Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

(a)  To agree the minutes from the meeting of Cabinet on 25^th August 2020

(b)  Matters arising

The Minutes of the meeting held on 25 August 2020 were agreed as a true record.  There were no matters arising.

Report of the Director of Childrens Services

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Children’s Services which notified the Cabinet that The Coventry Youth Offending Service (CYOS) Contingency and Recovery Plan has been agreed and signed off by its Chair, the Director of Childrens Services, and to seek Council endorsement.

The Youth Justice Board (YJB), in recognition of the unprecedented circumstances and challenges created by Covid 19, removed the expectation and grant condition that youth offending teams submit a standard Youth Justice Plan.

The new grant condition, notified to Youth Offending Teams (YOTS) on the 7 April 2020, was that each service must submit a Covid 19 Contingency and Recovery Plan by the 30 April 2020, which was done. Given the indeterminate period that the impact of Covid 19 will be experienced for, this decision by the YJB is entirely appropriate and welcomed.

Youth Offending Teams were established under the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 (‘the Act’). The functions assigned to the Youth Offending Service include the duty upon the local authority, under the Children Act 1989, to take all reasonable steps to encourage children not to commit offences. The Act imposed a duty on each Local Authority, acting in cooperation with its Statutory Partners (Police, Health and Probation), to ensure that all Youth Justice services are available in their area to such an extent as it appropriate for the area.

The key tasks of the service are:

·  Assessing and delivering interventions to the out-of-court-disposal cohort

·  Management and delivery of community sentences

·  Management and delivery of secure estate sentences and resettlement

·  Servicing the Youth Court and Crown Courts (in terms of provision of a court team, bail & health assessments, provision of pre-sentence reports and stand down reports)

·  Victim services

·  Parenting services and management of Parenting Orders

The Crime and Disorder Act also imposed a duty to complete and submit a Youth Justice Plan each year, this year as an exception, a Contingency and Recovery Plan.

The Plan provides an overview of Coventry Youth Offending Services activities, in response to Covid 19, in order to discharge its statutory functions and activities to aid recovery.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet recommend that the City Council endorse the Youth Justice Contingency and Recovery Plan 2020/21.

Report of the Director of Education and Skills

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Education and Skills seeking authorisation for the programme of work on Secondary School expansions for September 2022 – September 2024.

Under Section 14 of the Education Act 1996, Coventry City Council has a statutory duty to ensure sufficient school places and fair, appropriate access to education. It is the Council’s role to plan, commission and organise school places in a way that raises standards, manages supply and demand and creates a diverse infrastructure.

The Coventry One Strategic Plan for Education, first presented to Council on 2^nd October 2018 and again on 18^th February 2020, sets out pupil forecasts for special, primary and secondary schools across education planning areas in response to rising or falling pupil cohorts across the city. It outlined the strategy proposed by the Local Authority and the Coventry Headteacher Partnership to meet the additional places required in provision from 2019 – 2024.

A phase 1 of secondary expansions has previously been agreed by Cabinet in the both 2^nd October 2018 and 18^th February 2020 reports. The strategy presented to Cabinet also outlined a provisional programme as to secondary school expansions that would be required, considering rising pupil numbers, between September 2022 and September 2024, a phase 2 of proposed secondary school expansions.

This report is not intended to provide a full update on the One Strategic Plan for Education, which is likely to be presented before Cabinet in July 2021, but instead to focus on the phase 2 works required for secondary expansion. This report will give specific details regarding schools recommended for inclusion and how this proposed programme of work will be funded.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been established to ensure partnership commitment between the Council and secondary schools. These partnerships signify a commitment and cooperation between the Council, governing bodies and school leadership teams to meet the educational needs of children and young people in Coventry, ensure the sustainability of Coventry schools, and to enable the City Council to meet its statutory obligations.

This partnership commitment signifies a statement of intent to collaborate and work in partnership to achieve the best possible outcomes for children and young people in Coventry, ensure the sustainability of Coventry schools, and to enable the City Council to meet its statutory obligations. As part of this process, varying options have been discussed at both Secondary Headteacher Partnership meetings, and the Secondary Headteacher Executive. The recommended option presented below has been agreed by the Education Service, the Secondary Executive, and the Partnership, as being the best valid option keeping in line with our statutory requirement as outlined by the DfE to:

i.  Spend capital funding efficiently

ii.  Safeguard the quality of places in the system

iii.  Manage down spare capacity in the estate where it exists.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

(1)  Authorise the recommended programme of work outlined within the report on Secondary School expansions for September 2022 – September 2024.

(2)  Delegate authority to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 35.

Report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director Streetscene and Regulatory Services on a Supplementary Planning Document for the Adoption of Trees and Developer Guidance.

The report indicated that it was the Council’s intention to protect existing trees wherever possible as they played a vital role in the City, providing ecological, health and amenity benefits. The SPD provided developers with clear guidance on the Council’s requirements to protect and retain trees and sets out mitigation and cost implications if the removal of high-value trees cannot be avoided.

The document provided technical guidance and support to the Green Environment policies set out in Chapter 7 of the Local Plan (2016), in particular policies GE3 and GE4. It also builds upon a number of the policies included in Chapters 9 (Conservation and Heritage) and 11 (Environmental Management).

The SPD was structured in a sequential order for an applicant preparing a planning application submission where trees are involved. It covered supporting technical detail(s) around matters of:

•  Land Surveys.

•  Tree Surveys.

•  Tree Constraint Plans.

•  Arboricultural Method Statements.

•  Capital Asset Value for Amenity Trees (CAVAT).

•  Works to trees.

•  Tree and root protection measures.

•  Planting new trees.

•  Accessing and moving around sites.

•  Avoiding damage to trees

RESOLVED that the Cabinet approve the content of the Trees and Development Guidelines SPD and agree its adoption with effect from the 23 October 2020.

Report of the Director of Health and Wellbeing

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Public Health and Well-being in respect of the successful award from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund.

Following a bidding process, Coventry City Council has been successfully awarded £1.57m funding from the AMIF Fund towards delivering the £1.75m “MyCoventry” initiative. The Fund is a European Union (EU) funding stream that the UK Government joined in April 2012. The UK National Programme consists of 3 Specific Objectives consisting of Asylum (including Resettlement), Legal Migration and Integration; and Returns (voluntary, enforced and reintegration measures).

The funding secured will aim to meet the second objective (Legal Migration and Integration) of the fund supporting legal migration to the Member States in accordance with their economic and social needs, such as labour market needs, whilst reducing the abuse of legal migration, and to promote the effective integration of Third-Country Nationals.

The proposal (“MyCoventry”) has been developed by co-working with key partners including St. Francis Church of Assisi, Positive Youth Foundation, Ashley Community Housing, Coventry University’s Centre for Trust Peace and Social Relations and the City Council’s Employment Team. The proposal hence includes a holistic offer of Integration, building on the key elements of Community and social links, Language/Learning as well as Employment skills and development. The City Council will be the Accountable Body for the full project.

The “MyCoventry” proposal will aim to engage and empower our existing migrant communities in the city to make them more independent and enable them to contribute to the cities social, economic and civic fabric.

Coventry City Council has also successfully been awarded AMIF funding as a partner on the STEP Employability programme with World Jewish Relief (WJR), who are leading this partnership. This funding brings targeted resources to support employment interventions for refugees resettled under the Syrian Resettlement Scheme and the Resettlement of Vulnerable Children Scheme who are already in the city.

RESOLVED that that Cabinet:

(1)  Note the success of the partnership work between the City Council and the wider partnership in securing the funding to support our existing local migrant communities.

(2)  Authorise the City Council to receive the £1.79m grant funds for AMIF grant funded projects and act as accountable body for the MyCoventry initiative and guarantor for the available funds. This includes incurring expenditure of the £1.57m (MyCoventry) plus the match funding on the City Council projects within the initiative.

(3)  Delegate authority to the Deputy Chief Executive, following consultation with the Director of Finance and the Director of Law and Governance, to enter into the appropriate agreements:

  i. The grant funding agreement for the receipt of the AMIF funding with the City Council acting as the accountable body for the funding.

  ii. Back to back funding agreements with the identified project partners necessary to deliver the ‘MyCoventry’ proposal as set out in this report.

Report of the Director of Adult Services

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Adult Services setting out the Adult Social Care Annual Reports 2019/20 and Outcome of Peer Challenge.

The Adult Social Care Annual Report and Key Areas of Improvement 2019/20 (also referred to as Local Account) describes the performance of Adult Social Care and the progress made against the priorities for the year.  It also provides specific examples of the operational activities to support people with care and support needs and carers.

Although there was not a statutory requirement to produce an annual report, it was considered good practice as it provided an opportunity to be open and transparent about the successes and challenges facing Adult Social Care and to show what is being done to improve outcomes for those that come into contact with our services. The production of an annual report was part of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) approach to Sector Led Improvement. 

A further part of the Local Government Association approach to Sector Led Improvement was the Peer Challenge process, and in early March 2020 Adult Social Care was subject to a Peer Challenge.  Peer Challenges provide an important opportunity for assessment of our work and an indication of areas we might focus on to improve going forward.

The findings of the Peer Challenge were included in the Annual Report which included a number of positives and also made a number of recommendations, many of which will form a key part of our improvement activity as we progress through 2020/21 and subsequent years.

The production of the 2019/20 annual report and the reporting to Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board and Cabinet of the outcome of the Adult Social Care peer challenge was delayed due to the significant service efforts in responding to COVID-19. 

The report had been considered by the Health and Social Care Scrutiny Board (5) at their meeting on 23 September 2020.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet Approve the Adult Social Care Annual Report and Key Areas of Improvement for 2019/20 (Local Account).

Report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services which referred to recently launched Government consultations on two Planning documents:

·  Changes to the Current Planning System

·  Planning for the Future (White Paper).

The former was a technical consultation that concluded on 1 October 2020, the response was drafted and submitted by officers in consultation with the Leader and Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities and was included as Appendix 1 to the report. The proposals include increasing the housing requirements and reducing the amount of affordable housing provided by some sites, both of which the Council strongly oppose.

The White Paper consultation closes on 29 October 2020 and the proposed response was included at Appendix 2 of the report. The White Paper proposed a fundamental change to the nature of the planning system in England and Wales, moving away from the current “discretionary” planning system to a zonal system.  The report indicated that the proposals would lead to less public scrutiny and ability to influence planning decision and the Council strongly opposed this and a number of other measures proposed.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

1)  Note the response submitted on the 1 October 2020 to the Government Consultation “Changes to the Current Planning System”.

2)  Delegate to the Director Streetscene and Regulatory Services, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing and Committees, the final submission of the White Paper consultation response attached as Appendix 2 to the report.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of public business.