Agenda item

The Cabinet considered the further development of Worcestershire Children First (WCF). The details were set out in the report and appendix. The Cabinet Member for Children and Families introduced the report and highlighted a number of points. He explained that Cabinet agreed consider broadening the scope of services transferred to Worcestershire Children First to include the full range of Children’s Services, and a revised Full Business Case had been developed.

The Strategic Case had been updated to include information on Education services being included and there had been a resultant increase in the proposed numbers of Board members from 9 to 11. The Economic Case showed that the creation of WCF would not bring any financial benefits, but it would improve outcomes for children and running the company would incur costs but most of that would be mitigated. The Commercial Case now included information on around 80 contracts rather than the original 17. The Financial Case showed that approximately £3.2 million would be required to establish WCF which would be paid by the Department for Education. The budget would be managed through the normal Council budget setting process.

It was agreed that various services: Skills, Commissioning of Children’s Community Health Services and SENDIASS, had greater links with services outside the scope of WCF so they should remain as part of the Council.

It was suggested that the Council should not seek to extend the Babcock contract, which was anticipated to finish in 2020 and negotiations should take place to exit the contract and transfer the relevant staff and services to WCF. Economies of scale would be achieved by bringing Babcock into WCF.

The Councillors on the WCF Board would ensure there was democratic input on the Board, but the two Councillors would not be getting any further allowances for their roles. The CMR for Children and Families would not be a member of the Board as he was the statutory Lead Member and had a responsibility for ensuring the delivery of services and there would be a conflict of interest.

The seconder underlined the wish for the educational service to move into WCF at the earliest opportunity. It was not intended to seek to extend the contract with Babcock beyond its initial 5 year term when it was anticipated to end, and TUPE processes would apply at the end of the contract. It was understood that Babcock were happy to co-operated with a smooth transition. Although Education functions were not under Direction, there would be economies of scale in combining children’s services in one delivery arm, although the Council would still set the Budget and policy Framework for WCF to operate within.

Various comments and queries were made by Members outside the Cabinet:

·       The Chairman of the Children’s Overview and Scrutiny Panel felt that the relationship between the Council and the New Company would work well as long as Catherine Driscoll remained in post as the Council’s Director of Children’s Services and Chief Executive of WCF. She supported not seeking to extend the Babcock contract beyond 2020

·       Following a query as to whether Babcock staff could be brought back in-house before the end of the contract, it was clarified that this would result in a financial penalty so was not seen as an option

·       The Council’s Scrutiny function should be allowed to consider the KPIs before they were set in stone; and once the KPIs had been set the Children’s Overview and Scrutiny Panel should be allowed to review them. The Cabinet Member for Children and Families responded that it would be sensible for Scrutiny to meet the Chairman of the Board during the shadow period so that KPIs could be discussed

·       It was accepted that for economies of scale it may be best that Babcock join WCF but it seemed that the staff were being moved back and forth

·       There were concerns that in future the finances of WCF may require a larger share of the Council’s budget than anticipated

·       It was queried when Full Council had agreed to the decision to expand the services included in the Company and it was suggested that the two Councillors on the Board should be people who were not part of the inner core and Members of Cabinet.  The Head of Legal and Democratic Services clarified that the arrangements for the creation of the Wholly Owned Council Company were an executive decision which was the responsibility of Cabinet to decide. Cabinet would then report its decision up to Council as before. Council holds the Executive to account but the decision on how best to discharge executive functions was for the Executive to make. However, the size of the Children’s Services involved in the new company meant that it affected the Directorate structure of the Council so the structural matter would be going to Council as part of the organisational redesign – before the transfer to WCF

·       it was believed that the new company would make services more robust.

The Leader wished to pay tribute to Essex County Council and he believed that the Wholly Owned Company was the best way to improve services to children. He felt that the right decision had been made at the time to commission services to Babcock but it now made sense to align services.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

(a)        approved the refreshed Full Business Case (FBC), attached as an Appendix to the report, which had been updated to ensure it accurately reflected the intentions of the Council in relation to the services provided by Worcestershire Children First;

(b)        approved the recommendations in the refreshed FBC in relation to the size and scope of Worcestershire Children First;

(c)        approved the proposal to not extend the contract with Babcock Prime beyond October 2020 when the contract was anticipated to come to a natural break at the end of the initial five-year term;

(d)        authorised the Director of Children, Families and Communities to initiate and implement a programme to work with Babcock Prime in order to transfer Education Services into Worcestershire Children First at the earliest opportunity;

(e)        noted the progress made in developing Worcestershire Children First including the confirmation of Company Board appointments;

(f)          authorised the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Department for Education-appointed Children's Commissioner, Chairperson of Worcestershire Children First, Leader of the Council, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Education and Skills and Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Children and Families, to agree the final details of and terms upon which services transfer to Worcestershire Children First;

(g)        authorised the Chief Executive to take all appropriate steps on behalf of the Council in relation to the development of Worcestershire Children First; and

(h)        agreed to receive a further report in Autumn 2019 including the approval of Worcestershire Children First's Business Plan.