Agenda and minutes

Apologies for Absence were received from Councillors T King and S Spencer.

None received.

Minority Group Leaders in attendance at the meeting are able to ask questions on agenda items. Any questions should be provided in writing no later than 12 noon on the day before the meeting.

None received.

To confirm the non-exempt minutes of the meeting of Cabinet held on 10 March 2022.

RESOLVED:

To approve as a correct record, the minutes of the meeting held on 10 March 2022.

Councillor B Lewis introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting that provided an update on proposals set out in the Government’s recent Levelling Up White Paper and which outlined the latest position in respect of securing a County Deal for Derbyshire and Derby.

RESOLVED to:

1)   Note the proposals set out in the Government’s recent Levelling Up White Paper as outlined in the report and the implications of proposals for Derbyshire and Derby;

2)   Approve progressing work to secure a County Deal for Derbyshire and Derby including the immediate next steps through negotiations with Central Government;

3)   Note the process for funding of the programme team; and

4)   Receive a further report setting out key actions to support the levelling up agenda alongside an update on progress on the development of a County Deal for Derbyshire and Derby in due course.

Councillor B Lewis presented a report which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, providing Cabinet with an update of Council Plan Performance and the Revenue Budget/forecast outturn for 2021-22, as at 31^st December 2021, Quarter 3.

RESOLVEDto:

1)   Note the update of Council Plan performance and the Revenue Budget position/forecast outturn for 2021-22 as at 31 December 2021, Quarter 3;

2)   Consider whether there are any further actions that should be

undertaken to improve performance where it has not met the desired level;

3)   Note the position on General and Earmarked Reserves;

4)   Approve a contribution of £0.480m from the Finance & ICT services budget to an earmarked reserve to support the funding gap on the data centre to cloud transition programme;

5)   Approve a contribution of £0.040m from the Finance & ICT services budget to an earmarked reserve to support the training requirements for the ICT Schools Traded Services function;

6)   Approve a contribution of £0.050m from the Finance & ICT services budget to an earmarked reserve to support the modernisation of the ICT Traded Services function;

7)   Approve any earmarked reserves to be established, at the discretion of the Director of Finance & ICT, that are required to support the Council’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and that any funding received to support Covid-19 impacts, which has not been utilised by 31 March 2022, be contributed to these reserves, to allow this funding to be used for relevant expenditure after that date;

8)   Approve that an earmarked reserve be established and to contribute to this reserve £2.313m from the Risk Management budget for use towards the cost of any back-pay arising on a future pay award; and

9)    Approve one-off virements of £0.435m from the Debt Charges budget to the Corporate Services and Transformation portfolio in each of the five years 2021-22 to 2025-26, to fund the move of the current storage and computer infrastructure to the cloud;

10)                Approve a sum of £0.200m to be drawn down from the General Reserve to meet the costs of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee events and activities.

Councillor B Lewis introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, that informed on the latest Capital Budget monitoring position as at 31^st December 2021.

RESOLVED

To note the current position on the monitoring of Capital schemes.

Councillor B Lewis introduced a report, that had been circulated prior to the meeting, which recommended the approval of the establishment of a Feasibility Reserve, which would enable assessment and viability work to be undertaken on a number of Corporate, Investment and Regeneration initiatives that the Council was currently considering for delivery.

RESOLVED to:

1)   Approve the establishment of a Feasibility Reserve of £2m which will be funded from the General Reserve; and

2)   Delegate responsibility for the allocation of resources up to the value of £0.100m from the reserve to the Interim Executive Director/Executive Director – Corporate Services and Transformation in consultation with the Managing Director and Interim Director of Finance and ICT/Director of Finance & ICT, with amounts in excess of this to be approved by the Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Corporate Services and Budget.

Councillor A Dale presented a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, which sought approval of the council’s levelling up strategy that focused on securing more young people within the county who were confident readers and supported schools in their approaches to building the essential life skills, emotional health, and resilience in young people.

During the meeting, Councillor Dale clarified information contained in Appendix 2 of the report which should be amended to distinguish that the £1million funding referred to was the County Council’s money and not part of the £70million allocated by Central Government. The £1million Levelling Up fund for Young People would be invested in support of Derbyshire children and their future education.

RESOLVED to:

1)   Approve the council’s levelling strategy to support young people within the county to become more confident readers and to support schools in their approaches to building the essential life skills and resilience in young people by approving Children services to work with early years providers and schools in the development of phonics and reading programmes in their efforts to develop confident readers;

2)   Support the development of the programmes via the council’s Sports and Outdoor Residential Education Services to develop and operate programmes to improve the essential life skills and emotional health in young people;

3)   Approve the plan detailed in Appendix 2 to the report, subject to clarifying that £1 million of funding was from the Council’s budget rather than central government;

4)   Approve the request for £1million funding from the General Reserve being held in an earmarked education levelling up reserve to fund the programmes across financial years 2022/23. 2023/24 and 2024/25 and to delegate the allocation of the funding to the Executive Director of Children’s Services and the council’s Director of Finance; and

5)    Note the wider strategies which the council is leading or promoting to aid levelling up for the county’s young people specially with regards to strategies such as the Holiday and Food Funding, careers work and the work of the Derbyshire Adult Community Education Service.

Councillor B Lewis presented a report that had been circulated in advance of the meeting, which sought agreement to amend the Cabinet Procedure Rules to include provision for questions from the Minority Group Leaders and refer the matter to the Governance, Ethics and Standards Committee and Council for approval and inclusion in the Constitution.

RESOLVED to:

1)   Agree to amend the Cabinet Procedure Rules to include provision for questions from Minority Group Leaders as set out in the report; and

2)   Refer the amendment to the Cabinet Procedure Rules to the Governance, Ethics and Standards Committee and full Council for approval and inclusion in the Constitution.

Councillor C Renwick presented a report, which had been circulated prior to the meeting that, gave an update on progress made with the agreed actions to manage the spread of ash dieback disease in Derbyshire and requested that the Cabinet noted the completion of the Ash Dieback Action Plan (ADAP) along with the associated resource implications.

RESOLVED to:

1)   Approve the adoption of the Council’s Ash Dieback Action Plan and the implementation of its recommendations and actions;

2)   Note the staffing and other resource requirements as detailed in the plan to effectively manage ash dieback disease going forward;

3)   Note the funding need estimated to deal with this County-wide issue; and

4)   Approve the carry forward of any underspend into an earmarked reserve for use to offset the Plan’s costs in future years.

Councillor B Lewis introduced a report that had been circulated prior to the meeting, which provided an update in respect of the development of the Vision Derbyshire Climate Change Strategy (2022-2025) and sought approval for the adoption of the strategy by the Council.

RESOLVED:

To approve the adoption, delivery and publication of the Vision Derbyshire Climate Change Strategy (2022-2025).

To move “That under Regulation 4 (2)(b) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England)  Regulations 2012, the public be excluded from the meeting for the remaining items of business on the grounds that in view of the nature of the items of business, that if members of the public were present, exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 would be disclosed to them.”

RESOLVED:

That under Regulation 4(2)(b) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements)(Meetings and Access to Information)(England) Regulations 2012, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that in view of the nature of the items of business, that if members of the public were present, exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 would be disclosed to them.

To confirm the exempt minutes of the meeting of Cabinet held on 10 March 2022.

RESOLVED:

To approve as a correct record, the exempt minutes of the meeting held on 10 March 2022 subject to the following amendments:

-       Minute Reference 78/22, Urgent Decision Taken by the Executive Director – Place for the Highway Drainage Cleansing Contract should reference Councillor K Athwal and not Councillor C Renwick; and

-       Minute Reference 79/22, Urgent Decision taken by the Executive Director – Place on Continuity Services Contract for Waste Disposal Services should reference Councillor C Renwick and not Councillor K Athwal.

Councillor B Lewis introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, that sought approval of the new payments by the Council for the financial year 2022-23, in respect of the joint venture contracts with Concertus (Derbyshire) Limited and Vertas (Derbyshire) Limited.

RESOLVED:

To approve the recommendation in the not for publication report.

Councillor B Lewis introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, that sought approval for the provision of a loan facility as shareholder to the joint venture companies Concertus Derbyshire Limited and Vertas Derbyshire Limited.

RESOLVED:

To approve the recommendations in the not for publication report.

Councillor K Athwal introduced a report, which had been circulated in advance of the meeting, informing Cabinet of an urgent decision taken by the Executive Director for Place in relation to the extension of the Adult Social Care and Health Transport Contracts.

RESOLVED:

To note the information in the not for publication report.