Agenda item

To consider any questions which may have been received from Elected Members and which are asked pursuant to Standing Order No. 11.

a)    Councillor P Fielding

‘What steps is the Council taking to replace the Council houses lost in the recent fires on Woodland Drive?’

b)    Councillor Crisp

‘Given the inevitable cost pressures that the council must be suffering, how will the council balance this year’s budget?’

c)    Councillor Kitching

‘The new Conservative Prime Minister, Liz Truss, has clearly indicated her intention to reverse the laws banning fracking, despite ongoing concerns about the risks associated with this practice. 

Under the new legislation, would Barnsley Council pursue licences for fracking operations on its own land?’

d)    Councillor W Fielding

‘We were all shocked and disappointed to read the news in the Chronicle about the children’s home that has received another inadequate OFSTED rating.  

Could the Cabinet Member please give his perspective on how this happened and what steps are now being put into place to both improve the situation and to stop this from happening again? In giving his answer could the Cabinet Member please detail when he expects the restriction of accommodation to be lifted so that further vulnerable children can be safely accommodated in this setting?’

The Executive Director Core Services reported that he had received a number of questions from Elected Members in accordance with Standing Order No. 11.

a)    Councillor P Fielding

‘What steps is the Council taking to replace the Council houses lost in the recent fires on Woodland Drive?’

Councillor Frost, Cabinet Spokesperson Regeneration and Culture thanked Councillor P Fielding for his question.  He stated that there had been no decisions regarding replacing the council houses lost on the Woodlands Drive site. For the time being, the Council would be grassing and fencing off the site. He added that the Council would want to consult and engage the local community in decisions relating to the site’s future use.

By way of supplementary question Councillor P Fielding said that he presumed that, like most Councils, Barnsley Council does not take out insurance on its assets, but uses a system of self-insurance and asked the Cabinet Member to explain how this self-insurance works in Barnsley and whether it had provided enough funds to replace these Council houses

Councillor Frost, Cabinet Spokesperson Regeneration and Culture replied that he did not have details but would respond to the question in due course.

b)    Councillor Crisp

‘Given the inevitable cost pressures that the council must be suffering, how will the council balance this year’s budget?’

Councillor Gardiner, Cabinet Spokesperson Core Services gave thanks for the question. He added that, like many people, organisations, and businesses up and down the country, the Council was facing unprecedented financial challenges. As reported through the quarter one performance update, the current forecast was for a cost pressure of 13 million pounds in the current financial year. Although the vast majority was a consequence of things outside the control of the Council, he said that members would recall that these emerging risks were flagged up and were already within the Council’s contemplation when setting this year’s budget. Therefore, monies had already been allocated to this emerging problem, set aside to mitigate the anticipated impacts. With the introduction of a formal moratorium on spend and the development of an action plan to address specific areas of concern, the Council would balance the budget this financial year. He added that this was not the case for a number of surrounding authorities but was as a result of the intensive work by the finance department.

He noted that the medium-term and macroeconomic impact of the ongoing global situation was of more concern. Despite this difficult and uncertain outlook, he said that work would continue to develop a transformational activity programme to mitigate anticipated any budget pressures in future years.

By way of supplementary question Councillor Crisp asked if he could make the assumption that there would be no immediate or future restructures or redundancies to address future overspends?

Councillor Gardiner, Cabinet Spokesperson Core Services responded by saying that unfortunately he could not give guarantees due to the trauma in the global markets and the local markets. He said that the Council did its best to protect staff, including their jobs and careers, but to make a guarantee would be foolhardy in the present circumstances.

c)    Councillor Kitching

‘The new Conservative Prime Minister, Liz Truss, has clearly indicated her intention to reverse the laws banning fracking, despite ongoing concerns about the risks associated with this practice. Under the new legislation, would Barnsley Council pursue licences for fracking operations on its own land?’

Councillor Frost, Cabinet Spokesperson Regeneration and Culture gave thanks for the question and responded that the answer was ‘No’.

By way of supplementary question Councillor Kitching asked Councillor Frost to clarify his own personal views as Cabinet Spokesperson for Regeneration and Culture.

Councillor Frost responded by saying that his own opinions were irrelevant and that there was a process to follow, with any application viewed on its merits and taken through due process.  Any other action would be seen as the predetermination of any application. He highlighted that with fracking anything underground was the responsibility of the Environment Agency, and that anything on the surface would come to the Planning Regulatory Board.

d) Councillor W Fielding

‘We were all shocked and disappointed to read the news in the Chronicle about the children’s home that has received another inadequate OFSTED rating. Could the Cabinet Member please give his perspective on how this happened and what steps are now being put into place to both improve the situation and to stop this from happening again? In giving his answer could the Cabinet Member please detail when he expects the restriction of accommodation to be lifted so that further vulnerable children can be safely accommodated in this setting?’

Councillor T Cave, Cabinet Spokesperson Children’s Services, gave thanks for the question and replied by saying that as a corporate parent of all looked after and young people, he would like to assure people that the safety of young people in our care was the highest priority. During and following the Ofsted inspection, a robust action plan had been implemented to track and achieve the changes needed, and Ofsted had received regular updates on progress. The action plan detailed the findings from the inspection and other areas for development.

The key areas were as follows:

• A new residential home manager in in place, bringing the appropriate challenge that was needed.
• The matching of the young people in the home had been analysed, to support the consideration of their future care plans.
• Training opportunities for all employees had been identified, so the council could be confident they have the skills and experience to care for our young people and keep them safe. A learning and development framework was being created, specific to the needs of the young people that the home is registered to care for.
• Employees have had guidance on how to respond to and record serious incidents. All incidents within the home were now reported to the Head of Service for Children in Care.
• The Executive Director and Service Director of Children’s Services and the council’s HR service continued to meet monthly with all employees to encourage reflection and clarity regarding standards of practice.
• A Council Internal Audit review of the home was underway.
• An audit tool had been created for the residential home manager, and additional audits were planned within the children’s service audit framework. This would provide further scrutiny and would evidence robust management oversight.
• A full review of the young people’s records had been undertaken, focusing on risk assessments, missing protocols and care plans. Senior managers would be provided with copies to review when there are significant updates. This ensured a clear, robust, shared understanding of expectations in keeping our young people safe in the home and the community.
• The overall staffing and management structure was also being reviewed alongside a review of the home’s statement of purpose, including the number of young people that the home accommodates in the future.

Members heard that the framework for inspecting children’s homes had very clear and set criteria and at the time of the inspection, the home had an interim residential home manager in post for too long. Permanent recruitment to registered managers’ roles had been very challenging. The regulators were unhappy that the position hadn’t been filled, despite acknowledging all the efforts taken to appoint to this critical post. The residential home manager was responsible for ensuring complete oversight of all policies, procedures and processes. Regular independent Regulation 44 inspection visits advised officers and members that safeguarding in the home was good when it clearly wasn’t. With a new permanent residential home manager and re-tendering of the Regulation 44 contract, better progress was being made. A service manager had also been appointed to oversee progress in the home, and senior managers regularly visited.

A recent Ofsted compliance visit recognised the efforts and changes within the home, and confirmation was provided that all compliance notices had now been lifted.  A full two-day inspection was expected before the end of October, and the hope was that progress would be reflected in an improved judgement. It was the priority to provide assurance that the Council was also in a position to place more young people in the home. It was noted that the action and development plan was monitored weekly by the Executive Director and Service Director of Children’s Services. The Cabinet Member made Members aware he received fortnightly briefings on progress, and there would also be regular progress reports taken to the Corporate Parenting Panel.

Councillor W Fielding noted that every Councillor was a corporate parent and asked would it not have been right to inform corporate parents of the report as it came out, rather than finding out through the local press?

Councillor T Cave, Cabinet Spokesperson for Children’s Services, responded by saying due process had been followed, as required.