Children’s Services, Education, Health, Mental Health, & Transformation

To approve the following reserved matters:

?      Approval of the Company’s strategic direction through the adoption of the updated Business Plan and Medium-Term Financial Strategy

?      Approval of the Company's budget for 2023/24

?      Approval of the Company's arrangements for managing cash flow through the adoption of the Financial Plan (known as the Treasury Plan) for 2023/24

?      To brief the committee on the proposed procurement route for a new temporary worker contract and agree how a new provider will be appointed.

Cabinet considered the report on Achieving for Children’s Reserved Ownership Matters.

Councillor Carroll, Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education, Health, Mental Health, & Transformation said that the borough owned 20% of the company Achieving for Children (AfC) and therefore were responsible for making reserved matter ownership decisions in relation to the strategic direction of the company, but also for other matters that the report seeked Cabinet approval for.

Councillor Carroll then outlined the main elements of appendix A which included the following priorities:

·       Stronger Families, which focussed on safeguarding young persons.

·       A positive future, which focussed on investing and collaborating with schools to ensure young persons were ready for their future adult lives.

·       An excellent workforce, which focussed on recruiting the very best staff to deliver.

·       Financial stability, to ensure key services were delivered, despite external pressures made by the economy.

·       A successful organisation, to look at enhancing the operation of AfC and maximising its output.

·       Smarter ways of working, to look at being more innovative and inventive with everything moving forward.

Lucy Kourpas, Chief Operating & Finance Officer for Achieving for Children, stated that the report outlined four different reserved matter decisions. She outlined these too Cabinet for clarity and explained that the detailed documents were reported within the appendices of the report.

The first decision related to approval of AfC’s strategic direction for the next financial year.  This was done through the annual approval of the Business Plan and the Medium-Term Financial Strategy.  Next year would be the last year of this five-year Business Plan and a detailed programme of work was planned in 2023 to consult with stakeholders to review strategic direction.  The document included both projects that were specific to Windsor and Maidenhead to ensure synergy with local borough plans as well as ones that would be implemented across all three AfC Local Authority areas.  The programmes were outlined in the appendices and the key ones to note for next year were as followed: 

·       AfC wide- placement sufficiency, recruitment and retention which had been a real struggle for AFC in recent years.

·       reviewing back-office services with ICT being the focus for 2023.

·       Equality Diversity and Inclusion and continuing to improve capacity and capability in relation to procurement and commissioning which had been identified as a weakness in AfC a couple of years ago.

·       Windsor and Maidenhead specific- Development of an embedded edge of care team.

·       Continuation of work to address areas in SEND Written Statement of Action, replacement of the case management software system.

The second decision related to approval of the AfC annual budget for 2023/24.  Appendix C provided a detailed budget report and included information on Windsor and Maidenhead as well as AfC’s other two boroughs.  The information mirrored what had been approved by each council for children’s services.

The third decision was approval of the annual Treasury Plan.  This plan was attached to the report and provided details of how AfC was allowed to invest and borrow for operational cashflow purposes.

The last decision related to a significant procurement decision that was a reserved decision because the value would be over £10million.  AfC’s contract for the procurement of temporary staff would come to an end in 2023 and were asking that following a compliant procurement process that the final decision to appoint a provider be delegated to the Director of Children’s Services with the Cabinet Member.

Councillor Hilton,Cabinet Member for Asset Management & Commercialisation, Finance, & Ascot, said that the goal of focussing on children and families was essential and that he admired the energy and effort that had been put into delivering this. He added that the recruitment and retention of staff was also key in delivering an excellent service.

Councillor Hilton said that he had noticed a difference between the revenue budget that had been outlined for AfC in the council’s revenue budget papers and the one provided within the report. He then raised questions around the amount of agency staff that were being paid for and linked this with the key objective around the retention of staff.

Lucy Kourpas, replied by saying that she had viewed the figures for AfC’s revenue budget and that from what she could see was that the borough’s figure was for the whole of the Children’s Services budget, whereas the figure within the report was just the AfC contract price. Lucy Kourpas committed to providing a full breakdown of the difference, but the main difference was in relation to Government Grant and school income which was receipted by the Royal Borough rather than AfC.

With reference to agency staff, she admitted that AfC would love to have permanent staff filling all posts within their teams, however agency staff were inevitably required because of national and local shortages of suitable permanent staff. There was an ambition to reduce agency staff levels over time, but achieving 0% agency staff, would be very difficult. Agency staff usually received a greater amount of pay than that of permanent staff and there was a national trend of qualified staff choosing temporary rather than permanent contracts. The Chair thanked Lucy Kourpas for her comments and her paper.

Councillor Carroll proposed officer’s recommendation, with this being seconded by Councillor Johnson.

AGREED UNANIMOUSLY: That Cabinet

i)               Approved the Business Plan including the Medium-Term Financial Strategy.

ii)             Approved the detailed 2023/24 budget.

iii)        Approved the Treasury Plan

iv)            That authority is delegated to the Director of Children's Services in communication with the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services, Education, Health, Mental Health, & Transformation to award the new contract for employment of temporary workers following a compliant procurement process and that the Treasury Plan be approved.