To approve as a correct record the minutes of Cabinet held on 7 September 2016

The Minutes of Cabinet, held on 7 September 2016, were approved as a correct record.

To receive additional items that the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency, in accordance with Section 100B (4) (b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

There were no items of urgent business.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Deputy Leader advised that since the launch of Clean it, Cut it and Fill it in May/June 10 thousand bags of litter had been collected of this 2 thousand were additional due to the investment made to the scheme.

He continued to advise Cabinet that 3 thousand acres of grass had been cut and from those areas 1850 bags rubbish had been collected. On top of this 7 thousand potholes had been filled and although there was still more that could be done, the current figures were a testament to the scheme and Officers.

Cabinet were notified that the Leader had met with Essex County Council and the Police Crime Commissioner to discuss illegal traveller encampments. The deputy leader informed Members that he was pleased to share that within 24 hours of an illegal encampment in a warehouse they were evicted. He continued that this showed an effective working partnership.

Lastly it was announced that the first fixed penalty notice had been issued on the Mannorway. Councillor Hebb thanked all involved and further thanked Councillor Brian Little for his support.

Councillor Stewart, Cabinet Member for Performance & Central Services presented the report, which outlined the Corporate Plan 2016/17 and its focus areas for service delivery during the year.

She continued to explain the plan was based on the Councils existing vision and corporate priorities which are to be refreshed during the year. Members were informed the report also provided Cabinet with a briefing on how services use benchmarking information.

The Cabinet Member for Performance & Central Services further commented that performance was not solely based on KPI (Key Performance Indicator) but on customer service calls and complaints so to give residents the best service.

Councillor Tolson commented when she first took up her portfolio the missed bin collections was high  on the compliant list, however a strategy had since been put in place should a collection be missed then the driver, is asked to explain why. She continued to state that since this had been in operation there had been fewer complaints of missed bin collections and a review would be completed.

The Cabinet Member for Environment further notified Cabinet that at the Cleaner, Greener and Safer Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 11th October 2016, it was agreed to allow fixed penalty notices be given for littering.

Resolved that Cabinet:

1.         Note and comment upon the performance of the key corporate performance indicators in particular those areas which are IN FOCUS.

2.         Identify any areas which require additional consideration.

There were no petitions submitted.

The Leader of the Council advised that no questions had been submitted from Non-Executive Members.

The Leader of the Council informed Members that no matters had been referred to the Cabinet by an Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Health introduced the report which outlined a modern children’s centre provision, which would integrate specialist health, education and social care services so that holistic wrap around care could be provided for children and young people.

He continued to state the new model moved beyond the traditional approaches to service delivery, and would provide a more focussed and targeted approached to improving children’s health and wellbeing. 

Cabinet were further informed the new model would allow organisations such as Healthwatch and the Health and Well-Being Board to work together as an integrated service, which would ensure that the health needs of vulnerable children and families  would be supported sooner.

Councillor Halden commented that a £1.4 million saving was to be made by integrating the services and using fewer buildings, whilst at the same time improving the service offered to residents.

Councillor Sue Little thanked the Cabinet Member for his report and commented that it was opening the service which was welcomed.

The Cabinet Member for Neighbourhoods welcomed the report and mentioned that it was time the Council was looking forward, rather than on the past.

She further queried as to what the Early Offer of Help (EOH) entitled. Councillor Halden explained the EOH was to prevent the risk of need escalating and so targeted families and individuals at an early stage to offer the support they need.

During discussions Councillor Halden commented that the buildings which were being used to provide the service were to be based on need, for example there was an acute need to retain a building in Tilbury and to offer a targeted service to meet individual needs.

Resolved that Cabinet:

1.    Agreed the Integrated 0-19 Wellbeing Model to support children and families, including the redesign of the Children’s Centres service, as set out in this report.

2.    Agreed that Officers proceed with the proposed joint consultation by Public Health and Children’s Services to secure stakeholder and public approval to the model.

3.    Subject to the outcome of the consultation exercise and in consultation with the Portfolio Holders, agree to proceed to tender for the following services:

·         Healthy Families up to a total maximum value of £21M over 5 years

·         Early Offer of Help up to a total maximum value of £2M over 5 years

4.    Agreed Delegated Authority to award the Healthy Families Contract to the Director of Public Health in agreement with the Portfolio Holder for Education and Health.

5.    Agreed Delegated Authority to award the Early Offer of Help Contract to the Corporate Director of Children’s Services in agreement with the Portfolio Holder for Children’s and Adults’ Social Care Services.

6.    Agreed to establish a Project Board with representatives from Early Years, Employment Skills and Public Health to oversee delivery of the 0 – 19 Wellbeing Model.

Councillor Halden, Cabinet Member for Education and Health, presented the report which set out the proposals for the re-procurement of the Integrated Adults Substance Misuse Treatment Service contract, which provided a recovery-focussed adult drug and alcohol treatment system within Thurrock.

He advised Cabinet the current contract expired on 31 March 2017 and a new contract would be put in place for 1 April 2017. Cabinet Members were further notified that although there were come concerns with the current contract, these issues were being addressed.

Councillor Halden thanked the Public Health Team for the hard work which had been undertaken.

Resolved that Cabinet:

1.    Approved the re-procurement of the Integrated Adults Substance Misuse Treatment Service.

2.    Agreed delegated authority for award of contract to the Director of Public Health in consultation with the Portfolio Member for Education and Health.

Councillor Halden, Cabinet Member for Education and Health introduced the report highlighting the following:

·         A new focus would be given to early years by diverting resources to help prevent the rise of poor lifestyles in school children which are both a great financial burden to the health system, and greatly limit healthy lives;

·         Resources would no longer be used to re-educate adults about their lifestyles;

·         Help would be given to change poor lifestyles would benefit residents, however it was recognised this could be challenging;

Councillor Halden commented the service was a tremendous resource for young people and the Council would provide the help required for those who wanted it.

He further stated the new approach would enable the council to give a smarter and more targeted service, alongside a great financial saving of £700 thousand over the lifetime of the contract.

Councillor Brian Little, sought as to how the Cabinet Member planned to engage schools within the service. Councillor Halden highlighted recommendation 1.3 within the report and commented that within the tender process it would be an obligation for the provider to engage with schools.

Resolved that Cabinet:

1.    Approved the process to commence procurement of the Healthy Lifestyles Service.

2.    Agreed delegated authority for award of contract to the Director of Public Health in consultation with the Portfolio Member for Education and Health.

3.    Cabinet agreed to a general obligation for the provider to evidence that they are fully engaged with schools and with the local authority as we continue to develop healthy living plans via a sport and fitness agenda for young people and via our work in the Thurrock Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2016-2021.

Councillor Halden, Cabinet Member for Education and Health informed Cabinet the report outlined one of the key policies of the Conservative Administration, to hold the primary care network to account and improve the system.

He continued to explain a scorecard  would be created based on local metrics to enable all partners to hold poor performance in primary care to account and act as a critical friend to drive improvements. He further advised this would enable the council to know how well health services were treating patients and have expert input into any improvement within surgeries if required.

Members were informed the council would also work with Healthwatch Thurrock to grow patient participation groups, who would assist in holding poor providers to account.

Councillor Coxshall commented that he was pleased to see General Practitioners (GP) surgeries being held to account, should they be failing.  He also enquired as to how the council would encourage GP’s to come to Thurrock.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Health informed Members at the conference, 3 awful failings of the NHS were highlighted. He continued by stating that using the matrix showed leadership and by highlighting failure can lead to improvement.

Resolved:

1.    That Cabinet endorsed the Parking Strategy & Policies 2016 document at Appendix 1 as a replacement to Parking Strategy 2007.

Councillor Brian Little, Cabinet Member for Transport and Highways presented the report advising Members it was seeking Cabinet endorsement of a refreshed version of the Council’s Parking Strategy and Policies to support the Council’s more robust approach to tackling Heavy Good Vehicles (HGV) parking enforcement and to dealing with the pressures associated with higher volumes of commuter parking, particularly around rail stations.

He further advised a more comprehensive review of Parking Strategy and Policies would be undertaken as part of a multi-model review of Transport Strategy in conjunction with the development of Thurrock’s new Local Plan.

Members were informed there had been an increase in HGV miles in the borough rising from 83 thousand to 87 thousand since 2007.  It was further  highlighted that in June 2016 a new team of Civil Enforcement Officers were introduced to focus on inconsiderate and illegal HGV parking, to date they had produced 1721 parking notices, largely to HGVs.

Councillor B Little advised Cabinet a draft of the refreshed Parking Strategy and Policies 2016 was presented to the Planning, Transportation and Regeneration Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 13 September 2016 and their comments had been adopted into the draft presented to Cabinet Members.

Councillor MacPherson thanked the Cabinet Member for his report and mentioned that she was pleased to see that Thurrock was looking forward and solving issues.

Councillor Tolson enquired as to whether the Cabinet Member felt anti-social behaviour had a role to play within HGVs being parked in inappropriate places.

The Cabinet Member for Transport and Highways confirmed he felt anti-social behaviour did have a part. He explained that working alongside Highways England the Council was looking at closing laybys to stop the inconsiderate parking of HGVs. He further commented that the council was seeking the closure of laybys on the A128 and the layby on the Dock Approach Road in Tilbury had been closed for 2 weeks.

Resolved:

1.    That Cabinet endorsed the Parking Strategy & Policies 2016 document at Appendix 1 as a replacement to Parking Strategy 2007.

Councillor Sue Little addressed Cabinet Members to inform them at present 347 of Thurrock’s Children were in care. She commented that it was important as corporate parents that Members engaged with children in care and that she would provide a monthly update at future Cabinet meetings, as to the number of children in care in Thurrock.