Agenda and minutes

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To approve the minutes of the meetings held on 25 November 2024 and 19 December 2024 respectively.

Resolved that the minutes of the previous meetings held on 25 November 2024 and 19 December 2024 be confirmed and signed by the Chair.

The Young Mayor advised that since his last update in November, he has attended different youth projects and primary schools to discuss his pledge and speak to younger children about why he decided to run for Young Mayor. Following his visits, applications have been received to apply for funding to support his pledge around raising awareness of the dangers of vaping, smoking, drinking alcohol and using illegal drugs, as well the Member of Youth Parliament’s pledge around smarter spending amongst young people. A panel will be held for those that have applied to present their ideas.

The Young Mayor advised that the Children in Care Christmas event was a huge success due to the number of children that attended, engaged with senior leaders and most importantly had fun. The children involved asked to pass on their thanks to everyone who attended and took part in the fun activities and for the gifts received.

The Young Mayor advised that a new post has been advertised for a worker to support the Children in Care Council group regionally, this will involve work with other local authorities across the North East. The Children in Care Council group are looking forward to the position being filled and being a part of a young person’s panel.

The Young Mayor advised that the SEND Youth Forum have met for the first time this year with some new members. They are beginning to start their key fund application with some team building events.

The Young Mayor advised that in his final few weeks as Young Mayor he is working with the public health team to create a video around his pledge, which he hopes to be able to share soon.

The Young Mayor advised that the elections for the next Young Mayor and Member of Youth Parliament are currently in motion, with the online voting stage closing Friday 24 January 2025. There have been 15 applications for Young Mayor and 5 for the Member of Youth Parliament, with a lot of interest from young people across the borough asking how to be involved. The Young Mayor wished all the candidates good luck throughout their campaign.

The Young Mayor was thanked for all of his work within the Public Health portfolio.

The Cabinet offered their congratulations to the Young Mayor and confirmed that they were looking forward to seeing the video.

he Young Mayor and confirmed that they were looking forward to seeing the video.

The report introduces a proposed Adult Social Care Strategy for 2025-2026. (“the Strategy”). The Strategy sets out how the Authority intends to develop support for adults with care and support needs and their carers over the next two years.

In common with most local authorities, the Authority faces a rapidly ageing population, an increasing number of residents with care and support needs, financial pressures, and recruitment and retention challenges in the social care sector.

To address these challenges, the Strategy focuses on prevention throughout; empowering people to live included lives, close to the people they love, wherever possible in homes they can call their own. This will allow the Authority to concentrate resources on providing excellent support and maintaining a good quality of life for those who need more intensive, ongoing care and support.

The Cabinet was presented with the Adult Social Care Strategy for 2025 to 2026. 

The strategy sets out Adult Social Care’s ambitious aims and priorities for the next two years. It will enable the Adult Social Care directorate to continue the development of the strategy, whilst preparing a further strategy to take the Authority to the end of the decade. This strategy will be developed in line with the new Council Plan and joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy.

The Cabinet was advised that the strategy highlights the service’s strengths, acknowledges its challenges, and highlights opportunities to improve outcomes for our residents.

The three key aims proposed were to:

·        Empower people to live active lives

·        Deliver effective and efficient services

·        Support and safeguard our most vulnerable residents

The Cabinet was advised that these aims are underpinned by a commitment to co-production, effective partnerships across the public and voluntary sectors, and investing in our workforce.

It was noted that the report and its appendices showed the extensive internal and external consultation with partners and the public – with over 300 respondents participating over a three-month period. 

The Cabinet were advised that there had been remarkable similarity in views between the various stakeholder groups, with significant public support for every priority that was proposed.

The Cabinet welcomed the strategy and the focus on prevention it provides. Cabinet also welcomed the focus on several key themes in the Equally Well strategy. The Cabinet looked forward to updates at the Health and Well Being board.

Cabinet Resolved to:

1.       Approve the Adult Social Care Strategy 2025-2026, appended to the report at Appendix A.

2.      Note that progress on the Strategy will be scrutinised by the Caring Sub-Committee, and updates reported to the Health and Wellbeing Board and Carer’s Partnership Board.

Reasons for Decision:

 The Adult Social Care Strategy 2025-2026 has been co-designed with people with lived experience of Adult Social Care services, carers, and people living with disabilities and long-term health conditions.

The Strategy has also been shaped by the professional expertise of over 110 representatives of organisations across the local public services, Voluntary Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) and social care provider sectors.

The Strategy aligned with current multi-agency strategic commitments, whilst supporting the improved delivery of statutory duties.

The Council Tax Base is an annual statutory calculation, used to determine the level of Council Tax to be paid for individual properties in the Borough. The Tax Base represents the number of properties that will be subject to Council Tax and is expressed in terms of the number of Band D equivalent properties, after allowing for the effect of discounts, exemptions and reliefs.

The agreed Tax Base for North Tyneside Council for 2025/26 will be used in the 2025/26 Budget and Council Tax calculation. The Tax Base is also used as the basis for the major precepting authorities (Police and Crime Commissioner for Northumbria and the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Authority) to determine their precept requirements.

The Cabinet was presented with a report on the proposed Council Tax Base for 2025/2026. 

Cabinet was advised that the Council Tax Base is a statutory calculation that is used in the 2025/2026 Budget and Council Tax setting process. It is also used as the basis for our major precepting authorities, the Police & Crime Commissioner for Northumbria and the Tyne & Wear Fire and Rescue Authority.

Cabinet was advised that the 2025/2026 Council Tax Base calculation takes account of one change from 1Apil 2025 to introduce a 100% premium for those dwellings that are periodically occupied, often referred to as second homes. This was approved by full Council on the 18 January 2024. This change has increased the number of properties where a Premium applies which in turn has increased the Council Tax Base. The Cabinet was also advised that the report included the latest forecast numbers of properties in the Borough.

The other factor that Cabinet was asked to determine is the assumed long term collection rate for Council Tax. This had been set at 98.5% since 2013/14 but changed to 98% in 2021/22 for one year only in recognition of the difficult financial situation that many households faced due to the Covid 19 Pandemic.

The Cabinet was advised that in 2024/25 the long-term collection rate was 98.5% and although collection remains challenging, performance of the in-year collection rate is around the same as it was in 2023/24 financial year at this point. With this in mind, Cabinet heard that the assumed collection rate of 98.5% is still considered to be achievable in the long term.

Cabinet RESOLVED to:

1.       Approve the report on the calculation of North Tyneside’s Council Tax Base for 2025/26

2.      Agree that the assumed Council Tax collection rate for 2025/26 is set at 98.50% and therefore the amount calculated by North Tyneside Council as its Council Tax Base for 2025/26 will be 64,950 Band D equivalent properties, pursuant to this report and in accordance with the Local Authorities (Calculation of Council Tax Base) (England) Regulations 2012.

Reason for Decision:

The proposed 98.50% assumed Council Tax collection rate, is felt to be achievable for the reasons set out in the report.

The risk of setting a Council Tax collection rate too high is that this can result in a deficit position for the Council Tax element of the Collection Fund, which in turn will have to be funded by the Authority’s General Fund.

The collection rate is reviewed as part of the annual Council Tax Base calculation, and the 98.50% collection rate will be reviewed in determining the Council Tax Base for 2025/26.

The report provides Cabinet with an overview of both the service delivery performance and budget position across the Authority as at 30 November 2024.  It sets out the key areas of service delivery for Cabinet to note, including any impacts in budgetary terms and sow the forecast outturn position to 31 March 2025 for both revenue and capital.

The Cabinet was presented with the latest Performance and Financial Management Report. 

Cabinet was advised that this report sets out the key areas of service delivery and the performance metrics that drive the financial forecast based on the position as at the end of October 2024.

Cabinet was advised that the performance across the Authority is on track, in particular delivery of the Our North Tyneside Plan 2021-2025 policy priorities. 

It was noted that Council Tax and Business Rates collection is performing well and comparable with the metropolitan district and national performance.  

Cabinet was advised that the Authority continues to manage a high level of demand, including requests for Education, Health and Care Plan assessments, social care services and homeless presentations. 

It was noted that our “Home First” approach to hospital discharges and increase in commissioned homecare hours is continuing to reduce reliance on short-term residential care and promoting residents’ independence to remain at home with support.

The Cabinet was informed that our Children in Care and Children in Need figures are stabilising and coming in line with the MTFP assumptions, but reliance on external residential care and the high cost of individual placements are leading to financial pressures.  This is being addressed through the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) programme.

The Cabinet was advised that the Authority’s Safety Valve Management Plan is forecast to reach a positive in year balance by the end of 2027/28 in relation to high needs education. Despite high demand for assessment, the rate of growth for new Education Health and Care Plans (EHCP) issued has decreased and is significantly better than regional and national comparators. 

The Cabinet was advised that the Home to School Transport MTFP workstream is starting to reduce the budget pressures associated with the increased inflationary costs and high number of pupils with complex needs, who need support with transport. The number of pupils who use the service has stabilised.

Further detail on performance is contained within Annex 1 to the report.

Cabinet was reminded that there continues to be significant pressures in 2024/25 and into the medium term.

Cabinet was informed that, driven by our current performance information, the forecast net pressure for the General Fund is £8.9m, £0.578m better than the outturn position reported at the last Cabinet meeting.

Cabinet was informed that many of the pressures in the current year are consistent with those faced in recent years, and importantly form part of our existing Medium Term Financial Plan projects. To ensure the workstreams deliver the Authority’s strategic objectives, a dedicated resource to provide programme management has been recruited. The pressures include the impact of inflation, on both in-house delivery and externally commissioned services, as well as rising demand and increased complexity for services within both adults and children’s social care.  Further detail on each service area is contained within Annex 2 to the report.

Cabinet noted that a programme of work is in place to both manage and mitigate the in-year pressures and the Senior Leadership Team  ...  view the full minutes text for item CAB90/24

On 25 November 2024 Cabinet received a report from the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordination and Finance Committee’s Task and Finish Group on Highways Delivery in North Tyneside.  The Scrutiny Task and Finish Group was specifically established to take forward the matters at the request of members of the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordination and Finance Committee who had initially looked to review the operation of the highway maintenance function delivered by Capita, the Authority’s strategic delivery partner.  With the announcement of the return of services back to the Authority in January 2025, the objective of the Task and Finish Group expanded to gain a greater understanding of how the highway maintenance service operates and to review the working practices taking into account national, regional and local policies with particular regard to the NE Transport Plan, Highways Asset Management Plan and future City Regions Sustainable Transport Settlement funding. 

The report sets out a proposed response from Cabinet to the findings and recommendations of the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordination and Finance Committee’s Task and Finish Group on Highways Delivery in North Tyneside.

Cabinet was informed that on 10^th July 2024 the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordination and Finance Committee agreed to create a Task and Finish Group to scrutinise Highways Delivery in North Tyneside and review the operation of the highway maintenance function delivered by Capita, the Authority’s strategic delivery partner, before the return of the services to the Authority in January 2025.

Cabinet was advised that this Task and Finish Group worked diligently over the Summer and Autumn to scrutinise the areas set out in their Terms of Reference.

Cabinet was reminded that at the meeting of Cabinet on 25^th November 2024, the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordination and Finance Committee (OSCFC) attended and presented the Task and Finish Group’s report.  Cabinet had welcomed the report in November and had agreed that the report would be fully considered and a response to the findings and recommendations would be provided to the OSCFC.

Having done so, Cabinet confirmed that it wholly endorsed and accepted all findings of the Scrutiny Task and Finish Group.  An Action Plan had been prepared to take the Task and Finish Group’s recommendations forward. This Action Plan was commended to Cabinet.

Cabinet was advised that with the return of these services to the Authority, this was an excellent opportunity for members, through the function of Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordination and Finance Committee, to scrutinise what has been done in the past, what can be done better and to ensure the services works for the benefit of our residents.

Cabinet was advised that Scrutiny processes enable appropriate challenge.

Cabinet noted it’s view that it has been a positive first few weeks since the Capita staff rejoined the Authority. Work had been carried out to repair roads and paint lines outside schools, helping to improve safety. Cabinet passed on their thanks to all involved in this report.

Cabinet RESOLVED to:

1.               Agree the proposed responses to the recommendations made by the Overview and Scrutiny Co-ordination and Finance Committee’s Task and Finish Group on Highways Delivery in North Tyneside.

2.               Authorise the Assistant Chief Executive, Director of Regeneration and Economic Development and Director of Resources to take all necessary steps to deliver the proposed actions as soon as reasonably practicable.

Reason for the Decision:

This will allow the Authority to progress the recommendations of the Task and Finish Group, based on the evidence set out in the Task and Finish Group’s report, in accordance with Cabinet’s wishes.  This will also fulfil Cabinet’s responsibility to formulate a response to the Task and Finish Group’s report, in accordance with requirements of the Local Government Act 2000.

Monday 27 January 2025 at 6.00pm (Extraordinary Meeting)

Monday 3 February 2025 at 6.00pm (Extraordinary Meeting)

Monday 17 February 2025 at 6.00pm (Ordinary Meeting)

Monday 27 January 2025 at 6.00pm (Extraordinary Meeting)

Monday 3 February 2025 at 6.00pm (Extraordinary Meeting)

Monday 17 February 2025 at 6.00pm (Ordinary Meeting)