Agenda item

Report of the Leader of the Council, 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.  School Performance

 

Question from Councillor Bogle to Councillor Moulton

 

What interventions can and should the Local Authority make when schools are not performing?

 

Answer

 

Local Authorities will continue to play a significant role in respect of intervening in school under performance.  In summary local authorities may:

 

• Require a school to work in partnership with another school, college, or other named partner for the purpose of school improvement
• Appoint additional governors
• Issue a school with a warning notice
• Apply to the Secretary of State to replace the entire governing body with an Interim Executive Board (IEB) (after conditions are met)
• Take back the school’s delegated budget
• Discuss academy status

 

2.  Budget Variations

 

Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Hannides

 

Will the Cabinet Member for Resources, Leisure and Culture list those budget lines which have been modified since the adoption of the Budget for 2011/12, indicating how any shortfall will be met. 

 

Answer

 

There have been a number of modifications which have either been made or proposed to the 2011/12 budget.

Budget Changes Associated with the Implementation of Revised Terms & Conditions

The budget report to Full Council in February gave a delegation to the Chief Finance Officer in consultation with the Solicitor to the Council to make any adjustments to the budget arising from negotiations on changes to terms & conditions. The following changes have been made as a result:

i)  Approved Mileage Rate – The proposed change was to reduce the mileage rate to be in accordance with the HMRC rate (which at the date of the budget was 40p per mile). However, almost immediately following the budget decision, the HMRC amended their approved rate to 45p per mile, and it was therefore necessary to increase the rate to 45p per mile. (reduced saving by £108,000)

ii)  July Implementation of T’s & C’s – as a negotiated settlement (collective agreement) was not reached with the Unions on the implementation of changes to T’s & C’s, it was not possible to secure a full year’s saving from the 1^st April 2011. The changes were therefore implemented on the 11^th July. This will result in an in-year shortfall of circa £1.2M

The combination of these 2 items has reduced the in-year saving by £1.3M. This will be met in year from balances.

iii)  Market Supplement – a market supplement has been put in place for social workers within Children’s Services. This is initially for a 6 month period pending a full review. This will be funded from contingencies and will cost £108,000.

Other Changes

i)  Grants To VO’s – in order to undertake full consultation and allow due notice, there has been a draw on contingencies to meet the in-year shortfall in this saving (£104k)

ii)  Meals on Wheels –the meals and wheels saving is subject to review and has not yet been implemented. The in-year shortfall will be funded from contingencies (£45k)

Proposed Changes – 2010/11 Outturn Report

Full Council will today receive the outturn report for the 2010/11 financial year. A number of changes are recommended to be made to the 2011/12 budget as a result:

i)  Organisational Development Reserve – it is recommended that circa £4m will be set aside to cover current and future redundancy costs.

ii)  Carry Forwards – approve carry forward requests of £700k including R&M

 

3.  Charges for Meals on Wheels

 

Question from Councillor Rayment to Councillor White

 

Will the Cabinet Member advise Council of the state of the review into increased charges for meals on wheels to senior citizens announced following this February’s budget proposals?

 

Answer

 

The review has been completed and a small increase in charge of 2p was identified as a result, which has now been implemented.

 

4.  £5m Borrowed from Crawley Borough Council

 

Question from Councillor McEwing to Councillor Hannides

 

Will the Cabinet Member for Resources, Leisure and Culture advise Full Council for what purpose was £5m borrowed from Crawley Borough Council?

 

Answer

 

Lending to, and borrowing from, other Local Authorities for cash flow/temporary financing purposes is common practice and Southampton Council has undertaken this as part of its standard treasury management activity for many years.

 

The basic principle is that a Local Authority will on-lend to another Local Authority at a rate which is greater than they could achieve by a ‘safe’ investment of the funds elsewhere.  This ensures that the lending Local Authority is still securing an attractive (and safe) rate of return compared to other investment opportunities. The opposite is of course true for the borrowing Local Authority, who will be looking to secure a rate which is lower than the PWLB (Public Works Loan Board) or money market can offer. In the last 5 years the total amounts borrowed from other Local Authorities is £741M.  The usual practice is that we don't borrow for more than 364 days from another LA.

 

The loan from Crawley was taken out for cash flow purposes, as part of normal treasury management activity.  This was an operational decision taken by professional Finance Managers, although the Treasury Management Strategy, approved by Full Council, explicitly states that we will lend to and borrow from other Local Authorities.

 

In terms of risk, borrowing from another Local Authority is risk-free to the borrower. Conversely, when we lend to another Local Authority, we see them as low risk, hence SCC will lend to other Local Authorities when funds allow.

 

5.  Letter re Bin Collections

 

Question from Councillor McEwing to Councillor Hannides

 

All Southampton households received a letter regarding Bin Collections.  Can the Cabinet Member for Resources, Leisure and Culture advise how much in administration and postage this has cost?

 

Answer

 

We have received many questions from residents during the course of the current industrial action, mainly asking about bin collections.  As well as responding directly to specific questions, we have been providing advice through our website, our customer phone lines and via the media.  Despite this, we continue to receive queries.

 

We have a responsibility to keep our residents informed and felt it appropriate to write directly to every household in the city, giving practical advice about managing household waste and explaining some of the context of the current dispute.  The cost of printing and distributing letters to nearly 110,000 households was £31,000.  This will be funded partly from our City View budget, a budget allocated in order to help keep residents informed, and partly from the savings we are making by not having to pay waste collectors while they are on strike.  Other savings are being put towards the costs of using the third party suppliers who are currently dealing with the biggest build ups of waste.

 

Many residents have found the information we are providing very useful and are acting on our advice.  This, in turn, is helping manage the build up of waste across the city and lessening the impact of missed bin collections.

 

We hope that the unions end their current industrial action as soon as possible.  We can then return to our regular bin collections and our regular provision of information about those collections.

 

6.  Staff Terms and Conditions

 

Question from Councillor Dr. R. Williams to Councillor Smith

 

Has the Leader of the Council ever had any doubts that his policy towards reducing staff pay and threatening to sack anyone not signing such reduced terms and conditions was wrong?

 

Answer

 

No

 

7.  Commercial Waste Customers

 

Question from Councillor Letts to Councillor Fitzhenry

 

How many commercial waste customers have been affected by the current action and what is the weekly cost to the Council in terms of lost income?

 

Answer

 

All commercial residual waste collections have been undertaken as normal during the course of the current dispute.  However, commercial waste recycling collections have been affected, and as a result 6 customers have cancelled their contracts and if these cannot be recovered then this equates to a loss of income to the council of £192 per week.

 

8.  Staff Redundancies

 

Question from Councillor Letts to Councillor Hannides

 

In the last budget round how many staff applied for voluntary redundancy and were refused?  If we had accepted these redundancies what would have been the saving to the authority?

 

Answer

 

To date there has been a total of 115 requests for voluntary redundancy across the Council, with:

§  74 accepted, and

§  41 rejected.

 

If the 41 rejections had been accepted, the approximate saving in salary costs would have been £567,000 including oncosts.  It should of course be recognised that in the short term there would have been redundancy costs associated with each voluntary redundancy.

 

All redundancy requests are assessed against the following criteria:

 

• They must fit with the business needs of the service (which will include timing issues).
• They must be consistent with any other proposals for restructures and savings being considered by the service.
• They must represent value for money and deliver savings in a reasonable pay back period (bearing in mind that early or flexible retirements usually involve a compensation payment by the Council to the pension fund for the early receipt of benefits).
• There must be sufficient capacity, skills, experience and knowledge left in the service area to undertake the work that remains.

 

In addition, a voluntary ‘bumped’ redundancy may be considered where an employee requests voluntary redundancy or early retirement but there is no clear redundancy situation. The manager can consider whether there is another employee who has been identified for compulsory redundancy who could fill this post, either within the same service (through restructure) or from the Redeployment Register.  The voluntary redundancy will effectively be used to “offset” the compulsory redundancy.

 

9.  Legal Action by UNITE/UNISON

 

Question from Councillor Letts to Councillor Hannides

 

What are the estimated costs to the authority of the current legal action by UNITE/UNISON if 

a)  The Council loses the case b) The Council wins the case?

 

Answer

 

These proceedings have been brought by the trade unions as a complaint to the Tribunal that the Council has failed to comply with its statutory duty to consult.  There is, in any case, a duty to consult but where more than a certain number of employees are involved, statute sets out a timescale.

 

In this case, the Council was obliged to commence consultation at least 90 days before any notice of dismissal was issued.  The unions allege that the commencement of the consultation did not allow for statutory timescales to be met and that the consultation, once commenced, did not provide them with sufficient information to consult meaningfully.

 

The Council is defending the case on the basis that consultation began in November and dismissal notices were sent out in April and that the Unions were provided with all the relevant information as and when it was available.

 

In answer to the specific questions:

 

(a) If the unions are successful, they will obtain a protective award of between 1 to 90 days’ pay for every employee that was served with notice of dismissal.  This would be a penalty payment against the council for not complying with the law, not a compensation payment to compensate for any loss suffered.  The fact that employees are still employed would therefore have no impact on the potential judgement.  However, a 90 day award would normally only be granted in cases where there was no attempt made by an employer to carry out any consultation at all.  In terms of the cost to the council, the amount would be between £140k (1 day award) and £12.5M (90 day award) plus our own legal costs.

 

(b) In the event that the unions are unsuccessful the Council is likely to incur its own legal costs.  It is extremely unlikely that a successful award for costs will be made in this case whatever the outcome.

 

10.Modifications to Council Properties

 

Question from Councillor Pope to Councillor White

 

During financial year 2010-11, what was the average (mean) waiting time for occupational therapist assessments for modifications to Southampton City Council properties? What were the shortest and longest waiting times during the same period?
"What are the same figures for what has passed in financial year 2011-12?

 

We do not collect specific information on the waiting time before the assessment starts for Occupational Therapy assessments for Adaptations.

 

Answer

 

We collect information on the length of time from referral to the completion of assessment.

 

OT average referral to completion in 2010/2011  26.0 days

 

OT average referral to completion 2011/2012  16.1 days

 

The longest time from referral to completion in 2010/2011 was  170 days

1 case was attributable to 1 worker and only 3 further cases were over the 90 day Performance Indicator. 

 

The shortest time from referral to completion  in 2010/2011 was  0 days 

 

The longest time from referral to completion in  2011/2012  was  75 days 

 

The shortest time from referral to completion in 2011/2012 was  1 days 

 

Note: - these figures do not include cases where the delay was due to hospitalisation, awaiting GP information or landlord permission

 

11.Waiting Time for Modifications

 

Question from Councillor Pope to Councillor Baillie

 

During financial year 2010-11, what was the average (mean) waiting time for modifications to be made after assessments? Is there sufficient budget in the 2011-12 budget and the 2012-13 budget to allow such modifications assessed as necessary?

 

Answer

 

Financial year 2010/11:  due to a backlog of works, the average waiting time for a major (“substantial”) adaptation during the year was 16 months.  To address this situation and to reduce the waiting time down to the target maximum of 9 months, Cabinet approved in April 2010 investment of £2.7 million for major, minor, “critical” and “substantial” adaptations. 

 

This investment enabled the backlog to be cleared and the waiting time to be halved by the year end [March 2011to around 8 months.  This excludes major adaptations such as extensions where planning permission has to be agreed, and there are currently only 4 of these cases left to complete.  “Critical” adaptations have, and will continue to be, completed within an 8 week timescale.

 

The approved 2011/12 budget is £875K, and Cabinet will be requested on 1 August to approve additional £475K [virement from Decent Homes Future Years provision] to give, if approved, a total investment in 2011/12 of £1.35 million required to meet demand in this year.

 

Assessment of available resources to meet future demand will be determined as part of the budget setting process in the coming months with proposed adaptations investment for 2012/13 and future years is due to be submitted to Council later in the year

 

12.Outsourcing Council Services

 

Question from Councillor Stevens to Councillor Smith

 

Is there a list of Council services to be outsourced over the next year or two and if so can that be shared with the Council?

 

Answer

 

The Cabinet does not have a planned outsourcing list.

 

13.Collection of Side Waste

 

Question from Councillor Stevens to Councillor Fitzhenry

 

What are the arrangements for the collection of side waste now and post industrial action?

Answer

 

From 5^th July, side waste has been collected by council teams as part of scheduled collections.  Contractors will be collecting all residual waste this week and the Council’s teams will be expected to perform similarly on their return to work.

 

14. Warlock Report

 

Question from Councillor Stevens to Councillor Moulton

 

The 2009 Warlock report recommended some important issues for children's services, is the Cabinet Member confident that these issues have been tackled with long term solutions e.g. issues like the; social work case loads, accommodation, supervision and organisational culture?

 

Answer

 

The Southampton Review of Inter-Agency Safeguarding Arrangements, produced by David Worlock, had 94 agreed recommendations.  These have been implemented by a number of agencies there are 5 remaining recommendations to be implemented; these may require extra resources or further developmental work which is being explored.  The implementation of the recommendations is overseen by the Stay Safe Steering Group, which is a sub group of the Children and Young People’s Trust Board.  Progress is also overseen by the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Southampton’s Local Safeguarding Children’s Board. 

 

Social work case loads are regularly under review by the Safeguarding Services Management Team, the Director of Children’s Services, the Chief Executive and Cabinet member.  Caseloads are rising to between 25 – 35; there is a rigorous action plan to reduce caseloads again to within 20-25 per worker. 

 

The accommodation has been reconfigured and improved since David Worlock’s report.  Supervision and it’s frequency are regularly monitored by the Head of Service and Principal Officer.  Supervision rooms require booking and are largely available with some planning.  The organisational culture has improved and can be demonstrated by the three Ofsted inspections that have taken place.  Unannounced, July 10, Private Fostering Dec 10 and Unannounced May 11. 

 

15.Services for Children

 

Question from Councillor Stevens to Councillor Moulton

 

What outcomes of the review of the commissioning services for children aged 0 - 6 have been implemented and what has been the impact on health visiting (important part of early intervention an important issue of the recent Allen Report)?

 

Answer

 

The Allen review highlighted the importance (and cost effectiveness) of intervening early, particularly in the first 3 years of a child’s life, to ensure they are ready for school and to prevent poor outcomes in later life.  As a result the City has retained its network of 14 Sure Start children’s centres ensuring we are providing the best possible universal and targeted Early Intervention services.

 

NHS Southampton City are leading a commissioning review of Health Visiting Services to deliver the national vision, working with local authority commissioners, and in doing so are taking account of the Health & Family Support Review for Children Under 5 (2010).  The model for Health Visiting will support delivery of key health outcomes in early years.

 

The review recommended the use of evidence based Early Intervention programmes, 2 of which are already available in Southampton: The Family Nurse Partnership is jointly funded by the local authority (children’s centres) and health and has so far reached 120 of our most vulnerable teenage parents and their children (0-2 year olds).  The early years module of the Incredible Years Parenting Programme is delivered by trained children’s centres practitioners to support and develop parenting skills.

 

16.Children’s Services Workers

 

Question from Councillor Stevens to Councillor Moulton

 

Will the Council be paying its children's services workers more to ensure valuable, experienced staff are not tempted away by other local authorities?  If so how much more?

Answer

 

No, we are not paying Children’s social workers more; we are paying a market supplement whilst we undertake a pay review.  We cannot pre-empt the outcome of the review.

 

17.Young Offenders

 

Question from Councillor Stevens to Councillor Moulton

 

Does the Cabinet Member agree that young offenders should be given "looked after" status particularly as The Ministry of Justice is expected to transfer resources to councils so children's services meet the costs of young people remanded in custody?

 

Answer

 

Young offenders would not be given “looked after” status purely on the basis of being a young offender. 

 

We are aware of the proposal to transfer resources to the Council to meet the cost of young people remanded in custody and we would wish to ensure that the resources transferred by the Ministry of Justice are sufficient to meet the cost of young people in custody. 

 

18.Nameplate Poles

 

Question from Councillor Drake to Councillor Baillie

 

Would the Cabinet Member please inform Council when it was decided to erect 'totem pole' style nameplate poles on green areas in the City, how many have been erected and can he provide a breakdown of the cost of erecting these?

 

Answer

 

It is assumed the ‘totem pole’ description is referring to the recently installed Park Identity Markers at Weston Shore (x4), Donkey Common (x2), Mayfield Park (x2), Freemantle Common (x2), Mayflower Park (x1), Hum Hole (x1), Freemantle Lake Park (x1) and Mansel Park (x2) in order to promote the green spaces, which all too often get overlooked by those passing in vehicles We are also in the process of putting up 4 around the Southampton Common to show people coming into Southampton that they are passing through a common and not just on a main road.

 

The idea of the markers is to let those passing (in particular motor vehicles) know that they are passing or driving through one of Southampton’s fantastic parks or green spaces, hopefully they will then come back and use it. They have been sympathetically designed to fit in with our green spaces, but are prominent enough to be noticed and reduce the customer feedback comment “I didn’t know that park existed” (often said about Mayfield Park for instance).

 

The identity markers were approved by the Neighbourhoods Director in January 2011 and discussed with previous Cabinet Member for Local Services and Community Safety. The markers at Freemantle Common were discussed with Cllr Drake as part of the overall improvements, in February 2011.

 

Park Identity Markers are only installed where we have capital or developer contributions (S106) to cover their cost. They cost £622.50 supplied and installed. There have been a number of positive comments received about the signs and to date we have not received any adverse comments about them. There are plans to roll out installation of further posts as capital and developer funding allows for relevant parks and green spaces.

 

19.Staff Vacancies

 

Question from Councillor Vinson to Councillor Smith

 

Is the Leader concerned at the high number of vacancies in some areas of the Council, and what steps are being taken to fill vacancies particularly in the following areas where the numbers currently approach or exceed 50%?

Children’s Services and Learning Directorate:

Family and Community Focused (Youth Services); Economic Wellbeing; 11-19 Advisers; Children in Need Social Workers; Educational Psychology, Inclusion and Welfare; Our House and The Arc residential care;  Health and Adult Social Care Directorate: Respite and Adult Placement; Later Years;

Economic Development Directorate: Management Team; Thornhill Plus You / Motiv8; Capital development; Programme Management; Regeneration and renewal; Library Assistants; Environment Directorate: School Crossing Patrols; and Neighbourhoods Directorate: Customer Services; Private Housing

 

Answer

 

The Recruitment team is currently recruiting into 184 vacancies across the Council.

 

Following the Comprehensive Spending Review, there is a complete recruitment freeze of permanent employees apart from in areas of exceptional need where the use of temporary cover is either financially excessive or operationally problematic.

 

All Managers must firstly consider whether the post needs to be filled or not.  Approval to fill a vacancy (internally or externally) must be sought from the Management Board of Directors and Head of Organisational Development.  If it is considered a vacancy must be filled, then the following process applies:

 

1.  HR Pay will follow the Job Matching process in order that those on the Redeployment Register are considered in the first instance.  (HR Pay activity)

2.  Ring fencing, either within the team, service area or directorate as appropriate following discussion with HR Pay

3.  Internal advert – council wide

4.  Use of Talent Bank (HR Pay to ‘search’ the Hampshire Recruitment Portal, presenting managers with candidates with the skills to match requirements

5.  External advert on the Hampshire Recruitment Portal (if seeking to advertise the vacancy concurrently in the first instance, agreement from Organisational Development must be sought)

6.  External advert in local/national press

   

The above process will save time and money whilst providing opportunities for employee development and retention.

 

20.Expenditure on redundancy and early retirement

 

Question from Councillor Barnes-Andrews to Councillor Hannides

 

Can the Cabinet Member confirm the actual expenditure on redundancy and early retirement payments compared with the budget for 2010/11?

 

Answer

 

The actual redundancy and early retirement expenditure accounted for in 2010/11 was £3.7M. A sum of £2M had been provisionally earmarked within the Organisational Development Reserve to cover redundancy payments in 2010/11, and funding was also available within the reserve to cover future years (total funding available £7M).

 

The total expenditure of £3.7M has therefore been funded in full from the Organisational Development Reserve.

 

21.Youth Parliament

 

Question from Councillor Turner to Councillor Moulton

 

Could the Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and Learning inform Council about the present position of the Youth Parliament?

 

Answer

 

The City’s youth parliament had its last meeting in its current format in March of this year.  This is in response to a number of factors.  Firstly attendance at the monthly meetings was dwindling with less than 20 young people regularly attending.  Secondly less than 7% of the 700 young people surveyed in a recent consultation indicated that the best way to gain the views of young people was through a citywide youth council or parliament.  Thirdly, there has been a need to review practice in the light of ongoing budget pressures, to ensure we find the most effective and efficient way of doing things.

 

In April this year an informal meeting was hosted by officers to discuss with representatives of the Southampton City Youth Parliament ways of working in the future which included working more closely with schools.  A follow up meeting working with the City’s UKyouthMP is planned during the summer.

 

22.Itchen Toll Bridge

 

Question from Councillor Mrs Blatchford to Councillor Fitzhenry

 

In relation to the Itchen Toll Bridge:

(a)  Could the Cabinet Member confirm that the revenue taken on the Itchen Toll Bridge during the dispute tallied with the number of vehicles passing through the plaza?

(b)  What method of recording the 50 pence flat rate was used and how was it recorded?

(c)  Why were Southampton residents who use concessionary tokens asked for a red off peak token rather than the blue peak token?

(d)  What part of the Hampshire Act 1983 or City of Southampton Itchen Bridge Toll Order was used to levy the flat rate 50p charge or variable token payments?

(e) Why were those asking for a receipt offered ones not tallying with the day or time of day when passing through the toll plaza?

 

Answer

 

The Itchen Toll is an essential element of the City’s transportation strategy. The Toll dissuades the use of this route by commuters and large vehicles to the detriment of surrounding communities and the City centre.

During the recent industrial action, Managers in the service area have supplemented the reduced staff numbers to ensure that there is sufficient cover at least during the peak hours to maintain the integrity of the strategy.

The decision to reduce the tariff to a flat rate of 50p was made to accommodate the untrained staff and reduce the potential for traffic delays over classification and charge queries.

The current arrangements were cleared with internal audit and legal services prior to being implemented.

In respect to the specific questions raised, I can confirm the following:-

(a)  Although the vehicle classification system is switched off, the system still records the number of vehicles passing each booth. Tokens and cash can therefore be reconciled.

(b)  The decision to adopt a 50p flat rate is an operational decision and has been discussed with me. It establishes a consistent charge through the day and is a practical solution.

(c)  The red token provides the established concession to the 50p charge. It should be noted that not all users of the bridge have both coloured tokens and therefore either colour are accepted.

(d)  The Council is agreeing to accept less than the standard toll under composition arrangements under s.29 of the Act (ie we are effectively accepting a 'settlement' figure for the toll during any period of industrial action.) which is permitted as long as nobody within any specific class of vehicles is given preference over others within the same class. 

The Hampshire Act allows for charging changes to be made providing this is advertised. This was done via the website and by posters displayed in the Toll Booths 

(e) Without the vehicle classification system in operation, no real time receipts can be issued. However, receipts are given for the correct day and as close to the time as possible. In isolated cases some receipts may have been handed out with the wrong date, but this no longer occurs.