To consider any other business that the Chair accepts as being urgent.

(a)  Tackling worklessness and supporting apprentices in Wirral through the European Social Fund.  (Minute No. 300 (a) refers).

A report by the Interim Director of Corporate Services provided the Cabinet with an update regarding two European Social Fund (ESF) opportunities to address worklessness and to support apprentices via the City Employment Strategy (CES) Pathfinder Enabling Programme.

Members’ approval was sought for delegated authority to agree the contract to enable the Council to be Accountable Body for the ESF funds.

Members were also advised of the

·  recommendations from the procurement process to select a delivery partner for an element of the worklessness programme and approval was sought to appoint a supplier to deliver the contract on behalf of the Council.

·  outcome of negotiations with Greater Merseyside Connexions Partnership (GMCP) following the CES Board request that each authority work with GMCP to consider how a consistent participant “aftercare” element could be incorporated into the ESF apprenticeship contract.

Appendix 1 to the report contained commercially sensitive information regarding a competitive tendering process the disclosure of which was not considered to be appropriate. Accordingly, it was deemed to be exempt from disclosure under paragraph 3, Part 1 of schedule 12A of the local Government Act 1972 (as amended). (Minute No. 324 refers).

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the Cabinet agrees to delegate responsibility to the Director of Law, Asset Management and HR and the Interim Director of Corporate Services to finalise and sign the funding agreements for worklessness and apprenticeships with Knowsley Council in consultation with the Leader of Council and the Portfolio Holder for Economy and Regeneration, in respect of:

•  Enabling the Council to be Accountable Body for the City Employment Strategy ESF resource of £1,220,310 to deliver activity to reduce worklessness; match funded with Council resources of £1,220,310 providing a total of £2,440, 620, as approved by the Cabinet on 9 December 2010; and

•  Enabling the Council to be Accountable Body for the City Employment Strategy ESF funds of £655,960 to deliver activity to support apprenticeships; match funded with Council resources of £1,058,579 providing a total of £1,714,539, as approved by Cabinet on 9th December 2010.

(2)  following an OJEU Accelerated Restricted process ensuring a competitive procurement procedure, accept the most economically advantageous tender in terms of quality/price and appoint a consortium led by Involve Northwest to deliver elements of the worklessness contract on behalf of  the Council to the value of £1,461,484, be accepted;

(3)  the Interim Director of Corporate Services be authorised to progress other enabling actions to support the delivery of worklessness as outlined in  Paragraph 4.3.10 of the report.

(b)  Early Implementation for Health and Wellbeing Boards.  (Minute No. 300 (b) refers).

A report by the Interim Chief Executive informed that on 27 January 2011 the Department of Health had issued a letter asking Local Authorities to consider whether they would wish to become and Early Implementer for Health and Wellbeing Boards. The deadline for requests was 1 March 2011. (A copy of the letter was attached to the report for Members’ information).

As part of the proposals for Health reforms the Government had recently announced the establishment of Health and Wellbeing Boards which would bring together Councils with NHS Commissioners, working to join up services across the NHS, public health, social care and children’s services. Relevant GP Consortia would have a statutory responsibility to be members of the board, as would elected Members.  In the case of Wirral it was anticipated that this would be the three Group Leaders, with the Board being chaired by The Leader of the Council.

Directors of Children’s Services, Directors of Adult Social Services and Directors of Public Health as well as local HealthWatch should also be members of the board.

Joint working and Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA) would be at the heart of both councils and NHS commissioner’s statutory responsibilities with the health and wellbeing board as the vehicle to make this a reality.

It was noted that Health and Wellbeing Boards would take the lead on developing a shared understanding of local needs (through the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment) (JSNA), and setting the priorities and strategy for health and wellbeing for the local community (though the Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy). These strategies would inform commissioning plans for NHS commissioners and councils, providing a basis for joint working and commissioning.

It was reported that subject to Parliamentary approval, Health and Wellbeing Boards would be established from 2013 running in shadow form from 2012 with 2011/2012 being a transitional year.

The Department of Health has worked with an initial group of 25 Councils to design the focus and approach of an Early Implementer Network.

The Department of Health have suggested that Early Implementers should:

·  have sign-up and commitment from the top of the organisation (Leader and Chief Executive);

·  be genuinely committed to taking this forward in partnership, particularly with emerging GP consortia

·  be prepared to actively participate in sharing information and learning  with other areas.

Three separate GP Consortia had been established across Wirral, all three of which had now been awarded pathfinder status. The Council had worked to begin to develop close working relationships with each of the three Consortia. It was considered appropriate for the Council to become an Early Implementer for the following reasons:

·  it has a history on Wirral of effective local partnerships;

·  through these partnerships, the Council has good links with existing agencies, and are developing positive relationships with the emerging GP Commissioning Consortia, who are all in support of it becoming an early implementer for Health and Wellbeing Boards, and who are all Pathfinder GP Commissioning Consortia. The proposal to become an Early Implementer is also supported by Wirral University Hospital Trust, the Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Trust and NHS Wirral;

·  the Council is keen to see effective commissioning of value for money public services, which are driven by an understanding of local needs gained through the JSNA, and through the development of a Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy which it would like to see in place as early as possible;

·  the Council has a robust JSNA in place currently, developed under the leadership and duties placed on the Director of Public Health, Director of Adult Social Services and Director of Children and Young People’s Services. This is already influencing local commissioning decisions and the Council is looking to involve the developing GP consortia in the refresh of the JSNA during the coming year; and

·  the pattern of future commissioners on Wirral (i.e. the Local Authority, three GP consortia, Public Health England and the NHS Commissioning Board) will require a coordinated approach to ensure integrated and effective pathways of support and care are put in place for our residents.

The NHS operating framework for 2011/2012 announced the establishment of PCT Clusters to facilitate the move towards the new arrangements set out in the Health and Social Care Bill. These Clusters would not in themselves be statutory bodies as the existing PCT’s would remain the statutory body. It was understood that NHS Wirral was likely to become part of the Cheshire Cluster.  This Cluster option was supported by NHS Wirral and it was proposed that the Council support this position.

As it was necessary for the Council to respond the Department of Health’s letter by 1 March 2011 Members were unanimously in the view that the call-in procedure should be waived and the Interim Chief Executive indicated his agreement to the proposal.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the proposal that the Council formally requests to become and Early Implementer of Health and Wellbeing Boards and support NHS Wirral’s proposal for PCT Clustering be agreed; and

(2)  the call-in procedure be waived so that a response can be sent to the Department of Health by 1 March 2011.

(c)  Referral from Council Excellence and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 31 January 2011 – Minute No. 114 Budget Projections 2011-2013.  (Minute No. 300 (c) refers).

The Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee had considered a report by the Director of Finance which had provided an update in relation to the projected budgets for 2011/2012 and 2012/2013, taking into account the Comprehensive Spending Review presented on 20 October 2010 and the provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, presented to the Cabinet on 13 January 2011 (Minute No. 276 refers).

Consequently, the Committee had resolved:

“(1)   That this Committee recognises the difficult financial challenges faced by the Council.

(2)  That Committee notes that Wirral Council will lose over £52m in the form of central government funding in 2011/2012, which will impact on the Council’s ability to deliver high quality services.

(3)  That the Cabinet be requested to make vigorous representations to the Government, to reconsider the scale of savings which Wirral is being asked to achieve, given the level of need in Wirral which must be met.

(4)  That this Committee recognises the considerable difficulties facing this and other local authorities.  It considers that the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Government must assess the consequences of front loading and recognise that, without dialogue and a deeper understanding, the ability of local Councils to deliver services and respond to localism agenda can only be compromised.”

The Cabinet considered resolution (3) above and it was

RESOLVED:

That the Council Excellence Overview and Scrutiny Committee be thanked for its thoughts which were given due consideration.