A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

Council and councillors

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Zoom - https://us06web.zoom.us/j/82487483785

Contact: Jane Narey  01572 758311

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

WELCOME AND APOLOGIES RECEIVED

Minutes:

Councillor Waller welcomed everyone to the Special Joint Scrutiny Committee meeting and informed attendees that she would Chair the meeting and Councillor Ainsley would act as Vice Chair. Apologies were received from Councillor Baines and from the co-opted member Mr Andreas Menzies.

2.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are invited to declare any personal or prejudicial interests they may have and the nature of those interests in respect of items on this Agenda and/or indicate if Section 106 of the Local Government Finance Act 1992 applies to them.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest

3.

PETITIONS, DEPUTATIONS AND QUESTIONS

To receive any petitions, deputations and questions received from Members of the Public in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule 216.

 

The total time allowed for this item shall be 30 minutes.  Petitions, declarations and questions shall be dealt with in the order in which they are received.  Questions may also be submitted at short notice by giving a written copy to the Committee Administrator 15 minutes before the start of the meeting.

 

The total time allowed for questions at short notice is 15 minutes out of the total time of 30 minutes.  Any petitions, deputations and questions that have been submitted with prior formal notice will take precedence over questions submitted at short notice.  Any questions that are not considered within the time limit shall receive a written response after the meeting and be the subject of a report to the next meeting.

 

Minutes:

There were no petitions, deputations or questions

4.

QUESTIONS WITH NOTICE FROM MEMBERS

To consider any questions with notice from Members received in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rules No 218 and No. 218A.

Minutes:

There were no questions with notice from members

5.

NOTICES OF MOTION FROM MEMBERS

To consider any Notices of Motion from Members submitted in accordance with the provisions of Procedure Rule No 219.

 

Minutes:

There were no notices of motion from members

6.

CONSIDERATION OF ANY MATTER REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE FOR A DECISION IN RELATION TO CALL IN OF A DECISION

To consider any matter referred to the Committee for a decision in relation to call in of a decision in accordance with Procedure Rule 206.

 

Minutes:

There were no call-ins

7.

DRAFT REVENUE AND CAPITAL BUDGET 2022/23 pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To receive Report No. 01/2022 from Saverio Della Rocca, Strategic Director for Resources (s.151 Officer) regarding the draft Revenue and Capital Budget for 2022/23. 

 

The Special Joint Scrutiny Committee is asked to provide comments and views on the draft budget before the final budget report is recommended by Cabinet to Council in February 2022.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report No. 01/2022 was received from Councillor K Payne, Portfolio Holder for Finance, Governance and Performance, Change and Transformation.       During the discussion, the following points were noted:

 

·       The Special Joint Scrutiny Committee was asked to provide comments and views on the draft budget before the final budget report was recommended by Cabinet to Council in February 2022.

·       Members had previously submitted questions regarding the budget to the Strategic Director for Resources and it was agreed that the questions and responses would be published with the minutes.

·       Councillor Waller reminded attendees that as the Adults and Health and Children and Young People Scrutiny Committees discussions should relate to Appendix 4 – People Directorate Budget for 2022/23.

·       Appendices 5 and 6 for the Places and Resources Directorates respectively would be discussed at the GIR Scrutiny Committee meeting to be held on the 27th January 2022.

·       Councillor Powell queried the vacant posts that had been removed from the budget. It was clarified following discussion that only vacant posts no longer required were removed from the budget.   The Strategic Director of Resources stated that the number of posts change from year-to-year, so the current year shows the difference between the last year and the current year e.g. Children’s Services had 5 vacancies last year but 5 trainee social workers.  The trainees were now qualified and had moved into the vacant positions so this year there was a reduction in the number of vacancies by 5.  This has saved £126k which was the cost last year to employ interim staff to fill the 5 vacancies until the trainee social workers were qualified.

·       Councillor Ainsley queried the £1 million deficit in the High Needs Block.  The Strategic Director of Children and Families stated that the SEND Recovery Plan was in place.  The plan provided support at a much earlier stage so that a child did not need to move into the expensive high needs service.  The recovery plan was proving effective and would reduce costs moving forward. 

·       It was confirmed that additional support would be required to undertake the Market Sustainability Assessment within Adult Social Care. The implementation of the Adult social care charging reforms was a massive piece of work involving all Adult Services, in particular the Commissioning Team and Revenue and Benefits Team. 

·       John Morley also reported that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) would begin inspections of Adult Social Care Services as from April 2023.  Deprivation of Liberty (DoLs) forms would be replaced by Liberty Protection Safeguards (LPS) as from October 2022.  This would be a very specialist service requiring specialist staff and admin staff to support this service as it would be covering Children’s Services as well as Adult Services.

·       Councillor Waller requested that updates regarding forthcoming legislation changes be given by Directors at Member’s Briefings e.g. CQC inspections, LPS, Integrated Care Systems (ICS) and Primary Care Networks (PCN) etc.

·       John Morley confirmed that the current staffing structure for Adult Services was correct due to a low staff turnover rate.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

8.

FEES AND CHARGES 2022/23 pdf icon PDF 476 KB

To receive Report No. 03/2022 from Saverio Della Rocca, Strategic Director for Resources (s.151 Officer) regarding Fees and Charges for 2022/23. 

 

The Special Joint Scrutiny Committee is asked to provide comments and views before the report is sent to Cabinet in February 2022 for approval.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Report No. 03/2022 was received from Councillor K Payne, Portfolio Holder for Finance, Governance and Performance, Change and Transformation.       During the discussion, the following points were noted:

 

a)    The Special Joint Scrutiny Committee was asked to provide comments and views before the report was sent to Cabinet in February 2022 for approval.

b)    Councillor Waller reminded attendees that as the Adults and Health and Children and Young People Scrutiny Committees discussions should relate to Appendix 1 – People Directorate proposed fees and charges 2022/23.

c)     Councillor Powell queried the actual cost of the DPA fee. The Strategic Director of Resources stated that this was supported by a cost breakdown.  In other areas, if the costs base had not changed then to increase the annual cost in line with inflation was appropriate.

d)    Councillor Waller queried why Admissions fees were set and agreed by the Schools’ Forum.  The Strategic Director of Children and Families stated that it was a Schools’ Forum responsibility to discuss and agree financial issues relating to schools.  Agreement from Rutland schools was important if the Local Authority were to cover its costs. 

 

RESOLVED:

 

1.     That the Committee’s comments and views on the Fees and Charges 2022/23 be taken into consideration by Cabinet when recommending the Fees and Charges 2022/23 to Council

9.

DATE AND PREVIEW OF NEXT MEETING

The next ordinary meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee will be held on Thursday, 24th February 2022 at 7pm via Zoom.

Minutes:

The next ordinary meeting of the Adults and Health Scrutiny Committee would be on Thursday, 17th February at 7pm

 

The next ordinary meeting of the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee would be held on Thursday, 24th February at 7pm