Gloucestershire County Council's Cabinet agreed to a range of measures at its meeting on 12 June 2024, including a plan to spend £1 million on solar panels on council properties, accepting grant funding of £5,442,270 from the Department for Education to improve childcare provision, and extending contracts for support services for homeless and vulnerable people.

The Cabinet also discussed a range of other issues, including the council's financial performance, and its plans to improve bus services.

Gloucestershire County Council's Finances

Councillor Lynden Stowe, Cabinet Member for Finance and Change, told the meeting that the council had underspent its budget by £10.045 million in 2023/24.

He said:

The final position at the end of 2023/24 was an underspend of £10.045 million – which included £4.410 million of additional electricity income generated from the energy from waste facility.

Councillor Stowe said that the underspend would be transferred to the council's general reserves, with £4.41 million of that being earmarked to fund additional expenditure on highways and to address any financial risks that arose during the year.

The Cabinet noted that the council had made progress in reducing emissions from public transport with the introduction of 58 zero-emission buses. However, they also noted that a high number of special educational needs and disabilities (SEND)-related complaints had been upheld by the Local Government Ombudsman in the first half of the year, although there had been a significant reduction in the later part of the year.

Childcare Reforms

Councillor Stephen Davies, Cabinet Member for Children’s Safeguarding and Early Years, told the meeting that the council had been allocated £5,442,270 in grant funding from the Department for Education to improve childcare provision. The money will be split into two parts - £1,175,969 in capital funding, and £4,266,300 in delivery funding.

Of that total, £4,266,300 will be used to fund the government's wraparound childcare programme, which will provide 30 hours of funded childcare for children over the age of nine months. The remaining £1,175,969 will be used to expand the existing early years entitlement.

It was difficult to predict how many parents would take up the offer, and therefore to ensure enough places were available was a challenge, Councillor Davies said.

The Cabinet agreed to accept the grant funding and to delegate authority to the Director of Education to distribute it amongst local childcare providers.

The Cabinet also agreed to allocate £440,000 per year from the Dedicated Schools Grant to fund the commissioning of two early years special educational needs (SEN) centres. The centres will provide early education, assessment and intervention for children with SEN.

The proposed new contact would support the Council’s Childcare Sufficiency Duty, ensuring sufficient, quality early education and childcare provision for children with SEN, the minutes of the meeting said.

The Cabinet agreed to delegate authority to the Director of Education to conduct a competitive procurement process for the centres.

Support for Homeless and Vulnerable People

Councillor Stephan Fifield, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care Delivery, asked the Cabinet to approve the final two-year extension to the council's contracts for community and accommodation-based support (CABS) services.

CABS services offered good value for money and achieved positive outcomes for some of the county’s most vulnerable residents, the minutes of the meeting said.

They helped to prevent homelessness and rough sleeping by giving people the skills and resilience to manage challenges in their lives and maintain or access accommodation.

The Cabinet agreed to extend the contracts, which have a total maximum value of £13.2 million.

Solar Panels

Councillor David Gray, Cabinet Member for Environment and Planning, asked the Cabinet to approve a £1 million programme to install solar panels on council properties.

The programme will be delivered in two phases. Phase one will see solar panels installed on 11 properties at a cost of £550,000.

The initial 11 sites would save nearly 100 tonnes of CO2e annually, the minutes of the meeting said.

Phase two will see solar panels installed on further sites at a cost of £450,000.

The Cabinet agreed to approve the programme. It also agreed to a request from Councillor Gray to delegate authority to the Executive Director of Corporate Resources to approve business cases for the design, supply and installation of solar panels on further sites.

Adult Education

Councillor Philip Robinson, Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and Bus Transport, asked the Cabinet to approve plans to run a competitive procurement process for the provision of adult learning services.

The council has been awarded £2,859,085 from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to deliver adult learning services in the 2024-25 academic year.

Councillor Robinson said that without the funding:

The Adult Learning Direct Delivery Service (Adult Education in Gloucestershire) would not be able to continue to deliver Adult Education in Gloucestershire in the 2024 - 2025 academic year or procure the delivery of such services from third-party providers.

The Cabinet agreed to delegate authority to the Executive Director of Economy, Environment, and Infrastructure to enter into a funding agreement with the ESFA and to conduct a mini-competition process for the provision of adult learning services.