Agenda and minutes

Councillor Peter Raynes – Finance Portfolio Holder

Councillor Rachel Bailey – Children and families Portfolio Holder

Lorraine Butcher - Executive Director of Strategic Commissioning

Tony Crane - Director of Children's Services

Brenda Smith - Head of Individual Commissioning

Vivienne Quayle - Head of Commercial Strategy Business Innovation & Performance

Mark Wheelton - Principal Leisure Services Manager

Sandra Murphy - Commissioning Manager

Mark Nedderman – Senior Scrutiny Officer

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 9 July 2013.

RESOLVED – That subject to the name of Councillor H Davenport being added to list of Members present, the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 9 July 2013 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were declarations of the existence of a party whip.

There were no members of the public present who wished to speak.

To receive a presentation on Adult Safeguarding issues.

The Chairman reminded Members that in March 2013 the Committee had given a commitment to scrutinising safeguarding arrangements in Children’s and Adult’s services and as part of the process to enable the committee to gain a better understanding of the challenges faced by Cheshire East in relation to the safeguarding of adults, he had invited the Head of service to give a presentation on key issues.

Sandra Murphy Commissioning Manager attended the meeting and gave a presentation on safeguarding arrangements for adults in Cheshire East.

Sandra explained that a vulnerable adult was defined as a person aged 18 or over who was or may be in need of community care services by reason of:

·         Disability, age of illness and

·         Unable to take care of him or herself

·         Unable to protect him or herself from harm

The Committee was reminded of a small number of high profile national cases which had raised the profile of adult safeguarding issues recently, including the Frances inquiry in relation to mid Staffordshire hospital.

Nationally, there had been an 11% increase in the reporting of safeguarding referrals across the 152 reporting authorities. The North West region had the highest number of referrals and Cheshire East ranked third highest in the North West.

It was suggested that a number of factors had contributed to this situation such as the personalisation agenda which had added many levels of complexity into safeguarding arrangements.

The committee was informed that the Council’s Safeguarding Board now produced multi-agency performance reports and that these in future could be referred to this committee for consideration.

RESOLVED-

(a)          That the presentation be noted;

(b)          That the Head of Individual Commissioning be requested to submit the multi agency adult safeguarding performance report and annual report of the safeguarding report to the October meeting of the Committee.

To consider a report of the Chief Operating Officer (to follow)

            The Committee considered a report of the Chief Operating Officer containing a summary and detailed information about the Council’s financial and non-financial performance at the first quarter year stage of 2013/2014.

Section 1 of the report brought together the impact that service performance, the change management programme and financial performance were having on the 5 Outcomes in the Council’s 3 Year Plan. The section highlighted key aspects of service performance and significant exceptions against the change programme and capital programme designed to deliver the outcomes. It considered the key financial pressures which the Council’s Services were facing, potentially as a result of delays in implementing change, and the proposed remedial measures identified by Services to mitigate these pressures.   

            Section 2 provided an update on the overall Financial Stability of the Council. It demonstrated how spending in 2013/2014 was being adequately funded, including the positions on overall Service budgets, Grants, Council Tax and Business Rates, Treasury Management, centrally held budgets, and the management of the Council’s Reserves.    

            Section 3 provided a summary of the key issues relating to the Council’s Workforce Development Plan.   

            The Committee was informed that the Council had a savings target of £31m for 2013/2014. At the First Quarter stage, an overspend of £3.7m (1.4%) was projected against a budget of £260.3m. This would result in a decrease in the Council’s general reserves level to £14.8m, which still compared favourably with the opening balance forecast in the 2013/2014 budget of £13.2m.

            In relation to performance, the report stated that 54% of the basket of performance measures for external reporting achieved, exceeded or were within agreed tolerance.

RESOLVED -

(a)  That the report be received;

(b)  That Cabinet be informed that this Committee believes that good progress has been made by the Council in the first quarter of the 2013/14 in relation to the Council’s overall budget, but is mindful of the need to remain vigilant, particularly in relation to spending on Adult Social Care, in view of the Council’s recent history and continuing pressures on service demand in that area.  

To Consider a report of the Head of Governance and Democratic Services.

The Committee reviewed its work programme for the current municipal year.

The Chairman informed the committee that he had recently met with the Finance portfolio holder in relation to the budget setting consultation process for the 2014/15 budget and the Head of Commercial Strategy Business Innovation & Performance about co-ordinating the work of the committee with the Corporate priorities of the Council and that changes to the work programme would be made to take account of these discussions.

RESOLVED –

(a)  That the report be received;

(b)  That the meeting scheduled to take place on 6 January be re-arranged on a date later in January to allow the committee sufficient time to be consulted on the draft budget 2014/15;

(c)  That a report be submitted to the committee in November on the Council tax base;

(d)  That an item be included in the work programme to review complaints and the results of the annual citizen’s panel survey.