Cabinet Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda. 

There were no declarations of interest.

To sign and confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 12 August 2024.

The minutes from the meeting held 12 August 2024 were agreed as a true and accurate record.

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.

There were no questions from members of the public.

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

Cabinet:

1. Approved the final construction cost for the approved Armada Way design as £29,892,665;

2. Recommended the Leader approves additions to the Capital Programme as set out in the report giving a maximum spend allocation of £29,892,665 to finance the construction of the approved Armada Way scheme;

3. Noted that to support the on-going maintenance of projects within the city centre for a period of five years starting in 2025/2026 that hard and soft landscaping maintenance be funded from previously identified capital approved resources already forming part of the Capital Programme;

4. Granted authority to the Service Director for Strategic Planning and Infrastructure to take all such action as necessary to implement the project including all subsequent design amendments (excluding amendments which impact on the retention of any existing trees or the approved translocation of trees), scheme approval submissions, procurement and contract awards associated with developing and delivering the Armada Way scheme through to construction and completion, in consultation with the relevant Cabinet Members;

5. Delegated to the Cabinet Member for Finance authority to make any decisions which impact on the retention of any existing trees, or the approved translocation of trees associated with developing and delivering the Armada Way scheme through to construction and completion.

Councillor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) welcomed Paul Barnard (Service Director of Strategic Planning and Infrastructure) and Martin Ivatt (Regeneration and Placemaking Manager).

Councillor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) introduced the item and provided the following update:

a)    Plymouth had been cited in the national press as a great place to live and work;

b)    The city centre was being reimagined as a modern, vibrant and mixed-use destination with new community living at its heart;

c)    It was important to remember the city centre was not just for visitors, but also for the residents who would use the city centre as their backyard;

d)    A visit by Sir Oliver Letwin, who was on the Homes England Board, was hosted on 21 August 2024. The visit included the railway station, Armada Way, the Hoe;

e)    The Homes England Board would be hosted in Plymouth in November;

f)     There were ambitious targets for house building within Plymouth and the city centre would be fundamental to achieving that target;

g)    The average city had 8500 people living in the city centre, whereas Plymouth only had 850 due to a post-war policy which moved people out of the city and into the suburbs;

h)    Plymouth was developing plans with a hope Partners would buy into the vision and make further investments;

Councillor Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) provided the following update:

i)     On 19 February 2024 the design of the Armada Way project was approved, and the Strategic Director for Place was instructed to take all necessary steps to confirm the final construction cost;

j)     Cabinet instructed the Strategic Director for Place to establish a City Centre Public Realm Board, which would coordinate and monitor all existing public realm revenue maintenance and oversee new incoming regeneration initiatives;

k)    Since February 2024, Officers and Specialist Independent Consultants had analysed the details in the documentation from the contractor and the bill of quantities;

l)     Trial pits and surveys had been undertaken to verify the costs and assess the risk to delivery;

m)  Total construction costs for the scheme had been verified at £29.8 million, two thirds of which was funded by external sources. The total cost to the tax payer was £11.2 million;

n)    Further grant funding would be applied for when it was available in an attempt to reduce the £11.2 million cost to the tax payer;

o)    Future projects for the city centre included Royal Parade and the District Heat Network Pilot;

p)    In order to aid operation and support existing businesses during ongoing development of Armada Way, there were five specific actions:

1. Subject to Cabinet agreement, a letter would be written to city centre businesses setting out the details of the programme;

2. A dedicated Armada Way Liaison Officer had been appointed who would be the single point of contact for all city centre businesses during the construction works and will be based in the Knowledge Hub on Armada Way;

3. Regular question and answer sessions would commence in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 32.

Cabinet agreed to:

1. Support the zonal approach to heat network roll out in Plymouth, as set out in the report, and the procurement of a development partner to take forward these proposals to delivery;

2. Grant delegated authority to the Service Director for Strategic Planning & Infrastructure, in consultation with Cabinet Member for Environment & Climate Change, to determine the following matters in respect to the heat network delivery project:

(a) Approval of revenue business case;

(b) Procurement of development partner;

(c) Submission of an application to the Green Heat Network Fund to support the delivery of the first phase of the project; and

(d) Any other matter to secure delivery of the project, subject to such being within approved budget.

Councillor Briars-Delve (Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change) introduced the report and highlighted the following points:

a)     Delivering a new Strategic Heat Network for Plymouth was a milestone in the mission to make Plymouth a Net Zero City;

b)    Heat was the largest user of energy in Plymouth and accounted for around 28% of the total city emissions. Plymouth could not become Net Zero without action to decarbonise heat;

c)     The development of heat networks was something that the council had recognised and was an objective incorporated into every climate emergency and Net Zero action plans since the Climate Emergency Declaration in 2019;

d)    Plymouth had been recognised nationally by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero as one of the 17 cities in its Advanced Zoning Programme;

e)     By using an at scale approach to the work, two separate zones were identified which offered the greatest potential for deliverable heat networks. The largest was for a Strategic Heat Main in the southern zonal area which would be around two large waste heat sources, the Southwest Water Plant and the Devonport Energy from Waste Plant;

f)      Rollout for the Strategic Heat Main would be in phases from 2026 to 2050. Phase one would include the university area, the civic quarter and Millbay. Phase two would include Derriford, the Hospital and Marjon University;

g)     Annual carbon savings with full buildout for both zones had been estimated to be 31,000 tonnes of CO2;

h)    Recent market engagement showed strong interest from  private sector heat network developers who had significant investment to deploy;

i)      PCC had met with independent legal and commercial advisors who helped identify and evaluate the different options for delivering the Strategic Heat Network;

j)      On the basis of the evaluation, which included an assessment of risk and reward, it was proposed that the best route for delivering the project was through a City Council led procurement. This option did not require any capital investment from the Council as the project could be supported in other ways, including bidding for grants from the Government’s Green Heat Networking Fund;

k)     It was crucial to make sure that benefits were secured for the people of Plymouth, for example incorporating measures in the contract to ensure local employment and training opportunities for residents;

l)      The initiative would delivery ten wider benefits:

1. Deliver over £350 million of investment in green infrastructure over a period of 20 years with the first phase commencing in 2025, involving approximately £60 million of investment;

2. Kick-start Plymouth’s most significant opportunity to decarbonise heat;

3. Create around 400 direct green jobs and develop local capacity and green skills;

4. Provide businesses and residents with the lowest cost decarbonised heat;

5. Enhance the city centre as a location for investment;

6. Improve air quality by reducing harmful nitrogen oxide emissions;

7. Improve water quality in Plymouth Sound by capturing heat from the warm waste water before it is discharges from Southwest Water Works;

8. Improve the city’s  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

Cabinet:

1. Supported the launch of the Building Bridges to Opportunity programme and requested that 6 monthly updates come to Cabinet;

2. Requested the Leader of the Council to formally appoint a champion for this programme.

Councillor Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development and Communities) introduced the report and highlighted the following points:

a)     In 1997 the Council approved an anti-poverty strategy and although this report was not an anti-poverty strategy, poverty had remained an important focus of the Council’s activity; 

b)    The position paper was focussed on developing a framework to strengthen the work that the city as a whole was doing to tackle poverty;

c)     The framework focussed on three areas:

1. How would the Council stop people falling into poverty;

2. If people were in poverty, how would the Council help them;

3. If people were in poverty, what could the Council do to mitigate;

d)    The response to the cost of living crisis included short term ‘sticking plasters’ that could be used to help people at the point of crisis;

e)     Despite efforts, over 20% of children in Plymouth continued to grow up in poverty;

f)      More work was being done to help people lift themselves out of poverty and be able to earn better money, to understand health systems and how to use them, to get better jobs through better skills, to live in better housing, to enjoy culture and to have their horizons widened by the cultural offerings of the city;

g)     The position paper would help map what was already being done and identify where learning could be done. It would celebrate successes as well as identify gaps and build the framework that would bring the work into a cohesive hold across all of the different strategies;

h)    One of the first actions of the new Prime Minister was to set up a cross departmental task force, jointly chaired by two Secretaries of State, hosted by the Cabinet Office, to look at what national Government could do to tackle child poverty;

i)      The Joseph Rowntree Foundation were also focussing on poverty;

j)      Dependant on the agreed recommendations from Cabinet, the Child Poverty Action Group would discover their full range of activity for 2025.

Ruth Harrell (Director of Public Health) added:

k)     The work on the Position Paper was in the engagement phase which meant consulting with partners and collaborators across the city;

l)      There was more residents living in deprivation in Plymouth than the English average;

m)   Nearly a quarter of Plymouth residents were economically inactive due to various reasons including long-term sickness and people relying on lower skilled and low paid work;

n)    The goal was the build on the assets and rich cultural history that Plymouth already had, as well as pull together the economic output;

o)    Public sector organisations had been running initiatives such as Plymouth Sound National Marine Park which offered lots of opportunities not just for jobs and resources but also for green and blue spaces;

p)    Plymouth’s economy was driven through marine, defence manufacturing, medical and digital industries;

q)    Building Bridges to Opportunity wanted to help set an environment where people didn’t fall into poverty in the first place, where they can  ...  view the full minutes text for item 34.

Councillor Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) proposed an additional recommendations which was seconded by the Councillor Tudor Evans OBE (Leader) to:

Report back to Cabinet with a plan for implementation of the SEND provision.

Cabinet agreed:

1.    The SEND Sufficiency Plan 2024-2030 which sets out the proposed options for expansion of special educational provision within Plymouth to meet increasing demand.

2.    That a report is prepared for Cabinet with includes a plan for implementation of the SEND provision.

Councillor Sally Cresswell (Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Apprenticeships) introduced the item and highlighted:

a)    Welcomed parents and carers from Mill Ford School and thanked them for their presence, understanding and the way they had worked with the Council;

b)    The plan was about every individual child and was something she was very passionate about;

c)    Her 30 year teaching background meant she was well placed to understand both the importance and the urgency for this work;

d)    There had been an increase in the city of children who had an education and health care plan (EHCP) and forecasts were expected to be on the lower side of actual numbers;

e)    Analysis indicated that Plymouth would be short of at least 105 special school places by 2030;

f)      Due to capacity pressures within the Plymouth special school estate, students had had to be placed into Independent Special Schools (ISP’s);

                      i.        There were 376 children and young people in ISP’s with an additional estimated cost of £43,422 per year per student when compared to children placed in a school within the Plymouth school estate;

                     ii.        The total cost of placing students in ISP’s for financial year 2023/24 was £8.6 million;

g)    Expansion within Plymouth would ensure that more children were able to attend school closer to home which would reduce the pressure on the home to school transport service budget. Children  travelling outside of the city, the costed the council £1.177 million;

h)    Plymouth City Council received funding from the High Needs Capital Allocation Grant (HMPCA) which could be used to increase the number of special educational places available in the city;

i)     There was no additional funding available, but the Council would continue to lobby Central Government and the Department for Education to request additional funds for SEND and provision for children in Plymouth;

j)     The plan outlined a range of options to expand the special educational provision which would be delivered and funded from the available £13 million HMPCA;

k)    With no indication that provision for school age children needed to be increased at Woodlands School, available space could be turned into special provision nursery, supporting early intervention which would benefit children and their families, as well as having a cost saving;

l)     Resource provision for students within mainstream schools was integrated creating a more inclusive setting and more children would be able to stay within the schools that were within their own communities;

m)  Mill Ford School was in need of total refurbishment and full structure and condition surveys were underway to identify any underlying issues that would prevent refurbishment;

                      i.        Funding to rebuild the school had been explored was not possible with existing funding;

n)    A building had become available next to Longcause School and the option to purchase was being explored, and if successful would offer up to 100 additional places subject to refurbishment;

o)    Any refurbishment works would be carefully planned to minimise disruption to students and staff;

p)    Children were the future, and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

Councillor Tudor Evans OBE (Leader) proposed an amendment to recommendation two of the report so that it now read:

Give permission for the procurement of new contracts to proceed during 2025, with the award of contracts delegated to the Strategic Director for Adults, Health and Communities in consultation with Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, where they would not already have authority to award within the scheme of delegation.

This amendment was agreed by Cabinet.

Cabinet agreed to:

1. Approve the Business Case to extend the current care home contract over a period of 1 year from 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2025;

2. Give permission for the procurement of new contracts to proceed during 2025, with the award of contracts delegated to the Strategic Director for Adults, Health and Communities in consultation with Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, where they would not already have authority to award within the scheme of delegation

Councillor Mary Aspinall (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) introduced the item and highlighted the following:

a)     Good quality residential care allowed people to be well looked after in a warm and safe home, with the opportunity to socialise and stay in touch with their families;

b)    There were 89 care homes within Plymouth supporting people of a range of ages and needs;

c)     The annual spend on residential and nursing care for adults was £50 million;

d)    It was important to have a good range of high quality providers and homes to work with to give vulnerable adults, and their families, a choice of residential care;

e)     With an ageing population, demands for residential care, particularly dementia care, were likely to rise, so it was important to plan for the homes that would be needed in the future;

f)      The existing contract for residential care homes was due to expire at the end of December 2023, and the commissioning team had been working with providers to understand what was needed and how this could be achieved, and they wanted to get it right, and so were asking for an extension.

Emma Crowther (Service Director for Integrated Commissioning) and Caroline Paterson (Strategic Commissioning Manager) added:

g)     A lot had changed for residential care providers in recent years with the COVID19 pandemic, rising cost of living, and having to adapt to care for more complex needs;

h)    The existing contracts did not reflect the needs of residential care for both the present and future;

i)      The extension had been requested so that all of the learning from engagement work could be used to inform future contracts, and procurement was planned for 2025;

j)      Care home providers had been very supportive and engaging with the aim of developing a model that would support adults with complex care needs and this included:

                         i.         The varying size of care homes from one bed, up to 64 beds;

                       ii.         Some buildings were old and no longer fit for purpose;

                      iii.         The funding model for meeting the care requirements of people with complex needs required improvement;

                      iv.         Need for more staff training;

k)     Over the next 12 months, the team would work with partners to develop the work further and build stronger relationships;

l)      An X-ray car would launch in September 2024 which would be able to provide X-rays and scans within care homes, reducing the need to get residents to the hospital;

m)   The HIVE training programme would be launched to improve training an resources for providers;

n)    The team wanted to get feedback from service users;

o)    It was important to get the procurement process done well.

Councillor Tudor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) proposed an amendment to recommendation two of the report so that it read:

p)    Give permission for the procurement of new contracts to proceed during 2025, with the award of contracts delegated to the Strategic Director for Adults, Health and Communities in consultation with Cabinet Member for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

Councillor John Stephens (Chair of the Scrutiny Management Board) introduced the recommendations below to Cabinet:

1) Recommended to Cabinet that –

a) Issues of this nature should in future be available for discussion at scrutiny at an earlier point in the process;

b) Further reviews of the Delt contract should be undertaken in twelve months and subsequently at year 2, 4, 6 and 8 in advance of contractual break clauses;

2) Recommended to the Monitoring Officer that a mechanism which allows the scrutiny function to scrutinise the companies owned by the council should be included as part of the development of a Governance Framework pertaining to the Family of Companies.

Councillor Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) thanked Councillor Stephens (Chair of the Scrutiny Management Board) and responded to the recommendations on behalf of Cabinet:

Cabinet agreed the responses to the recommendations.

Councillor John Stephens (Chair of Scrutiny Management Board) introduced the recommendations and said:

a)     There had been a comprehensive report and presentation from Councillor Sue Dann (Cabinet Member for Customer Service, Sport, Leisure, HR&OD) and Pete Honeywell (Transformation Architecture Manager) and members of the Committee had the opportunity to ask plenty of questions on a wide range of subjects;

                         i.         Governance;

                       ii.         Shareholders;

                      iii.         Cost comparisons to the private sector;

                      iv.         Apprenticeships and generation of local skilled employment opportunities;

                       v.         Innovative practice to reduce carbon footprint;

                      vi.         Cyber governance and security.

Councillor Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) responded to the recommendations made by the Scrutiny Management Board and highlighted:

b)    The need to look at this item had been highlighted 12 months ago and elections had made it more difficult to look at;

c)     Encouraged Councillors to look at the forward plan, and to engage with Cabinet Members, over what work was coming up;

d)    Proposed an amendment to recommendation 1b as follows:

                         i.         Further to reviews of the performance of the service being delivered in advance of the break clause that the Council could exercise in years 3, 5, 7 and 9 would provide greater oversight;

                       ii.         This was welcomed by Councillor John Stephens.

Cabinet agreed:

1. The responses to the Scrutiny Management Board’s recommendations.

Cabinet agreed:

1.    The Cabinet response to the Scrutiny recommendations:

2.    To delegate authority to renew contracts with Delt for 10 years to the Council’s Section 151 Officer;

3.    To note there are three contracts being renewed; ICT, printing and document handling, and payroll provision.

Cabinet agreed:

1.     To delegate authority to renew contracts with Delt for 10 years to the Council’s Section 151 Officer;

2.     To note there are three contracts being renewed; ICT, printing and document handling, and payroll provision.

Councillor Chris Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development and Communities) added the following regarding Delt’s corporate social responsibility:

a)     DELT had been a real living wage employer since 2015;

b)    They were well recognised for high staff engagement and were certified as a best place to work by best companies and received a ninth place in the top 100 most loved places to work by Newsweek Magazine;

c)     Commitment to recruitment of students and apprentices, as well as upskilling existing employees through their apprenticeship programme;

d)    Strong engagement in schools, colleagues and universities and were involved in mentoring, internships and career workshops;

                         i.         They had worked in depth with 23 students over the past nine years, 11 of which had returned on permanent contracts, three of which had progressed to Team Leader;

e)     They had been an Armed Forces Defence recognition scheme award winner for five years, currently silver, and on track to get gold by 2025;

                         i.         40% of their work force were ex-armed forces;

f)      They were signatories to the Care Leavers Covenant, providing employment opportunities, career mentoring and sponsorship, and one care leaver had been hired as an apprentice;

g)     They had recognition through the workplace wellbeing charter;

h)    There was an ongoing programme within the company to fundraise for local charities;

i)      They had a partnership with the Council’s LGBTQ+ Staff Network;

j)      Their print and document service was carbon negative.

Councillor Sarah Allen (Chair of the Audit and Governance Committee) introduced the report:

a)     The report provided an overview of the Audit and Governance Committees work as defined in the Council’s Constitution;

b)    Throughout 2023/24 they had focused on key areas such as internal and external audits, risk management, updates to the constitution, annual statement of accounts, annual governance statement, impact of voter identification and the Council’s capitalisation directive (ensuring that the right accounting treatment was given to a transaction that saved taxpayers millions of pounds);

c)     The Committee’s efforts were crucial to maintain high standards of transparency, accountability and financial integrity within the Council;

d)    The Committee remained committed to providing an independent and high level focus on audit assurance and reporting arrangements.

In response to questions the following was explained:

e)     Councillor Tudor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) and Councillor Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) highlighted the importance of the Committee and gave their thanks to members of the Committee for their continued hard work;

f)      Polling Station reviews was a standing item;

g)     Over time, polling stations had been moved out of primary schools and into other venues to avoid closing schools;

h)    The work programme could be adjusted throughout the year to look at items of importance;

i)      The Committee would look at the legislative changes expected for local government.

Councillor Mary Aspinall (Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care) introduced the report:

a)     Everyone was ageing, and so had a vested interested in ensuring that Plymouth provided the bet environments and opportunities in which people could thrive as they moved into their later years;

b)    The Ageing Well programme was committed to changing the focus from the perceived difficulties of getting older, and instead approach with the mind-set that ageing was an opportunity, and older people were valued assets who made endless contributions to their families, neighbours and the city;

c)     Plymouth had a wonderful natural environment that that enabled people to stay active, as well as a great cultural and heritage offer across diverse communities, opportunities for lifelong learning and volunteering, and a responsive service that supported people to stay well;

d)    More could be done to reduce the amount of time people spent in poor health in later life, but also to help people in poor health to lead healthy, connected and fulfilling lives;

e)     The Ageing Well programme had been based on the Centre for Ageing Better Framework for Ageing Friendly Communities, ensuring a focus on creating age friendly places and spaces and ensuring relevant and good quality work and training opportunities;

f)      The themes of the programme were distinct but were part of an integrated approach to creating conditions to age well;

g)     Residents, communities, businesses, employers and partners were invited to join Plymouth City Council in collective action.

Laura Juett (Public Health Specialist) added:

h)    Plymouth City Council had a commitment towards Age Friendly Communities, recognised the ageing population and the opportunities and challenges that it presented;

i)      In Plymouth in 2022 100,300 people were aged 50+ (37.6% of population), by 2043 110,800 people were expected to be aged 50+ (40.6% of population);

j)      Plymouth’s vision was to be “One of Europe’s most vibrant waterfront cities, where an outstanding quality of life is enjoyed by everyone:and where age is no barrier”;

k)     The State of Ageing eport would provide a picture of what it was like to age and be an older person in Plymouth, and would be presented to Cabinet in October 2024;

l)      Key themes for the programme, learned from research were:

                                  i.         Healthy Ageing - People had said it was important to stay active and strong, but they were most concerned about poor access to health services and e-consults/digital exclusion, so work would focus on maximising potential for revamped Thrive Plymouth programme, broadening offer of falls prevention programmes and advising & influencing NHS e.g., digital first approaches and access to primary care;

                                ii.         Age Friendly Spaces and Places – People had said it was important to have more places to sit in public places, more accessible toilets, ‘chatty’ tables, and bus shelters with seats, so work would focus on supporting adoption of Age-Friendly Businesses framework, embed Healthy Streets framework into our planning/design, promotion of the Climate Ambassador Programme to 50+;

                               iii.         Transport - People described struggling to use the bus  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

Councillor Jemima Laing (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, Culture and Communications) introduced the item:

a)     The report laid out the challenges that the Council faced in relation to Children’s Services, particularly placements, also being faced by many other local authorities across the country;

b)    It captured the financial context, challenges and strategic efforts to address the needs of children in Plymouth;

c)     The budget for young people and families was £60.334 million, with £36.725 million allocated for placement costs, but as of June 2024, the forecast expenditure for placements was £41.417 million, largely due to the higher than expected number of children in care;

d)    There were 521 children in care, 33 more than had been budgeted for, and there were more children in external residential placements and unregistered placements than anticipated;

e)     The average cost of a residential placement was £6,182 per week, but for children with complex needs, this could rise to £16,000 per week, and some placements were costing over £40,000 per week;

f)      Finding suitable foster placements for children remained a challenge;

g)     The Council had prevented 55 children from entering care in recent months, and had supported nine more to return home;

h)    The Family Homes for Children programme was focusing on recruiting more in-house foster carers to reduce reliance on expensive external placements, and had identified £1.53 million of potential savings for the 2024/25 financial year, with just over £500,000 already achieved through positive placement moves;

i)      Children’s Services continued to strengthen in-house fostering, exploring options for directly providing children’s residential care, as well as supporting the reunification of children with their birth families where safe and possible;

j)      The Council had little to no bargaining power in relation to the cost of a lot of placements;

k)     She would be speaking to government to lobby for much needed changes to the sector;

l)      People should be shocked at the stark reality of how the market had developed in the past ten years, when remembering this was in relation to looking after the most vulnerable people in society.

Temilola Salimon (Service Director for Children, Young People and Families) added:

m)   Residential arrangements were being reviewed weekly;

n)    Locally and residentially foster carer numbers were low, and this was trying to be understood.

In response to questions, supported by David Haley (Director of Children’s Services), it was added:

o)    Foster carers coming forward didn’t have the experience or confidence to home children with challenging emotional needs and/or trauma;

p)    A good financial package was offered to foster carers;

q)    Phase two of the outcomes of the fostering summit would include looking at how to do fostering differently;

r)     Work on increasing foster carers was beginning to show increases in people going through the process of becoming foster carers;

s)     There were realistic challenges, but the Council was in the right places trying to improve the situation;

t)     Evidence that work within early intervention and prevention, as well as alignment of resources  ...  view the full minutes text for item 41.

Councillor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) made the following announcements:

a)    The Daily Telegraph had named Plymouth the best city to live and work in;

b)    Councillor Tom Briars-Delve (Cabinet Member for Environment and Climate Change) would be giving the civic welcome speak at a conference on floating offshore wind;

He the invited Councillor Lowry (Cabinet Member for Finance) to repeat information on the Armada Way Project dates following a misleading headline from BBC Spotlight on the item:

c)    Zone One, from the Copthorne Hotel to Mayflower Street, work would take place from 1 October 2024 to July 2025;

d)    Zone Two construction would take place between February 2025 and November 2025;

e)    Zone Three construction would take place between July 2025 and April 2026;

f)     Zone Four timeframe was to be confirmed due to works planned on Royal Parade, but would be within the timeframe of the other Zones.

Councillor Haydon (Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Libraries, Events, Cemetaries and Crematoria) made the following announcement:

a)    Seafest would be taking place on the Barbican Waterfront on 14and 15 September 2024 with free shuttle buses and lots of free activities.

Councillor Laing (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, Culture and Communications) introduced the item and highlighted:

a)     Expressed congratulations to Councillor Shaun Davies, who stepped down as LGA Chair after being elected as the new MP for Telford;

b)    Elected officers of the LGA Labour Group had unanimously nominated Councillor Louise Gittins as the new LGA Chair;

c)     The LGA Labour Group had five regional member peers who led support directly to councils and co-ordinated support from a wide pool of Labour member peers with expertise in different areas;

                         i.         Councillor Tudor Evans OBE (Leader of the Council) had been appointed as member peer for the South West region having previously served as a member peer for the East Midlands;

d)    Councillor Chris Penberthy (Cabinet Member for Housing, Cooperative Development and Communities) had been elected as a Labour Group regional representative for the South West;

e)     Councillor Jemima Laing (Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Children’s Social Care, Culture and Communications) was reappointed as a member of the Culture, Tourism and Sport Board;

f)      The annual LGA conference would be held at the Harrogate Convention Centre 22-24 October 2024.