A period of up to 40 minutes is allocated for questions to the Leader, Cabinet Portfolio Holders and Chairs of Overview and Scrutiny Committees.
Minutes:
(1) Question to Councillor Watson from Councillor Roodhouse
“BT landlines are to be phased out by 2025. We know that there is a growing digital divide. What actions is WCC taking to support individuals?”
In response, Councillor Watson explained that BT were not phasing out landlines but the infrastructure was changing from analogue infrastructure (ie the old copper networks) to a new digital (fibre) infrastructure. All network providers, not just BT, were carrying out this work as part of the digitalisation of the UK to provide improved high speed services. These changes may have an impact on some security, safety and alert systems.
In industry most security companies were aware of the changes and had already made preparations to change signalling devices and the way they were powered.
The general advice for individuals was to contact the supplier or maintainer of their devices for advice. Most systems would continue working but there were some changes being made to signals and associated power systems since local power was now required rather than the old telephone exchange. These changes had been underway for some time and it was a change that the Council was aware of and had been engaging with care partners.
Councillor Watson noted that this issue was covered by the larger 5G roll out, which the Council was also working to bolster. Councillor Watson advised that he would share this information with Councillors.
Councillor Roodhouse sought assurance that communications on this subject would be shared with the wider public and elected members going forward.
Councillor Watson responded that some messages would be issued that elected members could share with the communities they represented.
(2) Question to Councillor Butlin from Councillor Roodhouse
“Warwickshire County Council supports Educaterers that supplies school meals. What assurances can the Portfolio Holder give in regard to its financial stability and what work is being carried out in promoting this service, especially with the extra energy and cost of living crisis?”
Councillor Butlin responded that in respect of Educaterers’ financial stability, it had been a difficult couple of years due mainly to Covid and more recently inflationary impacts. Educaterers continued to provide a high-quality service to all schools during the Pandemic, without the requisite level of income to support all its costs due to reduced pupil numbers taking up meals. Consequently, the Council provided Covid funding from the general Covid grants from Government to off-set loses across the last two trading years for Educaterers. This still left a small residual loss for the company based on other factors though.
The Council had also resolved the historic pension liability issue for Educaterers, as per the Cabinet decision under the exempt item on the 12 April 2022.
Educaterers had seen a steady recovery in the number of meals provided in schools and hence its income base, however, inflationary pressures were still making trading conditions extremely difficult, compounded by twin factors of the national minimum wage rises and reluctance on the part of schools to pass on costs to parents through meal cost rises. All school catering companies were facing very similar issues. The cost of living crisis sadly may see more families become eligible for free school meals, and schools were generally good at promoting and raising awareness with their parents on this issue.
Councillor Roodhouse asked whether Councillor Butlin would join a campaign and write to lobby government, local MPs, and other relevant parties, to seek an increase in the allocation the government provided for its meals, which Councillor Roodhouse believed was around £2.43 per meal which resulted in national pressures on school meal services.
Councillor Butlin responded that bearing in mind the comments he had made regarding inflationary costs, that he would be glad to lobby government and MPs to seek a better allocation in line with inflation.
(3) Question to Councillor Kaur from Councillor Rolfe (asked on her behalf by Councillor Roodhouse)
“With inflation for food now at 16% many families are being hit hard financially and free school meals play an increasingly important part in helping those families with children.
Would the Portfolio Holder please tell me how many children in Warwickshire currently receive free school meals and does she have any information on how many children are eligible but not claiming?
What action is the County Council taking to promote uptake?
For families on universal credit the current cut off point for eligibility is a household income of less than £7,400 per year, after tax and not including any benefits. This limit was fixed in 2018 and has not been increased. Will she lobby government to increase this limit in line with inflation?”
Councillor Kaur advised that in January 2022, 16,181 pupils were eligible and claiming a free school meal in Warwickshire, 18.6% of the school population. This is an increase of nearly 2,000 pupils since January 2021, when 14,451 (16.8%) of pupils were eligible and claiming. The latest data we have (as at May 2022) shows a continued increase with 16,819 (19.2%) children eligible and claiming a free school meal in one of Warwickshire's state-funded schools.
Unfortunately, we do not hold any figures about the numbers who are actually eligible but not claiming. We only know through the termly school census collections about children in our state-funded schools that are eligible and actually claiming a FSM. There is a difference between the census figures reported here and data on our own Management Information System which includes children that qualify for wider Local Welfare Scheme support (including the Houseshold Support Fund) and we will pursue further work to interrogate the data we have in more detail.
In terms of promoting take up, a number of projects have taken place in recent years with schools to promote awareness of frees school meals and try to encourage parents to apply. Recent work with districts and boroughs and social housing providers has also helped to promote the entitlement to eligible families. We have also looked at the school Admissions process, asking for NI numbers from parents so checks can be made but this cannot be mandatory.
We are now working on a pilot project with Nuneaton & Bedworth, North Warwickshire and Rugby councils alongside Sheffield local authority, who have found an effective way to increase take up, to take learning and look how it can be applied.
As you will be aware, £421 million has been made available to county councils and unitary authorities to support those most in need to help with global inflation challenges and the significantly rising cost of living. The objective of the household support fund is to provide support to vulnerable households in most need of support to help with significantly rising living costs, specifically food, energy and water bills, This phase of the grant runs from 1 October 2022 to 31 March 2023 and Warwickshire has again been allocated £3.47million which is being distributed through the local welfare scheme. My colleague, Councillor Heather Timms and I will continue to lobby for support for those families and will be looking at monitoring our demand, need and provisions going forward so we will be working with central government colleagues to promote and push our cause.
(4) Question to Councillor Bell from Councillor Holland
In July 2022 Council resolved that “Council notes that Joint Strategic Needs Area Assessments were carried out in 2019. The information within those assessments was provided to the Place Based Partnerships, which provide activity updates to the Warwickshire Health and Wellbeing Board, including on prioritised activities to improve health and wellbeing and reduce inequalities. The Council requests an update from the Warwickshire Health and Wellbeing Board on Place Based Partnership priorities and progress on reducing inequalities.
Can the Portfolio Holder give a verbal report now with a detailed written report within one month?”
Councillor Bell offered reassurance that that tackling health inequalities based on the JSNAs remained top of the agenda from the Place Forums through the Health and Wellbeing Boards to the new Integrated Care System.
In September 2022 the Health and Wellbeing Board received a report containing a progress update against the health inequality priorities for each of the three place-based partnerships - Warwickshire North, South Warwickshire and Rugby.
The Health and Wellbeing Board meeting on 11 January 2023 would include a discussion item where the three Place Forums would give a presentation on their priorities. All councillors were welcome to attend.
Councillor Bell provided further reassurance that she was joint Vice Chair of the new Integrated Care Partnership (part of the Integrated Care System) which had recently developed the Coventry and Warwickshire Health and Wellbeing Strategy which would be submitted to government. Health inequalities based on the JSNAs were top of the priority list and three key areas of focus had been identified, the first of which was reducing health inequalities. This was an issue that was threaded through the strategy, accompanied by a delivery plan, embedding it in everything that was done.
(5) Question to Councillor Redford from Councillor Chilvers
“Please could you provide an update on any work being done on possible phases 2 and 3 of the A46 link road/multimodal corridor?”
As Councillor Redford had been excused from the meeting at this point, a written response would be provided.
(6) Question to Councillor Redford from Councillor Gifford
“Councillor Redford, I am sure you are aware that many of the on-street parking machines in Leamington town centre are not working and can only be used as a location for RingGo. This not only inconveniences shoppers - and older shoppers in particular - but it is also a barrier to people going to the town centre, at a time when many shops are already struggling. When does the County Council intend to repair or replace these parking machines so that those who can only pay by cash or card can do so?”
In Councillor Redford’s absence, Councillor Butlin responded to apologise for the problems currently being faced in Leamington, and indeed other locations across the county. At the time of the meeting, there were 13 machines out of 184 not operational and engineers would be on site during the week to try and fix them. The main problem with Pay & Display machines across the county, was that the majority were coming to the end of their operational life and unfortunately given the age of the machines, repairs were becoming harder and more complex and it was increasingly hard to source the necessary parts. Despite this, assurance was given that the 13 machines out of order would be repaired in the week commencing 12 December 2022.
Councillor Butlin added that an asset replacement programme was being undertaken for pay and display machines to update stock, which would include additional payment capabilities such as contactless and chip & pin. The Council would look to ensure cash payments remained an option, as well as continuing to support the RingGo platform which accounted for over 50% of all parking purchases. This replacement programme was significant and would be going out to procurement in the new year. It was expected a roll out of new machines would take place over the course of 2023.
The Council would continue to closely monitor the performance of the machines and aimed to keep them operating as much as possible while the replacement programme progressed.
(7) Question to Councillor Crump from Councillor Chilvers
“Do you welcome the conclusions from the Environment Agency's 4 year evaluation of Natural Flood Management pilots which found that nature based solutions were much more cost efficient than 'concrete' solutions and protected 1000s of homes? Now the Environment Agency plan to double the Natural Flood Management schemes it funds will you ensure that Warwickshire brings forward more bids for this funding to protect residents in our county?”
Councillor Crump advised that Warwickshire had been very successful in recent years helping to facilitate natural flood risk management schemes, working in partnership with the Environment Agency and with local partnerships like the Shipston Flood Resilience Forum. The Council would continue to look for every opportunity to apply for funding to deliver further flood resilience works across the county. The Environmental Agency's increase in funding for natural flood resilience schemes was welcomed.
A more comprehensive response would be shared after the meeting.
(8) Question to Councillor Timms from Councillor Millar
“Please could you provide an update on the Cost of Living Summit held on 25th November, and what progress has been made on the out comes of the summit in the following weeks since?”
Councillor Timms welcomed the opportunity to share how much work the Council had done in this area.
The Summit had been attended by 114 delegates from across the public, private, and voluntary, community, and social enterprise sectors, including delegates from health, education, and the police.
An agreed “offer on a page” for residents and communities to help with the cost of living had been drafted and comments from partners were awaited. The draft had also been shared with group leaders for comment.
The www.costoflivingwarwickshire.co.uk microsite was launched at the summit. This provided information, advice and support for residents and communities across Warwickshire, and provided partners, including town and parish councils, with a central and assured source of help. The content would develop over coming weeks as more support offers came forward and included an 0800 helpline number.
A network of warm welcome hubs had been launched, including:
The “wraparound” element of warm hubs was crucial, helping to link and signpost people to the advice and guidance of organisations such as Citizens Advice.
Further warm hubs would be brought on stream over the coming weeks, including the possibility of hubs in wholetime fire stations
Funding grants launched included:
Councillor Timms concluded by reminding Members that a briefing on the cost of living was taking place the following day.
(9) Question to Cllr Bell from Cllr Matecki
Councillor Matecki raised an issue he was dealing with in his division and noted that the Council did not have an internal procedure for making Prevent referrals and also questioned the way data protection requests, particularly subject access requests, were dealt with.
Councillor Bell was aware of the case being referred to, recognising that it had been a difficult case which had been distressing for the family for which she apologised on behalf of the Council. The initial investigation had found that the Prevent referral was justified, however, improvements to the process had been noted. Councillor Bell considered that it was, therefore, a legitimate suggestion for a documented process to be put in place to provide support for those making a referral and help with management of the sensitivities around them. She was happy to investigate this case to consider lessons to be learnt and would share her findings in due course.