Decisions

This decision record sets out the key information for publication on the decision by the Executive Director for Customer, Digital and Transformation to approve expenditure for a Your Fund Surrey project located in Tandridge. The agreed recommendations are set out below and details of the project are set out in a decision report attached as an annex to this record.

It was AGREED

Officer Recommendations in consultation with the Advisory Panel. It is recommended

that:

1. To fund project CF139 for the full amount requested of £10,146. No contingency

to be held by SCC due to the simple one-off purchase of equipment.

2. Approve the following conditions before funding can be released:

A. An updated risk register provided to YFS that includes the new assets

B. Evidence of updated insurance which covers the new assets

C. Evidence that YFS funding is not being used to cover the insurance item in the project

cost

It was AGREED that:

1. To fund project CF161 for the full amount requested of £16,740. No contingency to be held by SCC (Surrey County Council) due to the simple one-off purchase of equipment.
2. Approve the following conditions before funding can be released:

·         Evidence of updated insurance which covers the new assets after they have been installed

RESOLVED:

1.    That Cabinet notes the efforts that have gone into extending the engagement with communities and partners over the new Surrey Transport Plan including analysis and feedback received from the statutory public consultation and subsequent additional targeted engagement.?

2. That Cabinet notes how delivering the Surrey Transport Plan associated policies, strategies and measures will support the Climate Change Delivery Plan.?
3. That Cabinet notes the capital investment required to deliver the plan as set out in the 2022/23 budget and beyond in line with the Medium-Term Financial Plan.?
4. That Cabinet recommends the approval of the Surrey Transport Plan, to County Council on 12 July 2022 including launch of new related Surrey website pages on the 13 July 2022. ?
5. That Cabinet recommends to Council that authority be delegated to the Executive Director, for Environment, Transport & Infrastructure, in discussion with the Cabinet Member for Transport & Infrastructure for any final changes that may be necessary to allow publication of the plan on 13 July 2022 and any key changes thereafter to comply with new government policy.
6. That Cabinet thanks the Members of the Greener Futures Reference Group for their work in developing the Plan thus far.?

Reasons for Decisions:

The recommendations will enable the new Surrey Transport Plan (LTP4) to be adopted thereby enabling new policies and measures to develop and deliver safe, cleaner, greener ways of travelling and accessing services and opportunities in the future. This will help to deliver significant reduction in carbon emissions from the transport sector to deliver net zero carbon by 2050, as set out in the Climate Change Strategy agreed by Cabinet in May 2020, and the Climate Change Delivery Programme agreed by Cabinet in October 2021.

The Plan provides a step change in how transport services and its infrastructure are planned, delivered, maintained, and used. This will need the Council, partner organisations, businesses, and all of Surrey’s residents to work together to make changes in when, where, and how they choose to travel, including the adoption of digital opportunities.

The plan sets out a framework to develop these new policies, strategies, and measures to establish and embed active and sustainable travel behaviours and promote the uptake of technology such as electric and hydrogen powered vehicles, to meet the challenge of achieving the county’s target of net zero carbon by 2050. The plan also supports the importance of ensuring that our transport policies and networks enable a prosperous economy and healthier, better, connected communities, ensuring that no one is left behind.

(The decisions on this item can be called-in by the Communities, Environment and Highways Select Committee)

RESOLVED:

See Minute 95/22

Reasons for Decisions:

See Minute 95/22

(The decisions on this item can be called-in by the Resources and Performance Select Committee)

RESOLVED:

1. That Cabinet approve the route to market for the procurement of new WAN and Wi-Fi services for SCC sites.

2. That Cabinet approve capital funding of £8.23m, moved from the capital pipeline, to enable the replacement of the existing WAN and Wi-Fi services for SCC sites.

3. That Cabinet approve the delegation of the contract award decision to the Executive Director of Resources.

Reasons for Decisions:

The procurement of new WAN and Wi-Fi services will meet the operational needs of the Council for the next 10-15 years and provides the opportunity to support collaboration and service delivery with health and local government partners.

The implementation of new WAN and Wi-Fi services supports the community vision for Surrey in 2030 in several areas including “well-connected communities with effective infrastructure that grow sustainably”, by accelerating the availability of digital networks to residents and businesses in Surrey.

(The decisions on this item can be called-in by the Resources and Performance Select Committee)

That the decisions taken since the last Cabinet meeting be noted.

These were agreed as a correct record of the meeting.

RESOLVED:

1.      That Cabinet note the Council’s revenue and capital positions for the year.

2.      That Cabinet approve the following transfers to reserves planned as part of the revenue budget and included in the outturn position:

·         £2.6m unspent transformation funding to be transferred to the Transformation Reserve to fund future transformation ambitions and mitigate risks associated with delivering transformation in future years.

·         £19.5m of 2021/22 contingency budget to the General Fund Reserve to improve financial resilience and the Council’s ability to mitigate future funding uncertainty, significant service pressures and increased global economic volatility.

·         £0.5m to the Budget Equalisation Reserve to be utilised early in 2022/23 for specific payments, as set out in paragraph 12.

3.    That Cabinet note that the remaining £1m surplus will also be added to the General Fund Balance to further improve our financial resilience.

Recommendations relating to additional 2022/23 funding:

4.    That Cabinet delegate future decisions on the allocation of emergency funding announced by Government to support vulnerable residents to the Deputy Chief Executive & Executive Director of Resources and other relevant Executive Directors in consultation with the Leader and other relevant Cabinet Members, as appropriate.  This will enable timely allocation of funding for vulnerable residents, such as the Household Support Grant and funding for Ukraine refugees, in accordance with associated funding conditions.

5.    That Cabinet confirms that the following increased/additional grants will be allocated in full to the Public Health service budget to be spent in accordance with relevant grant conditions:

·          £1.1m increase to Surrey’s Public Health grant to meet identified commissioning, contract and pay inflation pressures.

·         £3m recently announced new Supplemental Substance Misuse Treatment and Recovery grant to support improvements in the quality and capacity of drug and alcohol treatment for the years 2022/23 to 2024/25.

·         £0.1m per annum new In-patient Detoxification Grant

Reasons for Decisions:

This report is to comply with the agreed policy of providing a monthly budget monitoring report to Cabinet for approval of any necessary actions.

(The decisions on this item can be called-in by the Resources and Performance Select Committee)

RESOLVED:

1. That Cabinet agree the implementation of the Phase 2 projects identified in the report and set out in Appendix 1, within the approved budget envelope, subject to the final business case for each scheme being approved by the Capital Programme Panel.
2. That Cabinet agree to delegate the development and delivery of the schemes to the  Executive Director of Environment, Transport & Infrastructure, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Transport and Infrastructure.

Reasons for Decisions:

The recommendations will enable the development and delivery of infrastructure schemes that meet a wide range of outcomes and demonstrate deliverability and affordability.  They enable the implementation of the second phase of schemes and the development of a continuous pipeline of schemes that require further feasibility work. The process is intended to remain dynamic with new schemes added to the long list as they are identified.  A continuous programme of schemes will be developed taking them from concept through to delivery identifying suitable funding opportunities as they progress.

(The decisions on this item can be called-in by the Communities, Environment and Highways Select Committee)

RESOLVED:

1. That Cabinet approves the amended Minerals and Waste Development Scheme dated May 2022 which includes an extended timetable for the preparation of the Minerals and Waste Local Plan, as set out in Annex 1.

2. That Cabinet delegates authority to the Executive Director of Environment, Transport & Infrastructure in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Transport & Infrastructure to make any further revisions to the scheme or timetable.

Reasons for Decisions:

Surrey County Council, as the County Planning Authority, is required by law to prepare and maintain an up-to-date Minerals and Waste Development Scheme. Officers propose to update the Minerals and Waste Development Scheme to extend the timetable in which the Minerals and Waste Local Plan is to be prepared. This extension of time is necessary to accommodate the complexity and range of technical work necessary to prepare a sound local development plan; extensive and meaningful engagement with stakeholders; and anticipated changes to Government policy, guidance, legislation, and regulations and the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty boundary during the plan-preparation period.

(The decisions on this item can be called-in by the Communities, Environment and Highways Select Committee)

Surrey County Council’s Registration & Nationality Service is proposing to align its fees and charges for marriage ceremonies and civil partnership ceremonies, along with non-statutory ceremonies such as vow renewals and naming ceremonies. In addition, following a benchmarking exercise, the service is proposing to increase its fees and charges for 2024/25 in line with inflation.

Aligning marriage and civil partnership and other non-statutory ceremonies fees and charges will mean that customers are paying a consistent and equal amount for these services. Increasing fees and charges for 2024/2025 in line with inflation will mean the Registration & Nationality Service can start to take bookings at the new rates and continue to offer a high-quality service to customers, as well as provide an important source of income for the Council.  

1) That the following changes to fees and charges for the Registration Service be approved with immediate effect:

• Civil partnership fees and charges to be aligned to those for marriages.
• Non-statutory ceremony fees and charges to be aligned to those of marriages/civil partnerships

2) That the proposed increase to fees and charges for 2024/25 in line with inflation (as detailed in Annex 1) be approved.

The Cabinet Member for Communities not being available to take this decision the Leader of the Council took the decision on his behalf.

The Scheme of Delegation in the Constitution provides:

The Cabinet Member making the decision will be the Member allocated the appropriate responsibilities by the Leader, except that (1) where that Member is unable to act (whether through a conflict of interest, illness or absence) another Member of the Cabinet may exercise the function on their behalf.

The Waverley Family Centre and Mobile Family Centre (bus) is run by Barnardo’s on behalf of Surrey County Council (SCC) to deliver targeted services. The purpose of the Mobile Family Centre is to engage with rural communities, although this was expanded to include any families that were isolated for any reason regardless of where they lived. It is funded by SCC through a £69,000 per annum grant to Waverley Family Centre which is managed by Barnardo’s. This grant covers the costs of running the Mobile Family Centre including five hours a week for a Mobile Family Centre co-ordinator and a driver for the centre whose hours vary based on need. In addition to this, SCC is responsible for covering the costs of maintenance and repairs and pays £14,000 per annum for the lease of the vehicle. In total this amounts to £83,000 per annum cost plus any repairs that might be required. If the service continues running, by March 2024 the total cost would be £166,000 alongside any repair costs that might be required.

The grant funding criteria requires that Barnardo’s make the Mobile Family Centre available to other family centres in Surrey for four days a week. Since November 2019 only Waverley Family Centre have used the Mobile Family Centre with other family centres being reluctant due to it not meeting their service delivery model.

The transformation of Children’s Centres into targeted Family Centres in 2018 reduced the Mobile Family Centre offer from two buses to one. There was a public consultation on the transformation including the decommissioning of the Mobile Family Centre however the decision was taken to retain one Mobile Family Centre (bus) in response to the consultation. Usage of the remaining Mobile Family Centre has been in decline with the number of visits declining from thirteen a month in April 2018 to two by July 2019. Some of this was due to the change in services that Family Centres deliver compared to the Children’s Centres that they replaced, as there was a move to delivering targeted level 3 interventions directly to families in the home and level 2 services in the community or virtually.

The Mobile Family Centre has not carried out any visits since the first national lockdown began in March 2020.

Barnardo’s have recommended that the Mobile Family Centre service should be de-commissioned as they believe it no longer provides value for money, does not complement the Family Centre model, or meet the needs of local families.

A consultation was held between 21^st February and 21^st March 2022 to investigate views on discontinuing the services and the impact of this on families and children. There were four responders of which two indicated that the impact of discontinuing the service would be ‘no impact’, one indicated it would be ‘somewhat negative, and one that it would be ‘significantly negative’.

As a County Council we are focused on ensuring services for families enable them to thrive while also providing value for money. We are therefore proposing to discontinue the Mobile Family Centre from 1^st July 2022, when the current grant agreement expires.

It was AGREED that the Mobile Family Centre would be discontinued from 1^st July 2022.

A petition with 385 signatories has been submitted by Tony Campion.  The full petition text and response was published with the agenda.

Further to the published response:

The Cabinet Member and Highways Officer both maintained that a push-button pedestrian crossing would only be installed under a “major scheme” that might also involve the redesign of Anglefield Corner for vehicles.  Funding for this would be contingent on broader developments eg the Garden Village.  The Cabinet Member commented that the Council do in principle support improvements at Anglefield Corner including the installation of push-button crossing, in principle, but that timing and funds remained uncertain.

The Highways Officer committed to various measures in the short term, all of which potentially improve pedestrian safety.  Specifically she committed two putting the following measures onto the Integrated Transport Scheme (ITS) list:

·         replacing the missing 40mph speed limit sign in its proper location on the right hand side of the A22 driving south into Anglefield Corner.  

·         improving the 40mph signage to make it clearer.  

·         cutting back vegetation to improve sight-lines to the southbound bus stop as southbound drivers round the left-hand bend into the 40mph zone.  

·         reviewing the speed limit both through the existing 40mph zone and in the 100m immediately north of the 40mph zone where the limit could be reduced from 50mph to 40mph.  

·         reviewing the need for a pedestrian island in the road where children currently wait between traffic lanes.

A petition with 176 signatories had been submitted by Niall MacGregor.  The full petition text and published response was published with the agenda.

Further to the published response:

The Local Member, Catherine Baart, spoke in favour of the petition.

There was much discussion with petitioners, local member and council officers regarding the difficulties of this site and why petitioner requests could not be catered for.  Officers confirmed that it would be put on the ITS list to review the speed limit.  They would also look at an informal crossing point and signage.

The Waverley Family Centre and Mobile Family Centre (bus) is run by Barnardo’s on behalf of Surrey County Council (SCC) to deliver targeted services. The purpose of the Mobile Family Centre is to engage with rural communities, although this was expanded to include any families that were isolated for any reason regardless of where they lived. It is funded by SCC through a £69,000 per annum grant to Waverley Family Centre which is managed by Barnardo’s. This grant covers the costs of running the Mobile Family Centre including five hours a week for a Mobile Family Centre co-ordinator and a driver for the centre whose hours vary based on need. In addition to this, SCC is responsible for covering the costs of maintenance and repairs and pays £14,000 per annum for the lease of the vehicle. In total this amounts to £83,000 per annum cost plus any repairs that might be required. If the service continues running, by March 2024 the total cost would be £166,000 alongside any repair costs that might be required.

The grant funding criteria requires that Barnardo’s make the Mobile Family Centre available to other family centres in Surrey for four days a week. Since November 2019 only Waverley Family Centre have used the Mobile Family Centre with other family centres being reluctant due to it not meeting their service delivery model.

The transformation of Children’s Centres into targeted Family Centres in 2018 reduced the Mobile Family Centre offer from two buses to one. There was a public consultation on the transformation including the decommissioning of the Mobile Family Centre however the decision was taken to retain one Mobile Family Centre (bus) in response to the consultation. Usage of the remaining Mobile Family Centre has been in decline with the number of visits declining from thirteen a month in April 2018 to two by July 2019. Some of this was due to the change in services that Family Centres deliver compared to the Children’s Centres that they replaced, as there was a move to delivering targeted level 3 interventions directly to families in the home and level 2 services in the community or virtually.

The Mobile Family Centre has not carried out any visits since the first national lockdown began in March 2020.

Barnardo’s have recommended that the Mobile Family Centre service should be de-commissioned as they believe it no longer provides value for money, does not complement the Family Centre model, or meet the needs of local families.

A consultation was held between 21^st February and 21^st March 2022 to investigate views on discontinuing the services and the impact of this on families and children. There were four responders of which two indicated that the impact of discontinuing the service would be ‘no impact’, one indicated it would be ‘somewhat negative, and one that it would be ‘significantly negative’.

As a County Council we are focused on ensuring services for families enable them to thrive while also providing value for money. We are therefore proposing to discontinue the Mobile Family Centre from 1^st July 2022, when the current grant agreement expires.

It was AGREED that the Mobile Family Centre would be discontinued from 1^st July 2022

1.    That the enhanced annual Post 16 Policy Statement be approved.

There were six public questions and responses published as a supplement to the agenda papers.  Supplementary questions and responses will be published as a supplement to this decision sheet.

There were none.