Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Executive - Wednesday, 1st June, 2022 2.00 pm

Venue: Council Antechamber, Level 2, Town Hall Extension. View directions

Contact: Michael Williamson 

Media

Items
No. Item

41.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 189 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 16 March 2022.

Minutes:

Decision

 

The Executive approved as a correct record the minutes of the meeting on 16 March 2022.

42.

Appointment of Executive Members and their Portfolios pdf icon PDF 240 KB

Report of the Executive Leader attached

Minutes:

The Executive Leader advised that in accordance with Articles of the Constitution 7.4(c) and 7.5(a), she had given notice to the Monitoring Officer and Members in question of her appointment of Deputy Leader and Executive Members (and associated portfolios).

 

Decision

 

The Executive note the appointments of Deputy Leader and Executive Members.

43.

Ofsted Inspection of Children's Services. pdf icon PDF 127 KB

Report of the Deputy Strategic Director Children’s Services attached

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Executive considered a report of the Deputy Strategic Director Children’s Services, which reflected on the recent Ofsted Inspection of Local Authorities Children’s Services (ILACS) of Manchester's Children's Services.  The report advised of the overall judgement of Ofsted and provided an action plan in response to the findings on what needed to improve.

 

The Executive Member for Early Years, Children and Young People advised that Ofsted had judged Manchester's Children's Services overall effectiveness as “Good”, placing Manchester children's services amongst the top performing Children's Services in the Northwest of the country, with Ofsted identifying several reasons for this judgement, including ongoing financial commitment to the recruitment and retention of social workers, effective quality assurance and performance management arrangements and strong political and professional leadership.

 

This rating was in sharp contrast to recent previous inspection results in 2014 and 2017 where services were judged to be inadequate and required improvement to be good respectively and the Leader expressed her thanks and gratitude to those involved in Children’s Services and across the Council who had worked over the last number of years to achieve this improved rating.

 

Despite the judgement, the service was not complacent, the approach to service improvement since the last full inspection in 2017 had been to initiate reform of services that required improvement, develop and implement evidence-based interventions, revise its approach to commissioning, build a comprehensive workforce development and career progression strategy and use quality assurance frameworks and other methods to scrutinise the evidence of impact of these change activities on children and families. These approaches, in addition to the Ofsted action plan, would support the Service’s ongoing approach to continuous improvement.

 

Councillor Leech sought clarification as to what groups of children would be included in the Action Plan.

 

Decision

 

The Executive note the report and action plan.

 

44.

Our Manchester Progress update pdf icon PDF 326 KB

The report of the Chief Executive is enclosed.

Minutes:

The Executive considered a report of the Chief Executive which provided an update on key areas of progress against the Our Manchester Strategy – Forward to 2025 which reset Manchester’s priorities for the next five years to ensure the Council could still achieve the city’s ambition set out in the Our Manchester Strategy 2016 – 2025.

 

The Leader made reference to the use of the term Manchester Living Rent within the report and explained that this would be a way to increase the homes that all Manchester people could afford.  She explained that it would be set below Local Housing Allowance (LHA) levels and would also be cheaper to residents than the standard Government definition of Affordable Housing (80% of market value for a particular area).  In essence it would  mean that regardless of where a home was in the city, it could be affordable to anybody and it was a clear and straightforward way of describing what the Council meant when it had pledged to provide low cost homes that people could afford.

 

The Executive Member for Housing and Development reported on the Rodney Street development, the first planned development by the Council’s new housing delivery company This City, delivering 128 new homes, all of which will be built to low carbon standards, with 30% available at the Manchester Living Rent.  He also reported that a planning application had been submitted for more than 700 new homes, with around half of them to be affordable with a range of tenures, alongside a new high school a community hub and green spaces, to be built on the Former Jackson’s Brickworks site, a disused brownfield site in east Manchester.

 

The Deputy Leader reported on the continued support that the Council and its partners were providing for any Ukrainians escaping the invasion of their country.  A meet and greet point staffed by a council duty officer and volunteers from across the authority had been established at Manchester Airport, with the British Red Cross on call if further support was required.  More than £60,000 had been raised by the MCR Ukraine Welcome Fund, set up by the We Love Manchester charity in partnership with Manchester City Council, to help assist arriving Ukrainians. The first grant of £30,000 had been awarded to Ardwick-based charity Europia.  It would fund a dedicated support worker to co-ordinate advice and practical support for arrivals and contribute towards a hardship fund which the support worker would help administer.  As of May 16 2022, 177 would-be sponsors under the government’s Homes For Ukraine scheme had come forward and 42 of a potential 449 beneficiaries had arrived in the city.

 

The Executive Member for Environment and Transport reported that the Council had secured £4.9m in Government funding for further work to reduce carbon emissions from more council-owned buildings with a further Council contribution of £1m which would deliver an almost £6m scheme to cut emissions from seven buildings.  The move was another step towards the Council’s goal of halving its direct  ...  view the full minutes text for item 44.

45.

Capital Programme Update pdf icon PDF 243 KB

The report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer is enclosed.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Executive considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, which informed Members of requests to increase the capital programme, sought approval for those schemes that could be approved under authority delegated to the Executive and asked the Executive to recommend to Council proposals that required specific Council approval.

 

The proposals which required Council approval were those which were funded by the use of reserves above a cumulative total of £2 million, where the use of borrowing was required or a virement exceeded £0.5m. These included the following proposed changes:-

 

·                Neighbourhoods - Hough End Masterplan. A capital budget increase of £11.905m was requested, funded by £4m Grant, £5.499m funded by borrowing on an invest to save basis funded by joint funds held by Manchester City Council and Sport England, £1.832m funded by borrowing on an invest to save basis and £0.574m borrowing for the erection of a two-storey extension to form sports field changing rooms, cafe facilities, flexible club/social/training rooms and gym space following the demolition of the existing building on site, formation of two 3G football turf pitches as well as associated floodlighting and fencing together with a reconfiguration of natural turf pitches, with associated 67 space car park and an additional 60 space overflow car park.

 

The proposals which did not require Council approval and only required Executive approval were those which were funded by the use of external resources, use of capital receipts, use of reserves below £10.0m, where the proposal could be funded from existing revenue budgets or where the use of borrowing on a spend to save basis is required.  The following proposals required Executive approval for changes to the City Council’s capital programme:-

 

·                Children’s Services – Education Basic Need Grant. A capital budget increase of £4.056m in 2023/24 was requested, funded by Government Grant.  The grant was paid to local authorities to support the capital requirement for providing new pupil places by expanding existing maintained schools, free schools, or academies, and by establishing new schools. The grant was not time-bound so that the Council could make the best decisions for the city. The Council had received an allocation of £4.056m for 2023-25 and projects brought forward where a need was identified.

 

·                Children’s Services - Schools Capital Maintenance Programme. A capital budget increase of £4.264m in 2022/23 is requested, funded by Government Grant.  The Council received grant funding each year from the Department for Education for maintenance to the school estate.  Funding would be used to address condition needs identified in the Council’s estate of maintained schools which included community, voluntary controlled and foundation schools.

 

·                Children’s Services – High Needs Provision. A capital budget increase of £7.658m in 2022/23 and £8.769m in 2023/24 was requested, funded by Government Grant.  The Council received funding from the Department of Education to support the provision of new places and improve existing provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities or requiring alternative provision. The Council has received an allocation of £16.427m allocated over 2022-23  ...  view the full minutes text for item 45.

46.

Global Revenue Outturn 2021/22 pdf icon PDF 239 KB

The report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer is enclosed.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Executive considered a report of the Deputy Chief Executive and City Treasurer, which set out the final outturn position for the Council’s revenue budget in 2021/22.  It also highlighted the movements from the previous forecast for the year, which was reported to the Executive in February 2022, based on the position as at the end of December 2021.

 

The Executive Member for Finance and Resources reported that the final outturn position was an underspend of £1.2m for the year and whilst the impact of COVID 19 was still being felt, the financial impact had not materialised at the level initially forecast when the budget was set.  Of the approved £41.717 savings for 2021/22, £39.702m (95.2%) had been delivered with £2.015m (4.8%) not being achieved in year as planned.  The impact of this had been mitigated during the year and alternative savings were identified where original plans had not been achieved recurrently.

 

Whilst it had been possible to set a balance budget for 2022/23, the financial position beyond this would be challenging with significant budget shortfalls expected and clarity was needed from Government on future local government funding reforms to enable the Council to plan accordingly with adequate resources.

 

Councillor Leech commented on the consideration of further possible release of reserves to support the budget and help smooth the level of savings required over the next two years.  The Leader responded stating that in developing a Medium Term Financial Plan, the Council needed to ensure it did not go bankrupt as a result of government cuts over the last decade.

 

Decisions

 

The Executive:-

 

 

(1)       Note the outturn position of £1.161m underspend.

 

(2)       Approve the proposed revenue budget virements.

 

(3)       Approve the release of funds approved in budget but not yet allocated to departmental cash limit.

 

(4)       Approve additional COVID 19 grants to be reflected in the budget.

 

(5)       Approve the carry forward request totalling £400,000.

47.

Gypsies and Travellers - the closure of the Dantzic Street Traveller site pdf icon PDF 316 KB

Report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development) attached

Minutes:

The Executive considered a report of the Strategic Director (Growth and Development), which sought approval to formally close Gypsy and Traveller Dantzic Street (Cheetham Ward) caravan site as it was no longer occupied and had previously been identified as no longer suitable for meeting the needs of existing residents.  The report also provided an update to the Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment and a review of the Council’s approach to unauthorised encampments.

 

The Executive Member for Housing and Development reported that in January 2015 the Executive approved the closure of the Dantzic Street Traveller Site, owing to its poor condition.  There had been a number of issues with the site over the years and more recently some significant incidents at the site had affected residents. 

 

A full Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) had been developed to assess the impact of the closure of the Dantzic Street site on both the former residents and the wider Gypsy and Traveller community. As part of the process of evaluating the impact, consultation with the former residents of the site, with Irish Community Care, a charity who had been providing support and advocacy of behalf of some of the former resident families, and with national and regional organisations representing Gypsy and Traveller interests and rights had been undertaken. 

 

Councillor Leech, noting the sensitive and difficult issue in finding an appropriate site, sought clarity on what the Council’s legal duty was in relation to whether it was required to provide just a permanent site or a permanent site and alongside this a site for temporary stays as the Council often spent a considerable amount of money in cleaning up sites where short term occupancy occurred.

 

The Executive Member for Housing and Development commented that most of the former residents had expressed a wish to live on a Traveller site again in the future and the outcome of the Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment update would inform the future provision of Traveller sites in Manchester.

 

The Interim Director of Housing and Residential Growth commented that the council had a legal duty to meet the needs of the gypsy and traveller community, but in doing so the Council had to take account of encampments and unauthorised encampments and the Policing Bill as well as the views of the residents.  He added that there was no legal duty to provide a site for temporary stay

 

Decisions

 

The Executive

 

(1)       Note the current condition of the Dantzic Street site.

 

(2)       Note that the former residents have left the site and are pursuing ‘bricks and mortar’ accommodation following unrest within the wider Traveller community.

 

(3)       Approve the proposal to close the Dantzic Street site as it is no longer suitable as a Traveller site.

 

(4)       Note the proposal to update the Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment to inform the future provision of Traveller sites in Manchester.

 

(5)       Approve a commitment that those residents who left the site last summer will be offered a plot or pitch on any new permanent  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.