Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Burton and Goodwin. 

Apologies were also received from Councillor Holdich, Cabinet Member for Education, Skills and University and Councillor Lamb, Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care.

Councillor Dobbs declared a personal interest in item 3 as he was employed within the burial sector. 

Councillor Sandford declared a personal interest in item 3 as he was a member of the Peterborough Environment City Trust (PECT).

To scrutinise the following elements of the budget:

• Creating Opportunities and Tackling Inequalities Scrutiny Committee
• Scrutiny Commission for Health Issues
• Overall  financial plans and Council Tax level

Please ensure that you bring your copy of the budget papers with you.

The proposed budget 2010/11 and Medium Term Financial Plan to 2014/15 had been considered by the Cabinet on 14 December 2009 where they had resolved that the proposed budget now be consulted upon.

It was within the Environment Capital Scrutiny Committee’s terms of reference to receive and consider the Executive’s budget proposals and to make any recommendations.  In previous years each of the scrutiny committees considered the relevant parts of the budget proposals and made comments individually.   As the remit was now within one committee, a new approach was being taken to scrutinise this important issue.  Undertaking scrutiny of the budget in this way would enable the budget to be looked at as a whole rather than as individual parts.  This would lead to a better understanding of where one part of the budget might have an impact on another part.

A briefing session on the budget had been held for all members prior to this meeting and tonight’s meeting would look at the aspects of the budget in relation to the following areas:

• Creating Opportunities and Tackling Inequalities Scrutiny Committee
• Scrutiny Commission for Health Issues
• Overall financial plans and Council Tax level

The meeting on 14 January would consider:

• Scrutiny Commission for Rural Communities
• Sustainable Growth Scrutiny Committee
• Strong and Supportive Communities Scrutiny Committee
• Environment Capital Scrutiny Committee (operational issues)

The relevant Cabinet Members, Directors and relevant scrutiny committee/commission had been invited to attend and themed scrutiny would be undertaken aligned to the terms of reference of each scrutiny committee/commission and relevant recommendations would be agreed at the end of each session.

Creating Opportunities and Tackling Inequalities

The Assistant Director for Resources advised that the budget showed a huge investment in education in the City.  Resources would also be put into supporting children in care.

Observations and questions were asked around the following areas:

• Why was there such a drop in the capital programme for children’s services between 2010/11 and 2014/15?  The first couple of years would be delivering Phase 2 of the Secondary School Review and the Primary Capital Programme.  In further years it would revert to the standard funding for maintenance etc.
• How much of the dedicated schools grant was held back by the Council?  About £11.7m was retained for areas such as support to special educational needs, pupil referral units, alternative education provision and early year’s education.
• What was the Green Shoots pilot?  It was an exciting project working with Westminster City Council which looked at the families who had need for most support.  It would be looking at targeting those families in a different way and looking at better ways of delivering services across departments.
• What was the reasoning behind the decision to remove the subsidy from school meals?  It was a business decision of City Services which had contracts with a number of schools.  City Services was now looking to bring in new contracts with an aim of breaking even.  A number of schools had already opted out of the service and free  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Thursday 14 January 2010

Thursday 14 January 2010 at 6.30pm.