Agenda and minutes

A webcast of the meeting can be viewed at http://council.webcast.vualto.com/leicestershire-county-council/home?EventId=18658.

 

Mrs Dorothy Pickering

 

The Chairman was delighted to announce that Mrs Dorothy Pickering, Head Dinner Lady at Mercenfield Primary School had been awarded a British Empire Medal (BEM) as part of the New Year Honours List.

 

Members joined the Chairman in offering congratulations to Mrs Pickering for this well-deserved national recognition of her work in the community of Markfield.

 

Visitors

 

The Chairman welcomed to the meeting all visitors and guests of members and anyone who was viewing the meeting via the webcast.

 

It was moved by the Chairman, seconded by Mrs Richards, and carried:-

 

“That the minutes of the meeting of the Council held on 7^th December 2016, revised copies of which have been circulated to members, be taken as read, confirmed and signed.”

 

 

The Chairman invited members who wished to do so to make declarations of interest in respect of items on the agenda for the meeting.

 

All members who were members of District and Borough Councils and/or School Governors declared a personal interest in relation to the Medium Term Financial Strategy 2017/18 – 2020/21.

 

Dr Eynon declared a person interest in those parts of the MTFS which affected the NHS as she was a salaried GP (minute 47 refers).

 

There were no other declarations.

 

(A)     Dr Eynon asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-

 

"1.      How much did the failure of the TLC Help to Live at Home contract cost this Council in staff overtime and time off in lieu?

 

2.       What lessons has this Authority learned from this experience regarding its contracting and commissioning processes?"

 

Mr Houseman replied as follows:-

 

“1.      The Council will be calculating the cost to it in officer time in managing the failure of TLC to deliver care.  As the Council is currently in legal dispute with TLC, information about such costs is considered commercially sensitive and cannot therefore be disclosed at this time.

 

2.       Similarly, the Council will conduct a “lessons learned” exercise following resolution of the current ongoing dispute with TLC.”

 

Dr Eynon asked the following supplementary question:-

 

“I understand the issues in the answer but I’m aware learning lessons from significant events ideally take place whilst matters are still fresh in people’s minds and I would like the Lead Member to assure this Council that timely review exercises are in fact taking place and that the learning from these will be available for Scrutiny and dissemination as soon as the legal dispute referred to is resolved.”

 

Mr Houseman replied as follows:-

 

“Thank you very much for the question Dr Eynon.  I agree with the points you are making.  Of course the matter hasn’t been resolved yet that we were referring to in the reply but we did hold a Help to Live at Home Learning and Recognition event at Beaumanor Hall on the 20^th January 2017.  I took the opportunity to thank the staff for the work that they had done before, during and after Christmas because of the problems with Help to Live at Home, which are in some cases still ongoing, and there will be a report from that event as to what the staff themselves thought.  I found it very useful, I got a far better understanding of the problems from their view point and we would be very pleased to share that information with you in due course.”

 

(B)     Dr Eynon asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-

 

"As this Council implements it Workplace Wellbeing strategy with the aim to reducing absenteeism, how much investment has gone into procuring external sickness-absence management solutions for the next financial year?"

 

Mr Rhodes replied as follows:-

 

“As reported to Employment Committee, the Council is contracting with an external company who will from April 2017 provide an absence triage service.

 

The pilot is based on just over 1430 people, and a monthly charge per person of £3.10, the contract value is approximately £53,000.

 

Based on experience, the company is confident that sickness levels in the pilot areas will reduce, and the predicted savings for year 2 are in excess of the cost”.

 

Dr Eynon asked the following supplementary question:-

 

“I would like to ask how will the effectiveness of this investment be evaluated beyond that mentioned.  Will this include measures of staff morale, productivity and turnover?”

 

Mr Rhodes replied as follows:-

 

“I think I’ve got to look into that in a little bit more detail.  We’ve made the contract with this company and they will find what they find and we will look into everything that we need to in order to bring about a situation where we start to reduce the level of absenteeism.”

 

(C)     Mr Hunt asked the following question of the Leader or his nominee:-

 

“Would the Leader tell Council: 

 

1.       For each financial year since 2011/12:-

 

(a)      What funds have been applied to meet demands  ...  view the full minutes text for item 46.

Mr Rhodes, with the consent of the seconder of the motion, sought and obtained the agreement of the Council to move the following altered motion:-

 

It was moved by Mr Rhodes and seconded by Mr Rushton:-

 

“(a)   That, subject to the items below, the MTFS which incorporates the recommended revenue budget for 2017/18 totalling £348m as set out in Appendices A, B and E of this report and including the growth and savings for that year as set out in Appendix C, subject to the removal of saving ET11, Public Bus Services – Revised Policy on Subsidised Transport, be approved;

 

(b)    That the projected provisional revenue budgets for 2018/19, 2019/20 and 2020/21, set out in Appendix B to the report, be approved including the growth and savings for those years as set out in Appendix C as amended by (a) above, allowing the undertaking of preliminary work, including business case development, consultation and equality impact assessments, as may be necessary towards achieving the savings specified for those years including savings under development, set out in Appendix D;

 

(c)    That it be noted that the expected savings from the outcome of the Review of Council Tax and Business Rates Collection, set out in Appendix D, will total at least £1.3m;

 

(d)    That further work be undertaken into the cost effectiveness of the Council’s policy on Subsidised Transport;

 

(e)    That the early achievement of savings that are included in the MTFS, as may be necessary, along with associated investment costs, be approved subject to the Director of Finance agreeing to funding being available;

 

(f)     That the level of earmarked funds as set out in Appendix J be noted and the use of earmarked funds be approved;

 

(g)    That the amounts of the County Council's Council Tax for each band of dwelling and the precept payable by each billing authority for 2017/18 be as set out in Appendix K (including the adult social care precept of 2%);

 

(h)    That the Chief Executive be authorised to issue the necessary precepts to billing authorities in accordance with the budget requirement above and the tax base notified by the District Councils, and to take any other action which may be necessary to give effect to the precepts;

 

(i)     That the Director of Finance be authorised to approve changes to the Business Rates Pooling agreement, which might occur as a result of the creation of a Leicester and Leicestershire Combined Authority;

 

(j)     That the transfer of £2.85m from the Schools Block to the High Needs Block of Dedicated Schools Grant be approved;

 

(k)    That the 2017/18 to 2020/21 capital programme as set out in Appendix F be approved;

 

(l)     That the Director of Finance following consultation with the Lead Member for Corporate Resources be authorised to approve new capital schemes including revenue costs associated with their delivery;

 

(m)   That it be noted that new capital schemes, referred to in (l), are shown as future developments in the capital programme, to be funded from capital funding available;

 

(n)    That the financial indicators required under the Prudential Code included in Appendix L, Annex 2 be noted and that the following limits be approved:

 

	2017/18 £m	2018/19 £m	2019/20 £m	2020/21 £m
Operational boundary for external debt
i)      Borrowing	274.6	264.6	264.1	263.6
ii)     Other long term liabilities	1.3	1.3	1.2	1.2
TOTAL	275.9	265.9	265.3	264.8
Authorised limit for external debt
i)      Borrowing	284.6	274.6	274.1	273.6
ii)     Other long term liabilities	1.3	1.3	1.2	1.2
TOTAL	285.9	275.9	275.3	274.8

(o)    That the Director of Finance be authorised to effect movement within the authorised limit for external debt  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47a