Decisions

Defra have given us little time for us to submit information to support transitional arrangements for food waste by 8th March.  As part of the evidence pack GMCA are asking for a letter from each of the 9 GM districts on council’s letter head confirming that Bury Council are aware and supportive of the proposed transitional dates. This report asks permission to move forward with producing this letter and confirm the proposed transitional dates.

Councillor Lucy Smith, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, presented the report which set out the measures that the Council is taking to ensure that the policy regarding provision of transport or travel assistance is both legally compliant and continues to meet the needs of those young people who require support in accordance with the statutory duty.

Decision:

Cabinet noted that following the LGO findings, the Council has committed to review its current policy for transport and travel assistance as it affects post 19 learners. In advance of the review of the full transport policy, the local authority has made changes to the post 19 arrangements and has published an updated statement on the Council’s website.

Reasons for the decision:

The LGO has requested confirmation that the Council is aware of the outcome of its investigation, and of the measures taken in response.

Alternative options considered and rejected

Following the LGO findings there was an immediate need to review the policy and publish updated arrangements. No alternative options were considered.

Councillor Richard Gold, Cabinet Member for Finance and Communities, presented the report which outlined the forecast financial position of the Council at the end of 2022/23 based on the information known at the end of the third quarter, 31st December 2022. The report set out the position for both revenue and capital and provided an analysis of the variances, both under and overspending.

In response to Members’ questions, it was agreed that if any schemes on the capital programme were being deprioritised then Councillors would be notified. Councillor Gold gave assurance that savings and budgets would be monitored on a weekly basis by the Executive Team, and Chief Executive Geoff Little advised that savings were being phased and full project plans sat underneath savings targets so they could be effectively prioritised and realised.

Decision:

Cabinet:

1.    Noted the forecast overspend of £3.959m within the revenue budgets at Quarter Three and the need for Directorates to continue to work with their finance managers to maintain tight budgetary control and to ensure services work within their budgets;

2.    Noted the position on the Dedicated Schools Grant, Collection Fund and the Housing Revenue Account;

3.    Noted the transfer of £1.5m from the Utilities reserve which has been allocated to Non Service Specific and therefore already reflected in the position. This will be allocated across the services as part of month 10.

4.    Approved the roll forward of the previously identified reserve of £567k for free school meals during school holidays which was not required in 2021/22 or 2022/23 as a consequence of the Council receiving the Household Support fund monies which provided for free school meals during school holidays;

5.    Approved the additions of £0.600m and reductions of £0.475m to the capital programme;

6.    Noted the capital budget underspend and approve this as rephasing into future financial years. The exact figure to be updated at Outturn.

Reasons for the decision:

To ensure the Council’s budgetary targets are achieved. This report is in accordance with the Council’s financial procedure regulations.

Other options considered and rejected:

None.

Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Growth and Skills, presented the report which sought to formalise revised partnership arrangements for health and care in Bury. It was noted that at the meeting on 6th February, the Locality Board supported and approved the suite of papers submitted, pending enhancement and more detail around Primary Care which will be reviewed and incorporated (as applicable) before submission to the GM ICB.

Decision:

Cabinet:

1.    Approved of the following key documents:

·         Locality Board terms of reference.

·         Bury Integrated Care Partnership Agreement.

·         Section 75 agreement – principles included within covering report.

2.    Recognised the requirement to commit to the 2022/23 finance schedules as part of the GM ICB approvals process and confirmed that this final decision to be approve be delegated to the Executive Director of Finance;

3.    Noted the ongoing commitment of partners to work across neighbourhoods in order to continue to deliver our Locality Plan;

4.    Noted that the principles included within the section 75 report included here will form the basis of the detailed updates to the full section 75 working document and the financial schedules in particular;

5.    Noted the commitment to further strengthen the section 75 legal documentation with a further iteration of this document proposed within next 3-6 months; and

6.    Noted the contents of the updated Locality Plan that underpins all the work happening across the borough.

Reasons for the decision:

To fulfil the requirement of NHS Greater Manchester governance that all localities formalise Locality Board terms of reference and related documentation prior to end of March 2023. This approval will enable Locality Boards to formally adopt decision making powers from 1st April 2023 onwards.

Alternative options considered and rejected

None.

Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Growth and Skills, presented the report which sought approval in principle for the relocation of Pennine Care from Humphrey House to 3 Knowsley Place. This would create a revenue savings to the Council and the generation of a capital receipt from the subsequent sale of Humphrey House, which would be used to make a capital contribution towards the fit out costs of 3KP.

Decision:

Cabinet:

1.    Approved the current Heads of Terms of the assignment of the Councils’ Lease at 3 Knowsley Place to Pennine Care;

2.    Approved the relocation of Council staff currently occupying 3 Knowsley Place to 6 Knowsley Place and the Town Hall subject to appropriate consultation;

3.    Approved the Capital contribution towards Pennine Care’s fit out at 3 Knowsley Place;

4.    Delegated any minor variations to the final Heads of Terms to the Director of Regeneration & Capital Growth in consultation with the Monitoring Officer, Section 151 Officer and the Leader of the Council; and

5.    Delegated the signing of all contracts required to complete the assignment, lease and landlords' consent to the Councils Monitoring Officer.

Reasons for the decision:

Relocation of Pennine Care from Humphrey House into 3 Knowsley Place will bring about a capital receipt from the sale of Humphrey House. It will also deliver revenue savings from the shared occupation of 3 Knowsley Place for the duration of the lease term. However, that income will in part be a replacement for the income currently received for Humphrey House.

Alternative options considered and rejected

·         Option 1: Do Nothing - in this scenario Pennine Care would remain in Humphrey House. The Council would be faced with significant capital expenditure to refurbish Humphrey House which would provide very little in the way of additional income. The Council would forgo the opportunity to sell Humphrey House and generate a capital receipt and would lose the opportunity to develop the site for an alternative purpose (housing). The revenue savings from the shared occupation of 3 Knowsley Place would be lost. As such, this option has been discounted.

·         Option 2: Procced with assignment lease to Pennine Care - this option would see Pennine Care relocated. Whilst this option requires the Council to contribute towards Pennine Care’s fit-out costs, in the medium to longer term this is outweighed by the capital receipt from the sale of Humphrey House and revenue savings from the Council assigning its current lease to Pennine Care and the shared occupation of 3 Knowsley Place.

Councillor Tahir Rafiq, Cabinet Member for Corporate Affairs and HR, presented the report which provided a summary of key delivery and performance that occurred during Quarter Three (October – December) 2022-23, aligned to the 3R priorities. In response to Members’ questions, it was noted that staff absences had been discussed in detail at recent sub-committee meetings, the papers of which could be shared to Councillors upon request, but related to lasting effects of Covid-19 and were in line with national levels. Members also queried bin collection and recycling rates and it was noted that this was cyclical based on seasonal changes (i.e. less garden waste in the winter). It was agreed that, for data like this, average rates be shared in future reports. 

Decision:

Cabinet:

1.    Noted the performance and delivery against the 3R priorities and the 2022-23 Corporate Plan delivery objectives; and

2.    Noted the ongoing developments to strengthen and improve this reporting process and functionality.

Reasons for the decision:

This report continues our commitment to “strengthening the basics” by embedding the corporate business planning process across all the work of the Council and NHS Bury Integrated Care Partnership (ICP). This will allow for more effective performance management at organisation, departmental and officer level.

Alternative options considered and rejected

No alternative option considered.

Councillor Tahir Rafiq, Cabinet Member for Corporate Affairs and HR, presented the report which sought to procure a solution for consolidated legacy applications not compatible with the Microsoft Azure Cloud Platform. Members voiced their support for the report, in particular ensuring more digitally enabled systems for licensing and ease of use for the end user.

Decision:

Cabinet approved the decision to procure the solution as detailed on Part B to allow the continuation of the cloud migration programme.

Reasons for the decision:

·         The savings that will be generated as detailed in Part B.

·         Two of the legacy applications are not Microsoft Azure compatible and the servers that they currently reside on will be out of security support by the end of the 2023.

·         The existing servers reside within the Town Hall and Textile Hall data centres which are due to be decommissioned by the end of 2023.

Alternative options considered and rejected

·         To continue to invest in the Council’s on-premise data centre which is high risk due to the age of the hardware and infrastructure. In this case the Council would not benefit from having data stored in a cloud environment, or the improved data management to support the delivery of high-quality business intelligence.

·         The Council retains the option to upgrade to newer Azure compatible solutions and remain with the existing suppliers of the legacy systems, however this would mean continuing to pay three sets of maintenance fees for the separate systems and would not realise the benefit of a fully integrated solution.

Councillor Tahir Rafiq, Cabinet Member for Corporate Affairs and HR, presented the report which sought a decision regarding who should be the Council’s Partner (or reseller) beyond the existing Microsoft Licensing Solutions Partner, SCC.

Decision:

Cabinet agreed to extend the existing Microsoft Licensing Solutions Partner, SCC, for a further 2 years via HealthTrust Europe’s ICT Solutions 2019 Framework ComIT2.

Reasons for the decision:

SCC are a leading Licensing Solutions Partner (LSP) and given Bury Council has a fixed price agreement with Microsoft for the next two years there are no savings to be made by switching to a different LSP.

Alternative options considered and rejected

Switch to a different Licensing Solutions Partner (LSP). This option has been rejected as there would be no financial gain to the Council however additional costs would be incurred to run a procurement exercise.

Councillor Lucy Smith, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, presented the report which set out the outcome of the consultation on proposed changes to the admissions policy for maintained secondary schools, including removing catchment areas and instead using a distance criterion, so when considering oversubscription priority would be given to those applicants residing closest to the school for which they are applying. The changes would come into effect for applications for secondary school places for the academic year 2024/25 and would apply to all Community secondary schools and non-faith Academies in the borough.

In response to Members’ questions, it was noted that this should reduce the numbers of non-SEN transport to school. Members also discussed the new school in Radcliffe, noting frustration with the DfE over the temporary facilities expected for September 2024, and it was noted that efforts continued to ensure these were fit for purpose and would be for as short a time as possible.

Decision:

Cabinet:

1.    Approved the proposed admissions policy for maintained secondary schools, to come into effect for applications for secondary school places for the academic year 2024/25; and

2.    Following consultation on behalf of Academy Trusts, agreed that the proposed policy will apply to all Community secondary schools and non-faith Academies in the borough.

Reasons for the decision:

Catchment areas in Bury have not been reviewed for many years. Changing demographics across the borough over time, means that catchment areas no longer reflect the schools that they serve. Further, as a number of secondary schools have closed over time, with former catchment areas being consolidated into those of remaining schools, that don’t reflect size of school being served, or geographical boundaries.

The Council is committed to delivering a new secondary school for Radcliffe, which is expected to admit its first cohort of pupils in September 2024. This will also impact on the current designated catchment areas. The majority of respondents to the consultation were in favour of the proposed policy changes. Discussions have taken place with neighbouring LA’s as to their admission arrangements. Removing catchment areas would align with our neighbouring LA’s admissions policies whilst complying with the School Admissions Code.

Alternative options considered and rejected

To retain existing admission arrangements for maintained secondary schools would not be viable due to the reasons stated above.

Councillor Eamonn O’Brien, Leader and Cabinet Member for Strategic Growth and Skills, presented the report which presented the findings of a cross party Working Group established to look at the future of Bury Town Hall and presented a preferred option for consultation; to undertake a phased refurbishment of the Town Hall. Members discussed the report, noting their hope that the public took advantage of the consultation as the Town Hall was a public building at its heart.

Decision:

Cabinet:

1.    Approved the preferred option of a phased refurbishment of the Town Hall as the basis for a consultation with the public, staff and trade unions;

2.    Requested that the Executive Director (Place) submit a further report to Cabinet in April 2023 on the outcome of the consultation process to coincide with a report recommending detailed terms for the transfer of the Council’s lease obligation for 3 Knowsley Place to Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust;

3.    Noted the intention to submit a detailed investment case for the refurbishment of the Town Hall to Cabinet by summer 2023;

4.    Noted that, subject to satisfactory progress on the proposals to refurbish the Town Hall and the transfer the Council’s lease obligations for 3 Knowsley Place, options for the disposal of the Q Park roof site and Humphrey House will then be presented to Cabinet;

5.    Noted the intention in the longer term to withdraw from the lease for 6 Knowsley Place subject to sufficient refurbished accommodation being made available at the Town Hall; and

6.    Noted the findings of the Member Working Group on the future of the Town Hall as set out in the report in Part B of this agenda.

Reasons for the decision:

·         The recommendations to commission a phased refurbishment of the Town Hall and to withdraw from leased premises at 3 and 6 Knowsley Place are the most cost-effective way of continuing to provide accommodation for the Borough’s civic and democratic functions and suitable space for the Council’s administrative staff.

·         The recommendations also provide the most effective means of reducing the carbon footprint of the Council’s estate compared to other options for the future of the Town Hall. The Council’s corporate buildings account for 41% of its carbon emissions.

·         The recommendations will support the implementation of the Bury Town Centre Masterplan, approved by Cabinet in March 2022 by retaining and refurbishing a key heritage asset and promoting high quality public realm.

·         The recommendations will create a public service hub with Council, NHS and Six Town Housing staff being consolidated at the Town Hall and Knowsley Place.

·         This will improve efficiency and joint working. Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust will transfer staff to Knowsley Pace from Humphrey House and from sites outside of Bury town centre. This increase in public service staff based in a public service hub will support retail businesses in the town centre, which is a key objective of the Masterplan.

Alternative options considered and rejected

·         To undertake an interim upgrade of the Town Hall and maintain the commercial leases on 3 and 6 Knowsley Place.

·         Construct a new Town Hall on the Q Park site or on the site of the existing Town Hall.

·         Dispose of the Town Hall, maintain the commercial leases on 3 and 6 Knowsley Place and identify new space for civic functions elsewhere.