Agenda and minutes

Venue: Holyport College

Contact: Karen Shepherd  01628 796529

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

To receive any apologies for absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Cox and Coppinger

2.

Declarations of Interest pdf icon PDF 219 KB

To receive any declarations of interest

Minutes:

Councillor Dudley declared Personal Interests in the questions from Holyport pupils and the items ‘Delivering New School Places for the BLP’ and ‘Local Area SEND Written Statement of Actions,’ as a founder and Chair of Governors of Holyport College and Chair of Governors at Riverside Primary. He stepped down from the Chair, remained in the room but took no part in the discussion or voting on the items.

 

Councillor Bicknell declared a Personal Interest as his son worked at Holyport College.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 80 KB

To consider the Part I minutes of the meeting held on 26 October 2017.

 

To note the Part I minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet Regeneration Sub Committee held on 26 October 2017

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That:

 

i)             The Part I minutes of the meeting held on 26 October 2017 be approved.

ii)                  The Part I minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet Regeneration Sub Committee held on 26 October 2017 be noted

 

4.

Appointments

Minutes:

None

9.

Order of Business

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the order of business, as detailed in the agenda, be varied.

8.

Questions from Holyport College Students

Minutes:

Cabinet received question from pupils at Holyport College. Councillor Bicknell assumed the Chair for this item.

 

James Erridge asked the following question:

 

The road outside the College is potentially dangerous for students. How can we persuade the Council to put up a Zebra Crossing and/or traffic lights outside the main entrance?

 

Councillor Bicknell responded that the volume of pupils attending Holyport College who walked to and from school was relatively low. This was reflected in the School Travel Plan and the operating arrangements which were in place and was based on all staff and pupils arriving by transport, hence mini buses were in place to provide safe access to and from school. The travel plan was monitored on an annual basis, including a survey of pupils and staff.  Any issues arising could be advised to the Royal Borough who were very willing to discuss these with the College.

 

In addition, the Royal Borough encouraged walking and had a programme of works, and education programmes, to create and encourage safe walking routes. There was no continuous walking route on either side of Ascot Road and it was not straightforward to build the additional lengths of footway which would be required. In addition, there was no street lighting in the area which would be required to create a fully safe route for pedestrians during the winter months and darker evenings.

 

A pedestrian crossing would be required in two locations (adjacent to the school and in the vicinity of Holyport Green) to ensure that residential areas were linked into the school. Whilst this could be delivered the urbanising impact of the crossing at all times combined with the low levels of use would require careful consideration prior to progressing. There was nothing to stop the school putting together a petition about the issue.

 

By way of a supplementary question, James Erridge asked how much it would cost?

 

Councillor Bicknell confirmed that the total cost would be in the region of £0.5m.

 

Kai Sankowski asked the following question:

 

How might the council improve street lighting in Holyport Village and in the vicinity of the College?

 

Councillor Bicknell responded that Holyport Green was a conservation area with limited street lighting. The current policy was to minimise urbanisation by not installing additional street lighting around Holyport Green or in the vicinity of the college. Street lighting was in place in residential areas and at road junctions for road safety purposes. The introduction of street lighting would require approval and engagement with the Parish Council and a shift from current practice and policy.

 

ChenziraGwenzi asked the following question:

 

Bus fares to Maidenhead from Holyport are almost £4 for a single. What could the Council do to reduce this and what can the Council do to provide more regular bus services to both Maidenhead & Windsor?

 

Councillor Bicknell responded that the Royal Borough did not directly operate local bus services but did work with closely with operators (for example: Courtney Buses and First Bus) to provide and promote  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

5.

Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 192 KB

To consider the Forward Plan for the period December 2017 to March 2018

Minutes:

Cabinet considered the contents of the Forward Plan for the next four months and noted the changes that had been made to the plan since the last meeting. In addition it was noted that:

 

·         The item ‘Partnership Opportunity with Mencap in Dedworth’ originally scheduled for December 2017, had been withdrawn.

·         The item ‘Local Housing Crisis’ would be considered by Cabinet in December 2017, subject to the agreement of the Chairman of the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

6.

Cabinet Members' Reports pdf icon PDF 222 KB

6e

Budget Preparation 2018/19 pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Minutes:

Cabinet considered a progress report on preparations for the 2018/19 budget.

 

The Chairman commented that, unlike the national government, local authorities had to balance their budgets and could not borrow for revenue expenditure.

 

The Lead Member explained that the report was being brought three months earlier than normal to allow for full scrutiny. He complemented all involved in putting it together. The current financial year was set to end with £2m of unallocated funds unspent. The indicative budget for next year proposed to use £700,000 of this to ensure a balanced budget. £4m was budgeted for investment in frontline care and to continue to appropriately reward staff and provide for pensions. This was largely offset by continuing efficiencies and savings. The indicative budget included a £350m capital programme, starting this year but running through to 2026 to support delivery of the BLP. The council’s projections were that the programme would be fully funded from receipts from the regeneration sites in Maidenhead owned by the borough.

 

There was an indicative need to raise council tax by 1.95% and an Adult Social Care levy of 3%. The recent LGA peer review had highlighted the strong and professional financial management of the council. The proposed budget was set to continue this trend. The Lead Member explained that the report was for noting other than one approval of the education capital programme, to enable advanced procurement arrangements.

 

The Chairman highlighted that 65% of the council spend each year was on vulnerable children and older members of the community requiring adult social care. There were 145,000 residents in the borough. Over 40% of council tax was spent to support 2500 older people. He referred to the graph contained within the main report that showed the plan for investment in infrastructure and the repayment of £60m debt and a pension fund deficit of £75m.

 

The Lead Member highlighted that the Overview and Scrutiny Panels had been generally supportive of the proposals, but had asked a number of questions. He confirmed that parking charges had been set through a benchmarking exercise with towns such as Reading, Wokingham and Slough for Maidenhead, and Bath and York for Windsor. The exercise showed that charges in the borough were substantially lower than the benchmark in comparable locations. Residents with an Advantage Card would see no increase in parking charges. There were some car parks without Advantage Card machines however in some of these locations residents benefitted from discounts as they were members of the sports clubs that the car parks supported. The council would explore the ability to use the Advantage Card  in as many car parks in the borough as possible.

 

In response to comments from Corporate Services O&S Panel, the Lead Member explained that the next version of the report would include a distinction between those savings that had already begun and those that were to be actioned. It would be important for Lead Members to pay attention to any capital programme item put forward by a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6e

6a

Council Performance Management Framework Quarters 1 and 2 pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Minutes:

Cabinet considered the latest performance report. The Principal Member highlighted that 16 indicators were on target; 8 were just short and 1 was off target. Going forward, operational KPIS would be considered by the relevant Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

 

Members noted that an externally commissioned residents survey would be undertaken on an annual basis. The survey would be accompanied by a full communications campaign to ensure good representation. Previously the survey had been undertaken by asking questions at the end of calls into the CSC, but this had been a very narrow sample. Results were expected in June 2018; the Chairman asked if this could be brought forward.

 

The Principal Member confirmed that the operational KPIs should have been included in the paperwork for the Corporate O&S Panel; he would ensure they were included for the next meeting. The direction of travel for a number of KPIS was downwards. The PMF was designed to highlight any such problems and develop performance improvement plans to address the issues. The plans were drawn up with lead officers and Lead Members. If any Lead Member felt they were not sufficiently aware he would be happy to help in the process.  The Chairman requested that the next report include the Improvement Plans for off-target KPIs as an appendix. The O&S Panels were welcome to request the attendance of a Lead Member to discuss any off target indicator.

 

The Principal Member explained that a KPI relating to the number of affordable housing units being applied for would be difficult to monitor as the council had no control over the number of planning applications put forward. However, he would discuss with the Lead Member.

 

The Lead Member for Highways referred to the KPI ‘Number of days of roadworks on highways saved’ as this was off-target. The commentary explained that it was expected to be on target by the end of the year.

 

It was noted that the performance management report went to O&S Panels on a  quarterly basis and Cabinet twice a year.

 

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Cabinet:

 

i)     Notes the progress towards meeting the council’s strategic priorities.

 

ii)    Requests the Managing Director provides progress reports of key activity and outcomes to the service specific scrutiny panel, in line with appendix 2.

 

iii)  Requests the Managing Director, in conjunction with Lead and Principal Members, to progress improvement actions for indicators that are currently off target.

6b

Delivering New School Places for the Borough Local Plan pdf icon PDF 3 MB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet considered the borough’s strategy to meet the likely impact of the emerging Borough Local Plan on the demand for school places in the borough.

 

Councillor Bicknell assumed the Chair for the item.

 

Councillor N. Airey explained that the report set out the educational infrastructure that would be needed for the 14,000 extra homes described in the emerging Borough Local Plan by 2032/33. The paper set out the council’s analysis of and approach to meet that demand. Modelling, set out in the report, suggested that there could be a need for a total of 8,900 places over the next 15 years, with the first places needed in September 2019, 2020 and 2021.  This equated to 20-22 new classes in each year group from the youngest in Reception year to post 16 capacity. The analysis was based on the housing trajectory within the BLP and updated pupil yields based on the current population of the borough.  Table 1 in the report set out the resulting expected shortfall of school capacity. The modelling based on historically high levels of birth rate and 86% of schools judged Good or Outstanding suggested the council could lower the surplus place policy from 10% to 5%.

 

Members noted that meeting this level of demand would require the development of new schools in addition to the expansion of existing schools. A desktop exercise had been carried out to assess the capacity of the existing school estate and an initial version of this was published in the borough’s Infrastructure Delivery Plan in May 2017. Five new school sites had been identified in the BLP and it was assumed that these sites would be home to new Free Schools in line with government policy.

 

The report indicated a budget cost of £277m to deliver the places and a 5% surplus, a new SEND school, some early years capacity and the existing £33m investment in secondary school expansions. Funding came from various sources:  Free school funding, government Basic Need Grant, CIL/S106 and other capital receipts.  This was modelled in future financial planning projections.

 

The council now needed to move forward and plan to meet with any school interested in expansion or new site options and were earmarking £1.3m of the capital cost to support early feasibility work so that credible and financially viable options could be established ready to be brought forward once the housing developments set out in the BLP came about.

 

The council was also setting out a policy of requiring all parties to sign a Memorandum Of Understanding (MOU) clearly setting out the terms of any school expansions.  This would ensure clarity and transparency across all negotiations while allowing council officers to explore any options and ideas that were generated to meet the likely need.

 

The report provided the latest projections, with action needed in the Windsor middle schools, where consultation was already underway, and potentially Maidenhead primary for September 2020. It was proposed that options for providing those places were investigated and reported to Cabinet in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6b

6d

Local Area Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) written statement of actions pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Minutes:

Cabinet considered twelve objectives, to be achieved between December 2017 and July 2018, which would create a transparent and accountable system to ensure that all children and young people with special educational needs and/or disabilities were appropriately supported to achieve their goals over the coming years.

 

Councillor Bicknell assumed the Chair for the item.

 

The Lead Member explained that on 1 September 2017 Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission had published a letter following the inspection of the area’s services for young people with additional needs.

 

The local authority, Clinical Commissioning Group, schools, health providers and representatives of the Parent Forum (PACiP) had worked together to develop an action plan to address the issues identified in the inspection. The paper set out the intended impact of the Written Statement of Action which had been signed off by a multi-agency group and submitted to Ofsted earlier in the  week.  The multi-agency group, chaired by a Director of the East Berkshire Clinical Commissioning Group would meet regularly over the next year to monitor progress and report to the Health and Wellbeing Board in addition to Cabinet and other agency leadership boards.

 

Cabinet received a report on the issues in September 2017 and Children’s Overview and Scrutiny had been monitoring progress.

 

Sections 2.11 to 2.23 of the report set out the twelve things that people would see and experience differently as a result of the actions that were set out in the statement of action. They could be grouped in the following areas:

 

·         Making sure there were clear expectations for all, including co-producing an Inclusion Charter for young people and families, making the Local Offer, parent engagement and promotion ‘everyday business,’ developing an Annual Trends report and establish an Annual Inclusion Summit.

·         Making sure that there was capacity and clarity about the process for Education, Health and Care plans, including refreshing the EHCP process, investing in expert resources to manage complex EHCP cases and ensure multi-agency quality assurance takes place and establishing a ‘preparing for Adulthood’ pathway with additional capacity within the local authority team.

·         Making sure that there was capacity and clarity about the way schools worked with families and young people, including establishing an inclusion quality mark for schools and colleges, investing in the expert resources to bring the inclusion quality mark to life and using the SENCO network.

·         Work together to develop services and that help all young people make progress by completing the consultation on the SEND Strategy and developing a multi-agency, implementation working party.

 

The council and health partners had met to consider a bid for £450,000 over the next three years to fund the additional resources required to implement the inclusion quality mark and develop the capability to manage complex cases better through the Better Care Fund. All schools were being consulted on providing a £416,000 fund for pupil focussed services aligned to the strategy.  This had been recommended by the Schools Forum and a decision was due in early December 2017.

 

The Principal Member  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6d

6c

School Admission Arrangements 2019/20 and Co-ordinated Admissions Scheme 2019/20 pdf icon PDF 253 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Cabinet considered approval to consult on the admission arrangements for borough Community and Voluntary Controlled schools including one proposed change to reduce the Published Admission Number (PAN) for Alwyn Infant School from 101 to 90. The Lead Member explained that the local authority had a statutory duty to determine the admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools for the academic year 2019/20 by 28 February 2018. To meet that duty the council must consult on any proposed changes, which this year included the intention to reduce the published admission number for Alwyn Infant School from 101 to 90.

 

The school was required to comply with infant class size legislation which required at least one qualified adult to every 30 pupils.  The school was likely to be attended by less than 90 pupils in all year groups from September 2018, however if a handful of pupils were to arrive across all year groups, the school would have to appoint three teachers which would expose the school to a significant financial risk. The school could expand again in the future without consultation as no physical space was being taken away by the movement.

 

The council also had to run a coordinated scheme for pupils starting or transferring school at the start of a new phase of education for example moving from year 6 in primary to year 7 in secondary. With almost 80% of applications now being done online, from September 2018 the council would confirm allocations to those applications using email only, saving on printing and postage of about 4,000 letters.

 

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Cabinetnotes the report and:

 

i)      Approves public consultation on the RBWM Admission Arrangements set out at Appendix 1.

 

ii)     Delegates authority to the Lead Member and Director for Children’s Services to approve and thereby determine the revised admissions arrangements by the 28 February 2018 deadline.

 

iii)   Approves, and thereby determines, the RBWM Co-ordinated Admissions scheme for 2019/20 set out at Appendix 2 by the 1 January 2018 statutory deadline.

 

6f

Financial Update pdf icon PDF 564 KB

Minutes:

Cabinet considered the latest financial update.

 

The Lead Member requested it be recorded in the minutes that he was a Cookham Parish Councillor, but he had no need to declare an interest in relation to the first recommendation.

 

The Lead Member confirmed that the anticipation remained that at year end, the council would have £2m of allocated expenditure unspent.

 

The Lead Member for Culture and Communities  expressed her support for the SLA with SportsAble; the council wished to encourage and support the work the organisation provided.  The Chairman echoed the comments and welcomed an SLA with clear deliverables.

 

The Principal Member for Neighbourhood Planning, Ascot and the Sunnings commented that she was pleased Cookham wanted to develop a Neighbourhood Plan.

 

Councillor D. Evans left the meeting at 8.35pm.

 

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That Cabinet:

 

i)     Notes the Council’s projected outturn position for 2017-18 and mitigating actions to address service pressures.

 

ii)    Approves an additional revenue budget of £50,000 p.a. for three years for a service level agreement with SportsAble, as detailed in paragraph 4.14.

 

iii)  Approves a £20k capital budget to support Cookham Parish Council in developing a Neighbourhood Plan.

 

The Chairman highlighted that 37 young people would be participating in the Children’s Takeover Day at the council the following day. He thanked the headteacher, Mr Boyle, for hosting the meeting.

7.

LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 1972 - EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC

To consider passing the following resolution:-

 

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on item 8 on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act"

Minutes:

RESOLVED UNANIMNOUSLY: That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on item 8 on the grounds that it involves the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act.

 

8.

Minutes

To consider the Part II minutes of the meeting of Cabinet held on 26 October 2017.

 

To note the Part II minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet Regeneration Sub Committee held on 26 October 2017