Agenda and decisions

A copy of the record of the previous decisions taken at Cabinet on 9 March 2017 are attached.

RECOMMENDED that the record of decisions taken by Cabinet on 9 March 2017 be agreed as a correct record, to be signed by the Leader.

This report by the Housing Options Manager details the findings of the Homeless Working Group and makes recommendations on work streams that will assist in the reduction of homelessness. It further seeks clarity on the future of the Homeless Working Group, and to agree support for the recommendations to better understand the causes of homelessness and the solutions needed to reduce the number of homeless rough sleepers.

RECOMMENDED that the Cabinet clarifies the future role of the Homeless Working Group:

a)         Does the Homeless Working Group continue in its current format;

b)        Does it become a steering group to oversee the recommendations moving forward and the preparations for implementing the Homeless Reduction Act; OR

c)         Is the group disbanded, and the recommendations moved forward as 'business as normal' 

(1)  The Cabinet clarified the future role of the Homeless Working Group, with the disbanding of the group, the role of a Homeless Community Champion is formed and Councillor Paul Godier was appointed to take this role.

(2)  The Cabinet gave support and approval for the following recommendations:

a)    To complete the Safer Portsmouth Partnership complex needs work to understand how services work together (housing, mental health, substance misuse etc) when dealing with individuals with multiple & complex needs,including findings from Scrutiny Panels.

b)    To complete the review of the supported housing provision for the homeless, and use the findings to redesign/recommission services to meet the increased demand and more challenging support needs.

c)    Undertake community asset mapping to maximise the contribution of the voluntary & community sector.

d)    Consider an annual event and/or regular forum that would raise awareness and help co-ordinate the work of voluntary & community sector working groups.

e)    Review current enforcement measures and develop a co-ordinated approach to enforcement between police and PCC to reduce duplication of operational responses.

A schedule of nominations has been compiled by Democratic Services (all groups have been asked to put forward nominations).  At the Cabinet decision meeting members of the Cabinet will be asked to agree appointments.  Please note that some appointments may have more nominations than there are places available.

Appointments were made as detailed on a separate schedule.

The report by the Director of Transport, Environment & Business Support seeks to gain approval to fund the installation of LED Street Lighting apparatus, and a Central Management System (CMS) across the City.

RECOMMENDED:

(1)       That Cabinet approve the Report for submission to Full Council to approve a change to the Capital Programme as set out in 2.2.

(2)       That Council give approval to increase the currently approved LED Residential Street Lighting Replacement Capital budget of £3.04m by a further £2.21m to £5.25m in order to upgrade the City Council's Street Lighting with LED lighting and a Central Management System. 

(3)       That the additional capital budget requirement of £2.21m be financed from Prudential Borrowing.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO COUNCIL

(1)       Cabinet approved the Report for submission to Full Council to approve a change to the Capital Programme as set out in (2) below

(2)       That Council give approval to increase the currently approved LED Residential Street Lighting Replacement Capital budget of £3.04m by a further £2.21m to £5.25m in order to upgrade the City Council's Street Lighting with LED lighting and a Central Management System. 

(3)       That the additional capital budget requirement of £2.21m be financed from Prudential Borrowing.     

(N.B. - As this is forwarded to Council for approval it is not subject to call-in)    

Portsmouth City Council has been invited to join Transport for the South East (TfSE) which is the proposed Sub National Transport Body for the South East of England (SNTBSE). The report by the Director for Transport, Environment and Business Support seeks to gain Cabinet approval for Portsmouth City Council to jointly join TfSE with Southampton City Council.   

RECOMMENDED that theCabinet agree that:

·           Portsmouth City Council and Southampton City Council jointly join TfSE as a single member with a single vote. The membership cost for the first year is £20k which will be shared between the 2 authorities.

·           To reflect the joint approach the meetings will be attended by the relevant transport portfolio holder from 1 authority with officer support from the other authority

·           The success of the joint arrangement should be jointly reviewed with Southampton City Council after a year to ensure that the interests of both cities and the wider Solent area is being represented effectively with this proposed approach

Cabinet agreed that:

•           Portsmouth City Council and Southampton City Council jointly join TfSE as a single member with a single vote. The membership cost for the first year is £20k which will be shared between the 2 authorities.

•           To reflect the joint approach the meetings will be attended by the relevant transport portfolio holder from 1 authority with officer support from the other authority

•           The success of the joint arrangement should be jointly reviewed with Southampton City Council after a year to ensure that the interests of both cities and the wider Solent area is being represented effectively with this proposed approach

The purpose of this report is to seek approval for the further investigation of digital poster advertising opportunities and to commence a "multiple lot" procurement for the provision of digital advertising assets within the City.

RECOMMENDED that:

(i)            in order to explore further the potential digital advertising opportunities within the City, the council embarks on a tender exercise to identify the optimum mix of digital advertising within the city and the most appropriate operating model.

(ii)          the tender exercise takes the form of a "multiple lot" strategy reserving the right to choose between lots and award in any combination. The lots being structured as follows:

·         Lot 1 - Location Hard Interchange - Model 1

·         Lot 1 - Location M275 (iconic structure) - Model 1

·         Lot 1 - Location Eastern Road - Model 1

·         Lot 1 - Location Way Finders - Model 1

·         Lot 2 - Location as per Lot 1 - Model 2

·         Lot 3 - Existing advertising sites (subject to serving notice)

·         Lot 4 - Toilets (and news-stands)

·         Lot 5 - Wireless advertising (Beacon technology)

(iii)         Subject to a satisfactory financial appraisal approved by the Section 151 Officer, the Director of Finance & Information Service in consultation with the Leader of the Council be given delegated authority to award in any combination the Lots outlined in recommendation (ii) above.

(iv)         Subject to meeting the MTRS spend to save criteria, of payback within 4 years, any "upfront" investment costs arising from the award of Lots 2, 3, 4 or 5 be funded from the MTRS reserve.

(i)         in order to explore further the potential digital advertising opportunities within the City, the council embarks on a tender exercise to identify the optimum mix of digital advertising within the city and the most appropriate operating model.

(ii)        the tender exercise takes the form of a "multiple lot" strategy reserving the right to choose between lots and award in any combination. The lots being structured as follows:

•           Lot 1 - Location Hard Interchange - Model 1

•           Lot 1 - Location M275 (iconic structure) - Model 1

•           Lot 1 - Location Eastern Road - Model 1

•           Lot 1 - Location Way Finders - Model 1

•           Lot 2 - Location as per Lot 1 - Model 2

•           Lot 3 - Existing advertising sites (subject to serving notice)

•           Lot 4 - Toilets (and news-stands)

•           Lot 5 - Wireless advertising (Beacon technology)

(iii)       Subject to a satisfactory financial appraisal approved by the Section 151 Officer, the Director of Finance & Information Service in consultation with the Leader of the Council be given delegated authority to award in any combination the Lots outlined in resolution (ii) above.

(iv)       Subject to meeting the MTRS spend to save criteria, of payback within 4 years, any "upfront" investment costs arising from the award of Lots 2, 3, 4 or 5 be funded from the MTRS reserve.

The purpose of the report by the Director of Public Health is to seek approval from Cabinet to the proposed approach to the creation of a Public Health Transformation Fund.

RECOMMENDED that the Cabinet:

(1)Note the drivers of public health activity in Portsmouth, and the priority areas;

(2) Approve the designation of a Public Health Transformation Fund, as set out in section 7;

(3) Authorise the Director of Public Health, the Section151 officer (or representative) and Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health to approve allocations from the Fund, and keep progress against approved schemes under review.

The Cabinet:

(1) Noted the drivers of public health activity in Portsmouth, and the priority areas;

(2) Approved the designation of a Public Health Transformation Fund, as set out in section 7 of the report;

(3) Authorised the Director of Public Health, the Section151 officer (or representative) and Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health to approve allocations from the Fund, and keep progress against approved schemes under review.

The report by the Director of Children, Families and Education reviews our current strategy for ensuring children's social care is both safe and sustainable financially. It makes recommendations for additional investment in social work capacity to manage rising cost pressures around alternative care. 

RECOMMENDED that Cabinet endorse:

      An increase in social work capacity, through an investment of £462K, in order to improve our offer to teenagers and their families in particular, working more proactively within the community to effect whole family solutions and avoid external residential care placements. The increase in social work capacity will be created as follows:

(i)  Increase front-line Social workers staffing numbers by eight so that social work caseloads can be brought down to a level (15 children per FTE) that affords pro-active, timely and risk sensible intervention. This will enable us to drive the highest possible quality social work support to vulnerable children and families, to avoid the need to take them into our care; and

(ii) Increase service leader numbers by three; reducing the size of three teams and providing better management oversight.

Cabinet endorsed an increase in social work capacity, through an investment of £499K, in order to improve our offer to teenagers and their families in particular, working more proactively within the community to effect whole family solutions and avoid external residential care placements. The increase in social work capacity will be created as follows:

(i)  Increase front-line Social workers staffing numbers by eight so that social work caseloads can be brought down to a level (15 children per FTE) that affords pro-active, timely and risk sensible intervention. This will enable us to drive the highest possible quality social work support to vulnerable children and families, to avoid the need to take them into our care; and

(ii) Increase service leader numbers by three; reducing the size of three teams and providing better management oversight.

This report seeks approval from Cabinet to the proposed approach to the transformation of adult social care, including the designation of an Adult Social Care Transformation Fund.

Cabinet:

i.          Noted the acknowledged pressure on adult social care, and the local position

ii.         Endorsed the principles for developing the "blueprint" for social care

iii.        Endorsed the measures being taken to ensure financial stability and sustainability in the service

iv.        Approved the designation of an Adult Social Care Transformation Fund amounting to £8.5m, as set out in section 7 (of the report)

v.         Authorised the Director of Adult Services, the s151 officer (or representative) and Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health, in consultation with the Leader, to approve allocations from the Fund, and keep progress against approved schemes under review.

RECOMMENDED that, under the provisions of Section 100A of the Local Government Act, 1972 as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) Act, 1985, the press and public be excluded for the consideration of the following item on the grounds that the report(s) contain information defined as exempt in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act, 1972.

The public interest in maintaining the exemption must outweigh the public interest in disclosing the information.

Under the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) England Regulations 2012, regulation 5, the reasons for exemption of the listed item is shown below.

Members of the public may make representation as to why the item should be held in open session.  A statement of the Council’s response to representations received will be given at the meeting so that this can be taken into account when members decide whether or not to deal with the item under exempt business.

(NB     The exempt/confidential committee papers on the agenda will contain information which is commercially, legally or personally sensitive and should not be divulged to third parties.  Members are reminded of standing order restrictions on the disclosure of exempt information and are invited to return their exempt documentation to the Local Democracy Officer at the conclusion of the meeting for shredding.)

(Paragraph 3 relates to the financial or business affairs of a body including the local authority)

A report by the Section 151 Officer is to follow, which will contain some exempt information within the appendices.

The purpose of the report is to consider the Business Case for the establishment of a licensed energy supply company between Portsmouth City Council and a joint venture partner.

(This item was withdrawn from the agenda)

The item relating to 'Retrofitting of Sprinklers' is a Key Decision for the purposes of the Forward Plan as defined in Article 13 of the Constitution but was not included in the Forward Plan for 26 May to 31 August 2017 and is therefore an omission from the Forward Plan. The Chair of Scrutiny Management Panel has agreed to its inclusion on this agenda as a matter of urgency, and the necessary notice has been published.

The reasons why urgent action has to be taken in connection with this proposal is that the review of council high rise buildings has been in response to recent national events and there has been consultation with the government.

RECOMMENDED that the Forward Plan Omission and reasons for urgency be noted.

(the Forward Plan Omission due to urgency was noted and is not subject to call-in)

A supplementary report by the Director of Finance and Section 151 Officer is to seek approval to commence scoping the procurement process to ascertain the cost of retrofitting sprinklers into the Council's high-rise and sheltered blocks.

RECOMMENDED:

(1)       That Cabinet approve a full review of all of the Council's high rise and sheltered blocks, including site surveys where necessary, to establish where it would be necessary to retrofit sprinkler systems

(2)        That Cabinet give approval to commence scoping the procurement process to ascertain the cost of retrofitting any necessary sprinklers into the Council's high-rise and sheltered blocks.

(3)      That authority is delegated to the Director of Housing and Property Services in consultation with the Section 151 Officer and the Leader of the Council, to undertake the procurement process and appoint a contractor to undertake any necessary retrofitting of sprinklers into the Council's high-rise and sheltered blocks.

(4)      That authority be delegated to the Director of Housing and Property Services in consultation with the Section 151 Officer to amend the Capital Programme to reflect the temporary reprioritisation of capital schemes to fund the retrofitting of sprinklers into the Council's high-rise and sheltered blocks, pending any award of additional funding from Central Government after which any re-prioritised / deferred schemes can be re-instated

(5)      In the event that additional Government funding is not received, the Council undertakes a comprehensive review of its entire capital programme to ensure that it is fully funded from the resources available.