Apologies were received from Mr A Walters.

There were no announcements from the Head of Paid Service. The Chairman welcomed Dawn Godfrey, the recently appointed Deputy Director Children’s Services to her first cabinet meeting.

In accordance with the Regulations, Members are required 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.

No declarations of interest were received.

To confirm the Record of Decisions made at the meeting of the Cabinet held on 16 April 2019.

The Record of Decisions made at the meeting of the Cabinet held on 16 April 2019, copies of which had been previously circulated, were confirmed as a true record and were signed by the Chairman.

To receive items raised by members of scrutiny which have been submitted to the Leader (copied to Chief Executive and Governance) by 4.30 pm on Friday 14 June 2019.

The Chair of the Growth, Infrastructure and Resources Scrutiny, following a meeting of the Committee on 13 June 2019, raised the following points:

·         Members questioned why in Appendix F, the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) of item 9 on the agenda there is an expected drop in spend for the Places directorate between 2019/20 and 2020/21.

·         Members felt the MTFP gave the best case scenario (given current knowledge e.g. on Government spending plans) and needed also to offer a worst case scenario.

·         Members asked if there was an opportunity to optimise Oakham Enterprise Park (OEP) and what was being done to increase efficiency.

Mr Brown, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance, responded that an MTFP worst case scenario would be specifically dealt with at the Members’ finance training session.

(KEY DECISION)

Report No.85/2019

Report No.85/2019 was received from the Chief Executive.

Mr Hemsley, Leader of the Council, introduced the report the purpose of which was to approve the draft Digital Rutland Strategy 2019-2022.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         It was noted that where superfast broadband coverage was available, take-up rates were very high.

·         On completion of phase 3, expected by the end of August 2019, 97% of Rutland premises would have access to superfast broadband.

·         The Chief Executive would let Ward Members know which areas of the County would not be covered after completion of Phase 3.

·         Table 7 on page 23/24 of the report recorded 0% not spots for mobile coverage on Rutland roads. Members commented however that in practice there were plenty of areas where there was not a mobile signal and felt that this figure needed to be questioned. The definition of what a ‘not-spot’ was needed to be properly defined.

DECISION:

Cabinet approved the draft Digital Rutland Strategy 2019-2022.

Reasons for the decision:

The production of a Digital Rutland Strategy 2019-2022 is not a statutory requirement. Instead it sets out a strategic framework for the period 2019-2022 that supports the delivery of a number of the Council’s priorities and objectives and delivery of other local strategies as well as supporting the UK government ambitions.

Report No.92/2019

Report No.92/2019 was received from the Chief Executive.

Mrs Briggs, the Chief Executive, introduced the report the purpose of which was to provide Cabinet with a progress report on the St Georges Barrack’s project further to the report of March 2018.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         The HIF bid had been submitted and there had been weekly dialogue between the project team and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG), to clarify any queries. At this point in time, Homes England were not able to indicate when a grant offer might be forthcoming.

·         A Project board sub-group had been created to look at design to take this aspect forward.

·         Although there had been a hiatus while the two elections had taken place the next meeting of the Officers Mess Project Board would decide whether to take the project forward as was initially proposed.

·         The Chief Executive had discussed the submission to the Garden Communities Programme with the Rutland MP, Sir Alan Duncan, and the Council were waiting to see whether it had been successful.

DECISION:

Cabinet NOTED the report.

(KEY DECISION)

Report No. 82/2019

Report No. 82/2019 was received from the Strategic Director for People.

Mr Wilby, Portfolio Holder for Lifelong Learning, Early Years, SEND, Inclusion, Safeguarding Children and Young People, introduced the report the purpose of which was to set out the proposals for the new multi-agency safeguarding arrangements for children. These changes are required by the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and Working Together 2018 (statutory guidance on inter-agency working to safeguard and promote the welfare of children) and would replace the current Leicestershire and Rutland Local Safeguarding Children Board (LRLSCB) by September 2019.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         This was the final approval stage of the new arrangements as they would be published by the end of June and implementation would take place in September. However, once established, the new partnership would be open to evolving further.

·         The Strategic Director for People confirmed that he was happy with the proposals but conceded that, like anything negotiated across a partnership, more efficiencies could have been made.

·         Given the relatively small amount of money that Rutland contributed it was unlikely that the new arrangements would produce savings.

·         Independent scrutiny was built into the model to ensure the safety of children and also to provide independent challenge between partners.

DECISION

Cabinet APPROVED the approach to the new multi-agency safeguarding partnership arrangements for children to be known as Leicestershire and Rutland Safeguarding Children’s Partnership

Reasons for the decision

It is a requirement for all local authority areas to have in place by the end of September 2019, multi-agency partnership arrangements to safeguard and promote the welfare of all children.  It is also a requirement to publish these arrangements by 29 June 2019.

(KEY DECISION)

Report No.79/2019

Report No. 79/2019 was received from the Strategic Director for Resources.

Mr Gordon Brown, Deputy Leader and Portfolio Holder for Planning, Environment, Property and Finance introduced the report, the purpose of which was to inform Cabinet of the provisional outturn figures (subject to audit) for the financial year 2018/19. In reporting the outturn, Cabinet was being asked to carry forward some unspent budgets to 2019/20 and put aside some additional funding in earmarked reserves.

During discussion the following points were noted:

·         The report had been to the Growth, Infrastructure and Resources Scrutiny Committee meeting for their consideration. The main points that had been highlighted in the discussion were the underspend of the revenue budget by £74k, a position which was subject to external audit by Grant Thornton LLP, and the funds which were to be carried over to earmarked reserves.

·         The Government was unlikely to make any funding announcements soon so the most likely scenario was that the Government would roll over the settlement from the current year into next year. Savings were being made to counteract this uncertainty.

·         Reserves at year end were very much where it was hoped that they would be. £109k had been contributed to the new repairs and maintenance reserve and the welfare reserve ceiling had been increased.

DECISIONS:

Cabinet:

1.    NOTED the provisional outturn on the revenue budget and updated capital programme

2.    APPROVED the transfer to earmarked reserves from 18/19 underspends of £2.355m including £509k for ring fenced budgets.

3.    APPROVED the use of £70k from winter pressures grant and £49k from the social care reserve to fund the overspend on DFGs of £119k (in line with reported outturn at Q3)

4.    NOTED that the MTFP in Appendix F reflects the outturn position.

5.    RECOMMENDED TO COUNCIL the setting up of 2 new reserves and amending the ceiling of 2 reserves as detailed in section 2.4.

Reasons for the decision:

As the Council is required to make savings over the medium term, the outturn position is positive compared to Quarter 3. The approval of budget carry forwards will allow the 2019/20 budget to be updated to reflect spending plans.

To receive items of urgent business which have previously been notified to the person presiding.

No items of urgent business were received.