Decisions

The Sussex resilience forum has declared a major incident due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the capacity of the NHS resources to manage demand.

Pressures on acute and community hospitals are intense and to support this the Council has been working in partnership with the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) to manage access to community provision both via the Home First (care at home) model and referral and admission to care homes. The CCG and Council are working within the parameters of the Hospital Discharge guidance issued by government on 21^st August 2020 which has established a discharge to assess model which enables people to be discharged from hospital when they are medically fit and for their ongoing care needs to be assessed at home or in an interim setting within given timescales.

The current numbers of people who are medically ready for discharge is at an unprecedented level and the Council is seeking to respond to this by creating additional community capacity through a ‘Care Hotel’ model.

The Director of Law & Assurance, with the agreement of the Cabinet Member for Adults and Health and the Chairman of the Health and Adults Social Care Scrutiny Committee, has used his delegated powers under Standing Order 5.23 and has approved the sourcing of accommodation with live in care to support hospital discharge during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Public Health currently commissions the Healthy Child Programme (HCP) from Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust (SCFT). This is a national programme delivering pre-school and school age services by Health visitors and School nurses to deliver Public Health outcomes (0-19 years of age, 25 years of age for children with special educational needs).

The current contract was awarded to SCFT in March 2017 following an open procurement process.  The contract expires in March 2022.   The contract is 5 years plus an option to extend for a further period of up to 2 years. This report recommends the exercise of the extension for one year. The funding for this contract is a ringfenced Public Health Grant for the HCP.

The Interim Director Public Health has approved the extension of the Healthy Child Programme (HCP) contract with Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust (SCFT) for an initial period of one year from 1st April 2022 to 31st March 2023.

A joint public consultation was undertaken in July 2020 on two proposed Traffic Regulation Orders relating to roads in East Preston; Following the Statutory Public Consultation objections were received and any proposal with 5 or more objections must be considered by Commitee. All objections are included in Appendix B to the report.

The Director of Law and Assurance, in consultation with the Chairman of

the Joint Eastern Arun Area Committee and the Chairman of the

Environment and Communities Scrutiny Committee, has used his

delegated powers under Standing Order 3.45 to agree a revised version of

the advertised Traffic Regulation Order as detailed in Appendix B and for

the amended restrictions to be implemented, with the proviso that, insofar

as they apply to Willowhayne Crescent, implementation is to be subject to

the proposed bus service coming into operation within two years of the

proposals having been advertised, i.e. before being time-barred.

The County Council currently largely relies on the private rental sector to provide accommodation for young care leavers.  Due to the high level of competition for available properties within the private rental sector it can be challenging to secure cost effective accommodation for  care leavers.

The National House Project is a Charity that aims to work with local authorities to support the provision of sustainable homes and a community of support for young people leaving care.  Developing a local house project in West Sussex would enable care leavers to be provided with affordable social housing locally, delivering improved outcomes for these young people at lower costs and so reduce demand on wider local authority and partner agency budgets.  Once embedded the project would run yearly schemes with a new cohort of older children looked after, in preparation for them leaving care, joining the project each year.

Cabinet will be asked to approve the creation of a local house project in West Sussex.

Following consideration of the report, Cabinet resolved to:

Approve the implementation of a Local House Project in West Sussex

in order to deliver the savings outlined in the report.

The call-in deadline is 2 February 2021.

The Budget report details the County Council’s revenue budget, the level of council tax proposed for 2021/22, the nature of its expenditure, income and savings for a balanced budget.  It will also outline the County Council’s Capital Programme to cover the period 2021/22 to 2025/26 which will update the programme previously agreed by County Council.

Cabinet will be asked to endorse the Revenue Budget and Capital Programme for approval at County Council on 12 February 2021.

Following consideration of the report, Cabinet resolved to:

Endorse the County Council Budget for 2021/22, as set out in Appendix A and Annex 1, the Capital Strategy set out in Annex 2(a) and the Treasury Management Statement set out in Annex 2(b), for approval by County Council on 12 February 2021.

The call-in deadline is 2 February 2021.

In November 2020, Cabinet recommended the approval of the first draft of the new West Sussex Plan to County Council in December 2020. The Plan will reset the County Council’s priorities and outcomes for the year from April 2021. Cabinet will be asked to recommend the approval of the final version of the Plan to County Council in February 2021.

The Plan will build on the framework approved by the County Council in July 2020 which identified the main priorities around which the plan will be built and the principles which will drive its development. It will capture existing activities of the County Council and those delivered with its partners as well as identifying those ambitions and outcomes which will be new. It will map the timetable for delivering these activities and describe the measures on which to judge the County Council’s performance in achieving them.  It will show how the activities are to be funded and managed within budgetary requirements whilst striving to deliver outcomes that are ambitious, realistic and achievable, particularly within the context of continued uncertainty, challenges and pressures associated with the local and national impact of the global pandemic.

Following consideration of the report, Cabinet resolved to:

Approve the Reset Plan and supporting documents for further consideration by the County Council at its February 2021 meeting, subject to amendments to KPI 22 and KPI 45 as follows:

KPI 22 – Equivalent tonnes (te) of CO2 emissions from WSCC activities (CC)

Baseline – changed from 13,492 to 33,912CO2te

2021/22 – changed from 13,000 to 30,521CO2te

2022/23 - changed from 12,000 to 29,910CO2te

2023/24 – changed from 11,000 to 28,116CO2te

2024/25 – changed from 10,000 to 25,867CO2te

KPI 45 – Changed to – All member training and development needs identified and training completed within 12 months of 2021 election (future year targets and measures to be set by the Member Development Group)

Baseline – no change

2021/22 – changed from within six months of the 2021 elections to 100%

2022/23 – changed from N/A to To be confirmed (TBC)

2023/24 – changed from N/A to TBC

2024/25 – changed from N/A to TBC.

The call-in deadline is 2 February 2021.

The County Council has a statutory duty to provide sufficient school places for all children who need a place.

There is a need to reduce the number of children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) moving from maintained schools and academies into costly education provision in the Independent and Non-Maintained Special School sector, often at schools not situated in West Sussex.  Increasing provision for children and young people with SEND through the creation of additional places in County Council Special Schools will assist with the aim of enabling children to attend school locally.

Palatine Primary School in Worthing caters for a wide range of Special Educational Needs, for children aged between 2 and 11 with moderate, severe or profound learning needs.

In March 2020 the Director of Property and Assets approved the budget required to develop the design for the expansion of Palatine School in accordance with capital governance processes. Following this the County Council’s Multi-Disciplinary Consultant, Faithful+Gould Ltd. (MDC) were appointed to undertake the full design in accordance with the Royal Institute of British Architects recommended process stages 2-7.

This report seeks approval for the allocation of funding from the Capital Programme to increase accommodation at the school in order to provide sufficient capacity for an increase of 24 planned places from 153 to 177, including all associated fees, ICT and furniture and equipment. The 4 additional classrooms will provide additional planned places utilising 3 of these classrooms. One classroom will absorb places where the school has ‘pent-up demand’ in preparation for the new facilities. The new facilities will facilitate increased opportunities and resources for the complex young children attending Palatine. Without these facilities these young children will be at risk of attending independent provisions which typically cost four times as much (not including travel costs) and potentially move them further away from being educated locally.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Skills has approved:

1.          the allocation of £1.986m to fund four additional classrooms with ancillary accommodation together with the removal of an existing single modular unit to enable the expansion by 24 planned places from 153 to 177 at Palatine Primary School, in Worthing;

2.          the authorisation to commence a procurement process and delegation to the Director of Property and Assets to appoint contractors to fully design and cost the new accommodation;

3.          the submission of a planning application for full planning permission and statutory consents; and

4.          that subject to receipt of planning permission and statutory consents, the delegation of the authority to enter into a construction contract with the successful provider to the Director of Property and Assets

The Department for Transport's Active Travel Fund supports plans to reallocate road space to cyclists and pedestrians and create an environment that is safer for walking and cycling.

The second phase of funding will enable authorities to install more permanent measures to encourage walking and cycling and the County Council submitted a funding bid to the Department for Transport during the summer of 2020.  During November 2020, the County Council received an award of £2.35m which includes £450k of revenue funding.

Proposed schemes/programmes will involve full consultation with local residents and other stakeholders and details can be found on the County Council’s  website.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure has approved:

(1)  the allocation of funds (subject to revenue and capital budget approval) to deliver the five schemes / programmes outlined in section 2 of the report and

(2) the delegation of authority to the Director of Highways, Transport and Planning to amend schemes/programmes in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Highways and Infrastructure.

Fuel cards are used in County Council vehicles to allow staff to draw fuel from most fuel stations whilst on Council business.

The initial period of the current contract for the provision of fuel cards will expire on 22 March 2021.  This formed part of Decision OKD05 19/20 . The terms of the current agreement allow for the contract to be extended for a period of up to 24 months, until 22 March 2023.

It is proposed that the Council takes the 2-year extension in order to:

1. Maintain business continuity and;

2. Ensure the contract arrangement with the provider remains co-terminus with partners with whom the Council has aggregated its requirement to ensure best value.

The total value of the proposed contract extension is approximately £840,000.

The Chief Fire Officer has approved the contract extension for fuel cards for a period of 24-months with a proposed expiry date as 22 March 2023, in accordance with the Council’s Standing Orders on Procurement and Contracts.