Meeting documents

There were no apologies for absence.

There were no declarations of interest.

Of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 9 December 2019.

RESOLVED:  The minutes of the meeting held on 9 December 2019 were AGREED as an accurate record and signed by the Chairman.

Deputy Lead and Cabinet Member for Transportation advised that a new digital speed campaign had been launched on the Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC) website.   Also, additional funding of £1,000,000 had been released for plane and patch and resurfacing schemes to improve the condition of the roads.

Cabinet Member for Education and Skills had recently visited recently one of the 242 schools in Buckinghamshire and was very impressed with the work being undertaken on environmental concerns and was particularly interested in the sculpture park which was being made from plastic.

Cabinet Member for Children’s Services reported that the new children’s home in Aylesbury had received a rating of "good" at its first Ofsted inspection; Mr Whyte highlighted that the inspection noted that the leaders and managers were focussed on providing a secure and stable base for the children to enable them to progress.  Mr Whyte thanked the staff concerned.

The Family Support Service, which started in September 2019, had published its new timetable of activities throughout the county and was available on the Bucks Family Information Service website.

The Chairman stated that a report had been published on the County Council Network website on the amount of government funding provided for pothole and road maintenance.  The London boroughs received £62,000 per mile, core cities received £57,000 per mile; however, the Shire counties only received £21,000 per mile.  The Chairman highlighted the need for the Government to level up the funding as this was the reason why BCC struggled to maintain the condition of the roads.  The Deputy Leader and Cabinet for Transportation added that the number of pothole repairs had trebled in December 2019 due to the recent heavy rainfall.  Mr Shaw urged the public to report all issues via Fix My Street on the BCC website as soon as possible so a temporary fill, or permanent fill as the weather improved, could be carried out to prevent accidents and damage to vehicles.

There were no questions.

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

Mr W Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, highlighted that the action noted in the previous minutes had not been completed.  Page 24, the Early Help six month update scheduled for 24 January 2020 would be a three month update as the programme would not have been running for that amount of time.

ACTION: Ms S Ashmead

RESOLVED:  Cabinet NOTED the report.

Lin Hazel, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing stated that the Adult Social Care (ASC) update was a substantial report and consisted of a summary of what had taken place within the service nationally, locally and internally over the last six months.  Lin highlighted the following points:

• The government continued to be lobbied for a long term solution to sustainable funding for ASC funding; BCC had provided a written submission to the Health and Care Parliamentary Select Committee in August 2019. 
• ASC had worked with health colleagues to develop the integrated care partnership and improve the way staff worked together. 
• The Integrated Hospital Discharge Service was launched in December 2019. 
• Workforce recruitment and retention was still a concern; a three year strategic workforce plan had been launched. 
• Section 3 of the report provided an update on the key transformation projects. 
• The service was forecast to reach 100% of its Medium Term Plan savings for the current financial year.
• Sir Francis Habgood, former Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police, was appointed as Chairman of the Buckinghamshire Safeguarding Adults Board in August 2019; Lin was confident he would drive the work forward and an improvement in service delivery had already been noted.
• In conclusion, ASC was aware of the challenges and was working to make the most of the limited resources to support residents with their care needs.  There was a far more positive delivery service than there had been in many months. 

Mrs G Quinton, Executive Director, Communities, Health and Adult Social Care (CHASC) drew members’ attention to para 2.1 in the report which set out the recently published NHS long term plan.  It was a significant document as it highlighted that the national focus was to increase out of hospital care to reduce pressure on hospital services.  It gave people more control over their health and provided more personalised care.  Digitally enabled primary and outpatient care would be provided to improve the health of Buckinghamshire’s communities.  All these elements were dependent on ASC and Public Health (PH) to be delivered successfully and Mrs Quinton stressed the importance of lobbying nationally for adequate funding for ASC and PH in order to deliver those objectives.

The following points were raised in discussion with Cabinet:

• In response to whether there had been any crises so far this winter; Mrs Quinton acknowledged that it had been a very challenging winter.  The hospitals had struggled and an "OPEL 4", the highest level of escalation, situation was declared for a short period.  Services had worked collaboratively to get the situation under control.  There had been an outbreak of respiratory illnesses in the county, which had caused pressure in the paediatric departments.  As a consequence, a social media campaign was implemented to highlight the alternatives to visiting A&E e.g. the 111 telephone number, doctor’s surgeries, the urgent care centre at High Wycombe hospital and pharmacists; Mrs Quinton expressed her thanks to the members of the public who had used alternative sources of help.
• A Cabinet  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Mr W Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, highlighted the following points:

• The issue of funding of local authorities’ Children’s Services was of great debate and further representation would be made before the government budget on 11 March 2020 to highlight that additional funding was needed for projects/services such as ‘troubled families’.
• Paragraphs 17-19 covered the national mental health programmes between schools and the NHS; Mr Whyte stated he had received good feedback on the programme.
• Paragraphs 32-34 provided an update on the Ofsted monitoring visit in October 2019; the key issue noted was the challenge of recruiting to some of the departments.  There had been some success in recruiting qualified social workers and the service was looking into new recruiting opportunities. 
• Paragraph 32 showed the areas reviewed during the monitoring visit.
• Paragraphs 49-51 on Early Help provided information on the new Family Support Service which went live in September 2019.  Mr Whyte encouraged members to view the timetables on the website to see what was being offered locally.
• Paragraphs 52-55 – Looked After Children.  The new children’s home in Aylesbury had been rated as ‘good’ at its first Ofsted inspection. 
• There had been an annual foster carers’ award event in October 2019.

Mrs A Cranmer, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, highlighted the following points:

• Changes had been made to the schools admission code so the most vulnerable children could access a school place more quickly (paragraph 10).
• New analysis showed that every classroom would have approximately three children who had been in contact with a social worker in the last three years (paragraph 11).
• A new course - ‘T Levels’, equivalent to 3 A levels would be available from September 2020.  The two year course would equip young people to go straight to work and provided approximately 45 days ‘on the job’ experience (paragraph 15).
• There would be two other new courses in the curriculum; one on ‘relationships education’ and one on ‘relationships and sex education and health education’ (paragraph 16). 
• 32 primary and secondary schools had enrolled on wave one of the national mental health programme to support training in the increased mental health issues for young people. The training would be rolled out to other areas of the county (paragraphs 17-19).
• Paragraphs 23 and 24 – In June 2019 the Department for Education announced that Ofsted would re-inspect schools with an ‘outstanding’ rating, some of which had not been inspected for ten years.
• Paragraph 25 contained information on the consultation on the proposed changes to the dedicated schools grant.

Mr T Vouyioukas, Executive Director, Children’s Services, highlighted the following:

·       All local authorities’ children’s services were facing financial pressures.

·       Paragraphs 32-34 provided information on the Ofsted monitoring visit in October 2019.  Ofsted had identified that there had been limited progress in recruiting high quality, experienced social workers.  However, Ofsted acknowledged that the leadership team had an accurate understanding of what was required.

·       Paragraphs 35-37 referred to the peer challenge process undertaken on 15 November 2019 and the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

10 February 2020.

10 February 2020.