Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

(a)  To agree the minutes from the meeting of Cabinet on 15^th April 2025

(b)  Matters arising

The minutes of the meeting on 15 April 2025 were agreed and signed as a true record.

There were no matters arising.

Report of the Director of Adult Care, Health and Housing

Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Adult Care, Health and Housing, appended to which was the Adult Social Care Five Year Plan 2025-2030. The report outlined how Adult Social Care provides essential support to people with care and support needs and their unpaid carers and is a significant area of economic activity with an annual local authority net spend for 2024/25 of approximately £115m and in the region of 9,500 people employed within the sector in Coventry.

The report indicated that Council receives in excess of 10,000 requests for support each year as well as over 6,000 safeguarding concerns.  At the end of March 2025, approximately 4,000 people were being supported per week with a range of care and support needs across physical disabilities, learning disabilities/autism, sensory impairments and mental ill health. This support is provided on a short term, or one-off basis or ongoing dependant on the circumstances of the individual. Support to unpaid carers so that they can continue caring is also part of the Council’s core purpose and approximately 2,000 people are supported by the Council per annum in their caring role. 

Adult Social Care is always evolving and each year sees different issues arise and new challenges which the Council both needs to predict where possible and then respond to. Key performance and activity has been captured within the Annual Report and Self-Assessment but now a ‘Five Year Plan’ has also been produced in order to set out clearly what the main areas of focus for Adult Social Care will be until 2030. 

Within the Five Year Plan, the following six areas of focus are identified as follows:

• Personalising the experience of care and support
• Always improving
• New models of support
• Prevention
• Use of technology
• Integrated care with health partners

These six areas will provide the umbrella focus for the Plan with specific projects under each area being identified at Plan inception and revised at approximately mid-point. The reason specific projects have not yet been set for the five year period is that there is currently a period of change related to both structural changes in National Health Service England (NHSE)/Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) plus the Casey review, which is an independent government commission into Adult Social Care. These changes will inevitably impact on Adult Social Care and make specific long term planning a challenge so there is a need to retain the flexibility to respond.

RESOLVED that Cabinet recommends that Council endorses the Adult Social Care Five Year Plan 2025-2030 as appended to the report.

Report of the Director of Regeneration and Economy

Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Regeneration and Economy which sought approval to the adoption of the Coventry Indoor Sports Facilities Strategy (ISFS), a copy of which was appended to the report. The report indicated that the ISFS serves as a technical document which follows a national framework and guides the future development of the city's indoor sports and aquatic facilities provision. Last produced in 2014, this Strategy is recommended for regular reviews and gauges the city's indoor sports facility demands. The ISFS has been developed with specialist sports consultants after extensive research and consultation with relevant local, regional and national stakeholders and aims to address the current and future needs of indoor sports and aquatics facilities across Coventry.

The report also indicated that the ISFS provides a comprehensive assessment of the current level of indoor sports facilities available and the future supply and demand needs for facility provision linked to key housing growth sites listed in the Council’s Local Plan. It delivers a clear evidence base and recommendations to inform future development and/or consolidation of facilities, partnership development opportunities and funding applications.

The ISFS enables the Council to appropriately utilise Section 106 funding for new and existing projects while ensuring that any related development undergoes financial evaluation to maximise cost-effectiveness and minimise risks to the loss of indoor sporting or physical activity provision

The associated Action Plan provides a clear indication on priorities and focus areas for the city. An Equalities Impact Assessment (EIA) has been completed to assess the impact of the new ISFS on stakeholders, protected groups and service users. Based on the EIA, a positive impact has been identified for one or more groups.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

1)  Approves the adoption of the Coventry Indoor Sports Facilities Strategy (ISFS) attached as Appendix 1 to the report.

2)  Delegates authority to the Director of Regeneration and Economy, following consultation with the Cabinet Member for Public Health,  Sport and Wellbeing, to take all necessary, incidental or ancillary actions deemed appropriate to proceed with the implementation of the Action Plan provided by the Coventry Indoor Sports Facilities Strategy (ISFS).

Director for Children and Education Services

Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Children and Education which sought approval to the Coventry One Strategic Plan for Primary, Secondary and Special Educational Needs (SEN) Education 2024-2028. The Plan was attached as an Appendix to the report.

Under Section 14 of the Education Act 1996, Coventry City Council had a statutory duty to ensure sufficient school places and fair, appropriate access to education. It was the Council’s role to plan, commission and organise school places in a way that raised standards, and managed supply and demand.

The Coventry One Strategic Plan sets out pupil forecasts for primary and secondary schools, as well as Special Education Needs (SEND) across education planning areas in response to rising or falling pupil cohorts across the city. It was proposed that this Strategy will be a flexible plan, able to adapt to shifting mechanisms of parental preference, unforeseen changes in supply and demand of school places, and future birth rates. To do this, the One Strategic Plan will be monitored and updated annually with presentation to the Cabinet Member whose portfolio includes education, and Cabinet, alongside a wider process of constant review of School Place Planning. In addition, the procuring of school places will take place annually so as not to create an unstable number of school places.

There was commitment through 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. The options within the Strategic Plan had been discussed at Coventry Education Partnership meetings including headteachers and education colleagues from across the city.

The Strategy outlined within the One Strategic Plan Appendix was in line with the statutory requirement as outlined by the DfE to:

i.  Spend capital funding efficiently

ii.  Safeguard the quality of places in the system

iii.  Utilise spare capacity in the estate where it exists.

Capital allocations to meet projected shortfalls in provision were provided by the Department for Education (DFE) to all Local Authorities based on the data provided in the annual School Capacity return (SCAP). Demand for places minus the supply of places was multiplied by a cost per pupil place to inform the final allocation. This return informed the DFE of the expected change in pupil numbers over the next few years, the current capacity of schools to meet those numbers and the planned changes to that capacity. Funding was also secured via S106 contributions from housing developers in response to new housing estates. With recent financial allocations this proposed Strategy was sustainable and in keeping with the financial allocations announced. 

Since the 2021/22 academic year there had been a large increase in the number of pupils moving into the city in year. The impact of this in-year movement had been that more places were required in schools than forecast, using up spare capacity and causing sufficiency pressures in some year groups.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance which indicated that at the meeting of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) Board on the 9^th May 2025, a recommendation was made to the Board that a period of statutory consultation be undertaken that would consider the transfer of transports functions currently exercised by the WMCA to be functions exercisable only by the West Midlands Mayor.

The report detailed how the transfer of these functions to the West Midlands Mayor would allow additional funding for transport to be raised by way of a Mayoral precept. The voting requirements of the WMCA to agree that a consultation period commence is a unanimous vote in favour by all Members of the Constituent Authorities present and voting.

The Leader of Coventry City Council, Councillor G Duggins, as a member of the WMCA Board, strongly indicated that he would not support the recommendation given the consequences of a Mayoral precept on the residents of Coventry and the wider West Midlands region. On this basis the matter did not proceed, and the statutory public consultation will not commence.

RESOLVED that Cabinet supports the position of the Leader of the Council in preventing the commencement of a process that could lead to the raising of a Mayoral precept and recommends that Council supports the position.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of public business.