Agenda item

Report of the Leader of the Council outlining Executive Business conducted since the last Council meeting in September 2012, attached.

The report of the Leader of the Council was submitted, setting out the details of the business undertaken by the Executive (copy of report circulated with agenda and appended to signed minutes).

 

The Leader and the Cabinet made statements and responded to Questions.

 

The following questions were then submitted in accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11.1:-

 

1.  Promoting Fan and Community Ownership

 

Question from Councillor Parnell to Councillor Payne

 

Following the motion concerning Promoting Fan and Community ownership, how many letters or E mails were sent and what has been the response?

 

Answer

 

The aim of Cllr Pope's motion in September was to call for action and encourage community organising, not burden the Council with additional commitments. Following the motion, Cllr Pope has worked on the issue in addition to his Council duties, resulting in virtually no burden on the authority. His work has included encouraging other councils to adopt a similar motion and he has recently been approached by the Daily Mail newspaper, which is interested in the campaign. Cllr Pope also met several MPs and officials in London this month (November) to discuss the content of his motion and encourage further action.

 

2.  Family Matters Grant

 

Question from Councillor Parnell to Councillor Rayment

 

Family matters grant. How much of the £765,600 (2012/13) has been spent? Are we on target to receive the further £166,400 if we meet the agreed targets? Is the grant ring fenced?

 

Answer

 

40% of resource has been spent and by the end of the financial year this will have increased to 86%.  The resource is ring-fenced, so can be used with families as the programme develops.
We are on track to draw down the £166,400 as we successfully move families forward.

 

3.  Scheduled Meetings

 

Question from Councillor Moulton to Councillor Dr. Williams

 

Please will the Leader say how many meetings he has had with Helius since he became Leader and give the dates and attendees?

 

Answer

 

The Leader has met with senior representatives of Helius on two occasions since he became Leader, as detailed below:

25 June 2012 – met with Adrian Bowles, Chief Executive; Rozie Haines, Environmental Planner and Paul Brighton, Planning Director of Helius, plus Cllr Asa Thorpe, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport

17 October 2012 – met with Adrian Bowles, Chief Executive; Rozie Haines, Environmental Planner and Paul Brighton, Planning Director of Helius, plus Paul Nichols, Senior Manager and Steve Harrison, Planning Officer/Team Leader SCC.

 

4.  Resident and Community Groups

 

Question from Councillor Moulton to Councillor Rayment

 

What is the Cabinet Member doing to ensure that resident and community groups are properly insured and what is she doing to support them in achieving this?

 

Answer

 

The Communities Team offers advice and information to community organisations on appropriate insurance cover, both face-to-face and through its online guide on insurance, available from http://www.southampton.gov.uk/living/comliving/Resources/howtoguides.aspx  and in hard copy on request.

Groups can apply to Community Chest for contributions towards insurance cover. The next round closes on 15^th November.

As well as this support, up to now the council, via the Communities Team, has offered an umbrella insurance scheme for small groups. This has recently been reviewed and the cover provided has found to be more expensive than individual insurance plus it does not offer the cover that all groups require, particularly around events. The Communities Team has therefore recently concluded a 12 week consultation exercise on the proposal to cease offering this insurance cover. The results have been collated but no final decision has been reached.

However, what has been agreed is that cover will continue for another year. This could be via the existing provider or another insurance company. Options are currently being explored about what would provide the best value and most appropriate cover. In addition, the Communities Team will continue to work with groups to ensure that they have adequate cover.

 

5.  Capital Projects

 

Question from Councillor Moulton to Councillor Letts

 

Please would the Cabinet Member list all capital projects that have stopped under the new Administration?

 

Answer

 

No schemes have been stopped although within schemes, projects may be reprioritised (with any changes approved in line with the Financial Procedure Rules).

The Capital Programme is regularly reviewed and this will continue.

 

6.  Speed Limits

 

Question from Councillor Moulton to Councillor Thorpe

 

Would the Cabinet Member please update Council on any plans he has to introduce 20mph limits in residential city streets and, given the interest of many residents in Freemantle ward in reducing traffic speeds, will he please work with me to look at either piloting a scheme here or prioritising the area for the early introduction of such a scheme?

 

Answer

 

In accordance with our stated Local Transport Plan policies we are examining the practicality of introducing targeted area speed reduction measures with appropriate calming measures in residential estates and district centres.  With limited resources to undertake this work we are currently developing a list of locations where there is evidence of a need for speed reduction as evidenced by casualty statistics.  In addition, we will be considering where we can gain added value by implementing them in association with other Council investments such as the estates regeneration or neighbourhood improvement schemes.  

In addition, there are other existing tools which all elected representatives may choose to utilise, such as Speedwatch or targeted enforcement activity. In these initiatives we work closely with our partners in the Police to address speed issues. This involves a range of interventions from providing local residents with resources to undertake speed surveys and issuing warning notices, to requesting mobile speed enforcement by the Police. Any Councillor or local community concerned about the speed of traffic in their streets should in the first instance raise this with the council’s road safety officer.

 

7.  Lordshill District Centre

 

Question from Councillor Moulton to Councillor Dr. Williams

 

What timescales does the Leader have in mind for the development of new housing in and around Lordshill District Centre now that Sainsbury's have indicated that they will not be building a new store there?

 

Answer

 

The proposal for new housing at Lordshill combines the use of the Oaklands school site (excluding the Pool) for housing with an evaluation of the potential for new housing along Lordshill Way, where verges are of sufficient width to create additional housing sites. These new proposals are not dependent on a redevelopment of the Sainsbury's store. The work is at an initial stage and conceptual proposals are being evaluated in advance of the preparation of a development brief for the most promising sites. When this work is complete (early in 2013), it will be possible to publish an outline procurement and development timetable.

 

8.  Member and Officer Street Champions

 

Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Thorpe

 

Will the Cabinet Member appoint an elected member and a senior officer to champion street issues as recommended in the recent report, 'The State of our Streets'?

 

Answer

 

The new City Services Division brings together into one integrated unit three of the principal front-line services charged with delivering responsive and value for money streetscene services; waste and recycling, street cleaning, and grounds maintenance. These arrangements will continue to successfully discharge this responsibility into the future, both through direct management of the services within this division plus effective liaison with the Highways Service Partnership.

 

9.  Neighbourhood Street Champions

 

Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Thorpe

 

Has the Cabinet Member considered involving residents in the upkeep of their local environment as volunteer street champions, as practiced in the London Borough of Hillingdon?

 

Answer

 

The administration and officers within the new City Services Division recognise the vital contribution that can be made by residents who volunteer to actively engage in the care of their local environment. The aspiration is to continuously simplify and speed up the streetscene reporting and rectification process to encourage all residents to become ‘street champions’ and quickly and easily report any problems.

In addition to the City Council’s long-standing Customer Gateway service which aims to provide an on-site response within one working day of report,  the City Council has also recently integrated the national ‘Fix my Street’ web application into its own website, to facilitate simpler and faster online reporting of local streetscene problems. The City Services Team is also currently deploying mobile technology to close the time gap between a customer reporting a streetscene defect and the problem being resolved on site.

Further, the ‘Do you want to help’ section of Southampton Online’s street cleansing web-page that states the ‘team are always delighted to support individuals or groups who would like to help and improve the local environment, by organising their own "clean up". The team can offer advice, loan equipment and remove the rubbish once collected; ensuring the event is a success.’

Many individuals and groups have been supported by the City Council in helping keep their neighbourhood clean and supporting this form of community engagement and activity in the future will continue.

 

10.Street Works by Utilities

 

Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Thorpe

 

What use is made by the Council of powers to require permits or introduce 'lane rental' schemes for street works, as recommended in the recent report 'The State of our Streets'?

 

Answer

 

Officers are investigating the options of moving to a permit scheme for the management of road openings in the city which is carried out by Balfour Beatty as part of the Highways Service Partnership. The introduction of a permit scheme would be a major change to the current method of management.

East Sussex and Surrey are also currently developing a scheme which would enable Southampton to join at a later date and an assessment will be undertaken to check if this approach is more cost effective than developing our own local scheme.

Recommendations on the preferred approach will be brought forward in due course.

 

11.Child Protection

 

Question from Councillor Turner to Councillor Bogle

 

In view of the fact that a committee of MPs has concluded that some children are being left too long in neglectful and possibly violent homes, are we acting soon enough to protect vulnerable children in Southampton?

 

Answer

 

I believe we are; though it is important to state there are no hard and fast rules for acting ‘soon enough’.  Careful individual judgements must be made and complex cases each judged on their merits, based on statutory guidance and professional expertise.  We recognise children do better if they can remain with their families. Those families must be safe, secure and supportive.  We are committed to working with families to support them for as long as is reasonable so that they can look after their own children as long as the children are judged to be safe.  We assess all children to identify those at risk.  Where significant risk of harm exists we act to remove as quickly as possible, working with our partners, police and health.

 

12.Academy School

 

Question from Councillor Turner to Councillor Bogle

 

Can the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services inform Council why it is taking so long for a secondary school in Southampton to become an Academy, and what action is the executive taking to rectify this?

 

Answer

 

A total of four secondary schools are currently in the process of converting to Academy status. These are the three schools which are part of the Grouped Schools PFI contract (Cantell, Redbridge and Woodlands); and Bitterne Park School.

The conversion of the PFI schools to Academy status is complicated by a number of commercial issues that flow from the existing PFI contract. The Council has taken independent, specialist legal advice which demonstrates that the transfer arrangements as proposed by the DFE would leave the Council with significant, uncontrollable commercial risks. The Council raised this issue with the DFE as early as May 2012 and has suggested a number of ways in which it might be resolved. We have not had a satisfactory response to date from either the DFE or their specialist lawyers.

The conversion of Bitterne Park secondary school to Academy status was stopped by the DFE in June 2012 because of an outstanding financial issue. We are working closely with the school and DFE to resolve this.

The Council remains committed to effecting the conversion of all four schools to Academy status as soon as is practically and reasonably possible.

 

13.Personal Budgets

 

Question from Councillor Turner to Councillor Stevens (answered on behalf of Councillor Stevens by Councillor Rayment)

 

Is Southampton on target to achieve the Government's objective of 100% of eligible people having personal budgets by April 2013?

 

Answer

 

82.31% of eligible individuals using social care services were in receipt of an Individual Budget on 1^st November 2012 and the service has an action plan to ensure 100% target is reached by 31^st March 2013. All service users are offered Individual Budgets at their first assessment for services and a programme of reviews is underway to ensure those currently in receipt of services are offered an Individual Budget. The national performance indicator has been changed.

 

14.Unadopted Roads

 

Question from Councillor Turner to Councillor Thorpe

 

Will the Cabinet Member consider how residents in unadopted roads can be protected against excessive parking?

 

Answer

 

Unadopted streets are not maintained by the Council and have their own local management arrangements.

To address excessive parking there are two principal options

Option 1.Residents can apply to have the streets adopted provided that the land owner brings the road(s) up to adoptable standards. This may require considerable financial investment and requires unanimous consent from all property owners whose frontages border the unadopted street. In addition there would be a financial liability to the Council for ongoing maintenance as a consequence of the adoption.

Option 2. Landowners of private/unadopted streets can employ a private management company to manage the streets for them and there are a great many of these companies in existence. Wheel clamping is no longer an option as it is now illegal however a permit system operated by a management company can be introduced with a ticketing arrangement for non permit holders who park in these streets.

 

15.Complaints

 

Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Noon

 

Will the Cabinet Member for Efficiency and Improvement detail the number of complaints made to the Local Government Ombudsman against SCC for each of the last three years by subject, together with the outcomes?

 

Answer

 

The Local Government Ombudsman reports publically on the outcomes for all Local Authority by annual letter received in June of each year. The annual letter is presented to Governance Committee annually in either July or September (depending on the timing of it’s receipt) together with a covering report setting out key findings and outcomes / case summaries of any matter of note and performance against our Local Authority comparator group. Please see the attached Spreadsheets for number of complaints by subject area and finding for:

a)  Period ending 31/03/2010

b)  Period ending 31/03/2011

c)  Period ending 31/03/2012, and

d)  Period 01/04/2012 – 08/11/2012 (SCC figures only)

Appendix 2: Local Authority Report – Southampton City Council	For the Period Ending – 31/03/2010
LGO Advice Team

 

Enquiries and complaints received	Adult Care Services	Children and Family Services	Education	Housing	Benefits	Public Finance inc. Local Taxation	Planning and building control	Transport and highways	Other	Total
Formal/informal premature complaints	0	1	0	3	1	1	0	1	1	8
Advice given	0	1	1	3	0	0	1	1	0	7
Forwarded to investigative team (resubmitted prematures)	0	0	0	2	2	1	1	0	1	5
Forwarded to investigative team(new)	2	0	6	7	0	6	4	2	6	33
Total	2	2	7	15	1	8	6	4	8	53

 

Investigative Team
Decisions	MI reps	LS	M reps	NM reps	No mal	Omb disc	Outside jurisdiction	Total
2009/2010	0	7	0	0	8	7	6	28

 

 

 

Copies of the last 3 annual reports to Governance Committee (which contain more general detail on the nature of the complaints the Council agreed to resolve locally (settle) through the Ombudsman process, total cost to the Council of such settlements and other areas of concern) may be obtained at:

 

2010:

http://www.southampton.gov.uk/modernGov/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=153&MId=1516&Ver=4

2011:

http://www.southampton.gov.uk/modernGov/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=153&MId=2014&Ver=4

2012:

http://www.southampton.gov.uk/modernGov/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=514&MId=2424&Ver=4

 

Since 2003 only one matter has resulted in a formal finding of maladministration against the Council resulting in a statutory report. That matter was determined in October 2012 and is the subject of a separate detailed report on today’s Council agenda in accordance with the Ombudsman’s required procedures.

 

16.Fairness Commission

 

Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Dr. Williams

 

What has the Fairness Commission achieved to date?

 

Answer

 

Work to date on the Fairness Commission has involved:

-  research into other councils who have established Fairness Commissions to identify costs, approach, membership etc

-  consideration of existing work streams that could inform the work of such a Commission e.g. Welfare Reforms Review

-  decision to map existing work streams, previous, current and proposed consultation that could inform the work of the Commission to ensure no duplication e.g. consultation on Health and Wellbeing Strategy

-  discussion about potential themes for the Commission to focus on including work and income, family, communities and housing, access to advice and information, local democracy

-  with a view to having the first meeting in the New Year.

 

17.Public Funds

 

Question from Councillor Smith to Councillor Dr. Williams

 

If a councillor was discovered to have misused public funds what in your opinion would be the honourable thing for that councillor to do?

 

Answer

 

Any such instance would be referred to Standards and Governance, the Monitoring Officer and Full Council. I would expect each instance to be treated on its merits and the advice and recommendations provided from the three bodies referenced above.

 

18.Woolston Bus Service

 

Question from Councillor Smith to Councillor Thorpe

 

Can the Cabinet Member update me on progress to reinstate the 1A bus service as promised to residents living around Jurds Lake Way in the Woolston Ward by Councillor Dr. Williams?

 

Answer

 

An hourly bus service will commence operation on the 3 December 2012.

 

19.New Children's Hospital

 

Question from Councillor Parnell to Councillor Bogle

 

Who represented Southampton at the launch of the £70 million plan for a new Children's hospital at the General Hospital?

 

Answer

 

A senior manager was scheduled to attend this event.  However, on the day last minute family commitments meant that this was not possible.

The NHS University Hospital Trust is represented on the Children and Young People’s Trust Board and partners, including the Council, have been engaged and will continue to be, in the development of the Children’s Hospital.

 

20.Oaklands Pool

 

Question from Councillor Hannides to Councillor Payne

 

Do you expect the Pool to reopen this year?

 

Answer

 

Given the substantial repair work required before the building could be handed over to a community group, the pool will not be reopening this year. Discussions with Community Groups are continuing to see if such an agreement can be secured.

 

21.Interest Equalisation Account

 

Question from Councillor Hannides to Councillor Letts

 

Interest rates are expected to remain unchanged for the medium term, do you believe it is sensible to keep adding millions of pounds of revenue funds to the Interest Equalisation Account?

 

Answer

 

In 2009 a major debt restructuring exercise was undertaken in order to take advantage of market conditions and produce net revenue savings but in achieving interest rate savings, the Council exposed itself to variable interest rate risk.  Whilst in a climate of low interest rates this was and remains an obviously a sound strategy, at some point when the market starts to move the Council will need to act quickly to lock into fixed long term rates. 

In order to mitigate these risks, it was recommended in the February 2009 Treasury Management Strategy report to Council that an Interest Equalisation Reserve be created from the savings arising from the switch to lower rate variable interest rate debt, and maintained at a prudent level to help to manage volatility in the future and ensure that there is minimal impact on annual budget decisions. 

Council approved the addition of £1.0M to the Reserve in July 2012 which increased the total sum set aside in the Interest Equalisation Reserve to almost £3.1M.

Based on our current TM assumptions this would allow us a period of approximately 2 years in which to manage the impact on the revenue budget of switching from lower rate variable interest rate to fixed long term rates.

These assumptions are regularly reviewed and any resulting impact on the amount it is considered prudent to maintain in the Interest Equalisation Reserve is also reassessed.

 

22.Treasury Management

 

Question from Councillor Hannides to Councillor Letts

 

What are the key priorities driving the Council's Treasury Management strategy and are you relying on generating surpluses to support your budget plans? 

 

Answer

 

The core elements of the TM Strategy as approved by Council on 15 February are:

·  To continue to make use of short term variable rate debt to take advantage of the current market conditions of low interest rates.

·  To constantly review longer term forecasts and to lock in to longer term rates through a variety of instruments, as appropriate during the year, in order to provide a balanced portfolio against interest rate risk.

·  To secure the best short term rates for borrowing and investments consistent with maintaining flexibility and liquidity within the portfolio.

·  To invest surplus funds prudently, the Council’s priorities being:

o  Security of invested capital

o  Liquidity of invested capital

o  An optimum yield which is commensurate with security and liquidity.

·  To approve borrowing limits that provide for debt restructuring opportunities and to pursue debt restructuring where appropriate and within the Council’s risk boundaries

For borrowing, we review the interest rate position and forecasts and the relative costs of variable v fixed rates on an ongoing basis to ensure that we can respond to any changes in a timely manner.  Supported by our advisors Arlingclose we also review the instruments available to us to balance the portfolio against interest rate risk.

For investments the fundamental considerations remain security, liquidity and risk in that order of priority and going forward there is no increased reliance on investment income as a result of changing these priorities.

 

23.Townhill Park

 

Question from Councillor Baillie to Councillor Payne

 

Why did you state (at least twice in public - Cabinet and Full Council) that there was no cost to the proposed acquisition of 450 new homes in Townhill Park?

 

Answer

 

The question is not accurate. I said there would be no extra cost to the 30-year HRA business plan compared to the original proposals.

The Townhill Park estate regeneration proposals presented to Cabinet in April 2012 and Full Council in May 2012 were at a total cost to the HRA of £33M.

The cost of the current proposals, including the acquisition of 450 new homes in Townhill Park, remains within the April 2012 total cost envelope for the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) of circa £33M. That is, there is no additional net cost to the HRA from acquiring the new homes.

There are additional costs to acquire the 450 new homes, but these costs are offset over the 30 year business plan by the additional affordable rent income generated to the HRA.

The affordability assessment for the current proposals show that there is a net capital cost to the HRA of £9.2M (after capital receipts) and that the 30 year HRA revenue surplus will be reduced by approximately £23.9M, a total cost of £33.1M.

The model makes provision for the total borrowing associated with the acquisition of the 450 new homes (which is £37.7M) to be repaid over the life of the current 30 year HRA business plan. At the end of the 30 years, there will be additional net income from the 450 units estimated at £3.5M per annum, which will make an ongoing positive contribution to the HRA.

 

24.Townhill Park Rents

 

Question from Councillor Baillie to Councillor Payne

 

What effect do you envisage will occur to an average family presently in a Council home in Townhill Park from a potential doubling of their rent?

 

Answer

 

An increase in rent will depend on the individual circumstances of the household.

Currently Households already on housing benefit will have the rent increase met providing it is within local Housing Benefit caps;

1 bed £64.62

2bed £115.38

3bed £178.85

4bed £242.31.

Households not already on benefit may be entitled to assistance.

Following the introduction of universal credit in October 2013 its affordability is only threatened if rent payments plus other benefits exceed the Benefits Cap. People in work are not affected by the Universal benefit cap. Income remains the same regardless of rent level because HB increases to cover additional rent – up to the Housing Benefit Cap.

 

25.Townhill Park Consultation

 

Question from Councillor Baillie to Councillor Payne

 

Exactly what consultation has taken place since the last Full Council Meeting regarding the potential doubling of rents in Townhill Park?

 

Answer

 

Recent consultation in Townhill Park has taken the following forms:

4 consultation meetings:

11^th and 15^th September for Phase 1 residents (part of the statutory consultations)

18^th and 22^nd September all residents of the study area and the Southampton residents of the adjacent local area.

At these consultations Board 2 of the display ‘What this could mean for you?’ contained specific information on Affordable Rents. (see table below)  It explained that the Council has chosen to charge up to 80% of market rents on the new Council homes and gave examples of Target and Affordable Rent as contained in the November Cabinet/Council report. 

 

	Target Rent	Affordable Rent
One bed flat	£73.11	£101.54
Two bed flat	£84.25	£120
Two bed house	£89.69	£144

 

Information explained that by 2015 (the earliest time new housing would be available) Council homes will be charging target rents to achieve the required parity with housing associations.  Therefore comparisons of increased rates were shown target and affordable as the average actual rents for 2011/12 shown in the Cabinet report will not exist.

Although the increases are still significant against the situation that will exist in 2015 (target rent) they represent an increase of 38%, 42.4% and 60.6% respectively not 100%.

 

Phase 1 Statutory Consultations (s105 Housing Act 1985)

In addition to the consultation meetings all residents, leaseholders and tenants of leaseholders in Phase 1 received a letter setting explaining the proposed redevelopment and seeking their views.  In addition a visit from the Tenant Liaison Officers (TLO) was offered to SCC tenants. 

As reported in the Cabinet report no written representations in response to the statutory consultations have been received from SCC tenants, leaseholders or leaseholder tenants. 

As reported in the consultation analysis (Appendix 2 of the November Cabinet/Council report) 74% of SCC tenants in Phase 1 received a face to face visit.  The TLO’s had been briefed to include the discussion of Affordable Rent and what it would mean with tenants.  The TLO’s discussed what Affordable Rent meant and that rents would be considerably higher with all tenants who thought they might like to move back to Townhill Park and made them aware that they would have to allow for this in their decision to move back. 

As reported in the analysis of the consultations the TLO’s did not receive adverse comment regarding this as people seemed to have accepted that Council rents would be increasing.  Subsequent to this question the TLO’s have been asked whether they had any indication of a difference in reaction to the increased rents between tenants in work compared to those on benefit.  They were not aware of any difference. 

The consultation information also explained how new homes will be much more energy efficient.  This should reduce considerably the running costs for tenants which will help to mitigate the rent increases. 

 

26.Jobs In Schools

 

Question from Councillor Baillie to Councillor Bogle

 

Why do you believe that jobs in schools are less important than jobs at SCC?

 

Answer

 

I don’t

 

27.STEP Programme

 

Question from Councillor Smith to Councillor Letts

 

In view of your constant adjustments to the STEP programme, what are the differences between what existed previously and what you are proposing now?

 

Answer

 

The additions to the existing redeployment programme in the form of STEP are:

• Additional one month’s redeployment period in order to enhance the likelihood of redeployment. (from 3 months to 4 months).
• Additional support and priority training

o  Priority training being made available from the Capita Learning and Development Team

o  Enhanced support via Skills Training UK, this is a Central Government Funded 2 day course to prepare staff for possible redundancy and to assist in accessing the job market and options

o  Further work being undertaken to secure additional European funded external training and alternative employment taster courses for staff

• Intranet site– covering internal and external training options, explaining the redeployment process and signposting the internal and external support available.
• Enhanced redeployment opportunities:

o  Extended redeployment period

o  Staff matched to vacant jobs and given priority to apply for other vacancies

o  Staff at risk matched to other potential vacancies, where staff not at risk can leave the Authority under a voluntary arrangement if agreed with their manager.

o  Improved processes for matching staff.

 

28.Sale of artwork

 

Question from Councillor Daunt to Councillor Payne

 

Given your proposed job cuts and likely service cuts, will you reconsider your position on the sale of artwork to help plug the financial gap?

 

Answer

 

The Museums Association only allows deaccessioning of items to support the collections they come from. There are no plans to deviate from that professional advice. It should also be noted that one-off capital windfalls aren't suitable for meeting revenue pressures where funding is needed each year.

 

29.Future Adult Services Provision

 

Question from Councillor Claisse to Councillor Stevens (answered on behalf of Councillor Stevens by Councillor Rayment)

 

 

Bearing in mind the findings of the recent management consultant’s report and the rejection of the use of a LATCO by SCC, how does the Cabinet Member see the shape of future Adult Services provision?

 

Answer

 

Adult social care direct care provision will continue to be provided from within the Council but will be modernised in response to the greater clarity that will be achieved by the review of capacity and needs assessment identified in the commissioning strategy of which the initial draft is expected early in the new calendar year.  The Administration wishes to retain a provider of last resort whilst the market for care provision remains fragile but internal care provision will be proactively supported to change as necessary to respond to the changing social care agenda.