Agenda, decisions and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Cllr Federica Smith-Roberts. Cllr Mandy Chilcott was late due to traffic.

To receive and note any declarations of interests in respect of any matters included on the agenda for consideration at this meeting.

(The other registrable interests of Councillors of Somerset Council, arising from membership of City, Town or Parish Councils and other Local Authorities will automatically be recorded in the minutes: City, Town & Parish Twin Hatters - Somerset Councillors 2023 )

The following declarations of interest were automatically recorded:

Cllr Theo Butt Philip – Wells City Council
Cllr Graham Oakes – Yeovil Town Council / Yeovil Without Parish Council
Cllr Mike Rigby – Bishops Lydeard and Cothelstone Parish Council
Cllr Heather Shearer – Street Parish Council
Cllr Richard Wilkins – Curry Rivel Parish Council

The Chair to advise the Committee of any items on which members of the public have requested to speak and advise those members of the public present of the details of the Council’s public participation scheme.

For those members of the public who have submitted any questions or statements, please note, a three minute time limit applies to each speaker and you will be asked to speak before Councillors debate the issue.

We are now live webcasting most of our committee meetings and you are welcome to view and listen to the discussion. The link to each webcast will be available on the meeting webpage, please see details under ‘click here to join online meeting’.

Public questions were received from Mr Ray Moore, Mr David Orr, Mr Nigel Behan, and Mr David Preece.

Questions and responses are detailed in Annexe A to the minutes.

To note the latest Executive Forward Plan of planned key decisions that have been published on the Council’s website.

Click here to access - Executive Forward Plan

The Executive noted the Forward Plan.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to:

1. Accept the findings of the LGSCO reports and agrees to implement the recommendations set out in those reports;

2. Note and approve implementation of the improvement actions set out in paragraph 8 of this report;

3. Add a quarterly review of the SEND Action Plan to future agendas of Executive Committee.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Lead Member for Children, Families and Education, Cllr Heather Shearer, to introduce the item. Cllr Shearer extended apologies to the two families affected and highlighted the need to ensure we are providing resources effectively and efficiently, and that the report contained detail on work towards improving things.

Cllr Shearer proceeded to hand over to the Executive Director Children Families and Education, Claire Winter, and Service Director - Education, Amelia Walker, who also offered sincere apologies to the families affected. They proceeded to detail the plans in place to address issues in the SEND system; that there is an ongoing national crisis around SEND provision; that they would welcome any challenge from Scrutiny on these mitigations to ensure they are appropriate and well directed to learning from the complaints; the responsibilities as a council and the responsibilities for schools, the voluntary sector and the Department for Education; the restructure within education to provide a dedicated disputes team to provide capacity to focus on challenges; the importance of improving information systems; the relationship with the ombudsman and the understanding that these are complex issues not easily resolved; the direct payments policy and the need to learn from good practice in Adults services; and the challenges with Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) and that a new contract has been drafted, agreed and is now in place with the health service.

The Leader of the Council invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present, with officers providing responses as appropriate. Questions and points raised included: the timescales of the mitigations put in place; how to assure members of the public and communicate well with them regarding ongoing assessments; setting clear expectations for parents with regard to timelines; the need for appropriate support at specific developmental stages and the long-term implications of not providing it; that there has been a national increase in children in distress; the governance route for the review of implementation of the plan and the role of Scrutiny in that process; the need for assessment of impact of the actions in the action plan; whether there is adequate staffing for the increase in SEND requirements; whether there is any learning from the transformation in Adults Services that can be applied to Children’s Services; whether there are more complaints expected and the cost of complaints and legal proceedings; whether actions to address these complaints will support other existing complaints; the importance of communication with members of the public; details of the agile approach to analysis.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and proposed an addition to the recommendations that progress on the action plan comes back to the Executive Committee quarterly. The Committee proceeded to a vote on the recommendations, which were agreed unanimously.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to:

1. Accept the findings of the LGSCO reports and agrees to implement the recommendations set out in those reports;

2. Note and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to:

a) Note Council is now forecasting a balanced revenue position (on-budget).

b) Note the total Council revenue forecast underspend of £20.065m for the year. There is a forecast underspend of £14.005m within Service Directorates for 2024/25 and the Corporate Contingency of £6.000m, whilst remains unallocated it has been released into the forecast outturn within budget lines Table 1.

c) Note that the planned use of reserves of £36.800m for Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) Support towards the budget is forecast to reduce by £20.065m to £16.735m, due to the forecast underspend within budget lines (paragraph 18).

d) Agree that mitigating actions are to be identified in order to reduce any overspends, to take action and to contribute to the long-term financial sustainability of the authority.

e) Agree that the Council continues with the aim of avoiding a Section 114 notice by taking all of the necessary actions and continues to operate in a similar way to one being issued.

f) Note the progress and delivered savings of £32.217m of the approved savings programme as set out in Table 2 and Appendix J.

g) Note that work will continue to find mitigating or substitute savings for the £3.909m of Red unachievable savings, deliver the £0.727m Amber at risk savings and the £3.379m Green on track savings.

h) Note the in-year forecast overspend on the Dedicated Schools Grant of £31.300m, a decrease of £1.467m from Month 7 (paragraph 11).

i) Note the total forecast Dedicated Schools Grant year-end deficit of £65.211m as set out in Appendix C.

j) Note the collection rates for Council Tax and Business Rates as set out in paragraph 16.

k) Note the quarterly update from the Spend Control Board detailed in Appendix K.

l) Note the quarterly update on the prudential indicators detailed in Appendix L.

m) Note the outstanding debt position as detailed in Chart 3 and Appendix M.

n) Note the level of General Reserves is £60.000m (risk-based assessment – minimum £30m, maximum £60m) and repurpose of some specified earmarked reserves following a review of the Council’s balance sheet (see section 19).

o) Note the Capital Programme forecast outturn at Quarter 3 is £150.573m.

p) Approve the additional Quarter 2 capital slippage of £0.631m into future years

q) Approve £247.062m of additions to the capital programme, as detailed in Section 35 of this report.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Finance, Procurement and Performance, Cllr Liz Leyshon, to introduce the item. Cllr Leyshon highlighted that this was the Q3 report following the month 7 report, as month 8 was not reported on due to budget setting; that the report shows a reduced draw on reserves and that reserves are one-off funding to allow us to close the budget gap; the difference between one-off pressures vs ongoing pressures and where a pressure becomes a growth.

Cllr Leyshon proceeded to hand over to the Service Director – Finance and Procurement, Nicola Hix, who detailed: that this is not a ‘true’ underspend due to the use of reserves; that there was a decrease in the forecast overspend in Children, Families and Education and the reasons behind that; that non-service directorate has an increased underspend and the reasons behind that including the impact of asset sales; the ongoing and one-off pressures; the movements in each service; the improvement in the Dedicated Schools Grant forecast; ongoing monitoring of savings and comparison with the previous report; the collection funds that are above target for business rates and council tax; that the spend boards are still in place; and that there is no big swing of projections for the capital spend.

The Leader of the Council invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present, with officers providing responses as appropriate. Questions and points raised included: the detail of the adults’ services budget including the savings made as part of transformation, the winter pressures, the need for a realistic budget and the importance of prevention; the positive changes in Children’s including savings relating to Home to School transport and SEND transport and the importance of forecasting and modelling and the need for more foster carers; the causes behind the underspend in Adults Services and if that is linked with preventative work; the large amount of work in delivering My Life, My Future; that the headlines of the budget monitoring were positive but it was dependent on capitalisation and use of reserves; how the budget was set based on no asset sales; the pressure on agendas and the number of papers, including late papers creating pressure for officers and councillors; the reserves position and whether there is enough in reserves for transformation; whether earmarked reserves for insurance and PFI are sufficient; whether reducing drawdown on reserves should be prioritised in the case of an underspend; the increased overspend in Resource and Corporate Services as a result of loss of income from asset sales; and the outstanding debt in Adult Social Care.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and proposed a drafting amendment to recommendation e. The Committee proceeded to a vote and the recommendations were agreed unanimously.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to:

a) Note Council is now forecasting a balanced revenue position (on-budget).

b) Note the total Council revenue forecast underspend of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to:

a) Note the Housing Revenue Account forecast overspend of £1.327m for 2024/25, the mitigations actions in the report and the impact on the HRA General Fund Reserve of this overspend.

b) Agree to take further mitigating actions to pull back the forecast overspend to a balanced outturn.

c) Note the forecast outturn position of the Capital Programme of £51.387m for 2024/25.

d) Note the budget additions of £2.894m approved through Key Decisions as in paragraph 24.

e) Note the Capital virements in Appendix C.

f) Approve updated slippage of £39.665m into future years.

The Leader of the Council invited the Executive Director Community, Place and Economy, Chris Hall, to introduce the item. Chris Hall highlighted that there was a positive change since Quarter 2 with a reduction in the overspend and the reasons behind that, the need to not put customers at risk by reducing standards of service in order to reduce the overspend, and that the HRA does have a healthy reserve.

The Leader of the Council invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present, with officers providing responses as appropriate. Questions and points raised included: that this budget report included both the in house service and the Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO); the importance of the Decent Homes Standard; the increase in the Capital Programme slippage and the effect on the value of the current stock and capital costs overall; the difference in level of write-offs between the in house and the ALMO service; and the importance of the different models of management learning from each other.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and proceeded to a vote on the recommendations, which were agreed unanimously.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to:

a) Note the Housing Revenue Account forecast overspend of £1.327m for 2024/25, the mitigations actions in the report and the impact on the HRA General Fund Reserve of this overspend.

b) Agree to take further mitigating actions to pull back the forecast overspend to a balanced outturn.

c) Note the forecast outturn position of the Capital Programme of £51.387m for 2024/25.

d) Note the budget additions of £2.894m approved through Key Decisions as in paragraph 24.

e) Note the Capital virements in Appendix C.

f) Approve updated slippage of £39.665m into future years.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Deputy Leader and Lead Member for Finance, Procurement and Performance, Cllr Liz Leyshon, to introduce the item. Cllr Leyshon highlighted that this report was a work in progress.

Cllr Leyshon proceeded to hand over to the Executive Director Resource, Strategy and Transformation, Alyn Jones, who thanked Members for their input, including from Scrutiny, and highlighted that the key issues identified in the covering report were included in Appendix A.

The Leader of the Council invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present, with officers providing responses as appropriate. Questions and points raised included: there would be reporting on Housing and Homelessness as part of the Adults Services portfolio in future reports; concerns around the planning service and whether the situation is improving; whether there could be more realistic or local indicators; the improvement in foster carers and whether that is sufficient; the time extended for planning applications and whether removing that would have an impact on figures; how phosphate mitigation impacts planning applications; the rate of staff sickness and whether it is a concern that needs to be addressed; the level of vacancies and how that has been impacted by the restructure; the monitoring undertaken by the Strategic Planning Committee; the causes of the reduction in resolved calls in Adult Social Care; the increase in overdue Care Act Assessments; that there are no indicators relating to Planning Enforcement; the percentage of homes that don’t meet the Decent Home Standard; the increase in the number of families in BnBs for more than a week; the number of complaints answered within 10 working days; whether there is any feedback from Somerset Safeguarding Adults Board (SSAB) on the overdue Care Act Assessments; the downward trend relating to food hygiene and environmental health.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and the Committee noted the report.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Lead Member for Adults Services, Housing and Homelessness, Cllr Sarah Wakefield to introduce the report. Cllr Wakefield highlighted that this was a positive story of transformation and the report was coming to close out the programme after all of the work has been completed, and that the £10m of ongoing savings had been achieved and would be sustainable for the long-term.

Cllr Wakefield proceeded to hand over to Executive Director Adult Services and Housing, Mel Lock, and Emily Faldon (Newton Europe), who explained: that the transformation had saved money and changed lives, improved things for staff and outcomes for people, which resulted in savings and improved quality of life; that the transformation had involved work with reablement, more care act assessments, fewer people admitted to long-term residential care, supporting people to learn new skills and stay independent, assessing people to prepare for adulthood earlier. They provided case studies and examples, the lessons learned and how the learning can be shared with the rest of the organisation.

The Leader of the Council invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present, with officers providing responses as appropriate. Questions and points raised included: the work of the late Cllr Dean Ruddle on this transformation; the assurance that staff are prepared to continue with improvements when Newton withdraw; the importance of preparing for adulthood; whether savings are cumulative or each year; whether transformation is encouraged with our partner organisations; and the importance of being a learning organisation.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and the Committee noted the report.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to recommend that Somerset’s final Corporate Peer Challenge report is considered by Scrutiny Corporate & Resources in March 2025 to ensure they have the opportunity to influence and contribute to the development of the subsequent Corporate Peer Challenge Action Plan.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Executive Director Resources, Strategy and Transformation, Alyn Jones, to introduce the item. Alyn Jones highlighted that as part of the continuous programme of review and improvement, the Council sought external feedback and guidance from LGA peers. He explained: the process followed by the peer review team; that the report was a standard report to be comparable with other councils; that the full report has been published and Members will have several opportunities to review and debate; and an action plan from the Peer Review would be considered at the April meeting of the Executive.

The Leader of the Council invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present, with officers providing responses as appropriate. Questions and points raised included: that this was the first of any unitary council following Local Government Reorganisation; the current progress of the action plan; the learning from the peers regarding finance and setting a budget; the importance of Scrutiny; sustainability of the Local Community Networks (LCNs) and the impact they are having; and the need for further development of LCNs based on where they are working well.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and proceeded to a vote on the recommendations, which were agreed unanimously.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to recommend that Somerset’s final Corporate Peer Challenge report is considered by Scrutiny Corporate & Resources in March 2025 to ensure they have the opportunity to influence and contribute to the development of the subsequent Corporate Peer Challenge Action Plan.

The Executive resolved to direct award the delivery of the specialist drug and alcohol treatment service to the current provider (SDAS) in line with the Provider Selection Regime (PSR) regulations for 2 years, with effect from April 2026 and with the option to extend for a further year.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Lead Member for Public Health, the Environment and Climate Change, Cllr Graham Oakes to introduce the report. Cllr Oakes explained that this was a renewal of the contract with the current provider, which is a specialist all-age service, and that in a challenging situation keeping the contract and consistency is important the vulnerable people being served.

Cllr Oakes proceeded to hand over to Consultant in Public Health, Matthew Hibbert, and Service Manager – Substance Use, Jodie Reading, who detailed: the wider context including the national policy environment; the impact of substance abuse problems across Somerset including on housing and vulnerable children; that there is a new model of service which provides an opportunity; the link between addiction and substance use and wider issues such as offending behaviour, health, housing and crime; the prevalence data on those in Somerset struggling with substance use; what the service offers and that it is an all age, all substance service; that for the first time the numbers for alcohol treatment were higher than opiate treatment; that the provider operate three hubs across the county and uses community venues to outreach into vulnerable groups who might struggle to access; that the provider has expertise in harm reduction such as needle exchange, naloxone, and opiate substitution therapy; that there are peer-led and co-led initiatives in Somerset; the commissioning process and the new provider selection regime; and that the ask of Executive is a direct award of the contract to Turning Point branded as Somerset Drug and Alcohol Service (SDAS).

The Leader of the Council invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present, with officers providing responses as appropriate. Questions and points raised included: that this reaches across many areas of Council work; the ongoing work to improve the numbers of people the service reaches; the risk as the funding comes to an end at the end of 2025/26; the importance of evidencing good work to get further funding; the complexity of need of service users; the Equality Impact Assessment in relation to care leavers; clarification on the different risk scores; the importance of coordinated working around this; the strong track record of Turning Point in Bristol and Somerset; and the impact of contract length on the service and provider.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and proceeded to a vote on the recommendations, which were agreed unanimously.

The Executive resolved to direct award the delivery of the specialist drug and alcohol treatment service to the current provider (SDAS) in line with the Provider Selection Regime (PSR) regulations for 2 years, with effect from April 2026 and with the option to extend for a further year.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to agree:

a. To Somerset Council continuing in the role of Host Authority and Accountable Body for the Somerset Rivers Authority for financial year 2025/26.

b. To review the revised 2025-26 Local Memorandum of Understanding and Constitution set out in Appendix 1 and authorise the Lead Member for Public Health, Climate Change and Environment to sign this on behalf of Somerset Council.

c. To review the proposed SRA Budget and SRA Enhanced Programme for 2025-26, (Appendix 2) in accordance with the recommendations to be considered by the SRA Board at its meeting on 7th March 2025.

d. Subject to Full Council confirming the raising of the SRA’s 2025-26 shadow precept on 5 March 2025, to the release of funding committed from all sources in 2025-26 for the purposes of the SRA as set out in Appendix 2.

e. That the detailed management of the 2025-26 SRA Budget and Enhanced Programme within the control total allocated to the SRA is undertaken in accordance with the constitutional, financial regulations and decision-making arrangements of Somerset Council as Accountable Body.

The Leader of the Council, Cllr Bill Revans, invited the Lead Member for Public Health, the Environment and Climate Change, Cllr Graham Oakes to introduce the report. Cllr Oakes highlighted that the Somerset Rivers Authority (SRA) is the only body of its kind in the country and it was set up after floods in 2014 and that the ask of Executive was that we continue to host them and act as their accountable body.

Cllr Oakes proceeded to hand over to the Chair of the Somerset Rivers Authority Board, Cllr Mike Stanton, and Service Manager – Somerset Rivers Authority, David Mitchell. They explained: the work done by SRA over the last ten years; the updated flood action plan; the changing nature of flooding in Somerset; and how the SRA is funded.

The Leader of the Council invited comments from Committee Members and other Members present, with officers providing responses as appropriate. Questions and points raised included: whether Members had had a briefing from the SRA; the early warning system trial involving 8 radar systems connected by an app; whether the funding agreement for the SRA was a permanent solution or if an alternative such as setting its own precept could be found; the different challenges of flooding across Somerset; that funding for the SRA has reduced in real terms over the last ten years; that flooding is on the agenda of future meetings with MPs; the inclusion of EU requirements in the report; and the differing tolerance numbers within the report.

The Leader of the Council concluded the discussion and proceeded to a vote on the recommendations, which were agreed unanimously.

Following consideration of the officer report, appendices and discussion, the Executive resolved to agree:

a. To Somerset Council continuing in the role of Host Authority and Accountable Body for the Somerset Rivers Authority for financial year 2025/26.

b. To review the revised 2025-26 Local Memorandum of Understanding and Constitution set out in Appendix 1 and authorise the Lead Member for Public Health, Climate Change and Environment to sign this on behalf of Somerset Council.

c. To review the proposed SRA Budget and SRA Enhanced Programme for 2025-26, (Appendix 2) in accordance with the recommendations to be considered by the SRA Board at its meeting on 7th March 2025.

d. Subject to Full Council confirming the raising of the SRA’s 2025-26 shadow precept on 5 March 2025, to the release of funding committed from all sources in 2025-26 for the purposes of the SRA as set out in Appendix 2.

e. That the detailed management of the 2025-26 SRA Budget and Enhanced Programme within the control total allocated to the SRA is undertaken in accordance with the constitutional, financial regulations and decision-making arrangements of Somerset Council as Accountable Body.