Agenda and minutes

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests.

(a)  To agree the minutes from the meeting of Cabinet on 10^th June 2025

(b)  Matters arising

The minutes of the meeting held on 10^th June 2025 were agreed and signed as a true record. There were no matters arising.

Report of the Director of Finance and Resources

Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Finance and Resources (Section 151 Officer) that would also be considered at the meeting of the Audit and Procurement Committee on 21^st July 2025 and the meeting of Council on 2^nd September 2025. The report outlined the final revenue and capital outturn position for 2024/25, and reviewed treasury management activity and 2024/25 Prudential Indicators reported under the Prudential Code for Capital Finance. Appendices to the report provided: a detailed breakdown of Directorate Revenue Variations; Capital Programme Changes and Analysis of Rescheduling; and Prudential Indicators.

The overall financial position included the following headline items:

•  An underspend of £1.8m, balanced by a contribution to earmarked reserves.

•  Capital Programme expenditure of £128.8m.

•  A small increase in the level of available Council revenue reserves from £118m to £119m.

The Council had faced significant pressures within both Adults and Children’s Social Care, and City Services. Other overspends were also being reported in Regeneration and Economic Development, Legal and Governance, People, and Organisational Development. These financial pressures were being caused by a combination of continued increases in service demand, complexity of cases and social care market conditions, legacy inflation impacts, income shortfalls due to reduced activity, and slippage in the delivery of some service savings.

The underlying revenue position had improved by £8.8m since Quarter 3 where an overspend of £7.0m was being forecast. The majority of the improved position related to increased one-off income within Contingency and Central budgets which were set out in section 2.1.4 in the report.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

1)  Approves the final balanced revenue outturn position after a contribution of £1.8m to reserves.

2)  Approves the final capital expenditure and resourcing position (section 2.3 and Appendix 2 of the report), incorporating expenditure of £128.8m against a final budget of £144.6m; £16.0m expenditure rescheduled into 2025/26 and £0.2m overspend.

3)  Approves the outturn Prudential Indicators position in section 2.4.4 and Appendix 3 of the report.

4)  Recommends that Council approves the contribution to reserves of £1.8m for the purposes described in Section 5.1 of the report.

Report of the Director of Law and Governance

Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Law and Governance, that had also been considered at the meeting of the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee on 3^rd July 2025, on the Coventry Protocol for Addressing Adult Modern Slavery. Appendices to the report provided: the Coventry Protocol for Addressing Adult Modern Slavery; the Plan on a Page; Equality Impact Assessment; Membership of Modern Slavery Protocol Partnership Group; Modern Slavery Protocol Partnership Input Overview; and Modern Slavery and Exploitation Governance Structure. 

The Council had a legal responsibility to address modern slavery under the Modern Slavery Act 2015, and the Modern Slavery: Statutory Guidance for England and Wales (under s49 of the Modern Slavery Act 2015). Locally, the modern slavery approach was co-ordinated through various subgroups within the Community Safety Partnership. Modern slavery and exploitation were key priorities in the Coventry Community Safety Partnership Plan 2025-2028. The Coventry Protocol for Addressing Adult Modern Slavery (The Protocol) was the first document to formalise the city’s operational and strategic response to adult exploitation.

The Protocol set out the strategic vision for the Coventry Modern Slavery Partnership, the city’s multi-agency forum tasked with determining and implementing the strategic response to adult exploitation. The Protocol also presented the operational pathways to guide frontline professionals through the practicalities of modern slavery case management. 

The Protocol had the following objectives:

•  To present Coventry Modern Slavery Partnership’s local strategic approach to modern slavery via the pursue, prevent, protect, prepare approach as set out by the central government.

•  To present the operational processes for responding to modern slavery in Coventry via the creation of survivor support pathways. The pathways were diverse and aimed to guide staff through every aspect of case management. Some pathways were general for any professional to use, others had been created by and for priority teams (e.g. Adult Social Care, NHS, and Trading Standards).

•  To establish the ongoing monitoring and evaluation mechanisms for the strategy and pathways.

The Protocol was developed between October 2023 – November 2024 by the Coventry Modern Slavery Protocol Partnership Group. The Group was formed of several Council departments and over 30 partner organisations. The Protocol underwent consultation with over 150 professionals as well as a lived experience advisory panel formed of consultants with personal experience of modern slavery in early 2025. The Protocol was presented to the Coventry Community Safety Partnership Board on 12th of May 2025.

The Protocol would commence at the earliest opportunity following Cabinet approval.

Cabinet also considered a Briefing Note which outlined Scrutiny Co-ordination’s consideration of the report at their meeting on 3rd July 2026 and made recommendations for Cabinet’s consideration. Presentation slides received at the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee were circulated.

RESOLVED that Cabinet:

1)  Notes the comments and agrees the recommendations from Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee.

2)  Having considered the requirements of the Modern Slavery Act 2015, approves the proposed Coventry Protocol for Addressing Adult Modern Slavery as attached as Appendix 1 to this report.

3)  Requests that Coventry Community Safety Partnership receive quarterly updates  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

Report of the Director of Care, Health and Housing

Cabinet considered a report of the Director of Care, Health and Housing, that has also been considered at the meeting of Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee on 3^rd July 2025, on requirements for the commissioned housing related support services, following extensive engagement with stakeholders in Coventry, and to become effective from 1st April 2026.

The existing housing related support contracts went live on 1st April 2020 at that point the country had been in a national lockdown due to the Coronavirus pandemic for approximately 1 week. Contract mobilisation at a time of national crisis was challenging however, the providers mobilised and started delivering support and services to those in need of housing related support. The existing contracts were due to expire on 31st March 2026.

The housing related support services supported the statutory homelessness service in a number of ways. Without the hostel type accommodation that was commissioned, a significant percentage of the occupants would need to be provided with Temporary Accommodation (TA) by the Council. This would result in additional financial pressure on the service. In addition to this, a percentage of the floating support provision supported people in hostel type accommodation e.g. Frank Walsh House, The Foyer etc. Any reduction in support to this provision could result in these services being unviable and therefore placing another pressure on the Council’s TA numbers and provision.

Since the contracts were previously awarded in 2020 there had been an increase of 95% in the number of households and individuals approaching the Council in housing need. This was particularly the case for families and for individuals who required support for multiple complex needs. This had placed substantial pressure on the housing and homelessness service and its budget over the last few years.

The new provision would support the delivery of the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy (2025- 2029). The key aim was to ensure that the newly commissioned services were not only focussed on the delivery of services to households who were in a crisis, but that prevention work was fundamental in the delivery of these services.

There would be 5 commissioned Lots instead of the current 4 to deliver housing related support services and specialist accommodation and within these, there were specific Lots that addressed and supported the aspirations within the Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Strategy and for specific groups at risk of homelessness. The Lots that commissioning was being sought through this exercise were Adults with Complex Needs, Older Single People (25yrs +), Young People (18-24), Families, and Women with Complex Needs

In terms of how the new Lots would compare with previous Lots, there would be some difference, which included a slight reduction in the number of commissioned bed spaces, and a reconfiguration of the floating support provision. This was because although costs had increased, the budget had remained static so needed to ensure that the services were targeted where they would have the greatest impact and supported how the Authority met its statutory obligations to the residents of Coventry.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

There are no outstanding issues

There were no outstanding issues.

There were no other items of public business.