Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1 - Wallasey Town Hall

Items
No. Item

80.

Members' Code of Conduct - Declarations of Interest

Members of the Cabinet are asked to consider whether they have any disclosable pecuniary and/or any other relevant interest, in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

81.

Minutes

The minutes of the last meeting have been printed and published.  Any matters called in will be reported at the meeting.

 

RECOMMENDATION:  That the minutes be approved and adopted.

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 8 December 2016 be confirmed as a correct record.

82.

Executive Key Decisions Taken Under Delegated Powers

Key Decisions – taken under delegated powers. Period 30 November, 2016 (date of publication of last Cabinet agenda) to date - none.

Minutes:

It was reported that no Key Decisions had been taken under delegated powers during the period of 30 November 2016 (date of publication of the last Cabinet agenda) to the date of this meeting. 

83.

Number of Councillors Scrutiny Review pdf icon PDF 90 KB

At its meeting on 30 November, 2016, the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee referred the Scrutiny Review, ‘Number of Councillors’ to the Cabinet. A covering report, the Scrutiny Review and Minute are attached.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

PhilDavies

Councillor Phil Davies, Leader of the Council – Strategic Economic Development, Finance and Devolution, said:

 

This type of in-depth ‘task and finish’ review is an example of the Council’s approach to overview and scrutiny having a real impact on policy development and important decisions. This particular report is extremely helpful, with

Members of all three main political parties in Wirral providing a detailed review and analysis of the subject.”

 

At its meeting on 30 November 2016 the Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee had referred the Scrutiny Review, ‘Number of Councillors’ to the Cabinet. The review had been undertaken in response to a Notice of Motion presented to the Council in October 2014.

 

Councillor Steve Foulkes, a Member of the Scrutiny Panel who had carried out the review attended the Cabinet meeting and introduced the report, completed in November 2016 which set out the Panel’s findings. He informed that the Chair of the Panel, Councillor Phil Brightmore had been unable to attend the Cabinet meeting because of his work commitments.

 

Councillor Foulkes informed that the Panel had considered the role of the local councillor in Wirral, the role of the Local Government Boundary Commission for England and the available data comparing the number of Councillors in Wirral with other local authorities in England. Panel Members had wanted to reach an informed view on whether or not the Council should actively progress a referral to the Local Government Boundary Commission for England to conduct an Electoral Review.  The Cabinet was noted that the work carried out was aligned with the Wirral Plan Pledge – Community Services are Joined up and Accessible.

 

Councillor Foulkes reported that the Panel, having reviewed the Commission’s remit, processes and timescales for Further Electoral Review, had accepted that the only mechanism to change the number of councillors in Wirral would be via such a review. The Panel had concluded that it would take a significant amount of resources to prepare for and undergo a review and the Commission timescales demonstrated that this would be a lengthy process, with a less than certain outcome. Any potential savings were unlikely be realised for up to two years.

 

Councillor Foulkes informed that the Panel had been encouraged by evidence which demonstrated that the Council compared favourably against other councils in respect of electoral equality, as a recognised measure of council size. Of particular note was the ward level data on electoral variation which showed that Wirral was within the Commission’s parameters on electoral equality across its wards and, therefore, would not trigger the threshold for a Further Electoral Review.

 

The Panel had been further reassured that the cost of councillors in Wirral was lower than many of its neighbouring and similar sized national authorities, as evidenced by comparisons of Members’ Allowance Schemes and acknowledged by the recent meeting of the Independent Panel on Members’ Allowances. The Panel had noted the potential annual saving which a reduction in councillors could deliver, although the Panel believed that any cost saving identified would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83.

84.

Delivering Growth in Wirral - Securing Investment pdf icon PDF 126 KB

Minutes:

 

PhilDavies

Councillor Phil Davies, Leader of the Council, said:

“In 2020 Wirral has to be self-sufficient – the only money we will have to invest in our borough, in the services residents rely on, will be the money we can raise ourselves. This simple fact puts strengthening our economy, supporting businesses to grow and encouraging businesses to move here and create jobs, at the top of our agenda.

 

We are determined to ensure Wirral residents have access to good, high-paying jobs, at businesses which are supported to succeed and expand.  The proposals contained within this report are part of our drive to achieve this”.

 

Councillor Phil Davies introduced a report which informed that the Wirral Plan: a 2020 Vision included a number of outcomes and actions relating to economic growth within the Borough.  This was based on the recognition that economic development was a critical activity to support Wirral’s residents to access jobs, housing and achieve a good quality of life.  To deliver the Wirral Plan the Council was taking an approach which would catalyse and encourage significant amounts of investment into the Borough, including creating appropriate delivery structures which could more easily work with and respond to the private sector.

 

In December 2016 the Council had agreed a report entitled ‘Delivering Wirral’s Growth’ which had outlined proposals for creating a property company to drive forward investment, regeneration and secure increased income for the Council, and officers had been instructed to present an options appraisal to the Cabinet at its meeting in February 2017. The report had also identified a number of actions which needed to be progressed in parallel to this work in order to capitalise on immediate opportunities for growth within the Borough and also to ensure the establishment of the proposed property company would be supported by a strong and coherent offer to investors.  Officers were authorised to progress a number of actions.

 

The report set out the work officers had undertaken to scope these activities further and to identify how best they could be delivered. The report also set out some key short term opportunities which were critical to raising Wirral’s profile and, therefore, maximising its ability to attract investment. This included ensuring Wirral’s growth opportunities were developed into propositions for the international property forum, MIPIM, which was taking place in March 2017. The MIPIM conference took place annually and was the key event attended by the world’s major development and investment companies looking for investment opportunities.

 

The Cabinet noted that Officers had reviewed the options outlined in the December 2016 report in respect of the approach that could be adopted to deliver these activities and, given the need to capitalise on these events, to deliver at pace and provide a more co-ordinated offer to investors, it was proposed that these actions could be most effectively and efficiently progressed through a combination of approaches including:

 

·  work carried out in-house – utilising input from officers within the Strategic Hub;

·  targeted and initially short term collaboration with key city  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84.

85.

Integration of Health and Care Transformation Programme Update pdf icon PDF 180 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor-Chris_Jones LATEST

Councillor Christine Jones said:

 

“Giving people the tools and options to remain independent, to feel supported and safe is incredibly important. Moving towards integration between the NHS and social care is a huge step towards achieving this goal and delivering people joined up, effective services which are tailored to suit individual needs.”

 

Councillor Christine Jones introduced a report which informed that social care services played an important role in enabling vulnerable people to maintain independence and keep well in Wirral. The cost of Adult Social Care was, however significant and it did not operate in isolation. The inter-dependency between Health and Care systems had become increasingly clear over recent years. Nationally, Councils were faced with increasing demand on social care services which presented as a challenge to meet within the available resources. Central Government had directed Local Authorities and NHS providers to integrate social care and health services locally to provide both sustainability and a better experience for people who use those services.

 

In Wirral, the proposal was to create an integrated commissioning hub to pool social care and health resources and to jointly commission services. The commissioning hub initiative would enable the health and care system to use Wirral’s resources together to jointly create a sustainable health and care system. A further proposal was to integrate the frontline assessment and support planning process which would contribute to meeting the challenges of growth and demand, and provide an improved service for local residents. The integrated front line service would deliver the assessment and support planning function for older people and adults and the proposal was that this service would be provided by the NHS Wirral Community Foundation Trust (WCFT) who provided community health services in Wirral. This would involve the transfer of social care staff to the NHS in order to provide joined up seamless health and social care delivery services for older people and adults. A separate proposal for an all age disability, and all age mental health integrated service was planned for 2018.

 

The report set out key aspects of the integration programme which was focussed on improving outcomes for residents with the aim of delivering the right care in the right place at the right time. It also covered key transformation costs and outlined the main elements of the proposed transfer for staff consultation and detailed the Key Strategic Outcomes.

 

Councillor Ann McLachlan made reference to the social care crisis, the chronic underfunding by the Government and its huge missed opportunity to address the immediate funding pressures in last year’s Autumn Statement. Consequently, she considered that it was very timely that the Cabinet was considering this report.

 

Councillor McLachlan referred to the Notice of Motion – Crisis in Social Care considered by the Council at its meeting on 19 December 2016 and the decision that had received all party support, to lobby the Secretary of State for Health requesting an urgent meeting to secure the additional funding needed for social care. She informed that the Integration Project  ...  view the full minutes text for item 85.