Meeting documents

Apologies were received from Mr M Shaw, Cabinet Member for Transportation, and his deputy Mr P Irwin attended on his behalf.

There were none.

Of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 10 December 2018.

RESOLVED: The minutes of the meeting held on 10 December were AGREED as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman.

The Cabinet Member for Transportation highlighted the success of the children’s Christmas present campaign with over 2,000 having been donated.  Mr Shaw thanked staff and residents for their contribution and Mr Tett thanked Mr Shaw and Mr Irwin for their hard work on the campaign.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills highlighted the Home to School Transport consultation that had closed on 4 January.  There would now be a delay in the current school term while responses were reviewed with more information due in March and April.

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services also gave thanks to Mr Shaw and Mr Irwin for the Christmas present campaign.  Mr Whyte drew Cabinet’s attention to the Ofsted monitoring visit before Christmas and the expectation of feedback with the coming week.  Mr Whyte also highlighted the fostering events taking place in High Wycombe on 16 January and the adoption information event in Aston Clinton on 11 January.  Details of all events could be found on the Bucks County Council (BCC) website.

The Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing highlighted that the Government had published the NHS long term plan and some detail had already been highlighted in the press.  Lin Hazel stated that she was disappointed that it was published without the Green Paper and Cabinet would be updated once the details of the plan became clearer.  Mr Tett also highlighted his disappointment in still no publication of the Green Paper, which had now been delayed for over a year.

The Leader stated that the Council’s budget scrutiny process would be starting on 8 January, running for 3 days.  The scrutiny sessions would run for 3 days with Members being cross-examined on their portfolio budgets.  Mr Tett highlighted that BCC went over and above what other local authorities did in terms of budget scrutiny.

Julia Wassell, County Councillor for Ryemead and Micklefield attended the meeting to highlight complaints received by residents due to the A40 major project development and the sequencing of traffic lights causing chaos that she had not been consulted on.

During the meeting, Mr Irwin feedback that there was a fault in the light system which was being looked into the previous sequencing would be referred back to.

Julia Wassell asked the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing and responsible for residential short breaks what other opportunities carers would have to understand the changes proposed in particular relating to transfer to the Aylesbury site, funding and proposed mix service use.

Lin Hazell responded by stating that these concerns would be picked up under the Residential Short Breaks for Adults item later on the agenda.

Julia Wassell also asked Lin Hazell if  she was  aware of the excellent trailblazer pilot scheme in Aylesbury reaching out to children in schools to prevent mental health conditions and that the NHS 10 year plan was planning to extend it to 350k people, but no parity between mental health and physical health so more work was needed.

Lin Hazell stated that mental health in Children’s was the responsibility of the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, however agreed with Julia Wassell’s points and stated that mental health was a high priority in Adults too. 

Mr W Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services stated that there were a number of different types of mental health work undertaken by the Council and also co-commissioned with the NHS, including the online counselling service Kooth, a great service focused on mental health for children.  Oxford Health had also announced last year that individuals  could self-refer to their service.

Julia Wassell directed a statement at Mr J Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources stating that with the proposal to sell the Seeley’s House site he stood to get a capital receipt of £3.5m and that carers were not happy that this was going into general funds in particular as it was believed that charitable money went into the building.  Julia Wassell asked for reassurances as to why these financial decisions were being made.

Mr Chilver stated that he would look into the restrictions on charitable donations.  Mr Tett stated that the general principle was that the sale of any asset by a service would come into the corporate centre.

Mr D Dhillon, County Councillor for Cliveden thanked Mr Chapple for the discussions held within his division regarding the household waste recycling centre changes, however himself and residents were disappointed in the proposed closure of the Burnham site.  Mr Dhillon had sent pictures of eight examples of fly tipping around the Burnham site area to Mr Chapple.

Mr Dhillon asked why estimates to travel to alternative sites were based on google map estimates between 10am-2pm and with the service level agreement with Slough Borough Council that funding that would be lost and the extra cost to clear incidents of fly tipping.

Mr Chapple stated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

For Cabinet to consider the Forward Plan

RESOLVED: Cabinet NOTED the report.

RESOLVED: Cabinet NOTED the report.

For Cabinet to consider the Select Committee Work Programme

RESOLVED: Cabinet NOTED the report.

Standing item

Mr Tett confirmed that they were awaiting a letter from the Minister that was expected later that day, which would set out the governance for the implementation of the new council.  A special meeting of the Cabinet was being held on Thursday 10 January to discuss.

·         Cabinet is asked to approve a six-week consultation on:

o   The transfer of residential short break services from the Beaconsfield site to a partial new build on the Aylesbury Opportunities Centre site

o   An integrated service jointly commissioned with Buckinghamshire CCG to be based at Aylesbury Opportunities Centre.

o   The reduction in day service capacity at Aylesbury Opportunities Centre.

·         Cabinet is asked to delegate approval of ongoing work in relation to the transfer of residential short breaks service to Aylesbury Opportunities Centre to the Lead Member for Health & Wellbeing. 

Lin Hazel, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing introduced the report and made reference to the following:

• The current provisions in Buckinghamshire were in need of modernisation relating to the built environment at Seeley’s House in Beaconsfield and the quality and nature of services provided
• The Care Quality Commission had rated Seeley’s House as inadequate in November 2016, Needs Improvement June 2017 and Needs Improvement in February 2018.
• The Commission were currently running a 10 week public consultation on the draft Adults Short Break Policy due to end on 14 January.
• Next steps were for Cabinet to consider the proposal for a new county residential Short Breaks Service and for it to be agreed that a six week consultation could start with those affect by the changes while the policy is being developed.
• Lin Hazel highlighted that there had already been a lot of consultation with users.

Ms J Bowie, Service Director Integrated Commissioning also attended the meeting to answer any questions from Cabinet.  Ms Bowie highlighted the following points:

• The report before Cabinet was seeking agreement to start a six week consultation with service users and carers involved.
• Transfer of current service delivered on the Seeley’s site and making it a joint integrated service with Health on the Aylesbury site in order to make better use of the site as currently underutilised.
• Meetings had been held with service users and careers from Seeley’s House and the Aylesbury day service on 20 December and 3 January, prior to the papers being published for Cabinet.
• Sessions had been held with two local charities, South Bucks Association for Disabled and Friends of Seeley’s House.
• The current value of the land at Seeley’s house was £4.5m.

Cabinet raised and discussed the following points:

• It was highlighted that feedback suggested that some carers had been consulted yet and were not clear what the proposals were.  It was noted that all engagement to date was pre consultation work and they were only now entering into a six week formal consultation process.
• Ms Bowie highlighted that there had and would continue to be communications on the extensive progress with the strategy and policy and how it would be rolled out.
• More engagement events were planned and the consultation would be open to all including those carers that had already been engaged with.

The report set out the following recommendations:

• Cabinet is asked to approve a six-week consultation on:

o   The transfer of residential short break services from the Beaconsfield site to a partial new build on the Aylesbury Opportunities Centre site

o   An integrated service jointly commissioned with Buckinghamshire CCG to be based at Aylesbury Opportunities Centre.

o   The reduction in day service capacity at Aylesbury Opportunities Centre.

• Cabinet is asked to delegate approval of ongoing work in relation to the transfer of residential short breaks service to Aylesbury Opportunities Centre to the Lead Member for Health & Wellbeing.

RESOLVED:  Cabinet AGREED the recommendations.

Cabinet is asked to approve the new Smarter Buckinghamshire Strategy (2018-2020) and nominate the Technology and Digital Board to oversee and monitor the delivery of the Strategy and provide an annual update on progress.

Mr Tett introduced the item by stating the importance of ensuring that the County Council were taking into account what the district councils were doing to ensure a smoother transition to a unitary authority.  Mr Chilver stated that the strategy had been reviewed in light of the unitary decision and focused on shorter timeframes.  The strategy did not seek to cover the work of the new council.

Mr J Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources introduced the Strategy and highlighted the following:

• The strategy built on the strong processes already in place.
• It placed residents at the heart of what the Council do, ensuring improved access.
• Funds had been committed which included £15m from the Capital programme.
• Mr Chilver was confident that the Council could deliver an excellent service that could be taken through into the new authority.

Ms B Heran, Joint Strategy Director, also attended the meeting to answer any questions from Cabinet.  Ms Heran highlighted the following points:

• The strategy was deliberately shorter and focussed on Buckinghamshire as a whole.  It would improve infrastructure and put the authority in a better place to transition into the new authority.
• Ms Heran stated that regular meetings were held with district colleagues with collective agreement on work programmes that would continue, be stopped or put on hold.
• Focus was being put on items that needed to be in place on day one of the new authority and a programme of works for direction of travel.
• The strategy recommended a hybrid approach and that allowed the authority to have more varied options.
• The strategy focussed on five themes:
  • Smarter County – using technology to create opportunities and ensure Buckinghamshire thrives;
  • Smarter Communities – safeguarding our vulnerable and building self-reliant communities;
  • Smarter for Customers – making it easier for people to access our services;
  • Smarter Council – creating an efficient organisation, helping staff and Members to do their jobs;
  • Enablement – delivering this Strategy and ensuring value for money.
• Work within Children’s and Adult Social Care would continue.
• The ICT Improvement Programme was being reviewed along the unitary plan to understand what work would continue, be put on hold or stopped.
• The strategy had already been seen by the Finance, Performance and Resources Select Committee.

Cabinet raised and discussed the following points:

• Cabinet Members were reassured that the strategy took into account integration with the NHS but also taking into account benefits for all five councils.
• Cabinet raised issues with the Broadband coverage ma contained within the report as it seemed to be out of date.  Ms Heran confirmed that the map was the latest requested from Ofcom before Christmas, but as soon as an updated map was issued it would be included.
• Cabinet asked to be updated on those showing red on the broadband map, which were commercial properties and which were residential as this had an impact on whether they would be eligible to be subsidised.

ACTION: Ms Heran

• It was also queried as to when community schemes were added to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

Cabinet is asked to approve the recommendations as set out in the report to take effect from the 1^st April 2019, unless otherwise stated.

Mr B Chapple, Cabinet Member for Planning and Environment introduced the report and Mr M Dickman, Environment Services Director and Ms G Badhan, Head of Waste Management also attended the meeting to answer any questions from Cabinet. 

Mr Chapple gave a briefing to Cabinet, which was appended to the minutes.

Cabinet raised and discussed the following points:

• The decision was required due to budget constraints rather than the service provided, which was praised. 
• The options explored including charging for household waste by changing the status of the sites to community sites.  Mr Chapple stated that this had been explored, however this loophole would be filled in 2020 and a long term solution was required.
• The importance of publicity regarding the changes for residents and staff and in particular supporting staff in order for them to be able to answer questions from residents.  Mr Chapple stated that each of the sites had communications in place and there had been extensive media coverage.  Mr Chapple assured Cabinet that communication was a top priority.
• It was highlighted that the Burnham site numbers would be reviewed in 6 months’ time to ascertain if the site could remain open.  Mr Chapple stated that this was to ensure the expected income from all of the sites could be achieved.  It was also asked why Bledlow would close over Burnham and Mr Chapple stated that it was down to the numbers.
• Cabinet raised the concerns picked up in the consultation relating to the possible increase in fly tipping if the proposals were agreed.  Mr Chapple stated that fly tipping was rarely carried out by residents but by criminals.  It was discussed that residents needed to be more vigilant when paying a third party to take their waste to ensure they had the appropriate paperwork to be able to legally dispose it.
• Mr Chapple highlighted that he had written to central government on a number of occasions and met the Minister to discuss harder penalties on those prosecuted.
• Lin Hazel stated that she understood the financial pressures however could not agree to the closure of the Burnham site.
• Concerns about relationships with neighbouring authorities and service level agreements in place were also raised in relation to the capacity for them to provide ongoing income. 
• The importance of communication to residents was highlighted and in particular in the need to educate residents on doing things differently i.e. changing their habits and recycling.
• It was noted that even with the proposed reductions there was still a good provision across the county.
• The proposal put forward by Mr B Bendyshe-Brown was referred to and the hope that this could be explored in order to keep the Burnham site open.
• The cost of implementing out of county charging was discussed but it was stated it was hoped that this could be kept under review.
• Resident cards used in areas such as Hillingdon were put forward as a possible option going forward.

In summary Mr Chapple highlighted the following:

• Aspirations for higher  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

10 January 2019

10 January 2019