Decisions

Currently the Children, Young People and Learning (CYPL) Directorate uses 11 systems and 6 suppliers to record information about children and families. This creates difficulties around ensuring professionals have sight of all information about a child, as well as significant inefficiencies through duplication. The current systems have little integration between them and some of them have not had regular investment over several years resulting in the systems not supporting new ways of working. It is imperative that the service has access to a high quality, integrated IT recording system, which supports the wider Children First improvement journey.

In August 2021 the Cabinet Member for Children, Young People and Learning approved the commencement of a procurement to find a solution which will consolidate and integrate systems used to record information about children and their families (decision CYP01(21/22) refers). The aim is to achieve a coherent and consolidated view of involvement with a child and their family and improve the use of data and analysis to improve service provision. The project aligns with the corporate IT strategy and will take around 18 months to implement from April 2022 involving a wide range of departments across the council. The systems consolidation programme of work has been allocated £1.8m from the service transformation fund.

The Director of Children, Young People and Learning has approved:

(1)         The award of the contract to Access UK Limited (formerly Servelec Education Ltd) to provide a solution to consolidate and integrate systems used to record information about children and their families across Children, Young People and Learning (CYPL) as set out in section 2, of the report, to the value of £462,694 over 4 years for implementation and annual subscription costs.

The Cabinet is responsible for making Councillor appointments to outside bodies which precept on the County Council. The Cabinet made appointments to the majority of Outside Bodies in June 2021 (CAB01(21/22) and December 2021 (CAB12(21/22). The Cabinet meeting scheduled for April has been cancelled, however there is a need to confirm the County Council’s Outside Body Appointment to the Littlehampton Harbour Board prior to the Cabinet’s next meeting in May.  The Director of Law and Assurance, in consultation with the Deputy Leader and the Chairman of the Communities, Highways and Environment Scrutiny Committee, has therefore used his delegated powers under Standing Order 3.45b to take the decision. 

Cabinet is asked to approve the appointment of Councillor Noel Atkins to fill the vacancy on the Littlehampton Harbour Board for the remainder of the Council term (May 2025).

The purpose of Operation Watershed is to support people in their local communities who want to work with the County Council to become more prepared for, or to reduce the risk of, flooding. Local groups are encouraged to apply for funding to finance schemes and projects of all sizes as a way of achieving this.

£0.300m is allocated for Operation Watershed in 2021/22 and a further £2.604m in the Capital Programme 2022/23 to 2026/27 agreed by Full Council in February 2022, including carry forward from previous years.  In this period six full applications have been received and evaluated totalling £95,625.42 and are set out in Appendix A.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change has approved the applications from the community groups or parish councils set out in Appendix A of the report.

The A24 Findon to Findon Valley cycleway/walkway scheme is a priority in the West Sussex Walking and Cycling Strategy 2016 – 2026.

In November 2020, the County Council was awarded £2.35m through the Department for Transport’s Active Travel Fund to support the implementation of walking and cycling schemes in the county. Proposed improvements along the A24 formed part of the funding allocation.

Public engagement exercises on the 2km-long scheme took place in spring and in summer 2021.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport will be asked to approve the route for the scheme.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport has approved:

(1)     The route of the A24 Findon to Findon Valley cycleway/walkway scheme as explained in section 2 and as indicatively shown on the plan at Appendix A

(2)     The construction of the A24 Findon to Findon Valley cycleway/walkway scheme using WSCC’s Highway Construction Lot 6 Framework Contract, Landbuild Ltd having made the most advantageous submission and

(3)     The allocation of £1.2m from the Active Travel Fund to fund construction of the A24 Findon to Findon Valley cycleway/walkway scheme.

West Sussex County Council and system partners developed an 18-month plan prior to Winter 21/22 to support the health and social care system to manage additional demand during pressured periods. As set out in key decision report AS02 21/22 the Council commissioned services to support  hospital discharge and additional pressures in health and social care commencing with an initial term up to the 31 Mar 22. Initiatives included a mixture of care to be provided within a person’s own home as well as short stay beds within residential, nursing, and extra care services.  As set out in key decision report OKD27 (21/22) the contracts which were awarded through tender processes have the potential to extend beyond their current end date of 31 Mar 22 and the ability to flex the scale and volume of provision up and down as the demand across the system requires.

Following the initial decision and as a result of the Omicron outbreak, it was clear that a greater volume of service provision would be required and therefore as part of emergency planning additional contracts were directly awarded and further processes were undertaken to enable additional service.  However, not all of these contracts have the ability to be extended and come to an end on 31 Mar 2022.

Over winter 21/22 funding for the commissioning provision came from a mixture of Council winter pressure funding and Hospital Discharge Payments (HDP).  HDP comes to an end on 31 March 2022 and in response to continued pressures and impending changes to the funding arrangements within the NHS, recommendations are based on funding for 3 months from funds committed by West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group.

The Director of Adults and Health has approved;

(1)        The extension of 7 domiciliary care block round contracts, 11 home first contracts and 34 block residential beds which have the means to extend from 1 April 2022 until 30 June 2022 for a projected cumulative cost of circa £826k;

(2)        The direct award of block contracts for 37 residential beds and 4 domiciliary care block rounds to commence from 1 April 2022 until 30 June 2022 with a cumulative value of circa £677k; and

(3)        The extension of core hospital discharge domiciliary care contracts under the home first pathway for a cost of £68k.  These will be at the increased weekly block hours commissioned by way of previous variation on 30 June 2021.

The Halewick Lane Battery Storage project proposes the re-development of the previously derelict North Sompting Waste Management Site into an income generating battery storage project.

Following a review of the proposed project previously approved by the Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change (decision ENV06 (20/21) refers) it has been determined that revisions to the scheme by using a first-life battery option would generate increased revenue from the project.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change will therefore be asked to approve the changes to the Halewick Lane Battery Storage Project and the Halewick Lane site with focus on the following key items:

(1)The change to the previous system design to the purchasing of a first-life utility-scale battery system.

(2)The proposal to maximise the available export capacity from the site by increasing the battery size to 24 MW.

(3)The increase in capital expenditure allocated to the project to complete the site in a single phase.

(4)The launch of a procurement for the revised scheme and delegation of authority to the Director of Environment and Public Protection, at the conclusion of the procurement process, to award the design and build contract for the scheme.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, for the Halewick Lane, Sompting, Battery Storage Project, has –

1)    Approved a re-procurement process increasing the system size to 24MW with the specification of first life batteries as set out in section 2 of the report

2)    Approved the increase of £12.063m to give a total budget of £23.600m, funded from the Your Energy Sussex – Solar Farms and Battery Storage line in the approved capital programme as set out in section 5 of the report; and

3)    Delegated authority to the Assistant Director (Environment and Public Protection) to, at the conclusion of the procurement process, award the pre-construction contract, and design and build contract for the scheme provided that the scheme can be delivered within the budget as outlined in the Business Case.

A procurement process has been initiated by the Director of Adults and Health for the award of the contract for food supply and delivery of the Meals on Wheels service to customers in the community and West Sussex County Council operated Directly Provided Services (Day Centres).

The existing contract arrangements will expire on 18th October 2022 following the current 7-year contract coming to its fully extended end. The current contract operates 365 day a year and delivers approx. 200,000 meals a year to around 700 registered customers living in the community and has an annual value of around 1.2m. In a BAU year the contract also provides around 20,000 Day Centre meals. A competitive procurement process will be undertaken for the Meals on Wheels contract to commence on 19th October 2022 for a period of 5 years initially plus any potential extensions, up to a maximum of 7 years in total.

West Sussex County Council has carried out internal reviews and analysis of the future feasibility of the service and preferred procurement process to be used. The process has passed through the Council’s Commercial and Procurement boards with representatives from legal, procurement and commercial services and the preferred procurement option is to undertake a competitive procurement process to replace the existing contract arrangement.

The service currently runs on a cost neutral basis to the Council and the procurement and subsequent award will replicate this model.

The Director of Adults and Health will be asked to award the contract  to commence on 19th October 2022 for a period of 5 years initially plus any potential extensions, up to a maximum of 7 years in total.

The Director of Adults and Health has approved the award of the contract, as detailed within section 2 of the report, to Apetito Limited, to run from the 19 October 2022 for an initial duration of 5 years, with the option to extend for a further two (2) years to a maximum term of 7 years.

The Special Education Needs Team within Education and Skills has identified a need to provide additional accommodation at Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Special School (QE2) in Horsham to provide for the 105 pupils currently on roll. Over recent years additional pupils have been accommodated by the school but without the supporting investment in accommodation. Pupil numbers have increased from 85 in 2017 to 105 in 2019.

In July 2020 the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills approved the allocation of £1.4m to fund the provision of a three-class modular teaching block with ancillary accommodation to ensure the school can offer suitable facilities for the 105 pupils currently on roll (decision ES02(20/21) refers). Due to an increase in construction costs through the procurement process it was determined that an increased budget would be required for the project.  Therefore, a change request was submitted in August 2021 for £224,000, providing a total budget of £1.624m. Approval is now sought to award the contract for carrying out the works.

The proposal was published in the Forward Plan on 9 March 2022; however the decision is now urgent as it is necessary to enable the project to commence without additional delay or cost increase.  Following a compliant procurement process in 2021, it was not possible, for reasons beyond the Council’s control, to award the contract to the successful bidder from that tender process Report Ref:OKD05 21/22  due to materials and resources shortages caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.  The delay caused to the programme, as a result means that this decision to award the contract to Portakabin Limited is urgent; the modular buildings need to be constructed and installed at the school ready for the new academic year starting on 2nd September 2022.  Due to the need for this decision to be determined as soon as possible the Assistant Director (Property and Assets), with agreement from the Director of Law & Assurance and the Chairman of the Children and Young People’s Services Scrutiny Committee, will use his delegated powers under Standing Order 5.23 to take this decision without the required 28 days’ notice in the Forward Plan.  

The Assistant Director (Property and Assets) has approved the award of contract for the installation of a three-classroom modular block at Queen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee School, Horsham for the sum of £1,358,950 to Portakabin Limited.

In preparation of the expiry of the Support Services Outsource (SSO) contract in September 2022, the Council intends to reprocure a Customer Service function from 01 October 2022.

The Cabinet Member for Support Services and Economic Development has approved:

1.   Procurement of the Digital Customer Service Function and the digital technology and cloud software of the function as set out at paragraph 2.1 for a proposed contract term of three years with the option to extend by two periods of one year, the potential maximum term being five years with a contract value over that period of £10.2m; and

2.  delegation to the Director of Communities the authority to award the contract.  A further decision report will be published at that time.

West Sussex County Council (WSCC) is the lead authority for Library books and other Library Services, on behalf of the Central Buying Consortium (CBC).

In August 2019 decision ref: FRC01 2019/20 agreed the commencement of a procurement process for a new Framework Agreement for Library Books and Audio-Visual materials for the CBC Library Group.   In December 2019, the Acting Executive Director Place Services approved the award of a Framework Agreement to Askews and Holts Library Services Ltd for the provision of Library Books and AV on behalf of the Central Buying Consortium (CBC) Library Group, Decision Report Ref: OKD29 2019/20.

The Framework was procured with an initial contract period of 2 years with the option to extend by up to a further 2 years. The initial contract period is due conclude at the end of March 2022 and it is proposed to take up the option of extending the Framework for a further 2 years.

The Assistant Director (Communities) will now be asked to approve the extension of the Framework by a further 2 years from April 1^st 2022.

The Assistant Director (Communities) has approved the extension of theCBC Library Group Framework Agreement for Library Books and Audio Visual Materials for a further 2 years from  1^st April 2022.

Since April 2021 a pilot booking system has been in operation at six of the eleven Recycling Centres in West Sussex. In October 2021 The Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change took a decision to undertake a public consultation in respect of making this booking system permanent and extending the system to the Burgess Hill Recycling Centre.

The Cabinet Member will be asked to consider the findings of the public consultation and a proposal regarding the future use of a booking system for West Sussex recycling centres.

The Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change has approved:

1. That the pilot booking system is made permanent at the Bognor Regis, Crawley, Horsham, Littlehampton, Shoreham and Worthing Recycling Centres; and

2. Delegated authority to the Assistant Director (Environment and Public Protection), in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change, to extend the booking system on a site-by-site basis to Billingshurst, Burgess Hill, East Grinstead, Midhurst and/or Westhampnett Recycling Centres, on a temporary or permanent basis should this be needed to manage congestion or other issues in the future.

The West Sussex Transport Plan (the County Council’s main policy on transport and a statutory document) is being reviewed to update the County Council’s strategic approach to investment in the transport network up to 2036.

The new Transport Plan will build on the three previous Plans and take account of the current policy context and creation of new funding streams and strategic partners.  The Transport Plan is also expected to build on the Local Plans prepared by the Local Planning Authorities which guide decision-making on new developments.

Consultation on the Draft West Sussex Transport Plan took place between July and October 2021.  Amendments are being made to the Transport Plan in response to consultation feedback and policy changes.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport recommends the West Sussex Transport Plan 2022-36 for adoption at County Council on 1 April 2022.