45. MINUTES

The Minutes of the meeting held on 18 November 2004 be agreed.

46. DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Mr G S Kendall declared an interest as a Non Executive Director of the Primary Care Trust.

47. URGENT BUSINESS

The Chairman agreed to two items of urgent business as he believed members needed to be given an update.

(a) HEAD OF HOUSING

The Portfolio Holder advised the Select Committee that interviews for the Head of Housing post had been held on 15 December 2004. Unfortunately an appointment had not been made so the job would be re-advertised in the New Year.

The caretaker Head of Housing, Mr Graham Wilmshurst was introduced to Members and it was noted that he specialised in crisis situations.

(b) MR GLEN GARROD

Members of the Select Committee were advised that Mr Glen Garrod, Strategic Director of Adult and Community Services would be leaving the Council to take up the post of Chief Executive at Waveney District Council in March 2005.

48. FORWARD PLAN

The Head of Select Committee and Best Value Support advised members of the items of relevance which were contained in the Forward Plan for the period January – April 2005.

49. QUARTERLEY PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT REPORT – QUARTER 2 2004/05 AND BUDGET MONITORING REPORT AS AT END OF OCTOBER 2004

The Chairman indicated that the two items were linked and would be taken together. Additionally an update on the Council’s overall budget position for 2005/06 would be given.

(a) QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT REPORT

It was noted that feedback from the previous Quarter had been incorporated within the present report. The Island had one of the lowest rates of delay for hospital discharge in the region, sustaining a zero rate for many weeks. Housing Benefits performance indicators were now in the upper quartile for September. It was suggested that Press Releases should be put out celebrating the achievements.

The Council’s licence to hold public records was being investigated by a Task Group and a solution to the problem would continue to be sought. There was a possibility that something could be incorporated within the Pan development.

The Mobile Library Service was now back up and running to full strength which should help towards showing an improvement in user numbers. Members were unsure whether the new three week rota was a good idea as they believed that not everyone could remember when it was due to visit. It was suggested that a calendar in the shape of a book mark could be printed with the dates when the service was due to visit highlighted and these be distributed to clients using the service. The Head of Community Development recommended that the service run for a full year and then a review be undertaken.

Members noted that visits to museums had fallen and were advised that it had not just affected museums on the Island. The Select Committee asked if falling visitor numbers were linked to tourism figures. Exhibitions were routinely changed to ensure that consequential visits were undertaken.

There was some discussion with reference to Social Housing and the Affordable Housing quota dropping. The Portfolio Holder indicated that Registered Social Landlord’s appeared to be concentrating more on new build rather than to let properties. A meeting between the Council and Registered Social Landlord’s was to take place in the New Year to discuss S.106 and Affordable Dwellings.

The Low Interest Loan Scheme was administered through the Credit Union the interest rate was 2.53% with the idea of helping to improve the total housing stock across the Island.

With reference to the fall off in numbers of people using the Direct Payment Scheme it was anticipated that there would be a major take up in the New Year particularly with regard to the new Home Care Scheme. Members were advised that everyone was offered the opportunity of using the Scheme but not everyone wanted to commit to it. Members decided that a report should be brought back to the Select Committee in the New Year.

The Select Committee asked if the Catering Contract for Ventnor Botanic Garden had been awarded yet and were advised that the tenders had been received and were currently being evaluated. It was expected that the tender would be awarded by the end of January 2005.

It was noted that an internal staff member had been appointed to the post of Adult Protection Co-ordinator at Service Manager Level. The background to the post was outlined and the additional cost involved would be met from savings within other areas, they were still within their budget. It was explained that the post being left vacant would be backfilled by offering it internally and allowing staff to act up.

(b) BUDGET MONITORING REPORT AS AT END OF OCTOBER 2004

The Portfolio Holder presented the budget report which set out the spending position on revenue for the services within this Committees remit, as at the end of October 2004.

The homelessness budget was a particular pressure area and it was anticipated that the projected overspend would continue to increase during this financial year bringing a prospective overspend of £300,000.

Members noted that the Community Development budget had an expected overspend of £70,000 and asked for a site specific breakdown of the figures. The Head of Community Development told the Select Committee that there was a lack of recovery of income from CD and DVD hire from libraries.

Ryde Theatre had appointed a new manager who had developed a light music programme, unfortunately Environmental Health had received noise complaints so the programme had to be cut back until a solution could be found. The Portfolio Holder advised that the Culture and Leisure Review Board were undertaking a review of theatres in some depth.

£20,000 was still owed to the Sports Unit by the Education Department for their continued professional development programme.

The Select Committee asked if anything was happening with regard to the Oakfield housing money. Negotiations were being undertaken as the cost of decontaminating the site was higher than anticipated there was also a hold-up as the Isle of Wight Housing Association and South Wight Housing Association were currently being amalgamated. It was also noted that there was a proposed Rural Housing Scheme for Brighstone but difficulties were being encountered with identifying a suitable site.

Capping was likely to be more rigorous in the next financial year. If the Council wanted a 5% Council Tax increase then savings of £2.8m were needed. £1.9m that had already been identified.

The Isle of Wight Personal Social Services FSS 2005/06 had an overall increase of 5.7% which equated to £1.982m of that £1.88 m was need for pay and non-pay leaving a total amount of £101,000. Nationally the increase was 6%. The overall increase of the Adult FSS 2005/06 was below the national average.

Preserved Rights had a potential deficit of £1m. However, the actual net decrease was £5,000. The Access and Systems Capacity grant increased by £412,000 part of which was a one off increase. The National Training Budget was across statutory, private and voluntary sectors and was to assist in training social work staff with their NVQ training. The Government had tried to increase Local Authority flexibility, although ring fencing had been removed there was still an expectation that money would still be spent within certain areas.

The Supporting People Grant fell within the remit of this Select Committee. The amount available nationally was likely to continue to decrease in the next two financial years, the Council’s decrease for 2005/06 was 5.4%. The Admin Grant had been distributed using the new formula so the Council had lost 20%.

Other Directorate pressures were discussed. Increases in fees and charges was particularly sensitive.

ACTION TO BE TAKEN BY THE PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR ADULT AND COMMUNITY SERVICES :

Given the predictions for an overspend of £300,000 in the budget for homelessness the Portfolio Holder work with the Executive and Strategic Directors to minimise the impact of this on the overall budget for Adult and Community Services to ensure that services to the public are not affected.

ACTION TO BE TAKEN BY THE PORTFOLIO HOLDER FOR ADULT AND COMMUNITY SERVICES AND THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SELECT COMMITTEE :

An appropriate press release be made on the improvements and attainments in the services outlined in paragraph 3 of the QPMR report.

ACTION TO BE TAKEN BY THE HEAD OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT :

(a) The possibility of issuing a calendar capable of showing the visit rota for the mobile library service be investigated.

(b) Visitor profile figures for each museum be circulated to the Select Committee.

ACTION TO BE TAKEN BY THE ACTING HEAD OF HOUSING :

A breakdown of certain aspects of housing and homelessness be supplied to the Select Committee together with clarification of the acceptance of court orders as proof of homelessness.

ACTION TO BE TAKEN BY THE HEAD OF ADULT SERVICES :

(a) A report on why service users have dropped out of Direct Payments be considered by the Select Committee in conjunction with the next QPMR report.

(b) In promoting Direct Payments an outline be given of the courses and advice that can be accessed for any person wishing to act as a carer for a family member or friend.

CHAIRMAN