Agenda, decisions and minutes

Members are asked to declare any interest and the nature of that interest which they may have in any of the items under consideration at this meeting.

There were none.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting of Cabinet held on XXXXX.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting of Cabinet on Monday 13 February 2023 were agreed as an accurate record.

The minutes of the meeting of Cabinet on Monday 13 February 2023 were agreed as an accurate record.

To receive communications from the Chair.

There were none.

RESOLVED: That Cabinet welcomed the recommendations of the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee in relation to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health and the Risk of Self-Harm Scrutiny Review and undertook to review the recommendations and respond with proposals at a future meeting.

REASONS RESOLVED:

The recommendations resulting from the scrutiny review are intended to contribute to the provision of effective services and support for mental health and wellbeing amongst children and young people in West Northamptonshire. This reflects the Overview and Scrutiny function’s role for the development and review of policy.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS:

The Committee’s report makes recommendations for the Cabinet to consider. The Committee hopes these recommendations will lead to benefits for service users, but it is for Cabinet to determine whether to adopt some or all of the recommendations.

At the Chair’s invitation Councillor Herring, Chair of the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee presented the report and summarised the salient points.  The recommendations had come out of the work of the Task and Finish Panel and Councillor Herring thanked all those who had been involved.

Councillors made the following comments:

·         The number of children self-harming in West Northants was above the national average and increasing.  There was a need for youth provision.

·         Urgent action needed to be taken to invest in young people and address issues such as anxiety and not feeling safe.

·         The environments people inhabited needed to be safer and friendlier with appropriate spaces for young people.

·         WNC no longer had the budget to provide therapeutic care for children.

·         Sure Start schemes had benefited many families and the closure of centres had had a detrimental effect.

·         Children and young people were being failed by having to wait so long for mental health treatment.

Councillor Baker thanked the Task and Finish Panel and declared that she was in agreement with the findings.  A programme of youth support had commenced and more youth provision in local areas was being looked into.  Despite the absence of grant funding, family hubs were being set up in Towcester and Northampton and many services would be included within them.  WNC could not arbitrarily top-slice the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) to fund mental health services in schools but could consult with schools to see if this was something they wanted to consider. 

Councillor Golby expressed support for the comments and recommendations and noted the number of absences due to exclusion and the effects of this on children.  There were plans to look at using school facilities for longer in the day to engage with children.  The LAP structure could help in responding to needs. 

Councillor Brown commended the work of the Task and Finish Panel and urged cabinet members to reflect on what could be done. 

RESOLVED: That Cabinet welcomed the recommendations of the People Overview and Scrutiny Committee in relation to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health and the Risk of Self-Harm Scrutiny Review and undertook to review the recommendations and respond with proposals at a future meeting.

RESOLVED: That Cabinet

Noted the content of the appendix covering the third quarter of 2022-23.

REASONS RESOLVED:

This report is for information purposes and discussion only, there are no direct decisions to be made following the report. The Council has broad responsibilities to manage performance in relation to its services.

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS:

This is a report for information and discussion and therefore there are no choices to be made.

The Chair presented the report and summarised the salient points. At the Chair’s invitation Cabinet Members made the following points:

Councillor Larratt advised that trees which had been removed from WNC land were all dead, dying or dangerous.  These had mainly been on highways but some had been within parks.  Money was being claimed from the Urban Tree Fund and more planting undertaken.  The next quarter was likely to be positive.  The Queen’s Green Canopy initiative had been very successful.

Councillor Golby noted that performance in adults and public health had been positive.  The measures were good but could be reviewed in order to get more value from them.

Councillor Breese referred to the ‘percentage of planning applications approved by Committee as recommended’ and advised that other measures such as timeframe of decisions could potentially be included.  Information had been added to the Apprentices measure to indicate the numbers undertaking each qualification level.

Councillor Lister noted the approval of WNC’s UKSPF Investment Plan.  The Rural England Prosperity Fund was still awaited.  WNC continued to proactively support businesses in West Northamptonshire.  Housing Benefit had been brought back in house and since then the timescale for determining applications had been reducing.

Councillor Baker acknowledged that school results were not satisfactory, but only one secondary school was under WNC control.  The rest were academies over which WNC had no direct influence.  Schools were suffering from 2 years of Covid disruption.

Mr Jake Blackburn was invited to address the Cabinet and made the following comments:

·         Reporting tree coverage within WNC as a percentage of land mass would be a useful measure.

·         Why were measures such as Covid booster programmes being reported instead of key performance indicators such as average hospital stays?

·         If targets for roads had been met, why was the £1m pothole fund needed?

·         Delivery of new homes needed to be vastly increased to have any meaningful impact on the waiting list.

Mr Mark Higgs was invited to address the Cabinet and made the following comments:

·         When would the climate summit take place and what metrics would this be measured by?

·         Heritage assets provided value to the town and green infrastructure was important.  Onging pressures to deliver housing and jobs meant some could be lost.

·         Who decided how valuable green space was?  Despite negative feedback the Northampton relief road had still been approved.

·         Would WNC back the position for Harlestone Firs to be protected?

Councillors made the following comments:

·         Fly tipping was still an issue.  Services needed to be joined up to provide an effective prevention and enforcement programme. Could benchmarking against other authorities be undertaken? Was there any link between rising rates of fly tipping and the increased cost of bulky waste collection?

·         Comparison of like for like quarters would be helpful to understand trends in leisure sports services.  Figures by leisure centre would also be helpful.

·         The figures for housing were welcomed.  Retrospective quarterly figures were not so useful and projection into the future would be more helpful. 

·         Why had the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 170.