Issue - meetings

The Executive is asked to note the:

a.    Latest position for the County Council’s 2022/23 Revenue Budget, (see paragraph 2.1.2 of the report).

b.    Position on the GWB (paragraphs 2.4.1 to 2.4.3).

c.    Position on the ‘Strategic Capacity – Unallocated’ reserve (paragraph 2.4.4)

d.    Latest position regarding the Local Government Review transition fund (paragraph 2.5.1)

e.    Position on the County Council’s Treasury Management activities during the second quarter of 2022/23

The Executive is also asked to:

f.     Refer the report to the Audit Committee for their consideration as part of the overall monitoring arrangements for Treasury Management.

g.    Approve the refreshed Capital Plan summarised at paragraph 4.2.3; and

h.    Agree that no action be taken at this stage to allocate any additional capital resources (paragraph 4.5.7).

A joint report of the Chief Executive and Corporate Director - Strategic Resources, bringing together key aspects of the County Council’s performance on a quarterly basis.

County Councillor David Chance introduced the section on Quarter 2 performance, which provided an in-depth focus on ‘Every adult has a longer healthier and independent life’.  He drew attention to the strong performance and leadership across a range of areas, as detailed in the report, and provided an overview of the strengths and challenges in performance across all of the Council’s ambitions.

Specifically in regard to the ambition of ‘Every adult has a longer healthier and independent life’, County Councillor Michael Harrison drew attention to the ongoing resource pressures in social care being experienced right across the sector which included;

·         A sustained increase in hospital discharges creating ongoing significant pressure in assessment activity and reduced assessor capacity in front line teams;

·         High occupancy levels in residential settings and low availability in the domiciliary care sector;

·         An increase in requests for financial support from care providers

·         An increase in safeguarding referrals

·         Workforce pressures, with a focus on recruitment and retention;

Richard Webb, Corporate Director for Health & Adult Services confirmed that whilst the situation was plateauing and there were some improvements, it was still a challenging time.  He drew attention to the benefits arising from international recruitment and the excellent joint working with partners.  He also noted the continuing work on prevention and the investment in extra care housing with proposals for new schemes expected.

In regard to the County Council’s other ambitions:

Leading for North Yorkshire - County Councillor David Chance confirmed the cost of living crisis continued to cause hardship across all parts of the County, with the County Council taking a proactive lead in Communities, providing access to services and supporting economic growth.

Best Start in Life – County Councillor Janet Sanderson confirmed the ongoing parallels with Health e.g. the number of referrals.  County councillor Annabel Wilkinson confirmed the Authority would continue to lobby the DFE for fairer funding settlements for North Yorkshire Schools.

Growth – County Councillor Keane Duncan highlighted the Authority’s successes which e.g. its largest capital project ever - Kex Gill, the trialling of Yorbus, with positive feedback from users, the introduction of electric vehicle charging points, with an ambition to deliver 3000 across the county by 2030, and the recently successful bid for £2.2m from the Government’s Levi Fund.

In response to questions from members of the Scrutiny Board, it was confirmed that:

The impact of care market costs was hitting different parts of the market in different ways, including the impact of the rise in labour and energy costs, and notable increase in hardship applications;

Work was underway to analyse the increase in safeguarding referrals, as there was no obvious reasons for it – it was noted there was a similar emerging pattern in Local Authorities across the region;

Addressing workforce pressures in social care had been focussed on a combination of overseas recruitment for a number of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 125