The leader of the council welcomed attendees and announced that the next meeting of the cabinet would be held in Leominster, as part of an effort to engage with communities across the county.

Concerns were expressed from a group leader about the travel implications of holding meetings outside Hereford, commenting that the city was centrally located in the county. These concerns were noted and it was confirmed that arrangements would be kept under review.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors Crockett and Harvey.

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 26 September 2019.

Resolved:       That the minutes of the meeting held on 26 September 2019 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive questions from members of the public.

(See guidance below on how to submit a question)

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

To receive questions from councillors.

(See guidance below on how to submit a question)

No questions were received from councillors for this meeting.

To review the progress of the corporate parenting strategy.

The cabinet member children and families introduced the report and noted the key achievements in 2018/19. She reminded cabinet members of the seven corporate parenting principles in the Children and Social Work Act 2017 and stressed the importance of doing everything possible to support children in the care of the council and care leavers.

The director for children and families endorsed the comments from the cabinet member and noted that this report covered the second year of a three-year strategy. He outlined a number of areas of progress since the end of March 2019 to update cabinet since the end of the financial year.

In discussion of the report, cabinet members noted that:

·         A wide range of initiatives were in place to help recruit and retain social care staff including an individual training allowance, market forces supplement, clear career pathway and one-off payments for agency staff converting to permanent contracts;

·         A social work apprenticeship scheme was planned for introduction in February 2020;

·         A recruitment agency micro site had been established and the director was proactive in contacting individuals who expressed an interest in working in Herefordshire;

·         The council had a good record on retaining permanent staff, with most changes a result of agency workers coming and going or permanent staff moving to other children’s social work roles within the council;

·         A number of councillors had attended the alternatives care panel and all councillors were encouraged to attend to see the work that took place, councillors were also welcome to attend the corporate parenting board;

·         The numbers of children coming into care had been stabilised but was still comparatively high;

·         It was proposed to establish an edge of care service as it was felt this would be beneficial in reducing LAC numbers, the service would work with families when they were at a point of requesting that the children be taken into care and also work to enable children to return home safely;

·         special guardianship orders (SGOs) gave carers parental rights for children up to the age of 18 and were usually granted to extended family members, the same financial assistances was now given to those with a SGO as to foster carers;

·         children were being placed with adoptive families much sooner;

·         it was not viable for the Refugee Action service to continue as numbers were so low, the council would need to consider whether it was viable to commission a replacement service;

·         it was important that the views of children in the care system and care leavers were considered in developing services.

Group leaders were invited to present the views of their group. The update on the strategy was welcomed but concern was expressed regarding the continuing high numbers of LAC. It was noted that:

·         there were a number of ways that councillors could contribute to supporting children in care, including ensuring that services were performing well;

·         looked after children wanted to have normal experiences and did not necessarily want their status as LAC highlighted;

·         it was important to listen  ...  view the full minutes text for item 98.

To review Adoption and Fostering Services performance and approve related documents.

The cabinet member children and families introduced the report and highlighted the key achievements for the adoption and fostering services during 2018/19. In particular it was noted that the length of time for children to be placed with adoptive families had reduced and the Ofsted inspection in 2018 identified several areas of good practice. The report referred to the plan for Herefordshire to join Adoption Central England (ACE) but this had now been completed.

In discussion of the report, cabinet members noted that:

·         Herefordshire had some difficulty in finding a regional adoption agency that would accept them and the move of the service into ACE had been a significant undertaking but had been delived within planned timescales;

·         Being part of a regional agency gave access to a larger pool of prosepctive adopters for children in Herefordshire;

·         To attract foster carers to work with the council rather than with independent fostering agencies it was important to provide them support, an example of this support was the opening up of the ‘orchard’ benefits scheme to foster carers which would give access to discounts on activities;

·         It was unclear why numbers of enquiries for the sleepover scheme had reduced, there were a number of factors which might discourage potential carers including lack of space as adult children were still at home;

·         There were also a number of reasons why foster carers resigned from the service, including changes in family circumstances and retirements due to age.

Group leaders were invited to present the views of their group. The work of foster carers and adopters was praised and it was noted that:

·         These services had performed well for some time and it was hoped this would continue under ACE;

·         Work to reduce the numbers of children in care was important to reduce pressure on these services;

·         The reduction in the time to secure placements was welcomed; and

·         It was important that recruitment continued to focus on getting the right people.

The work of foster carers and adoptive parents was recognised by the whole cabinet.

It was resolved that:

(a)   The performance of the adoption service as outlined at appendix 1 to the report was reviewed, no additional risks to achievement of objectives were noted and no further mitigating actions were required; and

(b)   The performance of the fostering service as outlined at appendix 2 to the report was reviewed, no additional risks to the achievement of objectives were noted and no further mitigation actions were required.

To note and approve the annual earmarked reserves review.

The leader of the council introduced the report. He highlighted that Herefordshire had an appropriate level of reserves as a percentage of expenditure, as shown in the comparison with other similar councils. The leader drew attention to the supplement that had been published for this item, which included recommendations for two new earmarked reserves. The first was to undertake research on housing options while the second was to bring forward edge of care services ahead of the current plans.

A minor correction was noted to the supplementary information on the proposed edge of care service – the final sentence should refer to a previously planned introduction from April 2020 rather than 2021.

The chief finance officer explained a number of points in relation to the report namely that:

·         Reserves were held for a number of reasons;

·         School reserves were held on behalf of council run schools;

·         The financial resilience reserve had been established a few years earlier in recognition of the difficulty of projecting future council income and was being topped up each year through the minimum revenue provision;

·         Reserves could also be called on to fund invest to save programmes that could not be delivered through day to day budgets;

·         The pension risk reserve represented an adequate reserve with the pension fund having had a good run on investment returns and being over 90% funded;

·         The government had indicated that roll out of business rate retention would be delayed for at least another year so the business rates smoothing reserve would help to deal with unknowns and guard against successful business rate appeals which could result in significant costs to the council;

·         Unused grants would be examined to see if they could be spent, depending on any conditions attached;

·         Unused schools grants included the devolved schools grant which was held centrally for schools, £400k for high needs and other small grants that the schools forum would determine how to spend;

·         The settlement monies reserve related to an ongoing dispute and would be available once the legal process was concluded;

·         Reserves were reviewed annually and reported to cabinet, in some cases figures were based on estimates of what was required while others related to actual grants received.

The cabinet member housing, regulatory services and community safety explained the background to the proposal to create an earmarked reserve to explore options for delivery of housing in the county. She highlighted that:

·         Residents were facing difficulty in finding suitable housing across the board;

·         There were a number of ways in which the council could deliver additional housing and all would be considered;

·         The investigation would support a business case that would inform consideration of further investment.

The chief finance officer reminded cabinet members that the current proposal would create the new reserves and set out what the money was to be spent on. How it was to be spend would be subject to a further decision at a later date.

Cabinet members were keen to explore all avenues and to consider  ...  view the full minutes text for item 100.