Agenda, decisions and minutes

Apologies were received from Sarah Ashmead, Deputy Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer; Nick Graham, Service Director, Legal and Democratic Services, attended in place of Sarah.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 16 June 2020.

There is an inaccuracy in the minutes of Cabinet of the 26 May 2020 which were approved at the subsequent meeting of Cabinet on the 16 June 2020.  In regard to item 4, Question Time.

RESOLVED: Cabinet is asked to approve the amendment to the approved minutes of the meeting held on 26 May 2020.

RESOLVED:  The minutes of the meeting held on 16 June were AGREED as an accurate record.

Martin Tett, Chairman and Leader, advised that an addendum had been published relating to a correction to the minutes of the meeting held on 26 May 2020.  Nick Graham stated that the error, which related to the call-in procedure and parish council involvement, had not been noticed when the minutes were approved at the meeting on 16 June 2020.  The webcast had been checked and the addendum clearly set out the verbatim record on page 11 and the clarification/amendment on page 12 of the all-in-one agenda pack. 

RESOLVED:  Cabinet APPROVED the amendment to the approved minutes of the meeting held on 26 May 2020.

Angela Macpherson, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care, declared a personal interest as she was a member of the Vale of Aylesbury Housing Trust Board (Item 7, Financial Outturn, Asbestos Warranty, page 63 of the all-in-one agenda pack) and would take advice from Nick Graham as to whether she would need to leave the meeting if this point was discussed.

Bill Chapple, Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, declared an interest in item 6, Children's Improvement Plan Progress Update, in that his son worked in the Children’s Services Department, Buckinghamshire Council.

The following questions have been received and will be responded to during the meeting:

Cllr Alan Bacon

Test and Trace

"Government is allocating funds to local authorities across England to support Covid-19 test and trace services.  Will the portfolio holder please report on the Council’s progress in working with Public Health England to develop and improve these test and trace services in Buckinghamshire?"

Cllr Robin Stuchbury

Free school meals and all the equivalent support over the forthcoming summer holidays

“What work has been undertaken by the local authority based upon the information available to the council to ascertain what will be the true volume of children currently within education within Buckinghamshire who are/were in receipt of free school meals historically, who are currently, through the pandemic, not receiving this valuable support?

And what preparation has been undertaken within social care to both identify these children as we approach the summer holiday period insuring no child goes hungry who the council is aware is currently receiving free school meals?”

Three questions had been submitted for this item, two from Cllr Robin Stuchbury and one from Cllr Alan Bacon.  The question and response to Robin Stuchbury’s second question would be published with the minutes.  Unfortunately, Alan Bacon was unable to join the meeting so Martin Tett read out his question.

Test and Trace

"Government is allocating funds to local authorities across England to support Covid-19 test and trace services.  Will the portfolio holder please report on the Council’s progress in working with Public Health England to develop and improve these test and trace services in Buckinghamshire?"

Response provided by Gareth Williams, Cabinet Member for Communities and Public Health:

Test and trace was designed to keep COVID infection levels low and prevent local outbreaks as lockdown restrictions were eased nationally.  The Council had carried out the following:

• Multi-faceted outbreak plans had been developed.
• A Member Recovery Board, which included councillors, to oversee the outbreak control had been set up.
• The Health Protection Board had been created which would take the necessary action to prevent, contain and manage outbreaks. The Board included members from Buckinghamshire Council, PHE and the NHS. The Board met regularly and was chaired by the Chief Executive of Buckinghamshire Council. 
• The Council had worked closely with PHE to develop focussed outbreak control plans for Buckinghamshire with specific focus on settings (e.g. schools, care homes, universities, hospices, workplaces etc.) and at risk population groups (e.g. homeless, people from Black Asian and Minority ethnic groups).
• Increased local testing capacity; there were two mobile local swab teams  operating seven days a week in various locations in Buckinghamshire which were promoted by the Communications team.  Residents had access to regional testing centres in Milton Keynes and Oxfordshire and a drop-in centre in Slough.  Postal/courier-delivered swab kits were also available.

• The Council was working closely with PHE and the Joint Biosecurity Centre to closely monitor the data on cases and risks and spot rising levels of infection and outbreaks early.
• The Public Health team was also monitoring the Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 data.
• Communication was a very important element of the Member Recovery and Member Engagement Board and the Board would liaise with the public to support residents to stay safe.

M Tett clarified that Pillar 1 data referred to the data from tests carried out in a hospital and Pillar 2 data related tests carried out in a clinical setting.

Cllr Robin Stuchbury -Free school meals and all the equivalent support over the forthcoming summer holidays

“What work has been undertaken by the local authority based upon the information available to the council to ascertain what will be the true volume of children currently within education within Buckinghamshire who are/were in receipt of free school meals historically, who are currently, through the pandemic, not receiving this valuable support? And what preparation has been undertaken within social care to both identify these children as we approach the summer holiday period insuring no child goes hungry.  The scheme was coming to an  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

RESOLVED:  Cabinet NOTED the forward plan.

To be presented by Councillor Mark Shaw.

Mark Shaw, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, introduced the report.  M Shaw advised that he had met with the children’s social care leadership team to discuss how the service had managed during the pandemic.  The Children’s Services team had reacted swiftly at the start of the crisis; staff had worked from home and continued to do they best they can to protect the vulnerable children.  Home visits were increasing now that restrictions had eased but the virtual meetings had proved successful and provided learning for the future on how best to communicate and connect with young people and families.  The recruitment challenge continued and new ways were being sought to encourage people to work for the Service. The Improvement Plan showed a number of positive changes but there were still some areas which required improvement.  M Shaw highlighted that there had been an improvement in the data statistics and the recent staff survey had shown that the number of staff who felt well supported, with good engagement had risen from 85% to 89%.

Tolis Vouyioukas, Corporate Director, Children’s Services highlighted the following points:

• Paragraph 1.6 provided the detail of the work carried out at the start of the lockdown.
• Paragraph 1.21 highlighted that the work with schools had been exemplary and the leadership shown by school leaders across the county had been inspiring.
• The social workers had not been exempt from the impact of Covid-19; T Vouyioukas expressed his thanks and gratitude for their achievements during the pandemic.

The following points were raised by members of the Cabinet:

• In response to concern over the number of agency staff and the current percentage; T Vouyioukas stated that the Service was fortunate to have agency staff helping with the improvement plan work.  Some agency staff had converted to a permanent contract and the recruitment plan had gone ahead during the pandemic.  The Academy was going well, although there had been a slight delay due to the crisis.  The number of agency staff varied between 20%-25% with some teams showing a higher percentage.  Some teams were more difficult to recruit to but T Vouyioukas was optimistic about future recruitment.  Richard Nash, Service Director, Children’s Social Care, added that there were four people in the process of converting from agency to permanent; specific targeted work was being carried out to ensure the Service did not rely too heavily on agency staff.
• In response to a request from a cabinet member, T Vouyioukas listed the top three issues:

• A member of the Cabinet asked if the Service was prepared for a possible spike in the number of domestic abuse cases.  M Shaw acknowledged the importance of the connection with the Police and Buckinghamshire Healthcare Trust.  It was possible that cases could rise when children returned to school in September and planning was underway to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To be presented by Councillor Katrina Wood.

This report sets out the overview of the financial Revenue and Capital outturn position across all five legacy Councils for the financial year 2019/20. 

There are further 4 detailed reports on the Agenda for:  Bucks County Council (BCC), Wycombe District Council (WDC), Aylesbury Vale District Council (AVDC) and a combined report for South Bucks and Chiltern District Council.  Although, all the Council’s provide similar services, however they do have different challenges and dynamics and therefore these separate reports provides an insight into the financial performance for the year. 

RESOLVED:

a)        Consider and Note the summarised Revenue and Capital outturn for all the five legacy Councils.

b)        Approve recommendation in respect of Capital carry forward £13.825m (this amount was amended during the meeting as the figure of £14.7m in the agenda pack was an error) as detailed in the Aylesbury Vale District Council outturn report.

c)         Approve recommendation in respect of Revenue (£1.2m) carry forward and Capital (£4.5m) carry forward as detailed in the Wycombe District Council outturn report.

Katrina Wood, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Resources, introduced the report which presented the financial outturn reports for the legacy councils for Buckinghamshire for 2019-2020.  There was an overarching revenue and capital provisional outturn for that period with appendices which covered each legacy Council, noting that Chiltern District Council and South Bucks District Council reports were combined.  The Wycombe District Council report also contained appendices for the High Wycombe Town Committee outturn and the capital carry forwards.  The overarching report provided a summary of the revenue and capital outturn position and the general fund balances which in total forecasted £49.7m.

The revenue table in paragraph 1.4 showed that although all the Councils had achieved either a balanced or underspend position there were service pressures due to an increase in service demand and costs.  These had been managed mainly through the use of reserves, favourable grant funding or favourable variances on corporate items.  The total capital programme across the five councils was just under £168m against which £134m was spent. If approved by Cabinet, the majority of the unspent programme (£33.5m) would be carried forward to complete the projects in future years.  The variances at the end of Quarter 3 were fully considered as part of setting the budgets for 2020-2021 and the variances arising since then were being reviewed to understand any ongoing impacts and mitigations.  This, along with the financial impact of COVID-19, would be reported as part of the Quarter 1 monitoring position.  K Wood advised that the figures were provisional and work to complete year end was ongoing and could have an impact on the final outturn position. K Wood highlighted that there was an error in recommendation b (to approve recommendation in respect of capital carry forward £14.7m as detailed in the Aylesbury Vale District Council outturn report).  The actual amount should read £13.825m not £14.7m; £14.7 is what was spent not what was being carried forward.  Richard Ambrose, Section 151 Officer, added that the district council audits should be completed by the end of July 2020 and the Buckinghamshire County Council audit should be completed by the end of September 2020.

The following points were raised by members of the Cabinet:

• M Tett emphasised that the outturn was the start of the new Buckinghamshire Council and was the ending point of the previous councils.
• In response to whether the outturns were as anticipated; R Ambrose stated that the position was generally as had been assumed but there were  changes in the final quarter in home to school transport;  there were also some late variances for Aylesbury Vale District Council related to bad debt provision and the waste budget.  These would be reported to Cabinet on 28 July 2020.
• A Cabinet member asked if comparative figures for the last year would be provided.  R Ambrose advised that it would be difficult to provide comparators as it was not ‘like for like’; however, comparisons would be carried out where possible.

M Tett stressed the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

28 July 2020.

28 July 2020 at 10.00 am.