Agenda and minutes

The Members had before them:

A.         The Agenda papers (previously circulated); and

B.         The Minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 5 February 2015 (previously circulated).

(A copy of document A will be attached to the signed Minutes.)

Mr J P Campion, Mrs E A Eyre, Mr S E Geraghty, Mr A I Hardman, Mr M J Hart, Mrs L C Hodgson and Mr J H Smith declared an interest in Agenda item 4 as a member of their relevant district council.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services in writing or by e-mail indicating both the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case Wednesday 15 April 2015).  Further details are available on the Council's website.  Enquiries can also be made through the telephone number/e-mail address listed below.

None.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 5 February 2015 have been previously circulated.

RESOLVED:  that the Minutes of the Cabinet held on 5 February 2015 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Cabinet considered the Scrutiny Report on Integrated Waste, its findings and recommendation and the response of the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for the Environment to those findings and recommendation.  The report set out the details considered by the Cabinet and reasons for the decision including:

·         the background to the scrutiny which was to investigate the potential for introducing an integrated waste collection and disposal service in Worcestershire, and to examine potential costs, savings, benefits and barriers in order to make recommendations to Cabinet on a way forward.  District Councils had been invited to put forward a member to take part in the scrutiny

·         the findings and recommendation of the scrutiny.  In the case of the six District Councils in Worcestershire there were few, if any, signs at present that there was a desire for further joint working in this area to any realistic extent and as a consequence it was difficult to see such a move coming about in the near future.  It was therefore recommended that an audit was conducted to find out what savings might be made from integrating waste in the county and that officers should explore whether funding was available for this purpose

·         the response of the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for the Environment to the scrutiny findings and its conclusion.  The Cabinet Member believed that a further cross-authority audit with District Councils should be conducted on the principle that external funding could be secured as suggested given that the Council's present funding was tight.

In the ensuing discussion, the following main points were made:

(a)        Dr K A Pollock, Chairman of the Task Group presented the findings of the scrutiny.  He thanked all the participants in the scrutiny. All the district councils had been invited to take part in the scrutiny but only one councillor from Worcester City Council had attended. Dr Pollock understood that district councils were reluctant to cede autonomy for the collection of waste as it represented an important means of communicating with their local residents. He also recognised that district councils already co-operated over service provision. However if a sum of money could be found to undertake a proper study to examine possible savings then district councils might be persuaded to overcome their concerns over autonomy. He welcomed the detailed response from the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for the Environment 

(b)        the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for the Environment responded that the County Council maintained a close working relationship with the district councils and Herefordshire Council in relation to the collection and disposal of waste, all of whom had adopted the Joint Municipal Waste Management Strategy. He acknowledged that that there was no desire amongst district councils to change the status quo, especially where the service had been out-sourced. However all councils were experiencing budgetary difficulties and therefore he welcomed the proposal for an in-depth study provided some external funding could be obtained for it, and bearing in mind that the co-operation of the district councils would be necessary to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1655.

The Cabinet considered a report on resource matters.  The report set out the details considered by the Cabinet and the reasons for the decision including:

·         the identification of a forecast year-end financial position for 2014/15 of breakeven on the Council's £332m revenue budget.  The most significant financial challenge for 2014/15 continued to be Children's Services placements, however, the financial forecast had stabilised over the last quarter

·         an update on the current financial year's forecast BOLD savings programme which confirmed £30.5m was expected to be achieved this year, with risks arising on £0.2m of projects

·         details of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) Grant for 2015/16.  DoLS were part of the Mental Health Capacity Act 2005 and aimed to make sure that people in care homes, hospitals and supported living were looked after in a way that did not inappropriately restrict their freedom.  Worcestershire's non-recurrent "one-off" grant in 2015/16 would be £254,360.  A new ring-fenced grant to help support local authorities in reducing the number of recorded Delayed Transfers of Care attributable to social care had led to the award to Worcestershire of £520,000 for 2014/15.  An extension to the grant for April 2015 had meant the award of an additional £170,000 to bring the total allocation to £690,000

·         details of a number of Children's Services additional revenue grants to support the implementation of the early years pupil premium and Integrated Review Readiness Grant, to improve early years outcomes for children in disadvantaged areas, to promote supported internships and other preparation for employment activity for young people with special educational needs and disabilities and to support the implementation of the 'Staying Put' arrangement to enable young people to continue to live with their former foster carers once they turned 18

·         capital expenditure which remained generally in line with forecast expenditure profiles

·         an update on the Local Enterprise Partnership's Hoobrook Link Road scheme.  The estimated cost of the scheme had increased by around £3.5m to just over £16m.  The Director of Business, Environment and Community had recently committed the virement of £0.5m for enabling works to ensure progression of the Hoobrook scheme.  Approval was now sought for an additional £3.5m facility to be set aside in the Capital Programme for the scheme, such a facility to be covered by virement of £3.5m from the existing Capital Programme unallocated contingency

·         confirmation of the capital basic need grant for schools for 2015/16 and 2016/17 received by the Council for allocation to Worcestershire schools

·         a proposal for the relocation of the Tenbury Household Recycling Centre with the recommendation to full Council to approve the planned use of £2m of the PFI resource for the relocation and to update the Capital Programme accordingly.

In the ensuing discussion, the following main points were made:

(a)    The additional support provided through the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Grant to the most vulnerable members of society was welcomed. Early intervention was vital in these circumstances

(b)    The relocation of Tenbury Household Recycling Centre was long overdue. The relocation would increase  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1656.