Agenda item

The Leader to make a statement.

There will be an opportunity for Members to ask questions and/or make comments.

Liz Bowes, Fiona White and Keith Witham arrived at 10.10 am.

Carla Morson arrived at 10.13 am.

The Leader of the Council made a detailed statement. A copy of the statement is attached as Appendix A.

Members raised the following topics:

·         Congratulated the Leader and Executive Director for Children, Families and Lifelong Learning for their OBEs; and to the two Members who had been elected to Parliament, and all those who stood for election.

·         Hoped for positive change at Westminster that would address some of the issues the Council was struggling with.

·         Noted the failure of the processes for assessing and meeting need for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

·         Noted that schools were struggling to meet that need, early intervention was vital to address the increased demand and complexity of need.

·         Highlighted the ageing population and more SEND children transitioning into adulthood, a secure funding system was needed to enable the building of the right accommodation and support attracting the required staff.

·         Stressed that strategies were needed to reduce climate change by decreasing the use of fossil fuels by generating more green energy and efficient homes, and by improving resilience to climate change by not building on flood plains.

·         Hoped for systems and processes to become more efficient and more effective, removing unnecessary bureaucracy. 

·         Noted negative changes during the current Council term: removal of Local Committees, verge cutting and on-street parking enforcement brought back in-house, and the restructuring of the highways teams. The Council had become increasingly reactive with issues reported by residents not being resolved.

·         Welcomed the additional Educational Psychologists, but correspondence with parents, carers and schools, and the delivery and support for places for children and young people was inadequate.

·         Welcomed the significant capital investment programme: building new children's homes, extra care housing for older residents and those with Autism Spectrum Disorder, building more SEN schools and increasing provision in others.

·         However, noted that the level of scrutiny was disappointing, the scoping, local Member engagement and project management was poor, leading to ineffective, delayed and costly delivery; called for Members’ skills to be utilised.

Angela Goodwin, Julia McShane and Liz Townsend, arrived at 10.24 am.

·         Welcomed that there were two more people in Parliament with experience of local government who could highlight the struggles faced.

·         Noted that Members must now refocus energy on their remit, a new government would not be able to solve the problems faced for many years quickly, called for working collectively to tackle the challenges.

·         Highlighted a case where the Council was instructed to pay compensation to the family of a boy with complex medical needs who lost twenty-seven days of education and special needs provision after his school transport was cancelled.

·         Was horrified by the decisions made regarding Home to School Transport, the Council must use its resources efficiently to not disadvantage more children.

John Robini arrived at 10.26 am.

·         Noted that the Council had to pay out more than £540,000 of compensation in the last year to families who complained about Children's Services.

·         Noted that the Council had worked hard over the last five years to get to a relatively stable position, yet in-year budgets were under pressure and several funding streams were set to end in the next few years affecting valued services.

·         Suggested that it was time to update Sir Andrew Dilnot’s recommendations concerning Adult Social Care, that required cross-party agreement across all levels of government.

·         Welcomed that the new government recognised the need for infrastructure as a precursor to development and hoped that the Council would support that.

·         Noted concern that planned future reductions in spending in the commissioning of social care services through partners in the voluntary sector would negatively affect the Council’s relationship with those organisations; sufficient support was needed to prevent gaps in the services particularly to vulnerable residents.

·         Noted the many major changes in the Corporate Leadership Team and directorships, was pleased that looked like it was coming to an end and looked forward to welcoming and working with the new Chief Executive going forward.

·         Highlighted that Sir Keir Starmer is the first UK Prime Minister to come from Surrey on its present boundaries.

·         Noted that the long list of challenges that the new government would face was a sorry legacy of fourteen years of Conservative Party and Conservative-Liberal Democrat Parties governments.

·         Believed that SEND and education would be at the forefront of the new government, the Labour Party had always been progressive on education and Surrey had supported that agenda around the introduction of comprehensive schools and ensuring a good education reputation; hoped that would continue. 

·         Stressed that Adult Social Care was a large challenge and more so in Surrey due to its larger ageing population, that increase nationally and in the number of people with age-related illnesses was a challenge; a new and better system of funding for Adult Social Care was needed.

·         Regarding devolution, urged caution against a one-size-fits-all approach.

·         Noted that it was fortunate that voters in the UK could oust a government at the ballot box and hoped all Members would embrace the forthcoming change.

·         Supported the Leader’s plans to lobby for increased funding for SEN, to provide sufficient funding to match increased demand for school places and school SEND provision; and to tackle the challenges around social care.

·         Called on the Leader to lobby central government on increased overall funding for local government in line with the Local Government White Paper and for devolution to solve national challenges around transport and retrofitting homes.

·         Called for the Department for Transport to stop requiring Network Rail to sell off its assets and for the Department for Education to publicly confirm that it would provide the money to refurbish Reigate Priory School on its current site.

·         Congratulated Sarah Finch on her successful legal challenge against the Council's planning decision to permit oil drilling at Horse Hill shortly after the Council voted to declare a ‘climate emergency’.

·         Noted that just as oil wells should consider the climate impact of burning the oil extracted, asked for the Council to support the consideration of the full climate impact of Gatwick Airport Limited's plans for a second runway through increased flights and increased road traffic.

Bernie Muir and George Potter arrived at 10.35 am.

·         Highlighted frustration in the Council and other county councils not being given enforcement powers over vehicles blocking pavements and called for the Leader to lobby the new Secretary of State for Transport to address the issue.

·         Noted the Leader’s dedication to public service, despite some national and local chaos in the Conservative Party.

·         Praised the cross-party working on Brightwells Yard and the Farnham Infrastructure Programme to be delivered over the next eighteen months, and thanked the Leader, local Members and colleagues in Waverley Borough Council and Farnham Town Council.

·         Looked forward to the Waverley Borough Council Leader’s help to progress the Guildford-Waverley Partnership.