Meeting documents

There were none.  Cllr Chapple arrived late to the meeting.

There were none.

Of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 8 July 2019.

RESOLVED: The minutes of the meeting held on 8 July 2019 were AGREED as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman.

Cabinet Member for Children’s Services announced that the Judicial Review on the Early Help review had been dismissed on all grounds.  The full press release could be found here.  The Honourable Mrs Justice Andrews DBEwas satisfied that the Council had carried out a fair Consultation before it had made the Decision; it took the responses properly into account, and it complied with all its relevant statutory duties.

Mr Whyte confirmed that the summer timetable would be released on 22 July for existing centres and the new Family Support Service would be implemented from September 2019.  Mr Whyte congratulated the team and legal colleagues on their hard work and stated that the reform of the service would bring better intervention for children.

There were none.

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.

Cabinet is asked to NOTE (a) the national, regional and local developments across Children’s Services, and (b) the programme of work taking place to further improve Children’s Services in Buckinghamshire.

Mr R Nash, Service Director Children's Social Care and Mr G Drawmer, Head of Achievement and Learning attended the meeting in order to answer Member questions.

Mr W Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services introduced the report stating that it was a joint update across Education and Social Care; covering national and local issues.  The following points were highlighted:

• Mr Whyte highlighted the Peer Review as part of the South East sector led improvement programme; which had led to meeting with colleagues from around the south east with useful feedback.
• Mrs Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills highlighted some of the good news stories which included teacher recruitment and retention and changes to inspection framework; teaching to the curriculum rather than to test.  Mr Tett, Leader highlighted that Cabinet would have a key interest in the development of the framework to ensure best outcomes for children across the county.
• Mr Tett highlighted the data regarding treatment for cannabis and the upward trend from 2007 to 2008 stating that the information was not current.  It was confirmed that the data had come from Public Health and was the latest available.
• Mr Whyte drew Cabinet’s attention to the Ofsted Monitoring visit letter in appendix 1 of the report pack.

Mr Nash highlighted the following points from the report in relation to social care:

• A recent study into ‘Improving safeguarding responses to gang violence and criminal exploitation’ which highlighted the number of young people exposed to gang violence.  The update report also set out what the children’s services partnership had done to ensure a more coordinated approach to tackle the exploitation of children and serious youth violence.
• The national policy ‘workforce that works for all children’ highlighted the importance of the right people working across children’s services and for them to be supported to forge effective relationships.

• The published findings of the National evaluation of the Troubled Families Programme 2015 to 2020, highlighted where the County Council were in achieving its aims.
• Placements of Looked After Children (LAC) and the strong progress in the area.  There had been a cost avoidance of £5m and the placement of children as close to home as possible where appropriate.
• The service had just undergone their third Ofsted visit which ran over two days and focused on the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub (MASH), assessment teams and child protection processes.  Mr Nash stated that Ofsted’s findings were fair and accurate and there was a good commentary on progress to date and further improvement to be made.  Mr Nash stated that the feedback reflected the hard work of first and second line managers and social workers and that of those staff spoken to during the visit enjoyed working in Bucks and felt supported by their managers.
• Mr Nash referenced the recent progress report on the improvement in Bucks Children’s Services that had been submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) by the Improvement Advisor for Bucks, Mr John Coughlan (Chief Executive, Hampshire County Council).  The reported noted the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Cabinet is asked to NOTE:

      I.        The key national legislative changes relating to adult social care is facing and the uncertainty arising from delays of the Green Paper and

    II.        The latest developments in relation to the adult social care transformation programme.

Ms K Jackson, Service Director (ASC Operations) attended the meeting in order to answer Member questions.

Lin Hazell, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing introduced the report and highlighted the following points:

• The report was a six month update which gave an overview of key issues and ongoing work in the service.
• There were still funding issues and the service continued to wait for the publication of the Green Paper which had been delayed for the fifth time.
• The report highlighted the NHS long term plan and how the additional government funding would be used over the next 5 years and the national priorities set.
• There continued to be workforce challenges and issues with recruitment of staff.
• The Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) scheme was being replaced by Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS). The DoLS system would run alongside the LPS for up to a year to ensure those people subject to DoLS would be transferred to the new scheme in a managed way.
• Buckinghamshire Health and Social Care System – the Council were in the process of finalising children’s and adult social care data for sharing with health colleagues called My Care Record.  This was an integrated system with health colleagues.
• The County Council and Buckinghamshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) had restructured their Integrated Commissioning team which would operate in the new Bucks Integrated Care Partnership (ICP).
• It had been confirmed that The Better Care Fund would continue into 2019-20 although the final allocations had not been confirmed by June 2019.

Ms Jackson highlighted the following points from the report:

• Better Care Fund targets had been set and that Buckinghamshire system performed better than the average in their group and second best performing in its CIPFA group.
• There were a large number of issues around the publication of the Green Paper with Buckinghamshire having a large number of self-funders and how the Council would support them when costs come back into the Council.  Social Care Directors were looking at the issue across the South East.
• The Better Lives Transformation Programme had had a positive impact on front door services within its first year of the two year programme.
• Community Capacity – an online map of community assets had gone live.  This enabled residents to find activities, groups and facilities in their local area.
• Improving the Front Door – launched to improve the experience of those people who contact the Council for advice on care.
• Regaining Independence – part of the Better Lives strategy and worked alongside colleagues in health and children’s.
• A number of consultations had been carried out as part of the transformation programme which included Thrift Farm and Short Breaks Residential Service which were both a key part of the programme and linked into the NHS long term plan.
• The Dignity in Care awards had taken place which celebrated best practice in the county.
• The Safeguarding Adults Board continued to process a number of Safeguarding Adults Reviews, the most recent having had the final report presented and signed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

Mr Tett, Leader introduced the Q1 Budget Monitoring Report and highlighted the importance of overseeing the budget as they moved into the new unitary authority.

Mr Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources highlighted the following points:

• There was a net underspend of £100k at the end of the year which largely related to the Planning and Environment portfolio and is due to an increase in the agricultural estate rental income following a rent review.
• There was a forecast Capital variance of £1.9m which equated to 2% of annual overall capital budget.  This mainly related to two items, Education and Transportation.  The Education variance was an underspend rather than slippage and related to good project management of the new St Michael’s school in Aylesbury.  The Transportation slippage related to contingency costs included in the budget that had not yet been incurred.
• There had been progress on reducing outstanding debt from £18m to £11m and this had happened since the debt task and finish group had been formed. 
• Buckinghamshire County Council were in a strong position moving into the new authority.

Cabinet raised and discussed the following points:

• Mr Tett questioned why the rent review in agricultural estate had not been foreseen.  Mr Chapple stated that rents were constantly being reviewed and can take time to agree.
• Mr Whyte highlighted the issue of national challenges in recruiting permanent staff resulting in additional costs of agency staff.  Mr Whyte stated that they were working closely with HR colleagues to look to increase permanent staff.
• Mr Chilver highlighted the £300k variance on capital in Resources due to an IT project that was put on hold due to moving into the new unitary authority.
• Mr Chilver stated that any underspends would be put back into the corporate budget.
• Mr Tett highlighted the importance of keeping a close eye on budgets as any deviation would impact other services as councils moved into the new authority.

Cabinet thanked all staff involved across all services.

RESOLVED:  Cabinet NOTED the current forecast outturn for the 2019/20 financial year.

To be presented by Ms T Ironmonger, Assistant Director of Public Health.

Cabinet is requested to NOTE and ENDORSE the Director of Public Health Annual Report.

Ms Ironmonger, Assistant Director of Public Health attended the meeting on behalf of the Director of Public Health to present the Annual Report which focused on alcoholism.

Mr G Williams, Cabinet Member Community Engagement and Public Health highlighted the following points:

• The Director of Public Health was a joint appointment with the NHS.
• Alcohol was the third leading risk factor behind death and disabilities.
• 1 in 4 adults drank above national guidelines
• The report looked at the impact of this and particular areas that were affected most.
• 1 in 4 of those who had received alcohol treatment had children in the home.  22% of children in need had a parent receiving treatment and Bucks were 25% higher than the national average of accidents relating to alcohol.
• The report set out a series of recommendations that also needed to be shared with partners before an action plan was agreed.

Ms T Ironmonger highlighted the following points:

• People may not realise the wider impacts of alcohol and the resulting physical and mental health problems.
• It was suggested that while most people had a concept of alcohol units it was often difficult to work out.
• The report recognised the wide spectrum of factors that were driving alcohol use.
• The report provided more information for residents should they need it.
• A multi-agency action plan would be developed.

Cabinet raised and discussed the following points:

• Mrs Cranmer asked what the timeframes were for the initiatives.  Ms Ironmonger stated that there were points in the year that influenced drinking patterns e.g. Summer and Christmas and that some initiatives would take more time to implement than others.
• Mr Tett questioned the resource implications and if it would be funded from existing budgets and Ms Ironmonger confirmed that it would be.
• Cabinet discussed the development of the action plan with partners and how this would then be monitored to ensure that outcomes had been met.  Ms Ironmonger confirmed that the action plan would be development with partners which would come out of a workshop that would be held.
• Mr Tett requested that previous year reports and what they had achieved should be shared with Cabinet to ensure that outcomes were being met, as there was some concern that the action plans were not monitored or reviewed after a year.

After a discussion in a closed session Mr Tett thanked Ms Ironmonger and colleagues across Public Health for the work on the Annual Report.

RESOLVED: Cabinet NOTED and ENDORSED the

Director of Public Health Annual Report.

RESOLVED

That the press and public be excluded for the following item which is exempt by virtue of Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972 because it contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)

To consider confidential appendices.

9 September 2019.

9 September 2019.