Transcript

Okay, good afternoon everybody and welcome to the Surrey County Council on the cabinet meeting on the 25th of February 2025. There are no members of the public here so I won't go through the fire procedures but just to remind everybody including those other members who are joining today that social media is perfectly acceptable provided it doesn't interfere with the smooth running of the meeting please and also just to remind everybody that this is being broadcast to members of the public so I don't think there's anything else from a housekeeping perspective that I need to deal with so in that case we'll get straight on with the agenda today starting with apologies for absence so I'll work around the room if you could just confirm who you are and confirm who you are and your cabinet role that would be very helpful starting with Claire Curran thank you. Thank you leader good afternoon I'm Claire Curran cabinet member for children families and lifelong learning. David Lewis. Thank you leader good afternoon David Lewis cabinet member for finance and resources. Thank you Denise Turner Stewart. Thank you leader good afternoon Denise Turner Stewart cabinet member for customer communities and deputy leader. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Just waiting for the thing to catch up because. So next we have Jonathan Hulley. Good afternoon leader Jonathan Hulley deputy cabinet member strategic highways. Thank you. Thank you very much Kevin Denas. Yes good afternoon everybody Kevin Denas cabinet member for fire and rescue. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Question, Mark Newsy. Thank you. Good afternoon everyone making. Good afternoon. Good afternoon everyone. Mark Newsy cabinet member for health and wellbeing and just because I know you all want to know this if you do have pets put your hands over their ears because it's World Spay Day today which is slightly strange but if you do like nuts then make sure you cover them with chocolate because it's national cover your nuts with chocolate day. cover your nuts with chocolate day that's the eating type but my public health hat on it is let's eat right day but I think something to remember Australia were meant to be playing South Africa today and the great Don Bradman died 24 years ago today 99.94 was his test average he needed four more runs in his last innings and he got a duck so it just goes to show that no one is perfect Well probably too much information there but I certainly won't share that with one of my dogs but thank you Mark Marissa Heath Yeah good afternoon thank you I'm Marissa Heath the cabinet member for environment Yeah well sorry we're just you just pause a little bit perhaps before you say anything so we can get up to Matt Furness Thank you Leader Matt Furness cabinet member for highways transport and economic grace Maureen Atterwell Good afternoon everyone Maureen Atterwell deputy cabinet member for children families and lifelong learning Thank you Natalie Brown Hall Good afternoon everyone Natalie Brown Hall cabinet member for property waste and infrastructure Thank you Paul Deitch good afternoon good afternoon good afternoon Paul Deitch deputy cabinet member to the leader of the council Sinead Mooney good afternoon Sinead Mooney cabinet member for adult social care thank you very much and then lastly Steve Bax Thank you Leader Steve Bax deputy cabinet member for highways okay thank you all very much no apologies item two minutes of the previous meeting held on 28th of January 25 for those agreed thank you item three does any member of the cabinet have any interest to defer in relation to any of the items on today's agenda no thank you very much just before we go into the rest of the agenda I just want to just say a couple of words regarding local government reorganization I think most people certainly within this building at least and hopefully residents increasingly are aware of the government's agenda regarding reorganization of local government and the rollout of mayors across the rest of the country following our application to be put on the accelerated program for reorganization which we were successful on that work is now underway at pace and in particular working closely both with the district and borough leaders and also our wider partners we have until the 21st of March to put in our sort of informal submission for the government to review if there are competing bids the government will make a determination and then we will put in our final proposal on May the 9th Surrey is unique in the sense that of those councils that have had their elections postponed and we are the only one authority that are having to have them on the basis that we have to reorganize here to comply with the current legislation around the creation of mayoral strategic authorities it does mean that you have to have two authorities coming together to create that strategic authority with with a mayor directly elected mayor so that that is that is the process we are now going through to look and look at how the existing services of the county council regarding adult social care children services highways public health etc how those will be divided up across the county it is a complicated piece of work and we have to make sure that we create sustainable unitary authorities to replace the 12 existing councils and we have to make sure that actually the resident experience is an improved one so that that that that say that work continues there will be a full council meeting here at woodhatch on the 18th of March and we have moved the date of the next cabinet meeting until to the afternoon of the 18th of March and then a formal submission will be submitted after that so there are there's information on our website and indeed if any resident wishes to have more more information at this stage then please do let us know right we'll then move back to the agenda so item four procedural matters starting with member questions uh we do have eight questions actually this time um four of which uh are from katherine bart i can't see that she's neither here in person or indeed online uh so written responses have been given to her questions um and i can't i don't think there are any supplementary ones so we'll then move to question five six seven and eight uh which were from stephen mccormick uh who is indeed here with us so stephen if you have any supplementary questions if you'd like to come forward thank you thank you chair and thank you very much to the cabinet member for the response i just have one supplemental question to question four and that's on the topic of community asset transfer um could i ask if the cabinet member would give a commitment that she will bring forward such a policy as a matter of urgency so that sorry county council has the option available to it so as to secure transfer of land to local communities and secure valuable local improvements to social economic and environmental well-being please if you might be able to consider that thank you yep um thank you for the supplementary i don't think um in this meeting i would have the power to do that i think it would have to be a conversation between land and property as well and at the end of the day we have to look at public value too so i think the point of the framework today is to set the um remit the policy in place to be able to consider these things around how we use our land going forward but i don't think i can answer that question for you today i'm afraid more than happy to have a conversation outside of here and with the um member for land and property perfect that'd be great thank you very much thank you chair thank you very much um my apologies i i didn't get beyond the christian name catherine um there are four four questions the first was catherine powell and the other three for catherine barth so apologies catherine powell who is online so do you have a supplementary question i do thank you leader um i'd like to thank the cabinet member for her response and for pointing me at um annex a annex one um which is obviously in the part two papers i would very much appreciate it however if the cabinet member could in could provide the embedded files that are part of annex one none of them are accessible and i would very much appreciate it if i could read those files and then perhaps come back to the cabinet member with a supplementary question because i haven't been able to review what's within those documents uh sorry i wasn't aware that you you you couldn't have access uh councillor powell so i'll arrange no no no no i sorry nathalie i do have access to the fire the part two files they're just embedded and they you can't you can't open them okay yes thank you thank you thank you thank you nathalie much appreciated thanks very much catherine okay i think that's then um completes the member questions there is a question from the public from gareth lakene um again i don't see i don't think he's online so um there has been a written response from claire curran um and oh no here we are apologies yes i am here yeah yeah sorry then uh hello do you um so have a supplementary yeah yeah so thank you for your response however my question concerns a very happy autistic four-year-olds lack of danger awareness in an education setting as identified in surrey county council's professional advice this was not about self-harm or suicide ideation so could the cabinet member clarify what measures have been put in place to ensure that all risks of harm to a child have been identified in professional advice beyond self-harm are fully documented in ehcps so they can be appropriately addressed in the educational establishment thank you i wonder if i could ask um mr layton to repeat the first the first few lines i didn't quite catch what he said uh yeah i'll start from the top um thank you for your response cabinet member however my question specifically concerned a very happy autistic four-year-old's lack of danger awareness in an educational setting as identified in surrey county council's professional advice this was not about self-harm or suicide or ideation so could the cabinet member clarify what measures have been put in place to ensure that all risks of harm to a child that have been identified in professional advice beyond self-harm are fully documented in ehcps so they can be appropriately addressed thank you mr layton i'm sorry if your question was misinterpreted um in that way um i think you would appreciate given the um given the focus of that particular coroner's report i think you could probably understand why the misunderstanding has arisen um the general principle of uh making sure that all areas um all likelihood of harms still applies but i'd be very happy to take this the question away um and discuss it ask officers again to readdress it perhaps with a different focus um bearing in mind what you have told me today rather than looking at it through the lens of suicidal ideation um would that be acceptable to you uh yes um the the original question before it was modified um stated all that context um so that may be something that that somebody also wants to look into yes absolutely but thank you for your thank you for your response okay thank you thank you very much um so moving on then to uh item 4c there were no petitions for d no representations received on reports to be considered in private item 5 reports from select committees task groups and other committees of the council uh we do have a few of those um starting with um the first one which is alternative provision um which was uh considered by the children families lifelong learning and culture select committee and we have with us the chair of that committee fiona davidson fiona are you happy to present your report please i am thank you chair yes local authorities have a statutory duty under section 19 of the education act 1996 to arrange suitable alternative provision where a child or young person is not attending school for various reasons or can't access suitable full-time education because of a physical or mental health need alternative provision is for children who have with send and for children who don't have additional needs and disabilities for both cohorts when the select committee scrutinized alternative provision first in february 24 we were concerned that surrey was not adequately fulfilling its responsibilities in this area in an era of rising school avoidance we had too many children severely absent and that is children missing more than 50 of school sessions and without appropriate alternative provision our findings were in line with the findings of the area send inspection of the surrey local area partnership in the autumn of 23 we were concerned about the quality of provision whether children were receiving enough hours of the outcomes of provision and about whether parents understood what they should expect from alternative provision and how to access it apart from concern over the life chances of children not in education we were worried about the safeguarding implications of so many children receiving very little our very few hours of education each week we made a number of specific recommendations and we also endorsed the recommendations of family voice surrey who had run a survey on alternative provision the majority of our recommendations were accepted by the service however it's disappointing that it's taken so long to implement these particularly the parent handbook we recommend it should be produced by june and is only due to be released this month once again it appears that communication and information for parents and carers are not being prioritized by the service and this contributes to a lack of confidence and trust often parents have little knowledge or information about section 19 and the responsibilities of schools and surrey they are distraught about children spending hours weeks hold up in their bedrooms months even with only the internet for company and parents just don't know what to do so many parents have no idea that it's the school's responsibility to put alternative provision in place if the child's unable to attend school and yet remains on the role of that school even if they're well informed it can take parents months to get some provision for children with an the hcp this can involve a long journey of iterative referrals to governance panels in these circumstances it's really not clear why parents are still being denied access to the list of alternative provision approved by surrey county council schools and case officers sometimes don't have a good understanding of who these providers are and what they offer so why do we refuse this information to parents who are often desperate to find reputable activity for children completely isolated from the world so given our concerns with alternative provision in february we decided to review progress in december last year we were pleased to note that the service now aims to ensure that children eligible for alternative provision and capable of managing it receive the minimum 15 hours per week set by the department for education between february and october 24 there was a welcome increase in the number of 12 hours of ap provided to many recipients for example there was a 61 increase in the number of children receiving more than 15 hours of education each week and we were encouraged by the services increased focus and attention on children not in school and we applauded the efforts so far to ensure that this cohort is not neglected however we came away from the update still concerned about the number of hours of education provided to individual children the quality of provision whether it's meeting the needs of children about the safeguarding of children not in school and about whether there's a clear partnership strategy in place to tackle the issue of severe absence in september 24 2667 children and young people in surrey were reported as severely absent of which 673 were on the roll of schools of the 612 severely absent children with an ehcp 514 or 84 are in a mainstream school now that's worrying because of the government's strategy to educate more children with ehcps in mainstream settings our recommendations reflected these continuing concerns the cabinet members response to our recommendations indicates there's a plethora of activity underway to address these issues progress involves a number of partners including schools but we feel very strongly that surrey must take a leadership role in ensuring that high standards are expected and delivered so we look forward to continuing improved performance in ensuring that surrey children who are not able for whatever reason to attend school receive education that meets their needs and that they need to be able to be able to do so thank you leader thank you very much thank you very much um claire would you like to respond thank you leader i'm very much appreciate uh what the the chairman of the select committee has said in recognizing the progress that the teams have made in addressing some of these really important issues uh particularly around the provision of alternative provision um as defined um when we know that the local government uh uh the local government uh the local government ombudsman did raise a particular issue around this in september 2024 and asked us to address this as a particular area of need and i i took this as cabinet member as a an area for personal oversight and challenge to the service to make sure that there was a significant improvement improvement in this area and i'm very pleased that the committee has recognized the progress that we have made um to that challenge to increase the number of children who are uh getting at least 15 or 18 hours depending on how it's interpreted um of alternative provision but the law doesn't actually define full-time education as a number of full-time education as a number of hours um it is interpreted by this authority and others as somewhere around 15 to 18 hours a week um but i'm so pleased that we have been able to really make progress in that area other areas that the the chairman has highlighted particularly around attendance and um i think everybody would prioritize children's attendance at school as being absolutely paramount we know that there is focus from the new government on this there's been a change in statutory guidance to schools to really improve attendance at school and i would just like to remind um everybody here we looked a couple of months ago at the um education partnership that has been established across the county with all our partners here and improving attendance is very much a strategic priority for all our schools across the county working in partnership with our own inclusion service and with families and um also with students to really make sure that attendance is improving um i know that one particular school council has worked with children and said what is a good day at school like for you and getting feedback from children knowing what it is that they like about school and really focusing on that to encourage attendance uh and particularly working also um with families whose children are unable to attend school due to um emotionally based issues and that's been some very very significant work done with that also tapping into um student voice to find out what support can be given on a peer-to-peer basis for those for those children who find actually going through the school gates a real challenge um so this is a real area of focus and importance and as i said i will continue to hold the uh service to account and challenge the performance that we're showing and to make sure that we're really doing the best for children and young people in these different areas thank you jen thank you and i'm sure the select committee will monitor your progress in monitoring the progress of the service fiona was there anything else you wanted to add um no i well there are a couple of things i'd like to add actually and that is that i really as a committee we don't understand why it has taken so long to produce the parent handbook this is absolutely essential for parents who often don't understand what um the local authority and what the school is actually responsible for and the second point i think is the issue around the list of alternative providers and why access to that list is refused to parents and carers who often because they have little understanding of what ought to be in place for their children who for whatever reason are unable to attend school just are at their wits end and i i think it would be helpful if if we had both a handbook and we understood why the um the list of alternative providers cannot be made available to parents who request it okay thank you well we'll take that away and come back to you with a an answer to both those questions um thank you that will be fairly easy to do um to answer so yeah we'll come back to you but thank you very much for for your report and indeed for your committee for all of the work that you are doing so thank you um well there are two more uh reports customer transformation program update and unit for my sorry stabilization board report we have the chair and the vice chairs of the uh um resources before the select committee i think the chair you're going to present on behalf of all three thank you here they are right uh no thank you leader and thank you uh very much to the uh deputy leader for uh her answer to uh our report um and indeed for accepting our recommendations uh and i think the important uh point in the answer is that is the noting that it isn't just about efficiencies it's about a number of other things at this time uh i think it's fair to say the committee had some doubts about their financial and customer service returns of the project but with the council having only two years left before abolition the evaluation that's uh promised in the answer uh obviously needs to take account of this and it and uh indeed any large-scale expenditure plans that cannot have concrete and evidence returns within that time frame i'm sure the cabinet would agree that uh this is a view that should uh that all elected members should take with any major expenditure uh proposal so we're very grateful for the answer and the actions contained in it thank you very much um bob uh denise thank you leader um and i as as is stated in the response absolutely welcome the um ongoing scrutiny that's provided by your committee and you are aware there is a stage gate process for any um financial decisions to be made and these will all be reviewed as part of the local government reorganization review that is underway but i absolutely appreciate um your your reservations around the scale of the level of expenditure but this was always about transforming the customer journey and the customer experience given a number of exam the vice chairman in your committee for all of your hard work thank you and and i think it's fair to add that as you would expect all transformation programs across the council all major projects every major item of expenditure or change is uh is now the subject to review um you know we have to you know our task now as this council is to is obviously to to keep business as usual going for the next two years but also to have a very clear eye on uh what uh the new unitary councils will uh will will be doing so we we've so there is a complete review of all of that work um and including this the customer services piece was really important though because it was it was probably the one transformation area that would have a direct hopefully beneficial impact for for the resident experience whereas a lot of the other transformation programs were more back office focused but there's very much a front end to this but but as denise has said that that review is is underway um and then the second one then is yes unit four uh thank you uh leader um and again thank you to the cabinet member for accepting our recommendations and indeed for acknowledging our ongoing work in this process that is very complex and one might say frustrating it's not just frustrating for us but for the council as a whole a process that's been gone through um and i think it's reasonable at this point to pay tribute to uh vice chairman steve mccormick for the work he's done in leading our task and finish group and for the work that we will return to as this goes on um thank you also for accepting that we should review this in three months time i think that we should review this in three months time i think that is important and we decided on that time scale because of ongoing areas of concern about the capability of the uh my surrey uh system again to to an extent to repeat what i said before in the previous item um like all major projects at this time of local government change will need to be sure that any expenditure will be prudent in helping with running services for the next two years and crucially i think and i think all members certainly in this cabinet would agree what really counts is the transition of those services effectively to the new unitary authorities and or the mayor so that uh we can see the service improvements that we hope that and expect that uh unitarization will bring but we will be continuing to look at all of these areas we also may uh uh look at the whole issue of procurement i know you have a big item on that and obviously we'll read those papers and see whether those things we should be looking at okay thank you very much bob david lewis did you want to comment yeah thank you uh thank you bob and and to endorse what you said about the work of your committee and stephen in particular in terms of the the work that's been done in terms of the task and finish group in terms of looking at unit four um i think the the system has been um thoroughly scrutinized um by both your committee and by the audit and governance uh committee um and you know we um i think it's recognized the work that is taking place uh largely in the audits that are now taking place re-audits that are taking place uh recognizing that um the um the weaknesses that were initially identified are now being dealt with having said that you know there is still quite a long way to go um the stabilization board is due to complete the first phase of its work at the end of march and then we'll move into optimization um and um you know i think it's right that your committee comes back and looks at um you know where where the stabilization board has got to in terms of its action plan um and i also think you know there's no disagreement between us in terms of ensuring that uh that that both unit four system will be fit for purpose uh when we go through the lgr process um and and also ensuring that there is no unnecessary cost or unnecessary work carried out um in that intervening period um it's also fair to say and it's it's in the papers um from the the stabilization board um and i get updated on a very regular basis that a lot of work has has taken place in terms of the procurement process the contractual arrangements between sorry country council and unit four and darren cox has done a good piece of work in that space um so you know i'm optimistic uh about uh about the future there's you know still a lot to be done in the space but um um we are making progress and and and the direction of travel is certainly uh certainly good thank you so i know that the deputy chief executive has a very keen interest in this area so i think we can all feel confident um that matters will be progressed um or continue to be progressed at pace and we can get uh the little bugs that were in the system um out of the way so thank you all very much thank you uh to your committee um chair bob and to steven and leslie behind you i think um for your work and and no doubt um we'll see you again at some point in the future when you've uh had a review of some of the other areas as well so thank you all very much grateful thank you lead thank you shall we move to item six then uh which were decisions of the cabinet cabinet members so there were three the first was um to create a scn special education needs unit at thames and infant school the second uh surrey farm rescue service statement of assurance 28th of january 2025 and the third one was the uh disposal of the former playing field uh attached to all saints church of england primary school in uh average common common near dorking um does any of the county cabinet of the two of those decisions want to add anything or those are as recorded in the uh in the uh in the agenda good thank you very much item seven then cabinet member of the month denise turner stewart thank you leader customer and communities deliver our vital public facing services that so many of our residents rely on surrey county council are actively listening to our residents strengthening communities responding to their needs supporting our residents addressing challenges and taking preventative measures to nurture thriving communities where no one is left behind as you can see from the report your fund surrey is now in its fifth year with 48 large and significant projects funded to date already amounting to nearly 20 million pounds of direct investment into the hearts of our communities many projects are currently under construction are already open to the public our two smaller member-led community funds are popular and well used providing real tangible benefits to our communities using the local knowledge and understanding of our hard-working councillors on the ground our your fund surrey team worked really hard to support residents community groups and members working with our highways teams to gain permission for benches or planters and working with our districts and boroughs to bring local projects to fruition we've received many messages of thanks from community groups across surrey expressing their gratitude for this vital funding in elmbridge a scout group have benefited from funding delivering much needed improvements to their scalp hub and they've said the hut is already much warmer and starting to become cheaper to heat this helps us to keep down our turning termly membership fees and some of these children are from the more deprived areas of cobham benches have been installed in tandridge for local residents visitors and volunteers who maintain the village center to use and enjoy a new sensory room has been created as part of the improvements to mole valley gymnastics club users have said that the room has a variety of different physical features which are hard to find elsewhere a parent has said the calmer smaller environment of the sensory room away from the distractions of the main existing gym hall provides an essential break in the class helping the children to re-regulate and give them the opportunity to choose which equipment they want to interact with your council community fund has enabled county councillors to support local projects with their five thousand pounds revenue allocation to provide further flexible local community funding opportunities these projects have provided our communities with a real sense of achievement purpose and belonging and have helped combat social isolation and physical inactivity and have given a new lease of life to many community buildings our social value marketplace surrey community marketplace is our online platform where community groups businesses and organizations from across surrey can collaborate and request and share resources charities voluntary organizations and community groups can post requests on the marketplace and businesses can fulfill those requests community value is being provided including tools for repair cafes art supplies for parent toddler groups and volunteers with pets attending local support groups we are capturing and realizing social value delivered through surrey's contracts and this is being made available through our community marketplace website our champions network within our services and delivery of social value through our tenders and contracts providing much needed resources for our communities residents use of surrey libraries is growing and our ambitious libraries capital investment program is delivering modern multi-use and flexible community hubs in the heart of our towns and villages ensuring our residents and communities have modern and welcoming facilities fit for now and the future this investment is transforming all of our libraries into vibrant community hubs improving access to services information social interaction cultural events and learning and skills opportunities our libraries staff work hard to support our residents by being helpful friendly and approachable and signposting to other services they might might might need or find useful there are lots of ways to get advice and help various problems or concerns through speaking with our library assistance assistance a library user has said it's been so good for me to regularly meet in a group at the library and get so much information i have more confidence now to make changes in my life our surrey heritage service preserves and maintains surrey's history records supporting residents with their research on family history and other inquiries and we regularly receive positive feedback on the support provided by the team one customer who used a service to trace their family history said the file as a whole was incredibly interesting and went a long way in reassuring my mother of her history and another who attended a talk given by the team said it's wonderful to know that the council is actively working to preserve and reflect the diverse voices and stories within the county the open day at surrey history center in working on the 8th of march will give our visitors an opportunity to learn more about the center through events and tours and the rich resources available to help trace their family history house and other aspects of surrey's past in january surrey arts launched an alternative music provision offer working collaboratively with caseworkers schools and families this has already helped vulnerable young people improve their confidence and creative skills one parent shared that she felt a weight being lifted seeing how engaged and happy her daughter was during the music session and that she felt a sense of achievement during the lesson our active surrey team have been busy working with health professionals police schools and our districts and boroughs to benefit the health of surrey's residents of all ages the live longer better program supports the physical activity of older adults the holiday activity and food program supports children with additional needs and disabilities our club four camps which run during school holidays and provide healthy food and fun activities we've received lots of encouraging feedback from parents about these schemes saying team members are welcoming and provide a fun and safe environment for their children whilst building confidence of children meeting children of new ages and all ages our registration nationality service is one of the busiest in the country offering high quality efficient and responsive services at key moments in people's lives customer satisfaction levels are high and we've received many messages praising our staff from the team's help with wedding ceremonies saying they didn't think it would come together if the team hadn't stepped in to the compassion and kindness and sensitivity demonstrate while supporting people to register the death of loved ones the services expanding our offer across the county and is now using our facilities and grounds at woodhatch to hold citizenship ceremonies with the help of our civic dignitaries giving the group events a great sense of occasion within customer services we're seeing real improvements to the experience our customers and residents have had when contacting the council and this has been helped through the work of our customer transformation program which has been delivering ways to ensure our customers can engage with the right people and access the right information as smoothly as possible every time focusing on prevention and better communication significantly improving the overall customer experience and making it easier for residents to use and find self-service tools on our refreshed website our contact center officers have more availability resulting in significantly reduced customer waiting time improving satisfaction and the customer journey as a whole as you can see there is so much good work being delivered for our residents across our county i hope this report has given you a sense of the efforts being made to support our communities and our work towards a vision of surrey we can all be proud of the positive and valuable feedback from our residents speaks for itself i'm grateful to all of our dedicated staff working tirelessly for and alongside our residents we will never lose sight of the people we serve and our commitment to ensuring that no one is left behind thank you leader thank you very much you know brilliant comprehensive updates i mean and it just shows the level of kind of engagement that this council is having through its various services with with our residents you know i think that there and i know just on that your last point there regarding the citizenship thing just how um well um well they have been uh well but we have been received i know that the deputy door left i saw lieutenant particularly was was really um uh slightly overwhelmed actually in terms of uh the ceremony and so on so yeah and and we are sort of you know we are you know our libraries are being converted into community hubs aren't they we're starting to you know in many areas seem to multi-purpose you know which is great i mean that's that's what this this authority about is is making sure that we use uh the uh the public's assets for the benefit of the public's and the public and you've given lots of practical examples of where that's happening does anybody else wish to say anything in relation no let's say good thank you very much questions lots lots of positive stuff there we will move to item eight then which is the council's economic growth um update um matt thank you leader um so since taking on the responsibilities of the local enterprise partnerships uh in april uh last year uh this council has been delivering for residents and local businesses in a number of ways uh including uh the growth hub services to smes career hub linking schools and employers uh the innovation work program and uh the upcoming made smarter adoption program for the southeast so business surrey was established as a new single gateway to businesses to access information we've established the surrey growth hub which provides uh free tailored one-to-one support with experienced business advisors and the careers hub has recently just completed its first academic year which has seen significant improvements in careers guidance in our schools with a up to a 10 increase in performance across all gatsby benchmarks we've also relaunched the surrey business forum which has been designed to meet the government's requirements for a strong business voice to support local decision making and we've got a good representation of 34 representatives across key industries within surrey so just on our economic strategy it's three key priorities the first one is supporting skills and the workforce we do benefit in surrey from a well-educated workforce with high qualification levels with significant proportions of the working age residents holding degrees or higher however we do still have economic inequality with certain groups may not have any qualifications uh individuals caring for family at home but also facing significantly higher rates of economic inactivity and to tackle this we've been delivering in several skill program areas and initiatives over the years for example our skills boot camps which were pretty much um booked out uh within within a couple of days of launching uh multiply uh working across to improve uh math skills uh our festival of skills uh where we're really engaging uh with uh young students uh on their career pathways and open doors the refresh base and our evidence from local business uh stakeholders and businesses has highlighted the need for a continued focus on tailored targeted employment support for priority groups and we will look to do that with our future programs such as connect to work uh and the transfer of the adult skills fund uh will enable us to address these disparities and a lot more potential uh the second priority is supporting business growth by creating the right businesses uh we do have a huge amount of specialisms in clusters such as digital services automotive cyber security space health and the creative industries however the total number of businesses in surrey has uh declined driven primarily by a reduction in micro of businesses and it's uh really business birth rates remain uh below uh the pre-pandemic levels so with the enhanced responsibilities that we got from uh the lep transition we've been really pushing a particular focus on high growth businesses via the growth hub the business leader forum has highlighted the importance of targeted interventions with business support programs uh and access to funding workforce and the bit i'll come on to in a minute will really help that with the establishment of our new funding opportunities and the very last priority is uh supporting the economic uh infrastructure we've recently undertaken a deep dive into understand how and map co-working spaces and analyze the availability of commercial sites across the county and there has been capital investment in co-star which is based at the royal holloway and gain programs as well which provide critical links between our universities and local small businesses the create tech and gains industry uh sectors respectively have particularly benefited from this and we're looking to provide more opportunities for small businesses to access this type of technology and facilities enabling them to grow so with the proposed funding for 2526 which we're going to make available to all internal external partners we propose that by april 2026 we'll launch the following three pots of funding capital funding towards physical infrastructure and assets for the delivery of the three strategic priorities i've outlined this can be dedicated workspace hands-on learning university spin outs and industry-led research just to name a few revenue funding for partners and stakeholders and businesses that align to the growth strategy and a grant scheme for small and medium enterprise business growth uh looking for about 50 of project costs uh sorry up to 50 project costs uh for staff upskilling programs um tools equipment to increase growth and productivity and development of diversification that would lead to job creation so we've been going through an extensive amount of stakeholder engagement uh we've got the refresh with the economic strategy we've got a very clear three priorities on on delivering growth within surrey uh and i'm looking forward that if cabinet agrees this today we can launch our funding rounds to support the business sector and skills sector in surrey uh in april this year thank you thank you very much matt the um the the the skills piece it was raised in the context of the the the the this morning's meeting with our partners regarding the organization and i know we we're doing a keenness for the well i imagine the sixth form colleges the fe colleges in the universities uh to uh you know to get actively involved in the sort of skills agenda as we know that's a big pressure for us in terms of um supporting those the reskilling up skilling and whatever um and i think my recollection was that last year um through the surrey chamber of commerce there was a local um skills improvement plan that was submitted to government is that is that piece of work does that roll into the stuff that you're talking about now absolutely yes because our own skills plan for surrey is aligned with that local skills improvement plan as well um so it's all all fits in and just to emphasize on the importance of skills we actually have our own skills leadership forum here as part of the one surrey growth board with the business leaders forum just to emphasize that and that's where we've brought together all the skills leaders and education providers uh for delivery uh just on that one bit i didn't mention was recently we announced that um 25 of our apprenticeship levy is open to small and medium-sized businesses across surrey um if they're wanting to upskill their staff we're providing part of our apprenticeship levy for them to be able to do that so anything we can throw at skills and uh reskilling upskilling um we were doing it and of course we do get the adult education budget um devolved down to us from april 2026 which also presumably we'll be able to repurpose for some of that um that upskilling work absolutely yes so um ideally and uh council current and i were talking about this earlier it would be great to see if we can transfer the majority of that towards vocational skills training um and really drive that through our education partners okay so lots of lots of things to do there but uh i mean that's good and i think the three um uh the the three pots of money you've identified there i think will be will be very welcome um particularly support for the sme community which is significant in in this county and elsewhere and of course you know the government this government the last government i think every government uh key priority is to grow our economy and and all of that work there does you know um focus on on doing exactly that so good okay um so there will be a recommendation here let me just flip back up so the recommendation oh there are five recommendations actually um in which case i won't read them all out um but i think we've got the gist of what those are but in particular to note the progress that has been made in establishing the council a sorry strategic economic leader including the taking on of let functions and assets from government and then the sort of specific things that flow from that are those five recommendations agreed thank you very much item nine surrey materials recycling facility trump's farm mrs bramble thank you leader as members are aware there is a lack of dry mix recycling infrastructure available in surrey use of third party sites to manage and separate recyclable materials is increasingly expensive we have no control over costs government waste changes will result in our infrastructure capability coming under increasing pressure our infrastructure network is operating at capacity with very little contingency there are limited alternative local facilities within surrey and the and the surrounding region for bulking and sorting of recycled materials to build resilience and allow greater control over the material collected this report proposes the development of a business case for new materials recycling facility at trump's farm on surrey county council land adjacent to our former landfill site that we are responsible for as members know mervs are specialized processing facilities taking dry mix recycling collected at the curbside by waste collection agencies and separating mixed items like paper card plastic metal and glass into single material streams these streams are then then sent on to reprocessors to turn into new products whilst the primary purpose of a murph is to sort dmr the message methods used can vary greatly depending on the composition of the input age and size of the size of the size of the facility what we'd like to do is uh request approval here to start a procurement exercise for the new murph including developing to full business case and we have already submitted an outline planning application to our reg 3 team which is awaiting validation and all financial details are covered off in the part 2 report leader thank you very much anybody wish to speak to this item uh what i would ask is that alongside this that we renew our sort of um energy um and it's really a matter i suppose for the district and boroughs around our recycling rates which seem to have stagnated around the sort of 52 53 percent mark which is good in comparison with quite a lot of the rest of the country but but curbside recycling is the way forward you know if we're going to build invest in a significant uh center um materials recycling facility we really do and for many reasons but we really do need to up our um our recycling rates so perhaps we can just um share that with the district and boroughs and see if we can i would say a little bit more more energy in and not least of all advising residents on what is recyclable um i have persuaded my wife to actually look at the uh a package before she puts it in the bin because it does tell you whether it's recyclable or not um so we're we're we're making some progress there but i suspect there are many people around the around the county that don't don't do that so there we are um other than that um i can't hear any active voices but i can't hear anybody wanting to speak over this item so there are three recommendations uh which to is to approve the procurement exercise in principle is that agreed excellent thank you very much item 10 then land management framework and policy marissa thank you leader so um this has come from moves being made at national government level but also the fact that we all know we've got huge pressures on our county land and space and it's only going to increase so it's really important we've got a mechanism for resolving the complex demands made on the key resource of land um just to cover off what what we need land for obviously we need it to produce food we need it to build on whether that's houses jobs shops public services we need it for transport we need it for energy and water infrastructure we need it to provide space for nature trees and water and for public access and well-being and to combat climate change so there's quite a lot going on there um our land is as i said under a lot of demand and while some of those uses may clash others are not entirely incompatible and i think that we can um use them in the right way to achieve a lot of the outcomes we want as long as we've got a plan in place to do that and that is that structured system we're trying to put in place through this framework um the report here is looking to agree a land management framework approach and a draft land management policy and as it says in the reports there's three key elements to this you've got the evidence base and i think it's really useful that we've built and developed that evidence base that's allowed us to have the surveys and to know what's happening on our land and what the challenges risks opportunities are on it the land management policy which is then that vision and the set of principles and sub policies and then the land management plans that come under it and there's a useful diagram in the report pack that sets out the framework and also lists the temporary policies linked into that framework there will of course be further work to develop um policies around solar on land just as an example and more detail will come forward but ultimately what we're agreeing today is a framework that doesn't have huge detail to it at this stage we're not setting out exactly what happens to any piece of land in this document just agreeing those principles around nature protection around water management around farming around housing potentially as well going forward and i think it's worth recognizing for a moment this is quite good process we seem to be ahead of the curve if for example you go into google and put land management framework sorry comes up at the very top of that search having sort of done the work already on this and um i think that needs to be recognized the government is planning many more houses in surrey we've got airport extension we've got increased fraud list all of these sorts of things so it's absolutely right we have an organized system for judging how we use our land most effectively this starts that process it should be clear and evident for for the public to be able to see what our priorities are and to understand that as custodians because that's what we are ultimately we're just custodians of this land that we're doing the right by it and we're making sure that we factor in the issues they've raised for us during the quite lengthy process it's taken to put this framework together which has been negotiation conversations with districts and boroughs and we have had conversations with private landowners as well to make sure that we're adjoining we've got two percent of land two percent might sound small it's actually pretty significant but obviously we want all of our landowners to be recognizing these policies as well and implementing them and we are building on that so as i said an outline um framework today to agree to more work to be done beneath this as we go forward thank you thank you very much marissa um yes denise thank you i would just like to um to thank um marissa for this report i mean it's really important that we have this i think the cabinet have taken particular interest i think we're fiercely protective of our land but also recognize fully as you've set out all of the competing demands that we have and the priorities and how we have to sort of balance those and i think this this report really helps us to sort of consider what as you say what valuable asset we have in our land um that we are responsible for but actually also how we can look ahead and and make those right decisions over how we prioritize the use of our land so i'd just like to say thank you thank you i think it's worth saying leader it's a document that can filter through the reform and land quite neatly with whatever the new structure looks like it doesn't pin anyone down yeah absolutely it is it you know it's a good framework to have but also um it also starts to bring together all the you know a number of different aspects of uh well you know the way in which we operate and and and so on so you know i mean we know that there's going to be all sorts of challenges around housing growth and the impact that has on on all sorts of other aspects uh within the county so it's a it's a really good kind of working document it will it will evolve um as over time but but it is you know very helpful as a say as a framework um okay so there are just two recommendations to note the land management framework approach and to approve the draft land management policy those both agreed thank you very much item 11 then proposed amendments to procurement and uh procurement and contract standing orders david yeah thank you thank you leader um let me go attempt to compete with council newty and listing off all the different days that we're celebrating but uh actually yesterday was an important day because it was the day in which the 2023 procurement act became effective um and as a result of that um it's necessary for the uh council to amend its uh procurement and contract standing orders so basically this paper which is before you today which is to to note and and commend for council basically um is a very technical paper in the sense that it details the the major changes uh that are brought about by the implementation of the procurement act 23 and the and the changes that we do need to make uh to those uh to those orders in terms of the procurement act uh the the paper lists the four main changes and this is around transparency notices um contract management um different procedures for route to market and the change from um meat to mat so that's uh changing the the criteria uh from most economically advantage tender to most advantage tender um and if you if you look at the response that uh i gave to catherine bart to her question earlier on it does actually explain in quite a lot of detail um what the implication of those changes are um so that i went went attempt to uh to to go through that now in terms of the um the the actual changes to our um outstanding orders and these are all listed in the paper again i'm not going to go through it all but um you know it it it um the the changes clearly mean that the uh our standing orders are compatible with the new legislation reflect the new new legislation and they've they've been written in such a way that hopefully going forward if there are further changes um it will become easier uh to to keep them up to date and we won't necessarily have to go through the whole rigmarole of of of of updating in the way that we we are at the moment so for example they make reference to procurement rather than to specific teams in um within the procurement department um it removes details of specific legislation requirements um and and and prevailing procurement legislation and so on so it's an attempt to simplify and make it easier going forward as i say um if uh if there are further further changes um as i said the uh the final decision on the update to the standing orders is a decision for full council um so um really the objective today is to to to to bring these changes to your attention um if you're happy with them for for cabinet to note the changes and then we'll take them to the full council on the 18th of march where hopefully full approval will be given thank you thank you david disappointing you're not going to go to the minutiae of uh those standing orders but um well uh we're maybe we'll do that in the annual the anniversary of the uh act next year i think we'll look to mark to remind us about that yes and for these these i i did hear some noise when i was talking about recycling and for the cynics of you that when i was suggesting that my wife um actually do i do also do recycling myself just to let you know is there anybody who wants to uh any further clarification from david if not one recommendation to note the proposed changes to the procurement and contract standing orders pcsos and commends them to county council for final approval does that agree excellent thank you very much with you still david the finance report for month nine thank you yeah thank you jim so this report before us is the uh the the financial report for month nine which is uh is december um but before i get into the specifics of the month my month nine budget report i i just thought that you know it'd be worth just spending a couple of minutes um addressing a particular issue regarding the the council's finances um and i am concerned that it has been suggested in public fora that the uh by by some members i have to say of of the council that the council's finances are not robust and that we have generated and i quote record levels of debt and i think that these accusations which are in the public domain and are very misleading as you know and we've discussed it many times now for the last five or six years the the council has been adopting a very cautious and prudent approach uh to its finances um we've rebuilt our reserves um and we indicated when when the budget for next year was approved that our reserves uh will be uh of the order of 150 million or 12 percent of our revenue budget um and at the same time the the council and and we know this because we've all been involved have been regularly um reviewing and updating our capital program and that's to ensure that it's both deliverable and both affordable um and you know we are an ambitious council i think the agenda of today's meeting has shown that and and we will deliver the services and facilities that our residents expect but we're not going to jeopardize our financial security um and i think you know the way in which we run our finances has been recognized by our external auditors and we fully anticipate having an unqualified opinion from them in terms of the the budget sorry in terms of the statement of accounts for last year for 23 24 and that's in in stark contrast to what's happening actually in some of the districts and boroughs across surrey where external auditors are raising significant concerns about uh about uh about the way in which uh the finance is being run uh in in councils such as gilford um so you know we are in a completely different position from from uh those authorities um our section 151 officer has supported all of the budget decisions that we've taken so i think that to suggest that our finance uh finances are unstable or to suggest that the levels of debt are unaffordable is both irresponsible and untrue and i think we should put that on the record i want to turn now to the the month nine report and you know we can see from the report that the forecast for the latest year is an overspend of 19.4 million pounds against the revenue budget and that's a slight deterioration of 0.9 million on the month eight position um but it's important to say that that forecast overspend is still within the 20 million contingency that we included uh in the in the budget uh for this year one of the frustrating things about presenting these budget reports as i do each month to the to the cabinet is is the time lag in terms of the report so this uh this report as i say is the month nine report uh which um it was a position at the end of uh end of december and here we are almost at the end of february um and you know it's important to to state that and it's important that the cabinet appreciate that over the last two months over the period since this report um was the period it reflects there's been been a lot of work going on uh within the directorates um to um to find and develop mitigation actions uh to offset those forecast overspends uh that we're seeing and you know i'm very optimistic that uh when i come back to cabinet um in a month's time and report on month 10 uh that we will see that uh the position has actually improved somewhat uh when compared with the the the month nine position and it's just a factor of the time lag that uh that we can't sort of present more up-to-date reports at these meetings and at the end of at the end of uh december we did see um a small improvement in the forecast overspend within adults well-being and the health partnership and this was due to the receipt in december of the in-year grant funding for agenda for change pay up lifts and as part of the paper which is before us today and cabinet is being asked to approve an increase in the adult budget of 0.939 million pounds and this is due to the additional funding that has been received from the department of health and social care to cover the cost impact of the 24 25 nhs agenda for change pay awards and services uh commissioned by the public health service so that's one of the formal recommendations within the paper um there's also been a small improvement within the children's um uh budget forecast um at the end of month nine um but the the largest increase uh uh where we've seen the the greatest um deterioration and and and forecast overspend has been within the place directorate which has seen a further 1.2 million deterioration since the month eight report the various reasons for this increase and the forecast overspend including the non-achievement of efficiencies which were assumed in relation to rate rebates reduced rents service charges and also we we touched on it last month i mentioned it in the last month report um to deliver the efficiencies through the facilities management contract um approving um is proving quite difficult and challenging and that's being looked at um at the moment finally i just wanted to mention the capital budget um as you know we we re-phased the capital budget for 24 um and that came out of the re-phased budget at 321.4 million pounds we're currently forecasting a full year and position of three and a half million pounds more than the the re-phased budget um and that's just a slight increase from uh what we forecast in in in month eight um but also as i mentioned with the revenue budget you know we are operating very much in arrears as the time lag and i am anticipating seeing a reduction in the forecast overspend uh in the capital budget at the end of the next reporting period finally at the at the end of the report um you will see that um we provide um um the balance sheet indicators for q3 um and i'm very pleased to report that all the prudential indicators have been adhered to and the authorized borrowing limit and operational boundaries have not been breached during the during the period so as i say i'd like to ask members of cabinet to note the month nine report and to approve the changes to the adults well-being and health partnership budget thank you thank you david and just to reinforce a couple of those points i mean we uh last month or earlier this month um we passed a robust budget for 25 26 you know we are conscious of the work that the government is doing and looking at future funding but we have a a a a very deliverable budget which continues to show investment in our in our communities you know we have always put in a 20 million or so contingency fund uh it's very difficult to anticipate at the start of the year what's going to happen to inflation the increased cost and indeed increased demand so it is right that we have a sum of money set aside for that these numbers show that we're within that 20 million the next month will show that we've uh we've decreased um that that overspend uh and we'll continue to do that hopefully uh through to the financial year end but at the end of the day it is uh well within the budget and uh you know and to that extent is it is not it is not a an issue um so i think uh as you said you know i think it is people people's interpretations um uh you know are need to be accurate if people are making public comments around our budgets they need to understand how that budget has been constructed um and indeed if they don't then perhaps they might like to spend the time with the section 151 officer deputy chief executive who i'm sure will be very happy to take them through it um so the month nine uh report um is for uh noting um and also as you said david there is a second recommendation there to approve the increase to the adult um adults well-being and health partnership budget to reflect nic are those both agreed those recommendations good thank you very much that then brings us um to the end of uh the public agenda um uh so uh under section 100 day of the local government act 1972 um the public will be excluded from the rest of this meeting uh drawing consideration of items of business uh on the grounds that they invoke the likely disclosure exempt information under the relevant paragraphs part one schedule 12a of the act so thank you very much for uh joining us today and on that basis i'll now close the meeting thank you