Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

a)  To agree the minutes from the meeting of Cabinet on 12^th December 2023

(b)  Matters arising

The Minutes of the meeting held on 12th December 2023 were agreed as a true record.

There were no matters arising. 

Report of the Chief Operating Officer (Section 151 Officer)

The Cabinet considered a report of the Chief Operating Officer which sought approval to establish the 2024/25 Council Tax base for tax setting purposes.

The report indicated that the Council Tax base is the measure of the taxable capacity of an area, for the purpose of calculating an authority's Council Tax. It represents the estimated number of Band D equivalent chargeable dwellings for the year. It also takes into account the authority's estimated Council Tax collection rate.

The report does not set the actual level of Council Tax in Coventry; that will be set by Council on 20th February 2024.

Appendices to the report provided: the Tax Base Calculation for 2024/25 Tax Setting (Coventry); the Tax Base Calculation for 2024/25 Tax Setting (Allesley); the Tax Base Calculation for 2024/25 Tax Setting (Finham); the Tax Base Calculation for 2024/25 Tax Setting (Keresley); and Grant payments to Parish Councils.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

1)  Approves that the Council Tax collection rate for 2024/25 be set at 97.9%

2)  That, in accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Tax Base) Regulations 2012, the amounts calculated by the City Council for 2024/25 shall be:

  A net tax base of 87,734.0 for the whole of the City Council area made up as follows:

Allesley Parish    403.7

Finham Parish  1,564.8

Keresley Parish     561.8

All Other Coventry City Council Wards 85,203.7

TOTAL    87,734.0

3)   That the following grant payments should be made to Parish Councils to reflect the impact in 2024/25 of Council Tax reductions on their tax bases:

Report of the Director of Education and Skills

The Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Education and Skills which set out the results of the consultation on proposed changes to the Fair Funding Scheme of Delegation ("the Scheme") and sought approval for recommended changes to the Scheme and the Fair Funding Formula.

The report indicated that Under Section 48 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, Local Authorities (LAs) are required to have schemes of delegation which set out the financial controls and arrangements that will operate between schools and the LA. Any proposed revisions to these schemes and/or the Fair Funding Formula must be the subject of consultation and require approval by the Schools Forum.

The DFE introduced its National Funding Formula (NFF) for LAs in 2018-19, whereby allocations for LAs were determined under the NFF approach, but LAs retained control over how they chose to distribute that funding amongst their schools. In Coventry the decision since 2018-19 has been to mirror the NFF allocation for schools as far as possible. This has provided all schools with annual increases at least in line with the maximum per pupil funding increase set out in the NFF.

The Department for Education (DFE) published the "Schools Operational Guide: 2024 to 2025" which sets out the school revenue funding arrangements for 2024-25. There have not been any significant changes required to the operation of the local school funding formula for 2024-25 compared to 2023-24.

The Coventry Fair Funding Consultation document was circulated on the 8th November 2023 to Head Teachers including Academy Head Teachers/Principals, Chairs of Governing Bodies, relevant Councillors, Trade Unions, Diocesan authorities, the Coventry Governors Association, members of the Schools Forum and Early Years Free Entitlement providers in the private, voluntary and Independent (PVI) sectors. The consultation period ended after 3 weeks on 29th November 2023.

Stakeholder groups were briefed throughout the consultation period. These included Primary Finance representative head teachers and the Schools Forum. The consultation document also seeks to act as an information document to school stakeholders regarding anticipated local budget pressures.

The recommended changes to the Fair Funding Formula and Fair Funding Scheme of Delegation were summarised in Section 2 of the report. The results of the consultation were set out in Appendix 1 to the report - Fair Funding Consultation 2024-25: Summary of Responses, Appendix 2 to the report gave details of the De-delegation Levels Approved for 2023-24, and Appendix 3 to the report provided the Fair Funding Consultation document for 2024-25.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

(1)  Approves the recommended changes to the Fair Funding Formula and Fair Funding Scheme of Delegation, which are summarised in Section 2 of the report.

(2)  Delegates authority to the Director of Education and Skills, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, to make any necessary amendments to the final detail of these recommended changes, in order to comply with the School Finance (England) Regulations once full detail of the schools funding settlement has been published by the Department for Education for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 58.

Report of the Chief Partnerships Officer

Note: A Briefing Note detailing Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee’s consideration of this item at their meeting on 20 December, 2023 will be circulated prior to the meeting.

The Cabinet considered a report of the Chief Partnerships Officer which indicated that the One Coventry Plan includes the Council’s vision and priorities, new ways of working, and core areas of activity to deliver the plans objectives, key strategies, and approaches. The current plan, last refreshed in 2022, covers the period from 2022-2030. It builds on the Council’s long-standing principles (being globally connected, locally committed, and working together to deliver priorities with fewer resources) and continues to set out new ways of working to help the Council face the current challenges of increasing demand and reduced real terms funding.

The annual performance report sets out the progress made towards the One Coventry Plan. For each objective, this report sets out the trends, actions taken, and performance metrics, to provide an assessment of the progress made against previous years and other places.

The Council uses agreed indicators to show progress made towards its priorities. This is supported by a wider basket of measures such as equality and perception measures that help explain the trends and story behind the headlines. Indicators are selected from key strategies and aligned to directorate priorities and equality and health inequalities objectives.

The Council’s priorities are delivered through strategies aligned to the One Coventry Plan; as set out in the performance management framework. As part of the performance management process, leadership teams within each directorate and the Corporate Leadership Team have been involved in ensuring that the organisation’s key strategies are aligned to the One Coventry Plan.

The One Coventry Plan is currently measured using 73 indicators, of which 36 indicators improved; 6 stayed the same; 15 indicators got worse; can’t say for 1 indicators; and progress is not available for the remaining 15 indicators. This means, 74% (42/57) of directional indicators (excluding cannot say or not available) improved or stayed the same. This compares to the performance seen in previous years: 69% (40/58) in 2021-22; 79% (50/63) in 2019/20, 78% (52/67) in 2018/19, 71% (42/59) in 2017/18, and 75% (43/57) in 2016/17.

Many of the Council’s key priorities have an equality dimension or address an inequality caused by economic or social circumstances.

The Cabinet also considered a Briefing Note which detailed Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee’s detailed consideration of the report at their meeting on 20 December (their Minute 39/23 refers). The Committee had:

1)   Recommended that Cabinet agree the recommendations in the report.

2)  Noted the Council’s performance as set out in the performance report.

3)  Noted that, where targets had not been achieved, those issues would be referred to the appropriate Scrutiny Board for further consideration.

4)  Welcomed the intention to refresh the content and regularity of the suite of performance reports available in future.

The Cabinet also noted that a Seminar for all Members on the Performance Report would be held in the near future.

RESOLVED that the Cabinet:

1)  Notes the comments/issues made by Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee.

2)   Approves the Performance Report.

3)   Notes the intention to refresh the content and regularity of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of urgent public business.