Transcript

Good afternoon, evening, everybody. Welcome to this afternoon's meeting of St. Allen's Borough Council cabinet. Welcome to our new cabinet members to Council Along, Council Alert. Great to have you with us. And we're also on the cusp of announcing a general election, when hopefully in a few weeks time, we'll be welcoming in a new Labour cabinet at Westminster, led by Ikya Starmer, long overdue. So exciting times. So first of all, item on the agenda is apologies for absence. Do we have any apologies? Thank you, leader. We've had apologies from Councillors Gomez-Aspron and Murphy. Thank you very much. Item number two minutes of the meeting held on the 24th of April, 2004. Is it agreed that I signed them off as a correct record? Thank you. Item number three, declaration of interest from members. Do we have any decorations? No. Item number four, issues arising from overview and scrutiny. 4A is cabinet response to the spotlight review of Tessa. Councillor Charlton. Thank you, chair. Can I start by thanking scrutiny panel and officers for the work in this area and holding a spotlight review. You've got in your papers, it explains about what Tessa is, triage for all education support and specialist advice. So today I'd like cabinet to recommend and note the report of scrutiny and thank the task and finish group and provide a response to the recommendations for the next meeting of the children and young people services scrutiny committee. I just want to say it was a really good piece of work and in the appendices, you'll see the action plan, which has got some recommendations, which the scrutiny panel made. I'm happy to say that they in the main have been completed and this work will carry on. And there's not much more to say unless anybody's got any questions or comments. Thank you. Thank you very much. Councillor Charlton. Do we have any questions or comments from members? Okay. No, it's an excellent piece of work from scrutiny. Excellent piece of work from yourself. Thank you very much. Councillor Charlton. Is that agreed? Okay. Item number five, performance indicators and target setting review 24, 25 council alert coming over to you. Thanks leader. Yeah, the report presents presents the council's proposed performance management framework for 2024, 25 report performance management is critical to supporting decision-making during challenging times and to ensure that all areas of the organisation are working together to achieve the priorities and outcomes set out in the borough plan report puts forward the recommended suite of performance indicators and proposed targets that we will use to measure performance towards our priorities in 2024, 25. The full performance management framework includes 153 indicators and is largely the same as previous years for continuity and to allow for comparison. However, there are a number of new indicators to strengthen key areas, including social care and complaints. There are also several measures that focus on the perceptions and satisfaction of residents, which will be collected through the next residents survey. The full proposed performance framework is attached to appendix one. The indicators and targets once approved will be reported to cabinet and overview and scrutiny over the course of 2024, 25 on a quarterly basis. Targets have been set to be achievable and realistic within the context of current resources. The proposed targets are based on regional and national local authority benchmarks, and a brief narrative has been included within the appendix to explain how the target targets have been arrived at. The council remains well cited on the off log, that's the office for local government process associated metrics and comparison to peer authorities. Off log metrics have been incorporated into the performance management framework were relevant, although the main purpose of the St. Helens performance framework is to measure the success and progress against the outcomes of the budget strategy. The council will report its position against the off log framework as an appendix to the out term performance report 2324. So the recommendations are on page 24 of the agenda, cabinet is recommended to approve the performance management framework and corresponding targets for the implementation and reporting in 2024, 25 and delegate to the director of policy and transformation in consultation with the cabinet portfolio holder for people, performance and IT, the ability to amend and update indicator targets if necessary on receipt of final out term data. Thanks. Thank you very much, Councillor Lurge, a really important piece of work, setting the targeting to meet our priorities, so thanks to yourself and to Vicky and all her work in pulling this report together. Do we have any questions from portfolio holders? Councillor Bond. Thanks, Chair. Thanks Keith for bringing this. Performance setting is really important because it checks what we're doing. These things live and breathe, they're not monolithic, they're not set in stone because things change, our ability to deliver change, our capacity changes. The funding changes, as I know, for 14 years for everything that we can deliver, it's taken away from us, that ability to look after people is becoming more and more difficult. These performance targets are really critical in letting us know where we are, because otherwise you can become so focused on what you're doing, you can't necessarily have the objective way of looking at it. So it's not necessarily about the government enforcing stuff on us from off-log, which seems to be a bit, I don't know, it's a bit weird, I think it's just an immediate reaction to stuff that the governments have put into place, and hopefully they won't be around for very much longer, but this allows us to check objectively what is actually happening on service delivery, and they're really, really important that we keep on top of them because when we are operating at our option, it will be reflected in the performance reports. So this is a really, seems quite dry and dull, but it is really, really important in terms of how the council operates over the next year. Thank you very much, Councillor Bonilla, I completely agree. Councillor Charlton. Thanks, Chair. I just want to thank Council Laird for bringing this, and I think in terms of children and young people are our number one priority, and we want to ensure the best start in life, and by having targets, it allows us a check and balance as to what we're doing, and obviously we've been through quite a, I wouldn't say torrid time, but a difficult time with children and young people services, and this is just something that allows us to check where we are, and I'm quite pleased in terms of children and young people services that we can see an improvement in performance. We can check with our statistical neighbours to see how we're performing against them, so by having this, it allows us to continue on that journey, we're good and outstanding for care leavers, and we will endeavour to continue to provide an excellent service, and this is just something that allows us to check that we're doing that. So thank you. Brilliant. Thank you. Yeah, a great example of why planning is really, really important, and you mentioned the journey that children and young people services has been on. It's dead important, and it was set the priorities, but we also set the work of how to get there. Do we have any other comments from cabinet? Okay. Is that item agreed? Thank you very much. It brings us on to item number six, safeguarding adults board annual report. Councillor Bowden. Okay. Thank you, Chair. The publication of this report is a requirement within the Care Act. It sets out how the board has delivered on its priorities over the last 12 months, with a focus on delivering safeguarding services to adults at risk of abuse and neglect. To adopt its approach in response to trends, priorities, reports and guidance, and how it provides leadership in a way that sees them recognised as leaders in safeguarding through the setting of and working to high standards. The board has several statutory duties, and these are set out in the report before you, as are the key achievements and actions, including the transferring of responsibility from CCG to the ICB, working with our safeguarding unit, maintaining strong partnerships and delivering training and support while safeguarding is always evolving. We have informed via today's paper and report of the board partnerships commitment to learning, to raising awareness, and to a clear implementation plan provided in a timely manner. In closing, I would like to thank the outgoing independent chair of the board, Ian Cardwell, for his work, and indeed the whole of the board, and all of those staff working to ensure that adult safeguarding in the board continues to go from strength to strength. Thank you, Chair. Thank you very much, Councillor Borden. Another important piece of work in delivering our priorities and looking after the most vulnerable in the borough. Do we have any questions or comments on this report? Is that agreed, everybody? Thank you very much. Let's pass on our thanks to all the officers involved in pulling that together and yourself, of course, Councillor Borden. Brings us on to item number 7, St. Helens People's Plan 24 to 27, back to Councillor Borden. Okay. Thank you again, Chair. The report before you sets out the strategic priorities of St. Helens Cares Partnership and therefore acts as our health and wellbeing strategy. The production of such a plan is a statutory requirement and the People's Plan that we are considering today has been developed in conjunction with our partner organisations and echoes our approach to integration. To that end, this paper has already been to the People's Board for consideration and approval. From there, it's brought here for us to note and approve. In seeking today's approval, I have been assured by officers that the plan mirrors and compliments already agreed strategies, policies and priorities. These priorities include mental wellbeing, healthy weight, ensuring smooth patient journeys and tackling inequalities. The Council and its partners have led the way regarding health integration and care. And this refreshed plan recognises the progress made and our collective ambition with our aim to improve the health of the whole population and reduce inequalities. With those objectives, I ask colleagues to support the recommendations and of course, I'm happy to take any questions if required, which my officer colleagues will answer. Thank you very much, Councillor Bowden. Another important piece of work towards delivering all the objectives that you mentioned. Do we have any comments or questions from members? No. Is that agreed? Thank you very much. Brings us swiftly on to Item 8, Newtonley-Willows' long-term plan for towns. Councillor Macaulay. Thanks, Chair. I'm really pleased to be presenting this report as it provides further evidence of the Council's commitment to the transformational regeneration of Newtonley-Willows and the excellent work by our Member of Parliament for St. Helens North, Colin Megan. Also the Councillors in the world have been lobbying government for further investment of the borough. As you know, it's something we constantly do, lobbying government the best we can get out of it. And this was another successful one of those. In September 2024, government announced the long-term plan for towns programme, which identifies 55 towns that will benefit from up to 20 million endowment-style funding for investments in local priorities over a 10-year period. As part of the spring statement, the Chancellor confirmed an additional £400 million to expand the programme to a further 20 towns across the United Kingdom, with Newtonley-Willows identified as a beneficiary. The Council, in consultation with the MP for St. Helens North, Colin Megan, must now appoint a Chair and support recruitment of a town board, who will develop a 10-year long-term plan for the town. The board membership will comprise of a number of representatives, including community leaders and employers. The board membership must comply with the guidance issued by the Department of Liberal Housing and Communities as it appears in the report. The report I present today seeks to appoint Chris Hickey as Chair of the town board for up to 12 months pending the recruitment process. Chris is the Managing Director and Co-Founder of Mercury Hampton. He has over 17 years' experience of providing business services to clients across the science technology and engineering sector. Chris formed his business six years ago and immediately chose to locate in his hometown of Newtonley-Willows and he was determined to employ local people. Chris is a pioneer in innovation and is passionate about creating a culture that will help people succeed. Chris values teamwork, hard work and humanity. Born and raised in Newtonley-Willows, he attended Calistics Farm College before serving in the armed forces. Chris is passionate about Newtonley-Willows and is determined to bring economic empowerment to the people of the area. By appointing Chris for up to 12 months, cabinet will be providing continuity and consistency to the town board through forthcoming key milestones of the programme. Cabinet needs to be aware that the milestones imposed by government are extremely challenging. By the 1st of November this year, it is expected that the town board will have developed the long-term plan for a three-year investment plan for submission to the Department of Living Up and Housing and Communities, the chair in consultation with members of parliament and the support of council officers will now commence recruitment for the wider town board. While we understand there may be some flexibility with the challenging timescales imposed by government, I am keen to provide any delays to the implementation of this exciting programme. I therefore ask for your support unless I'm happy to take any questions, Chair. Thank you very much, Councillor Macaulay and I think, yeah, just for open to questions, I think you're right. It's a very exciting report, very good one to bring as well and it shows that the level of our ambition for our towns and for this borough, you know, we're just coming out of, you know, the effects of the COVID pandemic, cost of living crisis, local authorities up and down the country, massive underfunding and bats against the wall, yet we're still ambitious to deliver change, to deliver regeneration, deliver growth that our residents deserve, you know, and that we want to see the change in both our town centres and everything else so it's fantastic to do this. I'd like to echo your thoughts on Connor McGinn, our MP, who's lobbied very hard for this along with ward councillors to make sure that we, you know, we got on the table with this. It's not often we credit government with anything but we'll get what we can and we'll lobby hard to get what we can so it's great to have this as a plan and to see real change in that area, which we desperately need. Any questions from members of cabinet? Councillor Gruco. Thanks, chair. I just, Richard, want to join you in kind of acknowledging and thanking Chris Hickey for stepping into that role. He's built a fantastic business with his partners in the heart of Newton Willows, grew out of local infrastructure, started his business in St. Helens chamber greenhouse and has spoken passionately when winning awards about how crucial that support was so he really understands about growing a business from scratch. They're global, they've just opened an office in Texas so, you know, exactly the sort of business that we want to encourage in Newton Willows and across the whole borough. I'm sure he'll give it the energy and passion that he does to all his other projects and it just shows the importance of that breadth across the board, the independence of a local business person, chairing it, working with partners across all of the sectors of the community and the council to really deliver for the whole town of Newton Willows. Thank you. Certainly echo those comments, look forward to working with Chris and the whole board here. It's fantastic. Any other questions or comments, is that agreed? Thank you very much. Okay, that brings us to our last item. The removal and creation of Hackney carriage stands in St. Helens town centre. Councillor Long. Thank you. I'm delighted to move this report which sets out the removal and creation of several Hackney carriage stands because this is a concrete example of the implementation of phase 1a plans to revitalise and regenerate the town centre. Obviously the proposals ensure good support for the Hackney carriage trade and their customers during the delivery of our exciting town centre transformation. In terms of consultation, although no formal responses were received, the report sets out the consultations with representatives from the Hackney carriage trade and their trade unions. The outcomes were positive with suggestions made by the trade being incorporated into the proposals, particularly the trade request for additional number of bays at Church Street. The total number of bays overall has gone up and they will be situated as conveniently as possible in the busiest places where there's highest footfall in St Helens town centre. For example, you can see at 4.9 one of the stands proposed to be removed is on Hall Street opposite the Hardshaw Centre. This stand has suffered from falling trade as the shopping centre is being vacated. The replacement provision has been allocated on Church Street. New provision is also proposed on Bridge Street close to the exit from Church Square shopping centre and on the western side of Baldwin Street west to facilitate the night time economy. So good for the public, good for the Hackney carriage drivers and good for the local economy. In conclusion, can I ask that we agree the recommendations on page 158 to note the outcome of the statutory consultation on the proposed removal and creation of Hackney carriage stands in St Helens town centre and, secondly, to approve the removal and creation of Hackney carriage stands in St Helens town centre as detailed in the report. Thank you. Thank you very much, Councillor Long and thanks to yourself and Tanya and the team for pulling this together. Another example of partnership working, you know, our Hackney carriages and taxi services, really important service within the town, getting people about and a lot of people depend on them. So it's important that we work with those drivers and with the general public to make sure we get it right. So, yeah, great report. Any questions or comments for Councillor Long? Is that item agreed? Thank you very much. Just one little check at the news. We're still awaiting news of the general election. Hopefully it will be soon and that wraps up this afternoon's cabinet.