Agenda and minutes

Venue: Conference Room, Church Square House, Scunthorpe

Contact: Richard Mell  Email: richard.mell@northlincs.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1447.

Declarations of Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and Personal or Personal and Prejudicial interests.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest declared at the meeting.

 

1448.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 306 KB

Minutes:

Resolved - That the minutes of the meeting of Cabinet held on 27 September 2021 having been circulated amongst the members, be taken as read and correctly recorded and be signed by the chair.

1449.

Greater Lincolnshire Joint Strategic Oversight Committee pdf icon PDF 237 KB

Minutes:

Resolved - That the minutes of the meeting of the Joint Committee held on 3 September 2021 be received, noted and where necessary approved and adopted.

 

1450.

North Lincolnshire Council Annual Report - An account of Adult Social Care Services 2020/21 pdf icon PDF 1 MB

Report of the Director: Adults and Community Wellbeing

Minutes:

The Director: Adults and Community Wellbeing submitted a report seeking Cabinet approval for the publication on the council’s website of the ‘North Lincolnshire Council Annual Report - An Account of Adult Social Care’, which was included as an appendix.

 

The Director in her report explained that the council produced an annual local account for adult social care informing local people what the council had been doing over the past year, how it supported people to meet their outcomes, key developments, and set out areas of focus for the forthcoming year. The council continued work with care sector providers and health partners to find new ways of working and build on the already strong relationships across the system.  The council had worked with health partners, as a whole system, to support care providers to keep the people they care for, and their staff, safe and well.

 

The report highlighted the key messages of the annual report which emphasised that the council would continue to work to keep people safe, living well and ageing well through focusing on:

 

·         Enabling people to achieve good outcomes

·         Enabling people to live fulfilling lives and to age well

·         Enhancing life opportunities

·         Enabling choice and control

·         Enhancing the health and care of residents living in care settings

 

Resolved – That the publication on the council’s website of theNorth Lincolnshire Council Annual Report - An Account of Adult Social Care be approved.

1451.

Youth Council and Young Voice 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 145 KB

Report of the Director: Governance and Partnerships

Minutes:

The Director: Governance and Partnerships submitted a reportproviding the Cabinet with an update and overview of Young Voice and North Lincolnshire Youth Council (NLYC) roles, activities, participation and engagement over the last year and further planned progress into next year.

 

The report explained that The NLYC was a constituted group of young people who came together to be the vehicle for Young Voice in North Lincolnshire. The NLYC aimed to:

 

·         Communicate and promote the views of young people

·         Raise the profile of young people in a positive way

·         Encourage young people to be good citizens, so they act with understanding and communicate between themselves and their communities

·         Highlight issues affecting young people, and

·         Shape and influence priority setting, service planning and delivery and ensure the views of young people, ‘young voice’ are taken into account by North Lincolnshire Council and its partners.

 

The Council was committed to engaging with children, young people and their families at an individual, service and strategic level and continued to invest in and support the NLYC to ensure that the viewsand experiences of children and young people were integral to priority setting, strategy, service delivery and commissioning.

 

The Director in her report stated that over the past year, the NLYC had adapted to the restrictions brought about by Covid 19, maintained membership and meetings, debated on and influenced a number of initiatives and issues, for example: 

 

·         Emotional health and wellbeing including the CYPP Transformation Plan, Life Central ‘app’ and website review

·         Consultation with Humberside Police and Crime Commissioner regarding crime reporting processes and development of young people's panel

·         Revision of Education Transitions Leaflet

·         SENDIASS film and resources development

·         Consultation as part of the Integrated Transport Strategy

·         Review of Virtual Learning during Covid Restrictions and co -designing best practice guide

·         Young people's use of local green spaces and parks

·         Environmental and Climate Crisis awareness and change

·         Promoting the value of young voice to parish/town councils, and

·         Young people represented at civic occasions, Remembrance and Holocaust Memorial Services. 

 

Also, achievements and wider young voice headlines were summarised under the following headings –

 

·         Young Mayor's Environment Award        

·         Tough Mudder Challenge

·         Un-Filtered (on BBC Radio Humberside).

·         Regional Youth Climate Assembly

·         Positive Steps - Emotional Health and Wellbeing Group and CCG

·         NLYC Pandemic regular communication, welfare checks and safe activities

·         Develop life skills - First Aid Course, and

·         Representation – NLYC was a member of the Children and Young People's Partnership           

 

The Young Voice Plan 2021/22 as a live document included reference to the Youth Elections for the Member of Youth Parliament and Young Mayor in February 2022, further recruitment to the Youth Council through visiting schools and colleges, participating in the British Youth Council ‘Make Your Mark’, a visit to the House of Commons and Westminster following an invitation from the Member of Parliament for Scunthorpe, and Little Libraries and Environmental Voice activities.

 

Isobel Andrews, chair of the Youth Council attended the meeting and gave a summary of recent successes and achievements of the Youth Council  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1451.

1452.

Funded Childcare Offer and Early Years Sufficiency Update pdf icon PDF 342 KB

Report of the Director: Governance and Partnerships

Minutes:

The Director: Governance and Partnerships submitted a reportadvising members that there were sufficient early years and childcare places for families in North Lincolnshire, in accordance with statutory duties and of the high take-up of funded early education by two, three and four-year olds.

 

The Director in her report stated that the council had a legal duty to secure sufficient childcare for working parents, or parents who are studying or training for employment, for children aged 0-14 years; to secure 15-hours funded early education for eligible two, three and four year olds for 38 weeks of the year and to secure the equivalent of 30-hours of funded childcare, over 38 weeks of the year for qualifying children.  Locally this was provided through a range of private, voluntary and independent early years organisations operating across each of the localities which included child minders, nurseries and after school clubs. The provision continued to be of high quality and almost all (98%) of children accessed funded early education in an Ofsted rated registered setting with a good or better rating compared to 92% nationally.

 

The report also explained that a Sufficiency Audit (appended to the report) identified that in North Lincolnshire there was a higher-than-average take-up of funded early education entitlements by families with the large majority (87%) of eligible two-year olds and most (94%) three and four-year olds claimed funded early education in the spring term 2020, compared to 69% and 93% nationally. Although take up rates for Spring 2021 declined due to COVID-19, the rates for Summer and Autumn 2021 had improved – 79% of two-year-olds now accessing a place and 95% of three and four year olds.

 

Resolved – (a) That the sufficient childcare places to meet duties as set out in the report be noted and (b) that the positive take up of funded early education and that provision is of high quality be noted.

 

1453.

Tree Planting and The Northern Forest pdf icon PDF 825 KB

Report of the Director: Business and Development

Minutes:

The Director: Business Development submitted a report updating Cabinet on progress towards tree planting targets in North Lincolnshire and outlining future approaches to the Northern Forest and other tree planting initiatives. The Northern Forest was the government’s 25-year vision to plant 50 million trees across the North of England, stretching from Liverpool to Hull. This was set out in the 25-year Environment Plan with an allocation of £5.7 million of government funding.

 

The Director in her report explained that (alongside and as part of the Northern Forest) the Council had set a target to plant a further 172,000 trees: one for each resident and had identified six main approaches to maintaining and increasing tree cover in North Lincolnshire:

 

1.  Urban Areas- identifying and planting on suitable Council and partners’ land

2.  Urban Areas- identifying and planting suitable locations for street trees

3. Rural (& some Urban) Areas- Targeting tree planting according to the Biodiversity Opportunity Map:

4.  Green Infrastructure/Ecosystem Service standards for new development:

5.  Tree Protection and Replacement

6. Natural regeneration and natural habitat change allowing native trees to spread naturally, creating scrub and new woodland.

 

The report stated that the council in 2020 carried out an OJEU procurement to tender for a call-off framework arrangement with a single provider over 4 years. The provider delivered tree ordering, volunteer recruitment, tree planting, aftercare and the coordination and leadership of volunteers and community groups. The successful bidder was TCV (The Conservation Volunteers). In the 2020/21 planting season, the council had planted around 25,600 trees on Council-owned land. Details of the sites were set out in Appendix 1.  At the same time, it launched a tree counter and tree planting map website, allowing partners, businesses, landowners and members of the public to record the trees that they had planted. By the end of the season, the tree counter was at over 61,400 trees. Significant contributions were highlighted in the report.

 

For the 2021/22 planting season focus had shifted to working with the Woodland Trust to plant trees on sites put forward by private landowners and town and parish councils. North Lincolnshire Council had also joined with other local authorities, with support from the Community Forests, to make a bid to the Urban Tree Challenge Fund for standard trees in urban areas. These were large trees at the time of planting that would make a significant impact in the street scene. If successful, 233 standard trees would be planted over the next two years. Further details of the main projects planned for 2021/22 are set out in Appendix 2 to the report.

 

The Director also stated that recently the council had launched its landowner leaflet, providing guidance and offering support to those seeking to plant trees. The leaflet had been distributed thanks to help from the National Farmers Union (NFU) and had been promoted through the council’s website. Looking to future planting seasons, the council would continue to develop and deliver a pipeline of tree planting projects, working with landowners, businesses community  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1453.

1454.

2021/22 Financial Position and Medium Term Financial Plan Update pdf icon PDF 282 KB

Report of the Director: Governance and Partnerships

Minutes:

The Director: Governance and Partnerships submitted a reportproviding Cabinet with an update on the Council’s in-year financial position, requested members to note the latest revenue budget and approve the revised capital programme and set out the Council’s updated medium term financial planning position.

 

The Director in her report explained that the medium-term financial plan represented an amalgamation of financial and non-financial assumptions which formed the basis of how much resource the Council expected to have available to invest in its priorities and to ensure it continued to fulfil its duties effectively.

 

Notwithstanding the need to recover from the pandemic as the council adapted to operating with COVID-19 and the Council looking to maximise opportunities for future renewal, it continued to embrace its responsibility for health protection of the workforce and residents. A low-risk approach remained with regards to the safety measures incorporated into operating models, until such time that the threat to public health was sufficiently diminished. Better clarity was starting to emerge around changes to operating models that were now more likely to remain permanent. The residual financial risk from Covid-19 that had been identified in year could be mitigated through temporary funding, however consideration was required as part of the financial planning process to identify permanent funding solutions.

 

The report informed Cabinet on how the approved budget was progressing based on the first half of the financial year. Cabinet would receive further updates in January/February (quarter three) and March (indication of outturn). The final outturn would then be brought before Cabinet in summer 2022. The Council continued to manage its resources to deliver the Council Plan, responding to the pandemic and ensuring business continuity through the recovery and renewal phase of the pandemic. Financial management and planning processes supported the council’s resource management and facilitated the journey to long-term financial sustainability. A summary explanation with supporting appendices were provided for the following –

           

·         Revenue 2021/2022

·         Capital 2021/22

·         Reserves

·         Budget Adjustments

·         Treasury Management, and

·         Medium Term Financial Plan

 

Resolved – (a) That the revenue and capital budget monitoring position for 2021/22 set out at Appendix 1 of the report be noted; (b) that the medium-term financial plan update in Appendix 2 be noted; (c) that the revenue budget adjustments approved under delegated powers and the revised budget position for 2021/22, summarised at Appendix 3 be noted; (d) that the revised capital investment programme 2021/24, set out in Appendix 4 be approved, and (c) that the progress against the approved Treasury Management Strategy in Appendix 5 be noted.

 

1455.

North Lincolnshire Jobs Expo pdf icon PDF 179 KB

Report of the Director: Business Development

Minutes:

The Director: Business Development submitted a report updating Cabinet on the North Lincolnshire Jobs Expo which had been held on 19 October 2021 at the Baths Hall, Scunthorpe.

 

The report explained that North Lincolnshire had experienced an increase in its claimant count due to Covid19 over the last eighteen months with 3,430 claimants in January 2020 compared to 4900 in August 2021. Businesses reported experiencing high vacancy levels, which in some instances, were now seriously impacting on business continuity and productivity.  The Council Plan set out its priorities to Grow the Economy, supporting both businesses and residents. One of the biggest barriers for businesses was their ability to recruit to vacant posts and the most significant barrier for those seeking work was being able to understand the opportunities in the labour market. The Jobs Expo had been developed and delivered to address both these issues by inviting employers to attend with live vacancies ready to recruit people. Whilst working in collaboration with the DWP delivering an extensive communications campaign encouraging those seeking work to attend and engage with employers. A range of ancillary support for others who may have perceived barriers to accessing work including Wheels to Work, Employment support and coaching was also offered, together with a quiet hour to support anyone with additional needs.

 

The Director in her report stated that the Expo had 700 attendees, all of whom were surveyed by DWP. 90% of attendees found the Expo useful, 5% in part and 5% said not. When asked why they attended the Expo:

 

·         2% were advised to attend by work coach,

·         19% came to find out about jobs in area,

·         66% came to find employment and

·         13% attended looking for a career change.

 

Over 100 job seekers with additional needs also came during the quiet hour to seek work and over 40 businesses attended on the day with over 20 stalls supporting people into employment. Many of the businesses commented on the success of the event particularly the opportunity to fill their vacancies quickly with job ready attendees. The Council would be running another Jobs Expo in the first quarter of 2022 building on the success Expo 2021.

 

Resolved – That the success of Jobs Expo 2021 and the positive impact it had for both individuals and businesses be noted and welcomed.