Agenda and minutes

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillors Alastair Adams and Matt Dormer.

Councillor Alan Amos declared an interest in Item 6 – Worcestershire Drugs and Alcohol Strategy as he was a Member of the Advisory Council for Action on Smoking and Health (ASH).

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Assistant Director for Legal and Governance 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 27 January 2023).  Further details are available on the Council's website.  Enquiries can also be made through the telephone number/e-mail address listed in this agenda and on the website.

None.

(previously circulated).

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 7 December 2022 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

Attending for this item:

Simon Geraghty, Leader of the Council

Paul Robinson, Chief Executive

Steph Simcox, Deputy Finance Officer

The Leader, Chief Executive and Deputy Chief Finance Officer attended the meeting to update Members on the budget proposals and hear the feedback from Panel Chairmen following the discussions on the 2023/24 draft budget during the January Scrutiny meetings.

Following the discussion, the Board would agree comments to be considered by Cabinet on 2 February 2023 and by the County Council on 16 February 2023.

The Leader and Chief Executive had previously attended the December meeting of the Board to provide an update on the on the new and emerging themes following the government’s autumn statement.

The Leader highlighted that the Local Government Settlement announced on 19 December was a one-year settlement, and that the funding included net additional grant funding of £26.3m which was welcomed. The core spending power had been increased to upper tier Authorities to recognise significant demand pressures and included an increase to the Council’s Settlement Funding assessment of £8.4m and further funding of £19.5m to recognise significant pressures within Adults and Children’s Social Care.

During the opportunity to question the Leader and Chief Executive, the following main points were made:

·         The wage inflation pressure was significant this year, a 2-3% increase had been budgeted for when the actual pay inflation was 6-7% (£4m). For 2023/24, the budget was £11.6m which included making good the increase from 2022/23 plus a 4% budget provision for pay inflation for 2023/24. The Chief Executive explained that wage inflation was always an estimate, however, for 2022/23 there had been a flat rate increase for all staff which equated to approximately 4.9%, due to the number of low paid workers in the Council.

·         In response to a question about whether the Adult Social Care Levy would continue in the medium term, the Leader explained that it was not assumed that the Levy would continue, it was a judgement call each year; last year the increase was 1% and this year it was 2%. The Chief Executive added that the Levy did not cover the total budget for adult social care and would only be sustainable if it was increased. The Council was continuing to lobby for a fair funding formula review.

A summary of the budget feedback from the January Scrutiny meetings was circulated as part of the agenda (attached at Appendix 1). In addition the Scrutiny Panel Chairmen highlighted the following points:

Corporate and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Cllr Emma Stokes)

·         It was acknowledged that in respect of the Communities budget, there was a blanket 1% efficiency saving across all service areas. It was suggested that this was not a very sophisticated method of achieving efficiencies as some areas may have more efficiency savings to be made than others. The Chief Executive explained that Directorates had a combination of fixed and targeted reductions to meet, in order to make the required efficiencies. The Deputy Chief Finance Officer further explained that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1298.

Attending for this item:

Cllr Karen May, Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Health and Wellbeing

Liz Altay, Interim Director of Public Health

Paul Kinsella, Senior Public Health Practitioner

Andy Boote, Senior Public Health Practitioner

Superintendent Paul Judge

Superintendent Mel Paley 

Claire Richardson, Head of Policy and Development for the West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner

Matt Burke, Cranstoun

The CMR for Health and Wellbeing introduced the Worcestershire Drugs and Alcohol Strategy Report and explained that under the Health and Social Care Act (2012), local authorities had a duty to reduce health inequalities and improve the health of their local population by ensuring that there were public health services aimed at reducing drug and alcohol misuse. Improving outcomes from Drug and Alcohol treatment services was a requirement of the PHRFG.

The Interim Director of Public Health explained that during 2021, Dame Carol Black was commissioned by the Home Office and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to undertake a two-part independent review of drugs, to inform the government’s thinking on what more could be done to tackle the harms that drugs cause. The report outlined key themes for improvement, including increasing access to treatment and recovery services.

The Government accepted the findings of the review and in 2021 published ‘From Harm to Hope’ a 10-year plan to cut crime and save lives by reducing the supply and demand for drugs and delivering a high-quality treatment and recovery system.

To support the delivery of ‘From Harm to Hope’ the development of new local ‘Combating Drugs Partnerships’ (CDP) were mandated. These partnerships brought together local stakeholders to better understand their populations and identify challenges and solutions. CDP’s were accountable for delivering the outcomes in the National Outcomes Framework. The West Mercia Police and Crime Commissioner was the named Senior Responsible Officer for Worcestershire.

Accordingly, a Worcestershire Drug and Alcohol Strategy was co-produced by members of the Substance Misuse Oversight Group (SMOG) and was supported by Public Health. The new strategy was aligned with ‘From Harm to Hope’ and was reflective of local priorities and governance arrangements.

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

·         In response to a Member question about where in the Strategy alcohol prevention work was included, the Senior Public Health Practitioner advised that in November 2022, a 2-year service level agreement was set up with Trading Standards to target illicit sales of alcohol, tobacco and vapes, acting on local intelligence from schools and hospital admissions, for example.

·         The Public Health Team were also working with retailers to ensure that there were responsible premises and to encourage them for example to use challenge 25 (the retailing strategy that encourages anyone who was over 18 but looked under 25 to carry acceptable ID if they wished to buy alcohol). The Police also run a MATES: Multi Agency Targeted Enforcement Strategy, which allowed the police to tackle organised criminality, anti-social behaviour and the sale of illegal products.

·         In terms of Illicit counterfeit alcohol, there was a robust process  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1299.

Work Programme and Cabinet Forward Plan

Noted.