Agenda and minutes

Julie Nugent, who will be starting her new role as Chief Executive in the near future, was in attendance at the meeting and was welcomed by the Leader, Councillor G Duggins.

Members echoed the sentiments of the Leader and provided Julie with brief summaries of their positions.

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

(a)  To agree the minutes from the meeting of Cabinet on 14^th March 2023

(b)  Matters arising

The Minutes of the meeting held on 14^th March were agreed and signed as true records.

There were no matters arising.

Report of the Director of Adult Services and Housing

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Adult Services and Housing which sought approval for the re-commissioning of Short-Term Home Support (STHS) in Coventry.

The report indicated that STHS is a key feature in the delivery of good Health and Social Care Services. The service supports adults to acquire or reacquire daily living skills to remain residing independently in their own homes, a key policy objective for Health and Social Care. The service is also integral to reducing delayed discharges from acute hospitals, including over the difficult winter period and was an important feature during the Covid-19 Pandemic. The service is also accessed by Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership Trust (CWPT) as part of their Urgent Care Response (UCR) service with an allocation of up to 100 hours per week for this purpose. In addition, the service plays a vital role in preventing hospital admission through short term community based, person centred support that provides reablement and contributes to service user assessments and determination of any ongoing care and support needs.

The current STHS contracts were awarded in 2017 to a framework of independent sector providers and since then there has been an increase in the expected demand for the service from 1995 hours per week in 2017 to a peak of approximately 2800 hours per week during 2022 with current delivery being approximately 2,600 hours per week, due to increasing demand for the service especially in relation to supporting hospital discharge. Much of the additional activity has been funded by specific Hospital Discharge Grants during and since the COVID pandemic.

There is a supplementary element to this service provided at night called the Mobile Night Carers that supports adults with night-time needs and is instrumental in avoiding or delaying the need for admission to a care home for those who may require support during the night.

The expected cost of the contract is £3.359m per annum funded by a mixture of core funding, grant funding and contributions from the Integrated Care Board (ICB).

The current contracts expire on 31st October 2023, but an extension will be put in place to 31st January 2024 to enable the Council to run a competitive process to ensure ongoing support. The new contracts are expected to be in place by February 2024, which has necessitated an extension of the current arrangements by three months to ensure continuity of services in the intervening period.

The Commissioning Team have engaged with key stakeholders including service users, carers, providers, health & social care staff and has also used its experience over the past few years to inform the future delivery model, which seeks to incorporate several key service improvements.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet recommends that Council approves the procurement of adults Short Term Home Support provision and delegates authority to the Director of Adults and Housing, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Adult Services, for the award of contracts following completion of the tender process.

Report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Streetscene and Regulatory Services which sought to adopt the Householder Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document (SPD) following public consultation which was undertaken between 9th December 2022 and 27th January 2023.

The report indicated that SPDs add further detail to the policies in the development plan but cannot introduce new policy. SPDs provide additional guidance for development and are capable of being a material consideration when making decisions on planning applications.

This SPD provides design guidance for those proposing household extensions and other householder proposals which require planning permission to be sought within the city. Responses to the consultation have been analysed and taken account of when amending the SPD. The proposed final version was attached at Appendix 1 to the report, and a summary of representations along with responses and proposed amendments was contained in  Appendix 2 to the report.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

1)  Adopts the Householder Design Guide Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

2)  Delegates authority to the Strategic Lead (Planning), following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Housing and Communities, to make any necessary further non-substantive (minor) changes to the document.

Report of the Interim Chief Executive (Section 151 Officer)

The Cabinet considered a report of the Interim Chief Executive (Section 151 Officer) which indicated that the Council purchases a variety of insurance policies including property, business interruption, contract works, fine art, employers’ liability, public liability, crime, engineering inspection, personal accident and travel, school journeys, computers, and motor fleet. These insurance policies were procured via an Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU) compliant Eastern Shires Purchasing Organisation (ESPO) framework. The three-year contracts will expire on 30 November 2023 and there are options to extend the long-term agreements for two further years.

The Council’s Contract Procedure Rules require Cabinet to approve any procurement which involves an annual contract value in excess of £1m per annum.

In 2022-23 the Council’s premiums were £1,517,000 including insurance premium tax. There is an additional charge of £66,000 for claims handling services. The total is £1,583,000. This total includes a premium for terrorism insurance of £75,000.

Cabinet noted that the purchase of terrorism Insurance will be outside of any tender. The reason for this is that terrorism insurance is provided by the Lloyds of London insurance market, and they do not respond to local authority tenders. The provision of the insurance through Lloyds will involve a traditional purchase of insurance using multiple insurers via, what is known as a line slip. This method is not suitable for procurement routes and there is no available framework that will address this. Terrorism insurance is specialised and involves significant input from the Insurance Broker who models potential maximum losses based on certain terrorist type events to ensure best value.

For the remaining insurances, the intention is to run a further competition on those insurance policies where the Insurer has not honoured the long-term agreements (contractually they can do this) and have indicated that they require a further rating increase in 2023-24. Early consultation with an Insurer indicates a rating increase of 10%, which would be in addition to increased premiums caused by sums insured going up. Where an Insurer has indicated that the rate will not go up (premiums may still increase because sums insured have gone up) the recommendation is for the Council to extend the long-term agreements where this can be done.

The intention is to appoint Arthur J Gallagher via low value Direct Award through the Yorkshire Purchasing Organisation (YPO) 964 Framework to act as Insurance Brokers for the Council. Arthur J Gallagher will then in turn run a further competition under the YPO Insurance Placement Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) on behalf of the Council, where the contracts cannot be extended at the rates provided by the current long-term agreements.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

1)  Grants authorisation for Arthur J Gallagher to (on behalf of the Council) carry out a further competition against a YPO Insurance Placement Dynamic Purchasing System for a period of up to 3 years (with a potential extension for a further 2 years) on those policies where extensions of the long-term agreements cannot be obtained at the current rates.

2)  Grants  ...  view the full minutes text for item 122.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

Cabinet were informed about Equalities Day, which was an internationally recognised day and which takes place on 14 April.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet agrees to declare 14^th April 2023 as Equalities Day.

NB – This item of business was considered as urgent public business due to the impending date.