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The decisions as the council's minutes record them. A plain-language summary follows once it has been written.
RESOLVED That the items as set out in the Forward Work Programme be approved.
RESOLVED a) That the Committee scrutinised the County Council’s performance information up to November 2023. b) That the Committee scrutinised the County Council’s performance information for 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 data up to November 2023. c) That the Committee scrutinised commentary on the County Council’s performance information. d) That consideration be given to exploring how indicators of the relative productivity of Pembrokeshire’s employees could be developed, recognising the limitations of any comparable data.
RESOLVED a) That the Committee scrutinised the Outline Draft County Council Budget for 2024-25 and considered the main issues arising. b) That the Committee scrutinised the Outline Draft Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2024- 25 to 2027-28 and considered the main issues arising. c) That the Committee scrutinised theProvisional Local Government Settlement for 2024-25 and considered the main issues arising. Councillor Stoddart proposed that it was premature for the Committee to commit to putting a percentage rise on Council Tax; Seconded by Councillor Michael James. The Committee then proceeded to the vote, undertaken by way of a roll-call,which was carried. The votes were recorded as follows: For the Motion: Councillors Steve Alderman, Aaron Carey, Alan Dennison, Jonathan Grimes, Dr Simon Hancock, Michael James, Michael John, Bethan Price, Michael Stoddart, Thomas Tudor, Jacob Williams and Michael Williams [12] There were no votes against or abstentions. RESOLVED That the Committee concluded that no recommendation be made to Cabinet in respect of theCounty Council Budget for 2024-25 and the MTFP for 2024 - 25 to 2027-28.
RESOLVED That the Minutes of the meeting of the Partnerships Panel held on 27 November 2023 be noted.
RESOLVED That the report be noted.
There were no apologies for absence.
There were no declarations made at this point in the meeting.
The Committee considered the Minutes of the meeting held on 16 November 2023. In respect of Minute 32 concerning Strategic Partnerships - Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee, a short additional update by the Assistant Chief Executive had been sent to Members on 16 January 2024. Following clarification received, the Assistant Chief Executive confirmed that Pembrokeshire and the other partner authorities agreed a Deed of Variation in 2019, with amongst other changes that established the quorum of a meeting of the Joint Committee being three of the four constituent Councils. Councillor Jacob Williams requested that the matter be brought back to the next meeting of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee for further consideration. Moved by Councillor Aaron Carey; Seconded by Councillor Alan Dennison. The vote, by way of show of hands, was carried. RESOLVED That the Minutes of the Meeting held on 16 November 2023 be approved as a correct record, in both English and Welsh.
The Chair stated that no public submissions or items of correspondence had been received for this meeting.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED That the items as set out in the Forward Work Programme be approved.
The Chair outlined the items scheduled for the March meeting and reiterated a suggestion that he made at the last meeting to arrange an informal session, for which a date has yet to be fixed, tofurther consider the Forward Work Programme for the next 12 months. Moved by Councillor Dr Simon Hancock; Seconded by Councillor Alan Dennison. The vote, undertaken by way of show of hands, was carried. RESOLVED That the items as set out in the Forward Work Programme be approved.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED a) That the Committee scrutinised the County Council’s performance information up to November 2023. b) That the Committee scrutinised the County Council’s performance information for 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 data up to November 2023. c) That the Committee scrutinised commentary on the County Council’s performance information. d) That consideration be given to exploring how indicators of the relative productivity of Pembrokeshire’s employees could be developed, recognising the limitations of any comparable data.
The Committee considered a report by the Assistant Chief Executive regarding the Performance Measurement Quarterly Monitoring and the Corporate Scorecard as at November 2023. Councillor Alec Cormack, the Cabinet Member for Corporate Finance, introduced the report, on behalf of Councillor Neil Prior, Cabinet Member with responsibility for Corporate Improvement and Communities, who had sent his apologies to the meeting. The Chair also welcomed the Corporate Planning Managerand invited him to participate in the Agenda item. The Committee debated the contents of the report and the key points were highlighted as follows: · The Chair, along with Councillors Alan Dennison, Dr Simon Hancock and Michael Williams, commended the presentation of the statistics in a way that was easy to understand. · Councillor Dennison, making reference to the number of monthly visits to The Riverside Library, in Haverfordwest, queried whether the figure involved visits to the café that is in the same building as the library. The Head of Cultural Leisure & Registration Services explained library usage was not a robust figure because it relied on data from entrance door counters that were not always entirely accurate. He confirmed a percentage of those visits would be specifically for the café and not the library, but agreed to clarify the figure outside of the meeting. · Councillor Dr Simon Hancock recognised that the overall corporate improvement work reflected well on the Council’s staff, though he was disappointed to note that stress and anxiety continued to be a major cause of absence. The Head of HR reported that stress and anxiety had overtaken other reasons for absence and reflected an unfortunate trend seen across all organisations. She stated that the Council continued to support the mental health and wellbeing of its staff, with the employment of an Occupational Health Nurse advising on mental health and 50 employees, who had trained to become Mental Health First Aiders and there were plans to increase further. The Occupational Health Service was also exploring how to improve therapeutic services for people who needed additional support in terms of counselling. Some of the factors that were causing stress at work were outside of the Council’s control, such as those personal to the individual and the cost of living, she added. · Councillor Hancock also pointed to the downward trend in the Looked- After Children Reduction Plan and the increase in the number of children on the Child Protection register. The Head of Children’s Services admitted significant elements of the strategy that were implemented three years ago had come to fruition, but not the plans to reduce the number of children in the way that the Council would have liked. In spite of the Authority’s best efforts, he went onto say that demand had increased year-on-year for the last five years and continued to outstrip resource. Furthermore, under the National Transfer Scheme, the Council was compelled to take a specific quota of unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, predominantly from Kent. The quota represented 10% of the Authority’s entire looked-after children, he continued. · In response to a suggestion made by Councillor Mike Stoddart to evaluate the Council’s performance in the context of the resources deployed, the Assistant Chief Executive clarified that the Chief Executive had requested information on efficiency and effectiveness and for comparisons with other local authorities in future. The Corporate Planning Manager added that when the Welsh Government started to require councils to produce an annual self-assessment, this had tended to make comparisons more difficult. · On the number of adults waiting for an assessment of their care needs, Councillor Michael Williams expressed concern that the figure was well above the target last met in August 2023. It was noted by the Director of Social Care and Housing that the number had been decreasing, however, attributed the rise in Adult Care to the similar set of circumstances in Children’s Services, with an increasing gap between demand and the Council’s capacity to respond. He elaborated on some of the strength-based approaches the Service was taking with the Community Hub, managed by the Pembrokeshire Association of Voluntary Services (PAVS), and theVanguard programme to respond in far timely manner. · Councillor Williams then raised the issue of the delay to the Disabled Facilities Grants (DFGs) process that was taking on average 300 days and the profound impact this was having on disabled individuals’ lives. The Head of Housing & Public Protection cited there were multiple reasons for the 23% increase in demand for home adaptions. In particular, the removal of the means test from small and medium DFGs had led to an increase in the number of enquiries, coupled with staffing pressures in Occupational Therapy, however, the Service was looking at ways to improve the process. · Councillor Dennison sought clarification on the contact centre average queue time and whether it included the automated bilingual greeting, to which the Assistant Chief Executive agreed to follow this up further. · Councillor Dennison went onto request the correction of a minor typographical error in the Total Incoming Calls bar chart on page 33 of the report. Moved by Councillor Alan Dennison; Seconded by Councillor Dr Simon Hancock. The vote, undertaken by way of show of hands, was carried. RESOLVED a) That the Committee scrutinised the County Council’s performance information up to November 2023. b) That the Committee scrutinised the County Council’s performance information for 2021-22, 2022-23 and 2023-24 data up to November 2023. c) That the Committee scrutinised commentary on the County Council’s performance information. d) That consideration be given to exploring how indicators of the relative productivity of Pembrokeshire’s employees could be developed, recognising the limitations of any comparable data.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED a) That the Committee scrutinised the Outline Draft County Council Budget for 2024-25 and considered the main issues arising. b) That the Committee scrutinised the Outline Draft Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2024- 25 to 2027-28 and considered the main issues arising. c) That the Committee scrutinised theProvisional Local Government Settlement for 2024-25 and considered the main issues arising. Councillor Stoddart proposed that it was premature for the Committee to commit to putting a percentage rise on Council Tax; Seconded by Councillor Michael James. The Committee then proceeded to the vote, undertaken by way of a roll-call,which was carried. The votes were recorded as follows: For the Motion: Councillors Steve Alderman, Aaron Carey, Alan Dennison, Jonathan Grimes, Dr Simon Hancock, Michael James, Michael John, Bethan Price, Michael Stoddart, Thomas Tudor, Jacob Williams and Michael Williams [12] There were no votes against or abstentions. RESOLVED That the Committee concluded that no recommendation be made to Cabinet in respect of theCounty Council Budget for 2024-25 and the MTFP for 2024 - 25 to 2027-28.
[During consideration of this item, Councillors Michael Williams, Alan Dennison, Mike James, Steve Alderman, Jonathan Grimes, Michael John and Alec Cormack, each declared a personal interest by virtue of being active members of the Dyfed Pension Fund.] The Chair introduced a report by the Director of Resources, which outlined the following elements: • Outline Draft County Council Budget for 2024-25 • Outline Draft Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2024-25 to 2027–28 • Provisional Local Government Settlement for 2024-25. In doing so, the Chair reminded Members that it was considered the Draft Budget should come before them, being the Committee responsible for financial aspects under the Council’s Constitution, as it was only due to be presented for scrutiny at the Policy and Pre-decision Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Councillor Alec Cormack, the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Corporate Finance, then went through the report and gave his personal feedback on the scale of the financial challenges faced by the Council in developing the Budget and the MTFP. He summarised the main points as set out in the paper, which included: • The Provisional Local Government settlement for Pembrokeshire in 2024-25 would be increased by 2.5% which was less than anticipated • A projected funding gap of £28.4m • The cumulative funding gap of £80.8m • Inflationary pressures of £23.5 million in 2024-25 • Demand pressures of £11.9 million for 2024-25 in relation to Social Services • The need to increase the Council Tax percentage up to the Welsh average level. The Director of Resources emphasised that the Budget would be a huge challenge for the next financial year, witha projected funding gap of £28.4m. He stressed that the Council would not only need to consider the actions it needed to take for the 2024-25 Budget, but would need to try to ensure financial sustainability over the MTFP, as there was an estimated funding gap in excess of £80m over the four year period. The Chair then opened up discussion of the report and the key points were noted as follows: • Councillor Michael Williams voiced his concern that the Council was on the cusp, in certain areas, of failing to provide its statutory duties. From his point of view, he felt the Council was failing the most vulnerable in society, specifically children and the elderly, and argued unless there was a drastic revision in the way the Council operated, it could rapidly become a failing Authority. The Cabinet Member replied that the Council had limited ability to affect how Local Government, in particular Social Care, could be financed. He advised Officers might be requested next year to make the best use of available money because there were very few savings options that had not been considered. • The Chair, making reference to the discussion about how Social Care services were funded, suggested that the onus was on the Welsh Government or UK Government and asked if work was going on in the background to look at this issue. • Councillor Dr Simon Hancock drew attention to the fact that the Council has had its budget cut by £96m in the last 10 years even with increased Council Tax income that still represented a net reduction of over £58m. He sought assurance from the Cabinet Member that the budget savings rated as green and amber in the Authority’s ‘traffic light’ system of reporting, and were due to be implemented immediately, would not put the Council at risk of statutory failure. While Councillor Cormack confirmed the green and amber savings did not involve any risk of statutory failure, the Director of Resources stated the measures rated dark red or the black would take the Council into statutory service territory that would have an effect on standards and may mean it would not meet its statutory service provision. Even though the Council may not choose to take those measures this year, the Director of Resources warned that when the financial year moved forward to the next, they would be at the front of the list. · Councillor Alan Dennison reiterated a question he asked at the last meeting about whether the Council could reduce its employer’s contribution to the Dyfed Pension Fund as the Scheme was now in surplus at 113%. He suggested that the three Council Employing Authorities make a request to the Pension Trustees to reduce their contributions to the Scheme for this year. The Director of Resources explained that the Dyfed Pension Fund has an actuarial review on a triennial basis that informs the employer’s contribution for the next three years. The Fund could go up as well as down in terms of valuations, investments and increases in pension payments because of a rise in the number of pensioners. He was unaware of any Local Government Pension Scheme where employer’s contributions were changed on a one year basis and added that he would not want any adjustment now and then have to substantially increase employer’s contributions in future years, which would cause even more financial challenges. The Director of Resources offered to invite the Carmarthenshire County Council Section 151 Officer, the Statutory Officer of the Dyfed Pension Fund to speak at a future meeting. · In connection with the accumulated funding gap, Councillor Michael Stoddart referred to Councillor Dr Hancock’s figures as “double counting” and to £9m held in the Initiative Fund. Firstly, the Cabinet Member declared there was no double counting with the current £80m funding gap. Secondly, he stated the Chief Executive, in conjunction with the Council’s Budget Performance Challenge Board, had authorised £3m of spending from the Initiative Fund so far this year in order to bring forward either additional revenue or changes that would affect service delivery going forward and efficiencies. [During the course of this discussion, network connectivity was lost and the Chair adjourned the meeting between 11:27am and 11:40am to allow Members and Officers to reconnect.] · Councillor Michael Stoddart, while acknowledging the pressures in adult and children’s social care, commented it was not possible for the budget to keep going up and sought clarification as to whether the Council had any proposals for school reorganisation due to the decline in the number of school age children. Councillor Cormack responded that the Council could decide to change the number of schools in the long term, however, the process for school reorganisation takes around four years. He also made the point that school closures would result in more children being transported around the County at potentially significant extra cost. · Councillor Dr Hancock then read an email he had received from the Chief Executive on 6 December 2023 to the meeting, which was in reply to his query about the amount the Council has had to cut its budget by over the last 10 years. The Chief Executive wrote that the Council had cut its budget by £96.7m, reflecting a real reduction of £58.4m. • In response to a question from Councillor Thomas Tudor about whether the Council had achieved all of its cost savings by implementing last year’s budget measures, the Director of Resources reported approximately £8m savings were made to balance the budget. Of the £8m, in the Quarter 2 monitoring update, he told the meeting that £5.4m savings were rated as Green, £1.7m were classified as Amber and £760,000 were RAG-rated Red, consequently, were challenging to implement in year. He elaborated that he tended to see some slippage in planned savings, nonetheless, the Council normally managed to balance its budget during the year from other means either by making savings elsewhere or receiving late grant funding from the Welsh Government. The need to make savings of £8m in the current financial year illustrated the challenge the Council was now facing, looking for potentially bigger savings in 2024-25, he warned. · The Chair raised questions in relation to the Council’s position if it could no longer afford to run a service that it was required to provide by the Welsh Government and affordability of its capital programme. The Director of Resources advised the Authority would need to consider the discretionary services it provides and reduce some statutory services to the absolute legal minimum, however, that would risk intervention by Welsh Government. On the affordability of the capital programme, he referred to the revised methodology for calculating the annual Capital Financing costs cap that was approved by Council in December 2023. In his estimation, the methodology was affordable over the medium and longer term and still gave the Council some headroom in the capital programme. · Following on from the discussion relating to the capital programme, Councillor Jonathan Grimes stressed the need for capital projects to be seriously evaluated at a time when the Council was asking residents to pay more council tax. He illustrated with an example of the Pembroke redevelopment where the project has had to be re-evaluated because of inflationary pressures. · With regard to the Council’s discretionary services, Councillor Dennison asked for further clarification on these, notably on the approval of Scolton Manor Park as a wedding venue, to which Councillor Cormack agreed to follow this up further. Councillor Thomas Tudor Moved the first part of the recommendation within the report; Seconded by Councillor Steve Alderman. The vote, undertaken by way of show of hands, was carried. RESOLVED a) That the Committee scrutinised the Outline Draft County Council Budget for 2024-25 and considered the main issues arising. b) That the Committee scrutinised the Outline Draft Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) for 2024- 25 to 2027-28 and considered the main issues arising. c) That the Committee scrutinised theProvisional Local Government Settlement for 2024-25 and considered the main issues arising. Councillor Stoddart proposed that it was premature for the Committee to commit to putting a percentage rise on Council Tax; Seconded by Councillor Michael James. The Committee then proceeded to the vote, undertaken by way of a roll-call,which was carried. The votes were recorded as follows: For the Motion: Councillors Steve Alderman, Aaron Carey, Alan Dennison, Jonathan Grimes, Dr Simon Hancock, Michael James, Michael John, Bethan Price, Michael Stoddart, Thomas Tudor, Jacob Williams and Michael Williams [12] There were no votes against or abstentions. RESOLVED That the Committee concluded that no recommendation be made to Cabinet in respect of theCounty Council Budget for 2024-25 and the MTFP for 2024 - 25 to 2027-28.
The meeting agreed to change the order of business as follows to enable the Cabinet Member to attend for the Corporate Safeguarding Board Annual Report item.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED That the Minutes of the meeting of the Partnerships Panel held on 27 November 2023 be noted.
The Chair presented the draft Minutes of the Partnerships Panel meeting held on the 27 November 2023. Moved by Councillor Steve Alderman; Seconded by Councillor Jonathan Grimes. The vote, undertaken by way of show of hands, was carried. RESOLVED That the Minutes of the meeting of the Partnerships Panel held on 27 November 2023 be noted.
Decision as recorded
RESOLVED That the report be noted.
The Director for Education presented the Annual Report of the Whole Authority Safeguarding Board for 2022-2023 on behalf of the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Social Care and Safeguarding, who had been delayed in another meeting. The Director for Education highlighted the importance of the Board’s work in ensuring robust safeguarding measures were in place for children and adults in the Council. He outlined the main points of the report detailing the Board’s overarching activities in response to the recommendations made by the Wales Audit Office. Key areas of action were identified, including updates in recruitment vetting, school attendance that remained an issue and the rising number of referrals to Children’s Services, he continued. The Committee proceeded to debate the contents of the report and the following points were made: · Councillor Dr Simon Hancock, making reference to Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) applications, queried whether the current backlog of 310 had increased since publication of the Committee report and whether Welsh Government funding to deal with the number of applications would continue beyond March 2024. The Director for Education verified that the figures related to 2022-23, however, agreed to report back to the Committee with the latest data.Regarding the funding to deal with the backlog, the Director of Education was anticipating a reduction in grant funding, though he admitted he did not yet have the detail in terms of what that reduction might be. · In response to questions raised by Councillor Alan Dennison about DBS checks, the Director of Education explained the three-year rolling programme of checks became custom and practice under the scheme’s predecessor, the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB). He agreed with Councillor Dennison that there was a cost implication, with individual Enhanced DBS checks costing around £75.00 each to renew. The Director of Education advised that DBS checks were currently being reviewed with HR, while a change to the frequency of their renewal would need to be referred to the Corporate Safeguarding Board for consideration. He agreed to provide an update to the Committee on these matters. · Councillor Thomas Tudor drew attention to the amber-rated budget saving in Elective Home Education (EHE) and sought assurance that the monitoring of home-educated children would not be impacted by a change to the funding regime being replaced by a grant. The Director of Education, making reference to an ongoing police investigation into a recent incident that he was unable to comment further, however, went onto say that the number of electively home-educated children and young people had continued to rise for various reasons. He stated his plea would be for the funding regime not to change while waiting to hear if the Welsh Government would make an announcement on grants. Moved by Councillor Simon Hancock; Seconded by Councillor Aaron Carey. The vote, undertaken by way of show of hands, was carried. RESOLVED That the report be noted.
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