Venue: Council Chamber - County Hall. View directions
Contact: Stephen Boyd 01597 826374
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Apologies To receive apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from County Councillor WJT Powell and from County Councillor KW Curry, Chair of the Place Committee. |
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To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the last meeting held as a correct record. Minutes: The Leader was authorised to sign the minutes of the last meeting held on 22nd November 2016 as a correct record. |
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Declarations of Interest To receive any declarations of interest from Members relating to items to be considered on the agenda. Minutes: County Councillor EM Jones declared a personal non pecuniary interest in C237 – 2016 Review of Day Time Activities for Older People as a trustee of the East Radnor Day Centre.
County Councillor DR Jones declared a personal non pecuniary interest in C239 – 2016 School Balances as a local authority governor at Castle Caereinion Primary School. |
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Review of Day Time Activities for Older People PDF 687 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Stephen Hayes, Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care. Additional documents:
Minutes: The Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care explained that having considered the results of the consultation he was proposing that a reduced budget for Day Care Services for Older People (including Day Centres) be maintained, to enable assessed needs to continue to be met in those areas which currently have day centres until such time as a community based home support/early intervention service could be fully trialled and evaluated. This would involve ongoing discussions with potential partners including Powys Teaching Health Board. The Portfolio Holder emphasised that this recommendation was dependent upon the support of Council for an increase in Council Tax to fund the service. He also stressed that the recommendation did not necessarily mean that all day centres would remain open but it would give a chance for further discussions with potential partners on how to deliver day care services.
County Councillors GM Jones, GSI Williams, JM Williams, G Morgan, JR Jones, EM Jones and LRE Davies spoke in support of the day centres and referred to the role they played in combatting social isolation, preventing elderly people from having to go into hospital and providing respite for carers. Members also referred to inequity in provision across the County. Cabinet also noted receipt of a petition of almost 1,000 signatures opposing the closure of Crickhowell Day Centre.
The Portfolio Holder for Finance stressed that, whilst he supported the recommendation, the Council was facing an extremely difficult financial position with having to find £90m savings in the coming years due to ongoing austerity in addition to £83m savings already found. He advised that the proposal would mean that an additional £1.1m would have to be found in the budget, £430k of which would have to be found from other savings within the Social Care budget and £700k from a 1% increase in Council Tax. He also noted that the service had built up £940k in debt which would have to come from cuts in other services.
The Chair of the People Scrutiny Committee confirmed that the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Group had considered an earlier draft of the report and that four of the five concerns the group had highlighted had been addressed in the report being considered by Cabinet but that he remained concerned over how the proposals would be funded.
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Ysgol Cedewain Budget PDF 134 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Wynne Jones, Portfolio Holder for Finance and County Councillor Arwel Jones, Portfolio Holder for Education.
Minutes: The Leader explained that he was changing the running order of the agenda to allow Councillor JM Williams to speak on this item before he had to leave.
The Portfolio Holder for Education explained that the Governors had submitted an unlicensed deficit budget and outlined the actions taken to date and further proposed actions.
County Councillor JM Williams spoke as a local authority appointed governor of the school. He supported the recommendations in the report and hoped that an agreed way forward could be found. He said that the school needed a purpose built building.
The Portfolio Holder for Finance advised that this was a major risk for the Council and he reminded Cabinet that whilst surplus budgets remained with schools, budget deficits were picked up by the Council. He and other members expressed concern that it was taking so long to tackle this issue. The Portfolio Holder for Education confirmed that he was happy to report back on any actions he took under delegated authority.
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Car Park Traffic Order 2016 PDF 301 KB To consider a report by County Councillor John Brunt, Portfolio Holder for Highways. Additional documents:
Minutes: The Portfolio Holder for Highways outlined the recommendations. He advised that negotiations were continuing with 4 Town Councils to take on 5 car parks. Most wanted to take them on from the start of the next financial year.
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Leisure - Options Review to achieve additional Savings in the MTFS 2017-18 PDF 141 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Graham Brown, Portfolio Holder for Commissioning and Procurement. Additional documents:
Minutes: The Portfolio Holder for Commissioning, Procurement and Leisure Services set out the options in respect of Caereinion Leisure Centre, Knighton Sports Centre and Staylittle Outdoor Centre.
The preferred options were · Transfer of Staylittle Outdoor Centre to a commercial full cost recovery model by April 2018 to allow time for market testing and a robust commissioning process to be completed
· To reinstate the budget for Knighton Sports Centre to allow the facility to remain open, with existing management arrangements to continue unchanged.
· Caereinion Leisure Centre Option 3E: To retain Caereinion Leisure Centre without change for an additional 12 months allowing time for further negotiations with the school and community regarding the future of the centre.
The Portfolio Holder referred to the public consultation event held in Knighton and to correspondence received including letters from pupils and staff at Ysgol Gynradd Caereinion and a 140 signature petition opposing the closure of Caereinion Leisure Centre.
County Councillors Viola Evans and Myfanwy Alexander spoke in support of Caereinion Leisure Centre. In response to criticism that it would be unfair on the High School to take on the running of the leisure centre, the Portfolio Holder noted that this arrangement worked successfully at Crickhowell and Gwernyfed. He also explained that Llanfair Caereinion Town Council had not been involved in discussions up to this point because of the ongoing negotiations with the school. It was confirmed that management of the leisure centre to the school could only be transferred with the agreement of the governing body.
It was stressed that the recommendation to retain the facilities was subject to finding £200,000 in savings from elsewhere in the budget. The Leader explained that the recommendation would give the Council an additional 12 months for further negotiations with the school and community to secure the future of the centre.
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Workways+ Powys project PDF 116 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Avril York, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Planning. Minutes: The Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Planning explained that the Workways+ Powys project was aimed to help getting economically inactive and long term unemployed older people back into work. The project would be delivered in partnership with PRIME Cymru, a Prince’s Trust charitable organisation and was 50% funded by the EU. Approval was sought for the Council to provide match funding.
The Leader noted that this was Councillor York’s last meeting and he thanked her for her work as the Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Planning. He was joined by the other group leaders in wishing Councillor York and her husband well in their move to Hong Kong.
Councillor York left the meeting.
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Budget Recovery Plan PDF 138 KB To consider the report of the Chief Executive. Additional documents: Minutes: The Chief Executive presented the budget recovery plan he had been asked to undertake by the Cabinet setting out the reasons for the deficit and also outlines proposals to address it. He explained that he had been asked to present the report at the Finance Scrutiny Panel on 6th January and that the Chair of the Audit Committee, Councillor John Morris, would be reserving his comments until then.
The Chief Executive advised that the overspend was currently £5.56m but that he expected this to come down to £4.26m by year-end. The main cause of concern was the Adult Social Care budget but there was also a deficit in excess of £500k in the Schools Service budget mainly due to overspends in home to school transport, which was now being addressed by a Home to School Transport Board, and redundancy costs.
The Chief Executive set out a suggested way forward for Adult Social Care (ASC). In order to deliver a sustainable Adult Services function that was both affordable and effective a complete review of the Service would be required. The outcome of the review would be a revised Transformation and Financial Strategy for the Service which would need to be closely linked to the emerging Health and Care Strategy which was being jointly produced with the Powys Teaching Health Board. The Service had commenced work on a Vision of Adult Social Care to 2021, which focused on transformation within a strategic and legislative agenda, and would include budget modelling that shapes the financial strategy.
In view of the growth pressures on the service estimated at £10.4m and the inability of ASC to cover in-year overspends from within its overall budget, due to a range of over-commitments, the entire ASC budget would need to be reviewed and consideration given to re-balancing its overall base budget allocations. It was proposed to put an extra £4.85m into the base budget for 2017/18. An additional £2m, found from a review of reserves, could be transferred to a specific Adults Services reserve. The potential gap would have to be addressed through the Vision of Adult Social Care to 2021 document.
Further consideration would be given to the budget recovery plan, including possible governance arrangements.
County Councillor Graham Brown abstained having missed part of the debate. |
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Exempt Items The Monitoring Officer has determined that category 3 of the Access to Information Procedure Rules applies to the following items. His view on the public interest test (having taken account of the provisions of Rule 11.8 of the Council's Access to Information Rules) was that to make this information public would disclose information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).
These factors in his view outweigh the public interest in disclosing this information. Members are asked to consider these factors when determining the public interest test, which they must decide when considering excluding the public from this part of the meeting.
Minutes: RESOLVED to exclude the public for the following 5 items of business on the grounds that there would be disclosure to them of exempt information under categories 1 and 3 of The Local Authorities (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007).
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Future Arrangements for Role of Director of Social Services To consider a report by the Chief Executive. Minutes: With the Strategic Director People leaving at the end of December 2016, the Cabinet considered proposals to fill the statutory post of Director of Social Services. It was proposed that for an initial period of up to 12 months, the Authority appoint Carol Shillabeer, the Chief Executive of Powys Teaching Heath Board, as Director of Social Services, reporting to the Chief Executive and becoming a member of his Management Team. To further the integration agenda it was also proposed that Carol Shillabeer be appointed to the role of Interim Strategic Director – People for an initial period of twelve months, with a review to take place prior to the expiry of that twelve month period to determine whether the arrangement should be extended. In the event that it was subsequently proposed to make this arrangement permanent, it was noted that the approval of full Council would be needed. Responsibility for Housing would pass to the Strategic Director Place. It was confirmed that Powys Teaching Health Board supported this proposal.
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Older People's Accommodation - The Management and Operation of Council-owned Residential Care To consider a report by County Councillor Stephen Hayes, Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care. Minutes: Cabinet was advised that Bupa had made a revised offer for the running of the Council owned residential homes.
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Scrutiny Observations on Older People's Accommodation To receive and consider the observations of the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Group. Minutes: The Chair of the People Scrutiny Committee urged the Cabinet to give serious consideration to the point raised by the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Working Group with respect to a two tier workforce. |
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Management of Powys County Council's In-House Domiciliary Care Service To consider a report by County Councillor Stephen Hayes, Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care. Additional documents:
Minutes: Cabinet was advised that it was necessary to maintain an in-house Domiciliary Care Service to provide a service of last-resort within rural communities where there was no alternative private sector provision. Currently the service was provided in mid and south Powys only. Transformation to a Powys-wide service was proposed over the next 24 months to support the future commissioning of care packages across the county.
To enable this to happen and to minimise the risk of staff departure terms and conditions for the care staff needed to be harmonised. The cost of full harmonisation would be £238k per annum.
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Brecon Cultural Hub - budget position and permission to let main contract To consider a report by County Councillor Rosemarie Harris, Portfolio Holder for Property Buildings and Housing, Councillor Wynne Jones, Portfolio Holder for Finance and County Councillor Graham Brown, Portfolio Holder for Commissioning and Procurement.
Additional documents:
Minutes: Cabinet received details of additional costs in excess of the budget allocated to deliver the Brecon Cultural Hub project. Cabinet felt that there should have been more political oversight of the project. The Strategic Director Place reported that a review would be undertaken to better understand how the position could have been avoided alongside a review of project management arrangements.
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Outcome of tender process for the Powys Real Estate Partnership (formerly known as the LABV) To consider a report by County Councillor Rosemarie Harris, Portfolio Holder for Property and Councillor Wynne Jones, Portfolio Holder for Finance, County Councillor Graham Brown, Portfolio Holder for Commissioning. Additional documents:
Minutes: Cabinet was advised of the outcome of the evaluation of the tender process to establish an LABV (Local asset backed vehicle) now known as the Powys Real Estate Partnership (PREP) and considered possible options.
The Cabinet went back into open session. |
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To consider a report by County Councillor Wynne Jones, Portfolio Holder for Finance and County Councillor Arwel Jones, Portfolio Holder for Education.
Minutes: County Councillor DR Jones declared a personal non pecuniary interest as a local authority appointed governor of Castle Caereinion Primary School.
Cabinet considered a report on school balances and noted with concern that by 2018/19 56 schools were projected to be in deficit with an overall deficit of £3.5m. Several members including the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Place Scrutiny Chair warned that the current model of education was unsustainable, but it was also noted that there was a lack of support from the Council to reconfigure education in the county. The Strategic Director Resources warned that this was a significant risk for the Council, with declining pupil numbers making the situation worse. Opposition group leaders felt that the change to admission age had contributed to the problem by reducing the number of pupils, however, Cabinet noted that the financial position for schools had been worsening before this.
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Brecon High School Budget To receive an oral update on the budget position at Brecon High School. Minutes: The Cabinet received a verbal update on the budget position at Brecon High School. The school had submitted a budget recovery plan which was not acceptable because it did not address the deficit and it would mean excessive class sizes.
Following a meeting with the Chair of Governors and Head Teacher, a number of actions had been agreed, including the school moving onto the Council’s finance system from April 2017 and Finance were providing additional financial management support to the school. The Governing Body would be required to submit a new recovery plan which would be examined by Finance and there would be further discussions on the actions the school could take including the recommendations of the independent review
Cabinet asked for the revised budget recovery plan to be reported to Cabinet in 7 February.
The Leader advised that he was adjourning the meeting until 2.00 p.m. on 10th January and that the items listed below would be dealt with at that meeting.
21.1Scrutiny Observations on the Welsh Public Library Standards Annual Report
Minutes of the recovened cabinet meeting of 20 december 2016 held at Council Chamber - County Hall, Llandrindod Wells, Powys ONTuesday, 10 january 2017
PRESENT County Councillor W B Thomas (Chair)
County Councillors R G Brown, J H Brunt, M R Harris, S M Hayes, E A Jones and AG Thomas
In attendance: County Councillors KW Curry, AW Davies, S Davies, DO Evans, DR Jones and H Lewis
The Leader welcomed Councillor Tony Thomas to the Cabinet. He explained that he had received advice from the Monitoring Officer that it was in order for Councillor Thomas to attend and take part in the meeting as the Cabinet was dealing with items that had not been considered when the meeting had adjourned on 20th December.
Apologies for absence were received from County Councillors WT Jones and WJT Powell and from County Councillor CJ Gibson-Watt, Leader of the Liberal-Democrat Group.
Councillor Brunt advised that whist not declaring an interest in the report on Bronrevel Bridge he would be abstaining as he was both the Portfolio Holder for Highways and a local member. Councillor Tony Thomas advised that whilst not declaring an interest in the item on Older People’s Accommodation, he would ... view the full minutes text for item C250- 2016 |
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Maintenance liability for Bronrevel / Bron-yr-Efail Bridge, Llanbister PDF 80 KB To consider a report by the Leader, County Councillor Barry Thomas. Minutes: The Leader explained that he was presenting the report instead of the Portfolio Holder for Highways who was one of the local members. He advised that there was clear documentary evidence that the County Council and its predecessor authorities had maintained the bridge for many years. County Councillors Hywel Lewis and David Evans spoke in support of the recommendation to recognise the bridge as a Council asset maintainable by the Council.
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To consider a report by County Councillor Rosemarie Harris, Portfolio Holder for Property, Buildings and Housing. Minutes: Cabinet was asked to approve the utilisation of Homefinder receipts to increase the Landlord Loan budget. Loans offered via this fund would be restricted to the development of strategically targeted empty properties and wherever possible, targeted towards the provision affordable housing. In response to questions from Members, the Section 151 Officer confirmed that this was a permissible use of funds and that mitigation measures such as background checks would be employed. The Head of Service confirmed that there had no defaults on loans made under the scheme.
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Revocation of County Wide Additional HMO Licensing Scheme PDF 157 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Rosemarie Harris, Portfolio Holder for Property, Buildings and Housing. Minutes: Cabinet was asked to consider revoking the county-wide Additional HMO Licensing Scheme. The scheme had already ended in Llandrindod Wells on 31 December 2016 which had the greatest concentration of HMOs having had a positive impact, particularly with regard to improved fire safety standards. The Head of Service confirmed that there would be an ongoing inspection regime of those properties judged to be the highest risk.
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Welsh Public Library Standards: Powys Annual Report 2015-16 PDF 82 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Graham Brown, Portfolio Holder with responsibility for the Libraries service. Additional documents:
Minutes: Cabinet was advised that for the year 2015-16, Powys Library Service met 17 of the 18 core entitlements set by Welsh Government, with the 18th in respect of connectivity of mobile libraries service, outside of the service’s control. The framework had 16 quality indicators, of which 7 have targets; for those with targets, Powys met 4 in full, 2 in part, and failed to meet one.
The key performance indicators of library visits per thousand population (actual and virtual) continued to be well above the Welsh median and the average cost per visit was the second lowest in Wales. In answer to members’ questions about the reduced spend on children’s books and Welsh language material, the Portfolio Holder explained that branches had benefitted from the distribution of Book Runner stock and that demand for Welsh language materials was low.
The Strategic Director Place was asked to advise members whether services hosted in libraries paid anything towards the libraries service.
6.1Scrutiny Observations on the Welsh Public Library Standards Annual Report
In receiving the Scrutiny report, the Portfolio Holder put on record the commitment of the Library Service staff and officers as evidenced by the improved standards reported and the fact that library closures had been avoided.
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Scrutiny Observations on the Welsh Public Library Standards Annual Report PDF 69 KB To consider the report of the Scrutiny Working Group on the Public Library Standards report. |
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Older Persons Accommodation PDF 86 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Rosemarie Harris, Portfolio Holder for Property, Buildings and Housing. Minutes: County Councillor AG Thomas advised that he would abstain on this item as he was a member of Powys Teaching Health Board which might benefit from the proposed investment in older people’s accommodation.
The Portfolio Holder reported that the service planned to invest £3.7 million over the next 4 financial years in improving older persons’ accommodation to ensure that it is fit for purpose, enabling frail older people to remain living independently within the community, rather than moving into residential or nursing care. In addition a further £3.4 million would be invested in improvement works to communal areas of blocks of flats, many of which are designated for occupation by older people, to ensure that flats are accessible and conform to the latest fire safety standards.
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Recruiting & Retaining Our Own Talent and Skills (RROOTS) project PDF 74 KB To consider a report by County Councillor John Powell, Portfolio Holder with responsibility for HR. Minutes: Cabinet was advised that the Recruiting & Retaining Our Own Talent and Skills (RROOTS) project aimed to improve and speed up the internal and external recruitment and retention processes of the Council’s workforce, to achieve a slimmer workforce with employees being better matched to jobs. The Joint Director of Workforce and Organisation Development expected to see an immediate improvement in the filling of skills gaps in the Council.
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To consider a report from County Councillor Arwel Jones, Portfolio Holder for Education. Minutes: This item was deferred until 17th January.
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Correspondence To receive such correspondence as in the opinion of the Leader is of such urgency as to warrant consideration. Minutes: There were no items of correspondence reported.
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Delegated Decisions Taken Since the Last Meeting PDF 37 KB To note the delegated decisions taken since the last meeting. Minutes: The delegated decisions taken since the last meeting were noted.
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Forward Work Programme PDF 70 KB To consider the Cabinet forward work programme. Minutes: Cabinet received the forward work programme. The Leader advised that the Cabinet meeting scheduled for 21st March would be brought forward to 14th March as purdah for the local government elections started on 17th March.
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