To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies from members of the cabinet.

To receive declarations of interests in respect of Schedule 1, Schedule 2 or Other Interests from members of the committee in respect of items on the agenda.

None.

To approve and sign the minutes of the meeting held on 13 December 2018.

The leader of the council noted that the items covered in the previous meeting were all very good evidence of the council delivering on its key priorities.

Resolved:       That the minutes of the meeting held on 13 December 2018 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive questions from members of the public.

Deadline for receipt of questions is 5:00pm on Friday 11 January 2019.

Accepted questions will be published as a supplement prior to the meeting.

Please see https://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/getinvolved for information on how to submit a question.

Questions received and responses given are attached as appendix 1 to the minutes.

The cabinet member infrastructure thanked officers who had assisted in putting together a comprehensive set of answers to the questions received.

To receive questions from councillors.

Deadline for receipt of questions is 5:00pm on Friday 11 January 2019.

Accepted questions will be published as a supplement prior to the meeting.

No questions were received from councillors.

To agree the executive response to the recommendations from the spotlight review into dental health and childhood obesity for children families in Herefordshire.

The leader of the council and cabinet members expressed thanks to all those involved in producing the report, including members of the task and finish group, the children and young people’s scrutiny committee and the representatives of partner organisations.

The cabinet member children and families introduced the report and noted that it covered both the children and families and health and wellbeing portfolios. The review had been undertaken following concern regarding levels of tooth decay and childhood obesity in Herefordshire as evidenced in the joint strategic needs assessment (JSNA) of 2017. The work and resulting report was a fantastic example of the contribution made by scrutiny. The recommendations made were considered and thoughtful, with the result that seven out of the nine recommendations to the executive had been accepted in their entirety, one had been partially accepted and only one rejected. The rejection and partial rejection were due to methodologies that needed to be established rather than any issue with the principles expressed.

The director of public health welcomed the focus on two important issues. She noted that while all individuals could take action and be responsible for their own health, the council was working with partner agencies through the health and wellbeing board, with schools and across the council to encourage positive steps such as improving access to healthy food and restricting access to unhealthy food.

The public health specialist highlighted a pilot project due to commence, working with overweight pregnant women. Other work already taking place included the public health nursing service handing out tooth brushing packs to parents of young children and continuing health advice at every contact with families. Services had excellent relationships with schools and it was hoped that the reintroduction of health education to the curriculum in September 2019 would further increase work with schools.

In discussion of the proposed response to the scrutiny recommendations cabinet members noted that:

·        there were mixed views about introducing fluoridation and how effective this might be in improving dental health;

·        there were two major water suppliers that served the county which could provide an opportunity to compare if one were to introduce fluoridation and the other did not, however as a rural county there were many properties with private water supplies and these would not benefit from fluoridation;

·        there were other ways the council could seek to improve dental health without introducing fluoride to the water supply such as supporting parents to ensure their children brushed their teeth;

·        the potential disbenefits to introducing fluoridation needed to be explored alongside any potential health benefits, it was agreed that the response to the scrutiny committee be amended to reflect this;

·        Herefordshire produced good, healthy food and it was important to educate people on how to prepare it, continuing work with schools was supported;

·        increased childhood obesity was storing up long term problems for the NHS;

·        while individuals were responsible for their own health, the council had a responsibility to promote public health, providing education and support to take positive steps;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

To approve the proposed expenditure of capital grants for schools building, maintenance and accessibility improvement works.

The cabinet member children and families introduced the item. She noted that:

·         funding was allocated annually from central government;

·         the report set out the proposal to spend £1.535 on maintenance projects and £120k on schemes for individual pupil needs in the 2019/20 financial year as listed in the appendix to the report;

·         maintenance at academies and voluntary aided schools was funded via different routes;

·         the current set of condition surveys had informed the priority projects alongside information on admission of pupils with particular access requirements;

·         a new set of condition surveys of school had been commissioned with work planned to be complete by summer of 2019, these would inform decision on future programmes;

·         consultation had taken place with schools through the capital strategy consultative group;

·         a contingency sum would be kept back for emergency works arising during the year.

In discussion of the item cabinet members noted:

·         it was important to secure best value, even from the smaller items of work;

·         funding was provided through a capital grant from government;

·         the trust schools included in the proposed project for 2019/20 were not academy schools and were eligible to benefit from this funding;

·         maintenance was a continuous requirement.

Group leaders were invited to give the views of their group. It was stated that:

·         maintenance requirements of modern buildings could be the same or more than older buildings;

·         opportunities should be sought to include renewable energy generation and invest to save schemes in projects and to use energy efficient materials and designs to reduce future running costs;

·         the impact of housing development at Credenhill on the local school needed to be mitigated.

Resolved that:

(a)       the school capital and maintenance schemes as set out in appendix 1 be approved for implementation in 2019/20; and

(b)       the Assistant Director Education Development and Skills be authorised to take all operational decisions necessary to implement the approved schemes within an approved budget of £1.535m for maintenance and £120k for individual pupil needs.