Agenda and decisions

Minutes of the meeting held on the 26 January 2021.

Report of the Lead Member for Children’s and Young People’s Services and the Strategic Director People

Salford City Council - Record of Decision (Cabinet)

I, Councillor Tracy Kelly, Statutory Deputy City Mayor, in consultation with the Cabinet and in exercise of the powers contained within the City Council Constitution do hereby approve:

recurrent funding of the Better Outcomes New Delivery (BOND) Programme from the integrated fund of £2.591m (21/22 prices) following a positive recommendation from Children’s Commissioning Committee and Health and Care Commissioning Committee.

The Reasons are:

·         A report was presented at the meeting of the Children’s and Health and Care Commissioning Committees in November and December 2020 and provided  summary  information of the programmes in the Better Outcomes New Delivery (BOND)programme formally known as Best Value. It was submitted to the Governing Body, witha recommendation from both Commissioning Committees, for formal approval and received a positive recommendation.

·         The report provided the background for the programme and detailed the investment bySalford Clinical Commissioning Group into four programmes of Children’stransformation. Each programme has interdependencies and seek to improve theoutcomes of Salford children and families.

·         The programmes were implemented based on evidence of effectiveness from otherparts of the country and localised to work with our existing systems. Eachprogramme was funded on an invest to save basis and there is a summary below of the savings and cost avoidance for each programme.

o   Original estimated pressure reduction/cost avoidance against “do nothing” over 5-year period to 2023/24 £4.8m

o   Actual placement cost avoidance to date against “do nothing” £2.315m

o   Estimated cost avoidance from cases referred/open to all programmes not becomingOutside Placement £4m

o   Estimated long term cost avoidance of DA/Trauma Informed programme of £0.5m

·         The evaluation report provided the evidence for the recurrent business case.

Options considered and rejected were:

Discontinuing the BOND programme and services.

Assessment of Risk:

Risks and mitigations are identified in the report to Cabinet.

The source of funding is: The Integrated Fund.

Legal Advice obtained: Supplied by Tony Hatton, Principal Solicitor

·      Last year the Council appointed the research and design charity Dartington Design Lab to work with them and the CCG to develop and deliver a formative and summative evaluation of the Council’s Best Value Programme (now BOND), with a view to improve outcomes for children, young people and families by applying research and best evidence to everyday practice, balanced with user and practitioner involvement.

·      The BOND programme has seen the CCG make investment into the four programmes of transformation set out in the report, to enable Children’s Services to provide and deliver improved outcomes for children in new ways, and help reduce budget pressures whilst doing so and ensuring compliance with the Council’s statutory duties.

·      Recent reforms have placed a strong emphasis on local authorities to meet their duties in the assessment and delivery of services for children and young people, and the report provides the background for the programme as well as detailing the investment by the CCG into the programmes, which were introduced following researched experiences across the  ...  view the full decision text for item 4.

Report of the Strategic Director Service Reform and the Strategic Director Place.

Salford City Council - Record of Decision (Cabinet)

I, Councillor Tracy Kelly, Statutory Deputy City Mayor, in consultation with the Cabinet and in exercise of the powers contained within the City Council Constitution do hereby approve:

Pendleton Together Rent and Services Charges 2021/22

1. An increase of 1.5% for rents in 2021/22; and
2. Adjustments to service charges in line with the costs of providing those services

The Reasons are:

·         In line with government rent setting methodology the rental increase is based upon the CPI inflation measure at September 2020 plus 1%.  Additional rental income will help to meet the costs included within the Housing Revenue Account (HRA) business plan which must be balanced on a 30 year basis.  The resulting rents are below Local Housing Allowance rates which are used to calculate entitlement to housing benefits.

·         Pendleton Together have reviewed the current charges and adjusted service charges to reflect the actual costs of services and will vary from block to block depending upon services received.  The table below identifies the average service charge per block to show the variation across blocks.

·         Residents of the Pendleton Tower blocks affected by the fire safety works and programme to replace the cladding have been provided with energy support payments of £25 per month during the winter period.

Options considered and rejected were:

·         Good practice requires a comparison of the costs of service provision with the income generated from service charges with the aim of ensuring that the charging policy is fair and equitable and that general rental income is not subsiding the cost of service to individual tenants.

Assessment of Risk:

Rent increase is based upon government formula of CPI plus 1% and service charges reflect actual costs.  The rent increase reduces the financial risk of being unable to balance the long term HRA business plan.

The source of funding is: Housing Revenue Account

Legal Advice obtained: Ann Warburton, Solicitor

The Council is required to set a balanced HRA budget.  The proposed increase in rents and adjustment to service charges is lawful.

Financial Advice obtained: Paul Hutchings, Strategic Finance Manager

The rents and service charges proposed within this report would be a significant source of income for the HRA.

Procurement Advice obtained: N/A

HR Advice obtained: N/A

Climate Change Advice obtained: N/A

The following documents have been used to assist the decision process: N/A

Contact Officer:  Andrew Leigh, Head of Housing / Paul Hutchings, Strategic Finance Manager                        

Telephone number: Andrew Leigh 0161 793 2155 / Paul Hutchings 0161 793 2574

(Please delete from the list below any which are not relevant).

·         This document records a key decision which was included in the Council’s Forward Plan

·         The appropriate scrutiny to call-in the decision is the Growth and Prosperity Scrutiny Panel     

For Democratic Services use  ...  view the full decision text for item 5.

The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Board

Report of the City Mayor