Agenda and minutes

Members of the public are welcome to attend our meetings to watch them in person at any of the venues across the County. Publicly accessible meetings held in County Hall will be webcast, which means they are available to be watched live or recorded on our website. Please see our webcasting notice here. The Committee may, in certain circumstances, resolve to hold part of the meeting in private. If this is the case, you will be required to leave the meeting.

Venue: Committee Room 'D' - The Henry Bolingbroke Room, County Hall, Preston. View directions

Contact: Dave Gorman  Tel: 01772 534261, Email:  dave.gorman@lancashire.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

  None received 

2.

Disclosure of Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests

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.

Minutes:

None declared

3.

Minutes of the Meeting held on 11 December 2014 pdf icon PDF 85 KB

Minutes:

Resolved: - That the minutes of the meeting held on 11 December 2014 be agreed as a true and accurate record and be signed by the Chair.

4.

Response to Ofsted Inspection of Adult Learning pdf icon PDF 110 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Eddie Sutton, Assistant Chief Executive, attended and presented a report setting out the County Council's response to the recent Ofsted inspection of Lancashire Adult Learning.

 

It was reported that the inspection, which had taken place over the course of a week in November 2014, had resulted in a grading of 4, i.e. inadequate. Pages 2 - 3 of the report set out a summary of Ofsted's assessment, including a number of strengths.

 

The report set out the consequences of the inadequate grading in terms of the funding which Lancashire Adult Learning attracted from the Skills Funding Agency and also highlighted the referral to the Further Education Commissioner whose role it was to assess the capacity and capability of the existing governance and leadership arrangements to deliver rapid and sustainable improvement. The Commissioner had visited Lancashire on 20 and 21 January and his draft recommendations were expected at some point in February.

 

The inspection regime would involve regular six weekly visits from Ofsted leading up to a full re-inspection within 12 - 15 months. The Principal and Chief Executive of Colne College had agreed to work with the County Council on a part time basis for the remainder of the academic year to take forward the Post Inspection Action Plan. The Action Plan, set out at Appendix 'A' to the report, set out the actions and timescales to address the issues identified in the Ofsted inspection report.

 

It was anticipated that the Action Plan would be signed off by Ofsted, the Skills Funding Agency and the Further Education Commissioner by the end of February. It was proposed that the Cabinet Committee receive update reports on progress on a quarterly basis.

 

The Cabinet Committee expressed its disappointment at the outcome of the inspection but was confident that the Action Plan would address the issues which had been highlighted by Ofsted.

 

Resolved: - That:

 

(i)  The progress to date on the agreement of the draft Post Inspection Action Plan set out at Appendix 'A' to the report, now presented, in response to the Ofsted inspection report;

(ii)  Update reports to the Cabinet Committee be requested on a quarterly basis.

5.

Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (Dols) pdf icon PDF 78 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Barbara Lewis, County Head of Support Planning and Review, and Anita Lindon, Team Leader, Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards Team, Adult Services, Health and Wellbeing Directorate, attended and presented a report setting out an overview of the current situation regarding the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards and the pressures faced by the County Council since a Supreme Court ruling in March 2014 increased the number of people who now fall within the remit of the legislation.

 

It was reported that numbers of applications had risen from approximately 350 in 2013/14 to over 1,700 since April 2014. Whilst the impact of the Supreme Court ruling was still being assessed, there was a significant financial burden on Councils as a result. County Councillor Borrow referred to the representations which were being made to Government in terms of the increased financial burden and potential changes to legislation to offset some of the unintended consequences of the Supreme Court ruling.

 

Reference was made to the impact on the Coroners service as the death of an individual subject to a Deprivation of Liberty authorisation was classed as a death in custody. It was also noted that a Deprivation of Liberty authorisation could only last a maximum of 12 months. At the end of that period, the process had to be undertaken again. This, in itself, had a significant impact as the administration process and paperwork required was lengthy and complex.

 

Resolved: - That:

 

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

(ii)  A further report be submitted for consideration by the Cabinet Committee in due course.

6.

Corporate Human Resources - Health Check Report pdf icon PDF 56 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Katie Dunne, Service Manager, Corporate Human Resources, attended and presented a report setting out details of the County Council's performance against key metrics regarding workforce information for 2013/14 and the 3rd quarter for 2014/15.

 

Highlights reported for the 3rd quarter of 2014/15 included:

 

-  The number of starters had increased

-  The number of leavers had reduced;

-  The number of recruitment adverts had increased;

-  Recruitment advertising spend had increased.

 

It was noted that, in respect of the increase in new starters, this could be attributed to new posts created in the Environment Directorate in respect of capital programme projects, together with additional posts in Lancashire County Commercial Group relating to Free School Meals.

 

Sickness absence figures for the 3rd quarter were tabled at the meeting as follows:

 

Total number ofdays lost2.52 Target 2.27days

Number of days lostper FTE- Shortterm 1.08

Number of dayslost perFTE -Long term1.44

Number of employeesabsent 6-12months 150

Number of employeesabsent over12 months49

 

Directorate

Days per FTE2014/15

Target

Adult Services, Healthand Wellbeing

(ASHW)

3.57

2.98

Childrenand YoungPeople

(CYP)

2.98

2.61

Environment

2.07

2.06

Officeof theChief Executive

(OCE)

2.00

2.61

County Treasurers

2.12

1.97

LancashireCounty

CommercialGroup (LCCG)

3.82

3.09

 

 

These showed that the total number of days lost was 2.52 against a target of 2.27. The top three reasons for absence in the 3rd quarter were mental health at 23%; medical/hospital at 13% and digestive system at 12%.

 

It was noted that the failure to achieve the target in the 3rd quarter may be related, in part, to the County Council's ongoing transformation process.

 

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

7.

Achievement of Looked After Children in Lancashire pdf icon PDF 63 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Bob Stott, Director for Universal and Early Support Services, and Jonathan Hewitt, Head of Quality and Continuous Improvement, Directorate for Children and Young People, attended and presented a report setting out details of the attainment, progress and achievements of Lancashire Children Looked After in 2014.

 

It was reported that there were over 1,600 Children Looked After in Lancashire with some 900 attending primary and secondary schools up to the age of 16. A large proportion of Children Looked After had special educational needs with around two thirds of those in Year 11 in 2014 falling into this category.

 

The report set out the educational performance of Children Looked After at the end of both Key Stage 2 and Key Stage 4. Whilst improvements had been made to performance at Key Stage 2, the performance at Key Stage 4 remained an area of concern where performance (from unvalidated data) was 8.9% of Children Looked After attaining five or more A*- C grades at GCSE including English and Mathematics against a target of 13%. The report set out a number of possible reasons for this, together with priorities for development which had been incorporated into the recovery plan set out at Appendix 'B'.

 

The Cabinet Committee recognised the important role that the County Council played as the Corporate Parent for Children Looked After and welcomed the steps being taken to address the issues highlighted in the report and recovery plan.

 

Resolved: - That:

 

(i)  The report and recovery plan, now presented, be noted;

(ii)  A further report be considered by the Cabinet Committee in October 2015.

8.

Urgent Business

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.

Minutes:

There was no urgent business to be considered.

9.

Date of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Cabinet Committee will take place on Thursday 12 March 2015 at 2.00pm in the Diamond Jubilee Room – Cabinet Room 'B', County Hall, Preston.

 

Minutes:

The Cabinet Committee noted that the next meeting would be held on Thursday 12 March 2015 at 2.00pm in Cabinet Room 'B' - The Diamond Jubilee Room, County Hall.

10.

Notice of Intention to Conduct Business in Private pdf icon PDF 80 KB

Notice is hereby given in accordance with Regulations 5(4) and 6 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 that this meeting is likely to move into private session to consider the item listed as Quarterly Report on the Service Delivery and Performance of the County Council's Waste Disposal Company.

 

 

Minutes:

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

11.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

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.

Minutes:

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.

12.

Quarterly Report on the Service Delivery and Performance of the County Council's Waste Disposal Company

Minutes:

Steve Scott, Head of Waste Management, attended and presented 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.