To receive such announcements as may be made by the Leader.
Minutes:
The Leader of the Council, in summary:-
1. Echoed the Mayor’s words regarding the recent horrific events nationally, which had reached all corners of the country, including Cheshire East and asked Members to join her in sending condolences to all those impacted or who had sadly lost loved ones.
2. Referred the Council’s Critical Incident Response Team, which offered advice and psychological support to schools, settings and services at the time of an incident, when staff, pupils and parents may have experienced acute, even prolonged distress. The team had been and were key to the cross service response that Cheshire East delivered whenever required. She stated that, following a recent incident at a Sandbach school, she had received formal appreciation and thanks from the Headteacher and governors for the work of officers in providing sensitive help and support to both staff and students. The team had also been involved in the support to schools following the aftermath of the Manchester bombing, and when she and the Mayor and Mayoress had visited Holmes Chapel High School, had been there, working in partnership with the school and the faith sector.
3. Stated that Councillors rightly referenced the importance of their role as corporate parents to cared for children, which currently numbered well over 400 in Cheshire East. She stated that she had been delighted to learn of the success of two care leavers at the recent South and West Cheshire College Awards Evening. Equally, Cheshire East Primary Pupils had achieved an impressive set of Key Stage 2 results across core subjects. She stated that provisional figures showed that 64% of pupils had achieved the expected standard or higher for combined reading, writing and maths. The overall performance across Cheshire East was above the national average for all curriculum test indicators. She noted that these achievements had taken place during a time of major uncertainty as to Cheshire East schools future funding under the Governments fair funding for schools policy. She and Jacky Forster, DoE, had accompanied Headteachers from Cheshire East to a meeting with the Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, in January. The meeting had been convened by Fiona Bruce MP and fellow Cheshire East MP’s had either been in attendance or represented. The outcome had been that Headteachers and Cheshire East officers would provide an evidence base of the annual cost of educating a pupil in Cheshire East. She was, therefore, delighted to report that this piece of partnership working had been recognised with: -
· A minimum of £4800 per pupil provided for every secondary school.
· An increase in the basic amount that every pupil attracted through the formula
· Continued protection for funding for additional needs.
· For the next two years gains of up to 3% a year for underfunded schools and 0.5% a year per pupil cash increase.
She reported that the Council would shortly be publishing the operational guidance for 2018 to 2019 and the baselines for local authorities spending in the current year. She stated that this may have taken six months to deliver, but she believed that the timeframe proved the sustainability of this vital funding. The government was also bringing forward additional funding of £1.3 billion nationally, on top of existing spending plans in 2018 to 2019 and 2019 to 2020. As a result, core funding for schools and high needs would rise to £43.5 billion by 2019/2020. She considered that this was a key area for Cheshire East to watch, in view of the formula previously supporting schools basic need via high needs.
4. Reported that:-
The area of Children & Families continued to innovate and succeed with:-
· The SEND sufficiency statement had been published – a comprehensive statement outlining the supply and demand for education to support children and young people with special educational needs and disabilities.
· Borough wide roll out of “Project Crewe”.
· The launch of the Regional Adoption Agency And Launch of the Neglect Strategy – key to CE’s demographic in terms of intervention.
In the area of Adults:-
· Local Area Coordinators continued to work effectively on community asset mapping, supporting people to remain as independent as possible.
· Six newly qualified social workers had completed their assessed and supported year of employment programme, having consistently demonstrated practice in a wider range of tasks and roles and one social worker had successfully progressed to a grade 9 experienced worker and 2 workers had completed their practice educator stage 1 award.
· A vital piece of work had been received from the Health, Adult Social Care and Communities Scrutiny Committee on Delayed Transfer of Care and the Health and Wellbeing Board had received an update on performance. The Mid Cheshire Health Trust had maintained target levels quite consistently, however, The East Cheshire Health Trust were seeing a much improved situation moving closer towards national targets, with the lowest number of acute delays ever recorded in NHS England in June 2017. The work of the scrutiny committee was vital in this area.
· Technology was ever is key to innovation and Liquid Logic had been introduced in Adults in July 2016 and was improving case management workflows and The Live Well website provided residents with detailed information on a range of services and care provision.
5. Reported that the hybrid bill for phase 2a of HS2, from Birmingham to Crewe, was being put before Parliament and she stated that this was a key milestone for this “once in a generation” rail project, which would see a Crewe hub station opening in 2027. She also welcomed further recognition of the overwhelming case for an HS2 hub station in Crewe and stated that was pleasing to see that the Department for Transport had launched a consultation on the Crewe HS2 hub station and related components. The Council would consider the consultation proposals in detail to ensure that consultation responses reflected the best possible outcomes for residents. She referred to the enormous benefits to the economy, with an enhanced HS2 hub station at Crewe, with unrivalled 360 degree connectivity and up to seven high speed trains an hour serving Manchester, Birmingham and London, which would deliver not only to the sub region but also to the Midlands, North West, Wales and beyond. The Leader stressed that there would be the highest standards of mitigation and compensation for those people affected by the route.
6. Referred to the Local Plan Strategy, which was to be considered later in the meeting. She stated that the Council had heard from residents, who had worked tirelessly in relation the Local Plan and had taken every opportunity to respond to the many consultations that had taken place. She stated that the choice before the Council was a stark one and to adopt it would ensure that there would be the full legal effect and, not least, would provide those tools when it came to development management and planning applications, to provide mitigation, implement design guides, ensure neighbourhood plans were heard and would enable officers and committees to use the tools they had. The Local Plan was also about the infrastructure, for example roads, schools, health and open space. She felt that Members and those residents who had responded to the consultations recognised the massive challenge that this was and she looked forward to debating it later in the meeting.