The agenda for the meeting includes, among other things, a recommendation that the council end its contract with Brighter Futures for Children (BFfC) Ltd, the company set up to deliver children's services in Reading, when it expires in 2026, bringing those services back in-house. In addition, the committee will be asked to recommend that the council carries out a consultation on its draft town centre public realm strategy, and to approve a draft statement of community involvement for consultation.

Future of Children's Services in Reading

The committee will be asked to recommend to the council that it does not extend its contract with Brighter Futures for Children Ltd (BFfC) to deliver Children's services when it expires on 1 April 2026, and that services currently provided by BFfC, including all remaining support services, are instead delivered directly by the council.

The council is required under the terms of the contract to give notice to BFfC of its intention to either renew the contract or to make alternative arrangements by 31 March 2025.

BFfC was set up in 2018 in response to an 'inadequate' rating for Reading's Children's Services from Ofsted.

The council engaged the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) to provide a review of performance and an assessment of options for future delivery. CIPFA's report acknowledges the progress that BFfC has made in delivering children's services. The most recent Ofsted inspection of children's services, which took place in May 2024, found that Senior leaders have a shared understanding of the priorities and improvements needed, and significant progress has been made in some areas since the last inspection, such as for early help, disabled children, children in care and care leavers. Leaders have also been successful in recruitment and in stabilising the workforce. That inspection rated the service as 'requires improvement to be good' overall, with experience and progress for children in care and care leavers rated as 'Good'.

However, the CIPFA report notes that BFfC has not yet met the overarching ambition that was set when the company was established, which was to achieve a 'Good' rating from Ofsted. They identify two viable options: to continue with BFfC, but to review governance arrangements, or to bring services back in-house. CIPFA recommends the second option – to bring services back in-house – on the grounds that it would provide better direct control for the council, remove duplication in reporting, improve integration with other council services and potentially deliver cost savings. They recommend that an independently chaired improvement board is set up to advise and support the delivery of the service.

The cost of bringing services back in-house is estimated to be approximately £600,000, with a payback of between 2 and 3 years due to savings of between £200,000 and £300,000 on the Children’s Services base budget.

The committee report notes that the BFfC board has accepted and supports CIPFA's recommendation. It also notes that “alternative delivery models for Children’s Services have become less popular in recent years and are now very rarely the preferred option in response to statutory intervention.”

The report recommends that if the council decides to bring Children's services back in-house, the transfer should be completed as soon as possible, “to reduce any uncertainty staff are likely to feel during the change”. They recommend a transition period of 6 months.

The report notes that there may be some disruption to staff. However, the report says that there is a communications plan in place to help ensure stability, and that there is a commitment from both the council's Chief Executive, Jackie Yates, and the chair of the BFfC Board to engage with staff.

Draft Town Centre Public Realm Strategy

The committee will be asked to approve a draft town centre public realm strategy for consultation. The strategy would provide detailed policy and guidance to improve the quality of the public realm throughout central Reading. It would be used to supplement the Reading Borough Local Plan, adopted in 2019, which sets out planning policies and proposals up to 2036.

The report notes that the Local Plan contains a policy called CR3 ('Public Realm in Central Reading') which aims to guide the quality of public realm associated with new development. The strategy will provide more detailed guidance for implementing that policy.

The report says that the strategy will apply both to the public realm associated with new development, but also to the Council's own interventions in public realm, including works to the highway and public spaces. It was developed with input from all relevant sections of the council.

The strategy contains:

• An audit of the existing public realm and pedestrian and cycle movement in the town centre.
• A pedestrian and cycle movement framework, including a typology of streets and spaces.
• A design manual, covering matters such as paving, vegetation, street furniture and lighting, to guide both planning applications and investment decisions.
• Detailed public realm proposals for five specific streets and spaces, with illustrative proposals:
  • St Mary’s Butts
  • Market Place and Town Hall Square
  • Queens Road and London Street junction
  • Station Road
  • Green space on River Kennet
• Less detailed guidance on a number of other areas to demonstrate the principles of the strategy, including:
  • Trooper Potts Way & IDR junction.
  • Oxford Road
  • Queen Victoria Street
  • The Forbury
  • Chain Street
• An action plan setting out how the strategy will be implemented, with both short-term and long-term measures.

Consultation on the draft strategy is expected to begin early in the new year and will last for eight weeks. A final version of the strategy is expected to be adopted by the committee in spring or summer 2025.

Draft Statement of Community Involvement

The committee is being asked to approve a draft statement of community involvement (SCI) for consultation. The SCI is a statutory document setting out how the council will consult the community on planning policy documents, applications and pre-application enquiries.

The current SCI was adopted in March 2014. The report acknowledges that it is a statutory requirement to review the SCI at 5-yearly intervals and that, therefore, a review ten years from the date of adoption is overdue. It says that a review was carried out in 2019 which concluded that the SCI was only out of date in terms of what it said on neighbourhood planning, but that an amended SCI was never adopted. A further review reported to Council in October 2024 concluded that the 2014 SCI is up to date apart from the content on neighbourhood planning.

The main updates to the draft SCI are in relation to neighbourhood planning. The report says that the legislation requires the SCI to set out how the Council will support neighbourhood planning and neighbourhood development orders, irrespective of whether there are any neighbourhood forums in Reading. There are currently no such forums. The report notes that such functions are most often carried out by parish or town councils, but that there are alternative routes for setting up a neighbourhood forum which could potentially be used in Reading, making it important to deal with the matter in the SCI.

The report recommends that consultation on the draft SCI should begin early in 2025, with a final version being adopted by the committee later in the year.

Quarter 2 Performance Monitoring Report

The meeting also includes a report on the council's budget and performance for the second quarter of the 2024/25 financial year.

The report says that the General Fund is forecasting an adverse net variance of £9.620m. This includes projected overspends of £5.677m by Brighter Futures for Children (BFfC), £1.380m by Adult Social Care Operations, £1.184 by Housing and Communities and £0.996 by Planning, Transport and Public Protection.

A 'Recovery Plan' has been developed to mitigate some of these pressures. The report says that, as at Quarter 2, the forecast delivery against this plan is £8.495m. However, this still leaves an overall adverse variance for the General Fund of £9.620m.

The report says that the Housing Revenue Account is projecting a small adverse variance of £0.039m.

The report also notes that there is a Savings Tracker in place to monitor the delivery of cost savings and efficiencies that were agreed as part of the budget setting process. It says that, as at Quarter 2, only 1% of savings have been achieved, with a further 55% on track to be delivered. 11% are categorised as non-deliverable, and 33% are at risk of delivery.

The report also includes a review of the Council’s performance against the targets set out in its corporate plan. It says that 26% of the corporate plan’s 23 key performance measures, monitored monthly or quarterly, are at or above target, with a further 26% within 10% of target. 68% of the 46 corporate plan projects are reported to be on track, with a further 32% at risk.

The committee will also be asked to approve a number of changes to the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account capital programmes.

Medium Term Financial Strategy Update

The meeting will include a report that provides an update on the development of the Council’s Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS). This is the council’s plan for managing its finances over the next three years.

The report says that the Council’s financial position remains challenging. It notes that eighteen councils across the country needed to apply for exceptional financial support from central government in 2024. It goes on to say that Reading Borough Council remains financially stable for now, but the impact of increasing demand for council services, combined with the increasing cost of meeting that demand, means that financial stability cannot be guaranteed over the three years of this MTFS.

The report says that the total budget gap for the General Fund over the three years is currently £37.041m. This compares to a forecast of £19.422m for the combined General Fund balance and Budget Stabilisation earmarked reserves as at 31 March 2025. The report states that “without urgent action these reserves will be gone within two years”.

The report identifies a number of areas that the council may have to consider for potential savings in order to meet the shortfall, including:

• Family Hubs.
• Home to School Transport.
• Theatres.
• Reading Town Hall and Museum.
• Facilities in Parks and Open Spaces.
• Voluntary Sector Funding.
• Street Cleaning.
• Street Lighting.
• Homelessness Prevention.
• Fees and Charges.

The report says that a public consultation on this MTFS Update will be launched on 19 December 2024 and will conclude on 16 January 2025. A further report will be brought to the Policy Committee in February 2025, recommending approval of a balanced budget to the council for the 2025/26 financial year.