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Apologies To receive apologies for absence. Minutes: Apologies for absence were received from County Councillor Sandra Davies, leader of the Labour group. |
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To authorise the Chair to sign the minutes of the last meeting held as a correct record. Additional documents: Minutes: The Leader was authorised to sign the minutes of the meeting held on 7th February and reconvened on 14th February 2017 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 WJT Powell declared a personal non-pecuniary interest in item C37 – 2017 as an LEA appointed governor of Llandrindod High School.
The Chief Executive declared a personal non-pecuniary interest in item C37 – 2017 as was the parent of a child attending Llandrindod High School.
County Councillor RG Brown declared a personal non-pecuniary interest in item C39 – 2017 Schools Major Improvement Programme as an LEA appointed governor of one of the schools mentioned in the report.
County Councillor MJ Dorrance declared a personal non-pecuniary interest in C40 – 2017 Brecon High School Financial Management as his partner was a governor of the school.
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To consider a report by County Councillor Arwel Jones, Portfolio Holder for Education. Additional documents:
Minutes: Cabinet considered responses received to the consultation on proposals to close Builth Wells High School and Llandrindod High School on 31st August 2018, and to establish a new dual-stream 11 – 18 secondary school that would operate across the current sites of the two schools from 1st September 2018. Cabinet was advised that a total of 1788 objections had been received during the statutory objection period, including 78 individual written responses and 1695 responses that were a copy of a single objection template signed by individual objectors. It was confirmed that there were no responses received in support of the proposal. Appended to the report were copies of the objections received and the authority’s responses.
County Councillor David Price spoke as a local member representing the catchment of Builth Wells High School. He did not feel that there was anything in the proposals to merge the schools that would lead to standards being improved nor was there any guarantee that larger schools were necessarily better. He argued that the objections received showed that there was no support for the proposal and he urged the Cabinet to listen to the public.
County Councillor Gary Price spoke as a local member for Llandrindod Wells. He questioned why the Cabinet was pursuing the option of merging the schools given the large public response against the proposal. He noted that when proposals for the merger of Brecon and Gwernyfed High Schools had been abandoned the Cabinet had cited the large public response as a reason, yet there had been a larger response in opposition to the proposals for Builth Wells and Llandrindod High Schools.
Cabinet sought and received confirmation that any decision taken did not predetermine the proposals for the Welsh medium stream in Brecon High School due to be considered at the next meeting.
In reply to comments about Estyn’s response that it wasnot possible to establish whether standards would be at least maintained by the proposal, Cabinet was reminded that both schools were currently in special measures. The proposals offered the opportunity of improved leadership at all levels, leading to improved teaching, improved mentoring and coaching opportunities for staff and economies of scale leading to greater investment in teaching and learning all of which would help improve standards.
Cabinet did not feel that there was anything in the responses received that was new or would lead to them to changing their view that the two schools should merge.
Councillor MR Harris did not vote having been absent for the start of ... view the full minutes text for item C37- 2017 |
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Schools Service Asset Management Plan PDF 87 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Arwel Jones, Portfolio Holder for Education. Additional documents:
Minutes: Cabinet considered the Schools Service Asset Management Plan. The Portfolio Holder for Finance noted that schools sometimes received funding for works from other sources and argued that if that was the case then that should be taken into consideration in the calculation.
County Councillor Rosemarie Harris did not vote having missed part of the debate. |
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Schools Major Improvement Programme PDF 89 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Arwel Jones, Portfolio Holder for Education. Additional documents: Minutes: Cabinet considered the Schools Service Major Improvements Programme for 2017-2020. The Portfolio Holder for Education noted the concern expressed by the Leader of the Liberal Democrat group at the capital spend required in some relatively new schools.
County Councillor Rosemarie Harris did not vote having missed part of the debate. |
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Brecon High School - Financial Management PDF 190 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Arwel Jones, Portfolio Holder for Education and County Councillor Wynne Jones, Portfolio Holder for Finance. Minutes: Cabinet considered a report on the budget position of Brecon High School. There was a substantial and unsustainable potential deficit £1.357m by 2018/19 in addition to the outstanding loan of £216k. The school had concluded that reductions required to produce a balanced budget for 2016/17, which would require a reduction of 10 members of staff, was not an acceptable option as it would have considerable impact across the school and would be detrimental to the progress made in improving standards and maintaining progress against the Estyn recommendations which had led to the school being removed from special measures.
County Councillor David Meredith spoke as the Chair of Governors. He advised that the school had already taken steps to reduce costs leading to increased class sizes and the Governors took the view that further reductions in staffing levels would leave the school unable to deliver the curriculum and risk putting it in special measures. He also noted that uncertainty created by school reorganisation proposals had led to the loss of Welsh medium pupils and consequent loss of funding. He asked the Leader and Portfolio Holder and senior officers attend a meeting of staff and parents to explain the decision.
County Councillor Matthew Dorrance spoke as a local member. He questioned whether the school was adequately funded noting that two independent reviews had concluded that savings could not be delivered without negatively impacting on learner outcomes. He asked if the reorganisation policy should be revisited and he called for meaningful discussions with the school and local members about what could be done in partnership.
County Councillor Gillian Thomas spoke as a local member. She noted that the budget issues in the school went back to 2010 when the LEA was slow to respond. She argued that reorganisation proposals had led to pupils leaving and the Welsh medium pupils moving to Builth at a cost of £100k per annum in transport.
Cabinet noted that Brecon was not the only high school facing financial pressures with projected deficits in the secondary sector of £2.5m by 2018/19. The Portfolio Holder for Finance cautioned that this was a problem that threatened the financial viability of the Council and was a consequence of not taking forward the schools reorganisation programme. It would not be equitable to put additional money into just one school, but to put Brecon High School on the same footing as other schools, payments on the loan would have to be set-aside for the time being.
The overspend in the current year was £353k equivalent to 7 teachers and projected deficit for next year was £529k equivalent to 10 teachers and the Head of Schools advised that if these staffing cuts were implemented he doubted the school would be able to deliver the learning measure and there would be a significant impact on standards.
The Strategic Director Resources (Section 151 Officer) cautioned that projected schools deficits were a serious risk for the authority and that the Council could not afford to run the number ... view the full minutes text for item C40- 2017 |
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Financial Overview and Forecast as at 31st January 2017 PDF 174 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Wynne Jones, Portfolio Holder for Finance. Minutes: Cabinet received the financial overview and forecast for the period ended 31 January 2017. The projected overspend of £4,357k against the approved budget was an improvement of £493k on the December position. The Portfolio Holder for Finance advised that the Strategic Overview Board would be looking in further detail at the service budgets at its meeting on 21 March.
The Chair of the Audit Committee noted that 25% of the budget savings still had to be delivered and that the use of reserves needed to be kept under review.
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Adult Social Care Overspend PDF 103 KB To consider a report from the Joint Adult Social Care and Audit Committee Working Group. Minutes: County Councillor John Morris, the Chair of the Finance Scrutiny Panel, presented the Panel’s report on the overspend in Adult Social Care. He thanked the members of the Panel and scrutiny officers for their work on the report and outlined the methodology used.
He welcomed the recovery plan and action plan which the Panel would report back on at a later meeting. However it was the Panel’s view that there had been a historical failure to achieve transformational, and cultural change in the service. The Panel was concerned about the strain on reserves and the impact on other Council services. The Panel wanted to see robust financial management introduced. The Panel felt that if not addressed, the current situation had the potential to overwhelm the whole Council. Any unforeseeable expenditure should be met from a budgeted, general contingency and should not be met from reserves which are at an unacceptably low level. A proper business case must be evidenced before any funds are accessed.
The Leader thanked the Panel for the report and its Chair for keeping him briefed.
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Response from the Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care PDF 54 KB To consider a response from the Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care. Minutes: The Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care gave a personal response to the Finance Scrutiny Panel report. A formal response would be given at a future meeting.
The Portfolio Holder expressed disappointment at the report. He felt that there had been no analysis of the pressures on the service and he regretted that no recognition had been given to the actions taken by the service to address the overspend.
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Corporate Improvement Plan 2016/20 - 2017 Update PDF 256 KB To consider the Corporate Improvement Plan. Additional documents: Minutes: The Leader advised that the Corporate Improvement Plan would be considered by Council on 7 March. He said that he would prefer to see it come forward earlier in the year.
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Regional Partnership Board - Population Assessment PDF 72 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Graham Brown, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services and County Councillor Stephen Hayes, Portfolio Holder for Adult Social Care. Additional documents:
Minutes: Cabinet received the population assessment produced for the Regional Partnership Board. Members noted that this was an important piece of work that services needed to have due regard when planning future delivery. It was suggested that it should be included in new Members’ induction packs and given a wider circulation.
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Use of site for development of Business Units and Recyclables Bulking Centre PDF 715 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Rosemarie Harris, Portfolio Holder for Property, Buildings and Housing, County Councillor Tony Thomas, Portfolio Holder for Regeneration and Planning and County Councillor John Powell, Portfolio Holder for Environment and Sustainability. Minutes: Cabinet considered proposals for a site purchased by the Council in Abermule to be shared between the Commercial Property portfolio, which would develop around 53% of the site for new Business units, whilst approximately 47% of the site would be utilised by Highways Transport and Recycling (HTR) as a new Material Recycling Facility (MRF) for the northern part of the County. Approximately 15% of the site would be utilised as highway infrastructure, electricity substation and sewerage pumping station.
County Councillor Wynne Jones speaking as the local Member sought an assurance that capital funding allocated to Regeneration for the project would be retained and used to invest in the development of the site. The Head of Regeneration Property & Commissioning said that this would be subject to the capital programme agreed by Council but that she anticipated that it would be retained.
He asked for the timeframe for starting development of the site. The Head of Regeneration Property & Commissioning advised that the workshops would be developed at the same time as the recycling facility. Planning permission needed to be obtained and during this time the design for the site would be developed. It was confirmed that Welsh Government wanted to see the start of development on Plot B adjacent to Court Farm within two years.
Councillor Jones also asked for and received an assurance that no residual waste would be handled on the site.
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Treasury Management Report Quarter 3 PDF 213 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Wynne Jones, Portfolio Holder for Finance. Additional documents:
Minutes: Cabinet considered the Treasury Management report for quarter 3.
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Powys Safeguarding Children and Adults Quarterly update PDF 284 KB To consider a report by County Councillor Graham Brown, Portfolio Holder for Children’s Services and County Councillor Stephen Hayes, Portfolio Holder for Adult’s Services. Minutes: Cabinet considered the safeguarding report for the second quarter. The Portfolio Holder with responsibility for Children’s Services noted criticism from the leader of the Liberal Democrat group that the information was 6 months old and did not contain any figures for Children’s Services. He explained that the Corporate Parenting Group saw the detailed figures. Future reports would incorporate data from the quality assurance performance framework that would show much more detail.
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Joint Partnership Board PDF 83 KB To receive the minutes of the Joint Partnership Board meeting held on 19 January 2017. Minutes: Cabinet received the minutes of the Joint Partnership Board meeting held on 19 January 2017. |
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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 44 KB To note the delegated decisions taken since the last meeting. Minutes: The Cabinet received details of delegated decisions taken since the last meeting. |
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Forward Work Programme PDF 65 KB To consider the Cabinet forward work programme. Minutes: The Leader asked Portfolio Holders to make sure that the forward work programme was kept up to date at least 8 months in advance. |