Cabinet considered the report regarding Achieving for Children reserve matters.

The Deputy Chairman of Cabinet, Adult Social Care, Children’s Services, Health and Mental Health informed that the paper sought approval of the reserve matters which is a positive decision to approve the company’s:

·        strategic direction through the adoption of the updated Business Plan,

·        the Company's budget for 2021/22,

·        approval of the arrangements for managing cashflow through the adoption of the Financial Plan (known as the Treasury Plan) for 2021/22,

·        approval of arrangements for the appointment / recruitment of Non Executive Independent Board Directors over the coming year.

The Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead owns 20% of Achieving for Children Community Interest Company (AfC).  The AfC Joint Committee considered and approved a number of changes to the ownership governance of AfC in March 2020.  The three council’s constitutions have now been updated to reflect those changes. 

The previous Joint Committee will now be used for dispute resolution mechanism and meetings will be arranged only if required. 

The reserved matter decisions that would have been previously made by the Joint Committee will now be taken by each of the three owning councils individually as part of their established governance processes.  Councillors from each owning council still meet twice yearly via an Ownership Board to discuss strategic direction and performance.  The new arrangements would increase transparency and accountability.

The Chief Operating & Finance Officer AfC informed Cabinet that the report and appendices had been produced with engagement with RBWM Councillors and officers.   They outlined the strategy in terms oof how they planned to develop and improve services over the coming years.  How they aimed to achieve financial sustainability given the expected challenging years ahead.  The plans give the best opportunity to manage service demand as well as providing quality services for the borough.  As well as quality affordability was also important, so their commissioning function and placements was very important.  Good social care placements would be improved by the development of their own independent fostering agency. 

The Lead Member for Finance and Ascot welcomed the move to have the reserved matter brought to Cabinet for approval as it improved transparency and member input.  He pointed out the tables on agenda pack page 250 that showed the values for money the company was providing for children’s social care, however the cost of education services was above the average.  The report also showed that RBWM were achieving their savings targets.

The Lead Member for Finance and Ascot also pointed out that page 269 highlighted a budget shortfall of £396k associated with unfunded staffing levels in Social Care and operating budget shortfalls for RBWM.  He asked how this would be mitigated and was informed that it was usual to have a number of unfunded pressures especially given the national situation.  There would be strict vacancy controls in place looking at if there was a need to recruit and how they recruit, opportunities of budget reprofiling will be looked at as well reviewing the use of agency staff and undertaking recruitment campaigns.  There was also plans to maximise external funding sauces.  Progress on mitigating actions would be reported via the Director of Children’s Services and the RBWM finance team.

The Deputy Leader of the Council, Resident & Leisure Services, HR, IT, Legal, Performance Management & Windsor informed that she welcomed the report and that it showed the way forward children’s services were improving with AfC.  She was also pleased to see the sustainability elements within the report and asked what the opportunities for innovation were that arose as a result of the pandemic.  In response Cabinet were informed that the pandemic caused a number of services to go digital; this had been a success and it was planned to build upon it by using a hybrid model.    Another area was they had to evaluate their working models and due to how well it went how the flexibility and opportunities could be expanded upon.  

Resolved unanimously: that Cabinet notes the report and:

i)             Approves the Business Plan including the Business Development Strategy and Medium Term Financial Strategy (Annex A,B,C)

ii)           Approves the detailed 2021/22 budget (Annex D)

iii)         Approves the Treasury Plan (Annex E)

iv)         Agrees to delegate the reappointment / recruitment of Non Executive Independent Directors to the Council’s Managing Director in consultation with the Leader of the Council

(Cllr Carroll left the meeting)