At the start of the meeting, the Leader of the Council spoke to outline the administration’s ambitions.

Apologies were received from Councillors Alambritis and Christie. Councillors McCabe and Judge attended remotely.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the following meetings:

-       17 March 2022 (Special Meeting)

-       17 March 2022 (Special Meeting Exempt Minutes)

-       21 March 2022

-       21 March 2022 (Exempt Minute)

RESOLVED: That the following minutes are agreed as an accurate record:

-       17 March 2022 (Special Meeting)  

-       17 March 2022 (Special Meeting) (Exempt Minutes)

-       21 March 2022

-       21 March 2022 (Exempt Minute)

RESOLVED:

A.    That Cabinet approved the extension of the Hall Place Contract into a new lease for a term of 5 years from the date of expiry of the current lease on 4 November 2026.

The Chair announced the items would be taken with Item 7 first and the remaining items in agenda order. For the purposes of the minutes the items are minuted in the published agenda order.

The Cabinet Member for Housing and Sustainable Development presented the report, proposing an extension to the lease at Hall Place, noting that Hall Place included 81 self-contained homes and officers had negotiated to reduce the increase in rent payment by 50% provided the extended lease to 2031 is agreed. The Cabinet Member thanked officers and the provider for their work.

The Interim Director of Community and Housing advised that the housing was of a high quality standard having received the highest rating under a London Wide setting the standard inspection regime and provided accommodation for homeless persons and families.

RESOLVED:

A.    That Cabinet approved the extension of the Hall Place Contract into a new lease for a term of 5 years from the date of expiry of the current lease on 4 November 2026.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet agreed the Council award to Bidder F (as detailed in the Confidential Appendix to this report) a contract for provision of the school cleaning and ancillary service at a range of schools and other education buildings within the borough for a period of 3 years from 1 August 2022, with an option to extend for up to two further years at the discretion of the council.

B. In accordance with Contract Standing Orders (CSO 24.3) that authority be delegated to the Director of Children, Schools and Families to exercise, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning, the council’s option to grant one or more extensions of the contract term for any period up to two further years beyond the expiry of the initial contract term on 31 July 2025.

The Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning presented the report.

The Head of Contracts and School Organisation advised the Council ran a contract on behalf of the School and were pleased with the outcome.

In response to a question from the Cabinet Member for Civic Pride, the Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning responded that Schools were managing their own budgets however the Council encouraged them and worked with them to find a way that they could pay their staff the London Living Wage.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet agreed the Council award to Bidder F (as detailed in the Confidential Appendix to this report) a contract for provision of the school cleaning and ancillary service at a range of schools and other education buildings within the borough for a period of 3 years from 1 August 2022, with an option to extend for up to two further years at the discretion of the council.

B. In accordance with Contract Standing Orders (CSO 24.3) that authority be delegated to the Director of Children, Schools and Families to exercise, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning, the council’s option to grant one or more extensions of the contract term for any period up to two further years beyond the expiry of the initial contract term on 31 July 2025.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet agreed to award a contract for the provision of Supported Living care and support services for Adults with a Learning Disability, living at a total of eighteen (18) flats across three (3) supported living schemes, for a period of three years with the option to extend for a further 2 years and as outlined in the confidential Part B paper.

B. That Cabinet agreed to delegate to the Director of Community and Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care, the authority to extend the contract by the further increment of 2 years (as above).

The Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care presented the report which sought approval to award a contract for supported living across three supported living schemes, noting there were 18 flats across the three schemes to maximise independence and establish a supported living scheme. All bidders had been required to submit bids and were required to pay London Living Wage.

The Interim Director Community and Housing advised that the current contract was a block contract where all residents received the same package, however the new contract would be core hours however people would receive individual care packages.

In response to a question from the Cabinet Member for Education and Lifelong Learning, the Interim Director advised gave any overview of the social values and benefits of the contract, including that the provider would pay the London Living Wage or above, the provider must be provide 6 placements for people not in employment education or training, 48 staff hours for school college visits delivering career talks and 208 weeks of training opportunities for staff.

The Cabinet Member for Civic Pride spoke to welcome the range of values within the contract and to thank officers for their work.

RESOLVED:

A. That Cabinet agreed to award a contract for the provision of Supported Living care and support services for Adults with a Learning Disability, living at a total of eighteen (18) flats across three (3) supported living schemes, for a period of three years with the option to extend for a further 2 years and as outlined in the confidential Part B paper.

B. That Cabinet agreed to delegate to the Director of Community and Housing, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Health and Social Care, the authority to extend the contract by the further increment of 2 years (as above).

RESOLVED:

A.     That Cabinet noted that following hard-fought negotiations with the DfE and subsequent Safety Valve agreement for the DSG deficit, the revenue outturn for 2021/22 is now a favourable position of £10.8m, as the DfE will give us £28m grant to match the £28m the General Fund will need to contribute to reduce the overall DSG deficit to nil.

B.    That Cabinet noted that if the Safety Valve had not been entered into, there would have been an adverse variance on the GF of £0.8m, which would have required a call on the Balancing the Budget reserve to balance it.

C.   That Cabinet noted additional training for budget managers will be carried out, targeting areas with substantial differences between forecast variances at period 10 and final outturn.

D.   That Cabinet considered the outturn position on Capital and approved the Slippage, predominately for the Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) for Clarion’s regeneration scheme and delays in equipment due to shortages of chips into 2022/23 and other adjustments detailed in Appendix 2C, 2C1 and Section 7 of the report

The Leader of the Council presented the report, noting that as a result of the negotiations with the DFE in regards to the DSG deficit, there was now a favourable variance, however there remained service pressures in Children, Schools and Families and there had been overspends within departments including Environment and Regeneration due to loss of income in relation to Covid-19 which were likely to continue.

It was noted that additional funding had been put towards the Climate Change reserve (£2m), a Cost of Living Fund and a Civic Pride Fund.    

The Director of Corporate Services spoke to highlight that an update to reserves had been included within the report.

Cabinet Members spoke to thank officers and to welcome funding within their portfolio areas.

RESOLVED:

A.     That Cabinet noted that following hard-fought negotiations with the DfE and subsequent Safety Valve agreement for the DSG deficit, the revenue outturn for 2021/22 is now a favourable position of £10.8m, as the DfE will give us £28m grant to match the £28m the General Fund will need to contribute to reduce the overall DSG deficit to nil.

B.    That Cabinet noted that if the Safety Valve had not been entered into, there would have been an adverse variance on the GF of £0.8m, which would have required a call on the Balancing the Budget reserve to balance it.

C.   That Cabinet noted additional training for budget managers will be carried out, targeting areas with substantial differences between forecast variances at period 10 and final outturn.

D.   That Cabinet considered the outturn position on Capital and approved the Slippage, predominately for the Compulsory Purchase Orders (CPOs) for Clarion’s regeneration scheme and delays in equipment due to shortages of chips into 2022/23 and other adjustments detailed in Appendix 2C, 2C1 and Section 7 of the report

To RESOLVE that the public are excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following report(s) on the grounds that it is (they are) exempt from disclosure for the reasons stated in the report(s).

RESOLVED: That the public were excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following reports on the grounds that they are exempt from disclosure for the reasons stated in the reports.

RESOLVED: That the recommendations within the report were agreed.

The report was presented and discussed and it was

RESOLVED: That the recommendations within the report were agreed.