposal as a good investment, subject to due diligence taking place.

RESOLVED

Cabinet AGREED to the recommendations as outlined in the report subject to the following addition:

Ø  The purchase would be authorised and actioned by S151 Officer Mr Ambrose, in consultation with Mr Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources, subject to due diligence

For Cabinet to consider the report

Lin Hazell, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing and Ms L Patten, Chief Accountable Officer for Clinical Commissioning Groups were welcomed to the meeting.

During discussion key points were highlighted as follows:

• Does not commit the Council to any financial implications
• The system was an integrated way of working with partners in Health and Social Care
• The CCG’s and County Council already had a long history of working collaboratively, this was on opportunity to strengthen existing ways of working
• A Memorandum of understanding as outlined in the report, would  enhance the flow of funding
• The four main priorities to be covered:

o   Urgent and Emergency Care

o   Primary Care

o   Cancer

o   Mental Health

• Public credit was given to Ms Patten as being instrumental in ensuring Buckinghamshire was included in a limited number of pilots for Accountable Care Systems

RESOLVED

Cabinet AGREED with the recommendation as outlined in the report.

For Cabinet to consider the report

Mr J Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources and Mr R Ambrose, Director of Assurance, presented the report.  During the discussion performance indicators were discussed and updates were provided as follows:

Mr Shaw, Cabinet Member for Transport

• Taplow cycle scheme would be going  ahead; having made two  substantial changes to incorporate residents views
• Eastern link road progressing with design
• Stocklake scheme had completed under budget
• East West Rail: Mr Shaw had met twice with the Secretary of State  over past few months who was keen for the project to be delivered as soon as possible. A further group meeting would be taking place on 26 September to progress
• Challenges had been experienced with the Express Way

Mr Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

·         Difficulty experienced in delivering education and health care plans

·         There was a lack of Education Psychologists nationally

·         The County Council had been effected by this shortage:

o   Previous Head of Service had left

o   Second in command had recently given notice

·         Staff shortages were impacting on workloads, was taking longer than standard times to delivery education plans for special needs children

·         It was noted the organisation were working hard to get ahead and that money may be required for agency staff to deal with the backlog

Mr Whyte, Cabinet Member for Childrens Services 

• Investment into more children’s homes had commenced
• Percentage of children in care living within 20 miles of their home: a strategy was now in place to deal with this over the longer term
• Process for reviewing plans for looked after children in need: the team structure had changed over the summer period so it was noted the  trajectory should steadily improve for this issue

Mr Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources

• Revenue and capital budgets were on track to be delivered
• Savings and income generation targets were on track to be delivered
• Forecasting to come in under budget overall
• Slippage on capital programmes: there had been substantial progress on this in recent years with the amount progressively decreasing
• The Asset Strategy Board (ASB) had instituted a gateway process so future spend be released for schemes in instalments

Mr Brown, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Public Health

• Performing well on a number of indicators
• Library - downloads: there was a new supplier so should improve
• Total number of visits to the Museum - the new Director had extensive experience of generating interest so the service was confident this would improve
• Numbers of residents using smoking cessation services had decreased, this was  likely to be due to the increase in E-cigarettes
• The number of residents using alcohol cessation services was also below target: this would be monitored and reminders of the help available would be provided  to residents

Lin Hazell, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing

• Annual reviews: measures were local to Buckinghamshire there was no national comparative. It was noted  that the County Council was  performing than this time last year
• Performance was improving as recruitment improved
• Transitions: a complex area which was being monitored  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

For Cabinet to consider the report

Mr M Appleyard, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills and Ms G Quinton, Executive Director Resources were welcomed to the meeting. During discussion key points were highlighted as follows:

• The partnership between Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and the County Council had strengthened over last 6 months
• The County Council was looking to retain as many people and skills as possible
• Skills were one of the key enablers in building a strong economy: there were also localised issues regarding a lack of skills that needed to be addressed in Buckinghamshire.
• More funding streams were being developed nationally to support areas to develop skills within their area: e.g. the growth of the apprenticeship programme and funding through skills funding agency
• There were four key areas of focus:

o   Develop our future workforce - improve work preparedness of our young people and ensure they are able to make informed career choices

o   Develop a robust supply of skilled ambitious talent for our priority growth sectors and enterprise zones – creative industries, digital industries, high performance engineering, life sciences, food and drink manufacture, space industries.

o   Address widening skills gaps by supporting lifelong learning

o   Actively support skills development and recruitment in the health and social care, construction, tourism, service and public sector

• There was a need to ensure young people understood that skills were as important as academic achievement
• Businesses should also take ownership for inspiring young people
• It was noted the next Skills Show was being held in October, all schools in the area had been invited and coaches were being deployed to enable students to attend
• Enterprise coordinators were visiting with each school, to advise students on careers
• Websites were being developed with the County Council that would aim to link young people with entry level jobs

RESOLVED

Cabinet AGREED with the recommendation as outlined in the report.

23 October 2017

23 October 2017

Cabinet to consider confidential appendices

Cabinet had a confidential and full discussion to establish whether this was a good investment, subject to due diligence taking place.