Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from County Councillor David Borrow and County Councillor Geoff Driver.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

None declared.

Resolved: - That the minutes of the meeting held on 30 July 2014 be agreed as a true and accurate record and be signed by the Chair.

A report was presented setting out revised Terms of Reference for the Cabinet Committee which had been approved by the Leader of the County Council, on behalf of Cabinet, on 6 August 2014.

The Terms of Reference had been revised to take account of the Cabinet Committee's new responsibilities to monitor and scrutinise the performance and service delivery of BT Lancashire Services Limited and Red Rose Renewables Limited.

Resolved: - That the report, now presented, be noted.

Michael Walder, Senior Policy and Performance Officer, Corporate Policy and Performance Team, gave an overview of corporate performance monitoring for quarter one of 2014/15, i.e. April - June 2014, which detailed that 81% of the total number of Directorate Key Performance Indicators were performing well and on track/target and/or improving. The report also set out brief updates on a number of performance highlights which had not recently been considered by the Cabinet Committee but which were improving, or on target. 

Bob Stott, Director for Universal and Early Support Services, Directorate for Children and Young People; Diane Booth, Head of Children's Social Care, Directorate for Children and Young People; and Debbie Ross, Associate Head of Safeguarding/Designated Nurse CLA, NHS East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group, attended and presented details of actions being undertaken to address under performance in relation to the proportion of Children Looked After with an up to date health assessment.

It was reported that there was a statutory requirement for all children coming in to care to have an initial health assessment, which was then followed by review assessments. The 2012/13 average for Lancashire was 85.1% but this had declined to 52.5% in June 2014.

It was reported that issues with the Lancashire Children's System, the new IT System, which had not provided the necessary alerts, together with incorrect recording and storage of data had combined to impact significantly on performance. A recovery plan had been implemented by Children's Social Care and Health which had resulted in an increase in performance to 61.1% at 18 September, with a further increase to 63.7% reported at the meeting.

It was reported that a number of further actions had been put in place as part of a wider strategic multi-agency performance recovery plan.

Resolved: - That:

(i)  The report, now presented, be noted;

(ii)  That a further report on the progress of the Health Assessments for Children Looked After Recovery Plan be considered at the next meeting of the Cabinet Committee on 11 December 2014.

Katie Dunne, Service Manager, Corporate Human Resources, attended and presented a report setting out details of performance across the County Council against key metrics in relation to workforce information for 2013/14 and the first quarter of 2014/15.

Reference was made to the following:

It was reported that managers were required to monitor and manage absence within their areas and that robust procedures were in place to support the implementation of those procedures. Where areas of specific concern were identified, Human Resources could provide support and advice if necessary. It was considered that a number of factors related to the transformation process currently being undertaken by the County Council, had impacted on key metrics. These included the number of starters having reduced by 46.1% in quarter one compared to 2013/14, and the number of leavers reducing by 10.3% in the same period which could be seen as evidence of employees waiting for sight of the new structure before making a decision on whether or not to apply for voluntary redundancy. It was also reported that the increase in the number of recruitment adverts in the same period related to recruitment by Lancashire County Commercial Group in relation to school catering initiatives.

It was reported that mental health was consistently in the top three reasons for absence but could vary in terms of being first, second or third. It was recognised that there was potential to link levels of absence due to mental health reasons to the ongoing transformation process and reference was made to the programme which had been put in place for all employees to support them during the process. The Leader of the County Council also referred to the proposal, which would be considered by Cabinet on 9 October, to establish an Employee Welfare Team consisting of four members of staff.

Resolved: - That the report, now presented, be noted.

An item of Urgent Business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the minutes, the Chairman of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency.  Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Members' intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There was no urgent business to be considered.

The next meeting of the Cabinet Committee will take place on Thursday 11 December 2014 at 11.00am in the Duke of Lancaster Room - Cabinet Room 'C', County Hall, Preston.

The Cabinet Committee noted that the next meeting would be held on Thursday 11 December 2014 at 11.00am at County Hall, Preston.

Resolved: - That the Notice of Intention to Conduct Business in Private be noted.

The Committee is asked to consider, whether, under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, it considers that the public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12 to the Local Government Act, 1972 as indicated against the heading to the items, and that in all circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Resolved: - That under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act, 1972, the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business on the grounds that there would be a likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in the appropriate paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972 and that in all circumstances of the case the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

Steve Scott, Head of Waste Management, attended and presented a report setting out the quarterly report on the service delivery and performance of the County Council's waste disposal company.

Resolved: - That the report, now presented, be noted.