Purpose

That Cabinet:
•Endorses SCC’s membership of the SE Regional Care
Cooperative (now called “Home + Future” Limited)
•Approves the award of a subsidy of £625k of grant
funding to Home + Future Limited to fund their start-up costs,
covering 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28
•Authorises Legal Service to seal all agreements required to
give effect to the above

Decision

RESOLVED:
 

That Cabinet endorses SCC’s
membership of the SE Regional Care Cooperative (now known as
“Home + Future Limited”).
That Cabinet approves the award of a
subsidy of £625k of grant funding to Home + Future Limited to
contribute to funding its start-up costs, covering 2025/26, 2026/27
and 2027/28, to enable it to fulfil the functions set out by the
Department for Education for Regional Care Cooperatives in the SE
region.
That Cabinet authorises Legal
Services to seal all agreements required to give effect to the
above.

 
Reasons for
Decisions:
 
Surrey’s
looked after children are not always able to access homes in or
near to their local communities, whilst there is also unsustainable
use of high-cost provision. This is being driven by significant
national and regional challenges in the children’s social
care placement market. By collaborating more deeply with at least
16 other local authorities through the SE RCC to manage this
market, Surrey County Council expects to enable improved outcomes
for more children and improve value for money for Surrey’s
residents.
 
The 16 other local authorities currently
committed to participating in the SE RCC are: Bracknell Forest;
Brighton and Hove; Buckinghamshire; East Sussex; Hampshire; Isle of
Wight; Medway; Milton Keynes; Oxfordshire; Portsmouth; Reading;
Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead; Southampton; West
Berkshire; West Sussex; and Wokingham.
 
(The decisions on
this item can be called-in by the
Children, Families, Lifelong Learning & Culture Select
Committee)