Agenda, decisions and minutes
Venue: Council House, Plymouth
Contact: Jamie Sheldon Email: jamie.sheldon@plymouth.gov.uk
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Declarations of Interest Cabinet Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda. Minutes: No declarations of interest were made. |
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To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2023. Minutes: The Cabinet agreed the minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2023 as a correct record. |
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Questions from the Public To receive questions from the public in accordance with the Constitution.
Questions, of no longer than 50 words, can be submitted to the Democratic Support Unit, Plymouth City Council, Ballard House, Plymouth, PL1 3BJ, or email to democraticsupport@plymouth.gov.uk. Any questions must be received at least five clear working days before the date of the meeting.
Minutes: There were three questions from members of the public:
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Chair's Urgent Business To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.
Minutes: There were no items of Chair’s urgent business. |
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Leader's Announcements Minutes: The Leader made the following announcements:
a)
The£22 million round two
bid for the National Marine Park had
been submitted
to the Heritage
Fund and a
date had
been scheduled for mid-November for trustees
of the National Lottery to
visit the projects,
with the proposal due to go
before the National Lottery Board in
December; b)
Cruise Ships and visiting ships in the sound
had increased,
Destination Plymouth were promoting Plymouth as a
destination for shipping, and the council were supporting Harbour Commissionersin looking into feasibility to undertake
further expansion as part of the
shared prosperity funding along within
the first ever port
strategy; c)
With regards to
Celtic
Array,there was
an opportunity for Plymouth in relation
to servicing of Floating
Offshore Wind (FLOW) platforms planned for
the Celtic Sea and since September Plymouth had
hosted a number of potential visitors
looking to use Plymouth’s
facilities; the first ever FLOW conference
would be opening
at The Box
later in October to showcase the opportunities to
businesses and also
working with the Freeport and ABP
nationally; d)
The council had been
supporting the fishing industry whilst EA and SHH undertook works on
the Lock Gates and access to the harbour
was restricted and the EA and SHH had been asked that compensation arrangements
were clearly communicated to the
industry as a matter of
urgency; e)
Business cases had been approved for
industrial developments in the
Freeport at , a
new hotel development on Embankment
Road and the first EV charging station at Outland Road, with the
Economic Development team working on £1 billion worth of
development projects; f) He had visited the Barden Company in early October, a key company in Plymouth.
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Cabinet Member Updates Minutes: Councillor Sue Dann (Cabinet Member for Customer Services, Sport, Leisure and HR & OD) provided the following updates:
a)
Social media posts had been shared on mental health support,
community food access map (helping people to find their local food
bank), debt advice (directing residents to face to face services
and also online support), healthy starts, and promoting social
broadband and phone tariffs for people on benefits;
b)
Newer leaflets which were more family focused which had been
distributed via community midwives, libraries and DWP;
c)
There had also been promotion of things to do with welcoming warm
spaces throughout the winter, advising what residents could do to
reduce their energy costs and free activities during half
term;
d)
Household Support Fund Awareness Week, given £4.5m to use
across the city to help people and more than £1.7m of this
had been used to provide food vouchers for families who had
children who were eligible for free school meals;
e)
Working with Citizen’s Advice to distribute £750k of
food and fuel vouchers and essential household goods to vulnerable
people in need; f) There was a sport and Leisure conference at the life centre which hosted Active Devon and showed Sport England and Active Thrive how we have linked sport with active aging, promoting a thriving lifestyle; g)
h)
She had written to Government to ask for a social tariff for energy
to help struggling households;
i)
Shared information with Councillors and staff about cyber
security;
j)
Planning permission had been granted for a Community Hub for
Brickfields;
k)
Sports Development Unit co-ordinated 84 holiday clubs providing
23,950 free spaces for benefit related free school meals children
aged between 5-16 years. Councillor Tom Briars-Delve (Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change) provided the following update:
l)
Rolled out new Climate Impact Assessment tool to ensure that all
key decisions consider their climate related impacts including
biodiversity, Green House Gas emissions, renewable energy, ocean
and waterway health, air quality, materials and waste, climate
change adaptations and education, engagement and enabling
conditions;
m)
Gordon Miller Award won for Plymouth Natural Grid Partnership
project; n) 5 people involved in kick-starter programmes went to work in a green space management sector, one for PCC and two working for The National Trust.
Councillor Mary Aspinall (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) provided the following update:
o)
A resuscitation unit had been agreed to be put in the
Guildhall;
p)
She visited the Clinical Diagnostic Centre and had positive
feedback around not having to wait for Derriford, a
video was played at this point to demonstrate this.
Councillor Mark Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) provided the following updates:
q)
Planning application had been completed and had been scheduled for
submission before Christmas for the work to start in Spring for
£25m development in Colin Campbell Court; r) Old Town Street ... view the full minutes text for item 52. |
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Corporate Plan Performance Quarter One - Transitional Report PDF 154 KB Additional documents: Minutes: In Councillor Chris Penberthy’s absence, Councillor Mark Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) introduced the item and highlighted the following points:
a)
The folowingpriorities had been added to the corporate
plan: working with police to tackle crime and
anti-social behaviour; fewer potholes, cleaner, greener
streets and transport;
building more homes; green investment and working with the NHS
to provide better
access to health, care and dentistry; b)
The CorporatePlan for
quarter one (April, May, June 2023) had covered two
administrations; c)
The Corporate Plan
had been changed to
include 51 indicators to measure the
Council’s performance and included an additional 10 indicators that
were a consequence of
the previous administration; d)
Number of early
antisocial behaviour interventions have increased by more
than 50% from the previous quarter and there
has also been a marginal decrease in the number of children with
repeat child protections
plans; e)
Homelessness had risen
significantly and the ability to deal with this had been
shown in the performance report, this would be a key
priority to provide people with a home.
Ross Jago (Head of Governance, Performance and Risk) added:
a)
New indicators
had been added around safeguarding priorities, focused on
vulnerable adults and young people but had been expanded to include health and
safety of the public. Councillor Mark Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) then added:
a)
The dental task force had been set up, as
22,000 peoplewere on the waiting
list for dentistry and members of parliament would
attend the meetings; The Cabinet agreed to note the Corporate Plan Performance Quarter One – Transitional Report.
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SEND Report and SEND Action Plan Minutes: Councillor Sally Cresswell (Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Apprenticeships) introduced the item and highlighted:
a)
Plymouth had a local
area SEND inspection lead by OFSTED and CQC in late June 2023, the
outcome of the inspection was that there was serious weakness
identified, with 5
priority areas that needed
to be addresseded through
a local area action plan, the inspection endorsed the
council’s long term plans and directions of travel for the
local area partnership and multi-agency work and areas of positive
work were recognised in the report; b)
Concerns were raised
about the provisional outcome for children with SEND including
those who need multi-agency report and those
most vulnerable; c)
A meeting between Plymouth City Council and NHS Senior Officers was held on 11
September 2023 and the progress made
was noted, including putting forward that an externally chaired board
was required; d)
A draft notice
had been received from
Secretary of State; e)
A stakeholder
event, including
colleagues from schools, children’s services, the Education
Psychology Service and
the health services had been
held on 20 September
2023; f)
A crucial aspect in the
plan was the
involvement of school and college leaders including head teachers
and CEOs to be involved with key governance and working
groups; g)
There
had been some positive
feedback on the plan from the DFEbut the
department were awaiting feedback from OFTED
before finalising the plan, and then
an executive decision would have to be
made; h)
The plan consisted of
the following: Quickly identifying young people who are vulnerable
and risk negative outcomes; reducing likelihood of pupils
with educational healthcare plans (EHCP) being
excluded from school; addressing long waiting times for children
and young people who need support from health services; ensuring
that children and young people with SEND who also have social care
needs receive the care and support that they need; improving the
consistency of support offered to children and young people in
schools and settings; providing all practitioners across social
care, health, schools and settings with the training they need to
provide consistent education, care and
support; i)
The priority was that
children and young people in Plymouth would be supported to grow up
well, to achieve and to thrive;
j)
She was
committed to making improvements and
rebuilding trust in services as swiftly as
possible. David Haley (Director of Children’s Services) added:
k) Awaiting OFSTED’s approval for the report and after that would move forward to make the executive decision for approval and publish the action plan within the time scale that is set out.
The Cabinetagreed to: 1.
Note the verbal report; 2. Receive an update at the next Cabinet meeting.
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Re-commissioning of Adult Care Homes PDF 169 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: Councillor Mary Aspinall (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) introduced the following item and highlighted the following points:
a)
Existing contracts for the 89 care homes for
adults in Plymouth were due to expire on
31December 2023; b)
Before contracts
were put in place, it was important to
there was the right type of provision locally that
would meet the future needs of citizens, taking into account the fair cost of care
and the need for homes that could
support adults with
dementia; c)
The proposal was to
extend the
existing contracts for 12
months, which would
allow commissioners to continue working closely with providers
and those who live in care homes to engage, listen and use this information to build
out plans for the future; d) The teams would work closely with health partners, including NHS Devon ICB, University Hospitals Plymouth and Livewell Southwest to make sure they were all working as a system around some of the most vulnerable citizens in Plymouth.
Emma Crowther (Interim Head of Commissioning) added:
e)
It
was recognised
that care home providers hadn’t had to
take part in any kind of procurement process before and
the team would need to make
sure they worked with them to
guide them through the process;
f) Significant changes needed to be made to the types and numbers of care homes beds that were commissioned for the local authority and health clients;
In response to questions, it was further explained:
g)
There
were issues
around sustainability of and
it was important that staff
felt confident to care for the elderly
residents and young residents in all
circumstances; h) Work force development, capacity building and working with skills providers would all be key elements of the plan.
i) Councillor Mary Aspinall (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) then added:
j) It would ensure the council got the best from the market for everyone in care in Plymouth.
The
Cabinet agreed to: 1. Approve the business case to extend the current care home contract over a periodof 1 year from the beginning of January 2024.
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Habitat Banking Vehicle Business Case PDF 208 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: Councillor Tom Briars-Delve (Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change) introduced the item and highlighted:
a)
State of Nature was the
most comprehensive report on
UK biodiversity published by leading
conservation charities and it had painted a stark picture and had found that in the UK
151 documented animal species had already become extinct and
nearly 1 in
6 of remaining species were threatened with
extinction; b)
Nature recovery needed
to be at the centre of what council did and this would be
assisted by the Climate Impact
Assessment Tool which would assess and mitigate the impact of
decisions; c)
The 2021 Environment Act
(2021) required developers from January 2024,
to show a biodiversity net gain of at least 10%,
with a 30-year maintenanceperiod; d)
The Habitat Banking
Vehicle concept was a way of ensuring that when on-site
improvements weren’t sufficient, the council could
assist developers in
funneling
investment into the enchancement of nature in Plymouth’s green
spaces; e)
Ocean City Nature, the
collect of companies that would run the vehicle, had already been
set up and the business case asked for
approval for £500,000 investment as a loan in the ambitious
pilot; f)
The pilot would enhance
nature on three council green-sites
in a measurable way with DEFRA
metrics; g)
The improvements would
be theoretically split into ‘biodiversity units’ which
would be tradable tokens that could be sold to developers who
would need to
show they had developed a certain level of biodiversity net
gain; h)
It is hoped that this
UK-leading pilot would show the viability of the habitat banking
vehicle model as an effective means of channeling millions of pounds of funding into
local green spaces; i) The habitat banking vehicle had the potential to be the best opportunity for the council to give nature recovery in Plymouth the support it needed.
Kat Deeney (Head of Environmental Planning) added:
j)
The Habitat Banking
Vehicle was a local solution for delivery against biodiversity net
gain policy, maximising benefits for local nature and local
people; k)
Wanted to ensure, like with Section
106 monies, that the impacts
of development were mitigated
locally; l)
Further explained the
process of funding and biodoversity
units as a circular
system; m)
The three pilot sites
would be Cann Woods, Ham Woods and
Chelson Meadow,
all in different areas of the city and incorporating different
habitat types; n)
By having the habitat
banking vehicle in place, there would be no
delays in developments due to the new
requirements; o)
The financial modelling
had taken inflation into account; p) Doing nothing would result in a loss in money for nature in the city because Section 106 would no longer exist, and the plans would benefit nature and keep people close to nature as well.
In response to
questions, it was further
explained; q)
Benefits would vary from
site to site and so types of planting would vary, but would
encourage more animal life to thrive in the
city; |