To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Reynolds.

To receive any declarations of interest from Cabinet Members.

No declarations of interest were made.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 13 December 2023.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 13 December 2023 were approved as a true and accurate record.

None

To consider the Forward Plan for the period February 2024 to May 2024.

Cabinet noted the following additions to the Cabinet Forward Plan. All of which were new items.

·       Budget 2024/25 – February Cabinet

·       Proposal to Establish a Berkshire Joint Committee for Economic Prosperity – February Cabinet

·       Public Spaces Protection Orders Consultation – March Cabinet

·       School Transport Policy – April Cabinet

·       Revocation of Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs) within RBWM – May Cabinet

·       Review of Air Quality Monitoring Programme for PM2.5 and PM10 – October Cabinet

·       Berkshire Local Nature Recovery Strategy – December Cabinet

Councillor Price spoke as a non-Cabinet Member, in which she began by thanking the Cabinet for agreeing to amend the Council’s privacy notice surrounding the Council’s meetings being streamed on YouTube. These would now be deleted after 5 years from January 2024 onwards, rather than after just 2 years. She then made reference to the budget consultation process and how it was fed back to residents once they had completed it. She wished that once consultations had finished, that residents be informed of what had been decided and were kept more in the loop. The Chair welcomed this and said that he would see what could be done moving forward.

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance

To note the report and:

i)               note the forecast revenue outturn for the year is an overspend on services of £8.009m which reduces to an overspend of £4.347m when including unallocated contingency budgets and changes to funding budgets (para 5);

ii)              note the forecast capital outturn is expenditure of £43.960m against a budget of £88.267m (para 11).

Cabinet noted the report and:

i)               noted the forecast revenue outturn for the year was an overspend on services of £8.009m which reduced to an overspend of £4.347m when including unallocated contingency budgets and changes to funding budgets (para 5);

ii)             noted the forecast capital outturn was expenditure of £43.960m against a budget of £88.267m (para 11).

Councillor Jones, Deputy Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Finance said that in September 2023, senior officers had warned the Cabinet that the borough was at significant risk of issuing a Section 114 notice. Since then, despite being successful in making savings, the total forecasted overspend for the end of the financial year 2023/24, now sat at approximately £8m. Once contingencies were applied, this would reduce to £4.35m. In month 7, an increased demand was seen in statutory services such as adult services, which saw an increased overspend of £0.700m, which now led to a total overspend of £6.36m. Children’s Services had also seen an overspend of £0.580m, due to an increase in placements.

Councillor Jones said that the place directorate had reduced its overspend by £0.800m, which showed that the Council was moving in a good direction when it came to services that it could control and that are not demand driven. It had been reported that around 40 MPs had written to Central Government to provide additional finances to ensure that it could continue to provide essential services and balance its budget. An extra allocation of £500m to assist in covering increases in adult social care costs, which Councillor Jones welcomed, however believed that it was not enough to cover the increased demand.

Councillor Jones then stated that although a balanced budget for 2024/25 had been achieved, all be it with some very difficult and unpleasant decisions, with the current level of overspend as a result of the previous administration’s budget, the Council were entering the new financial year with minimal reserves. There was therefore a continued risk of issuing a Section 114 notice.

Councillor Hill, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, Customer Service Centre and Employment, asked what impact on RBWM specifically had been made by the 30% reduction in Government grants and also the limiting of Council tax rises by Central Government to just 2.99% per annum. Councillor Jones replied by saying that the borough had seen 6 years of continuous Council tax cuts, this reduced the amount that could be spent on residents. The borough had around £0.0015m per dwelling per year that it could spend, which compared to Reading’s £0.0019m. The boroughs spend per dwelling was in the bottom 1% of all local authorities.

Councillor Tisi, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education and Windsor, wished to comment on Children’s Services specifically and said that it was important to focus on demand driven services, such as this service and that children and young people were not just numbers and that safeguarding them was vitally important. Lin Ferguson, Executive Director of Children’s Services and Education, said that it was the borough’s statutory duty to ensure that children and young people were safeguarded and protected. Since October 2023, 11 children and young persons had come into the care of the borough; 6 of these were in police protection due to concerns over safety;  3 were asylum seekers and 2 were beyond parental control.

Lin Ferguson  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Community Partnerships, Public Protection and Maidenhead

To note the report and review the Quarterly Assurance Report setting out progress against the performance indicators and risk register.

Cabinet noted the report and reviewed the Quarterly Assurance Report setting out progress against the performance indicators and risk register.

The Chair, Councillor Werner, Leader of the Council and Cabinet Member for Community Partnerships, Public Protection and Maidenhead, introduced the Quarterly Assurance Report to Cabinet. He said that this was the 2nd new and improved report to come to Cabinet and that despite the financial challenges that were being seen, the Council was continuing to see strong performance across all services. Growing staffing concerns within the Council meant that the Council were quite reliant on agency staff, which of course came with an extra cost. He admitted that the borough struggled nationally, as the borough’s salaries were very much out of step with other local authorities. Another key issue was housing, with cost of living rises and a growing number of asylum seekers, being seen to continually put strain upon the service. The draft budget was very much dependable on the transformation programme and that the Cabinet were working very hard with officers to fix the mess.

Councillor Del Campo, Cabinet Member for Adults, Health and Housing Services, commended the well written report, including the metrics and the data that was clearly set out. She said that permanent staff were of course always preferred compared to the use of agency staff, however acknowledged that this was not always possible to ensure safe levels of working.

Councillor Del Campo then said that something was being trialled in the adult social care team, which was to use small amounts of long-term underspend to increase pay. The aim of this was to reward loyalty and reduce dependencies on agency staff. In addition to this, there had recently been good news in terms of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework (ASCOF) ratings, which rated persons perceptions of adult social care. She then placed on record her thanks to the teams in Optalis and RBWM, especially during the recent flooding, where colleagues worked to ensure vulnerable residents were cared for.

Kevin McDaniel, Executive Director of Adults, Health & Communities, wished to talk to the ASCOF report, that Councillor Del Campo mentioned. He said that 275 RBWM residents took part in the survey and ranked the borough highly nationally for adult social care. The borough were ranked 4th for overall satisfaction and 1st for the value added to quality of life.

Councillor Bermange, Cabinet Member for Planning, Legal & Asset Management thanked the Corporate Overview & Scrutiny Panel for their comments on the previous report that had gone to Cabinet and said that this was a very valuable contribution. He then spoke on planning specifically and the progress that was being made to identify flaws in the system. He drew Cabinet’s attention to table 4 of the report. 

Stephen Evans wished to echo the comments of Councillor Bermange around scrutiny and said that good governance was essential, which he had seen strong examples of so far during his time so far at the borough.

AGREED: Cabinet noted the report and reviewed the Quarterly Assurance Report setting out progress against the performance indicators and risk register.