Meeting documents

Julia Wassell, County Councillor for Ryemead and Micklefield, thanked Mr M Shaw, Cabinet Member for Transportation, for his updates regarding the A40 project but asked that they were issued in a timelier manner.  There were however a number of concerns including the Micklefield turn and pavement where cars and vans were driving over the pavement and no action had been taken and would like an update.  Julia Wassell also highlighted that residents over the weekend had cleared all the buddleia plants from London Road as they felt they could not wait until year end. 

Mr Shaw confirmed that he would provide an update on the A40 project.  Mr Shaw also thanked residents for their work clearing buddleia plants.  Mr Shaw stated that there would be two teams out clearing such areas.

Julia Wassell highlighted to Mr W Whyte, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, the low morale and high pressures across staff in the service area and in particularly social workers.  Julia Wassell also highlighted the decision to be taken at the meeting regarding early help and the future of children’s centres and the hope that more key stakeholders would have been involved.  Julia Wassell was pleased that the east wycombe children’s centre, hampden way, was now included in the proposals, however other centres were still at risk and could Cabinet ensure that the morale issue was being addressed and provisions are being sought for those centres that are not becoming family centres.

Mr Whyte responded by highlighting the appendix in the report that related to all the proposed future uses of the 35 current sites and the preferred future usage of those centres to no longer to be used as children’s centres.  In reference to low morale, Mr Whyte stated that he appreciated the hard work that they did and the challenges they faced with case work workload.  Mr Whyte mentioned that the Ofsted monitoring letter in January touched on improvements in morale and if there were particular issues that needed highlighting he would speak directly with Julia Wassell to pick these up.

Julia Wassell asked Mr J Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources, if he was pursuing the transit site for travellers.  Mr Chilver stated that he was not aware of the site and would look into it and go back to Julia outside of the meeting.

Mr M Hussain, County Councillor for Booker, Cressex and Castlefield asked how many outreach staff would be affected by the new early help model.  Mr Whyte stated that he would provide a written answer to Mr Hussain.

Mr Hussain also asked what the implications were of the unitary decision and if this would have an impact on the early help decision made.  Mr Tett stated that this issue was a policy matter for the County Council which would exist until April 2020.  Mr Tett went on to say that there was a financial pressure now that needed to be addressed and the existing way that the council intervene early was not effective and there was an obligation to improve.  It was noted that there would be a new council elected in May 2020, and with the children’s service improvement report, Children’s Services would be ring-fenced during the transition period so they would not initially expect any additional changes.  Mr Whyte reiterated that the council could not wait to make changes and that a new council would also be able to make policy decisions as part of the new council, but these would need to be reconciled with the Children’s Commissioner and Ofsted.