Agenda and minutes

1.  Apologies for absence

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Mrs Holl-Allen MBE, for whom Councillor D Pinwell was substituting.

Apologies for absence were received from Nick Page (Chief Executive), due to other Council business.

Councillor D Pinwell declared a non-pecuniary interest as a Board Director for Visit Knowle in relation to Agenda Item 5 ‘The Council Plan 2020-25 – Progress in Delivering Outcomes and Plan Refresh’ (Appendix D, ‘Detailed Summary of Delivery of Council Plan Deliverables’, point 18 ‘recovery plans in place for each town and local centre and short-term actions delivered, including public realm improvements’).

No questions or deputations were received.

To consider the draft Minutes arising from the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting held on 1^st February 2022.

Councillor Tildesley noted that both he and Councillor Mrs Holl-Allen MBE were present at the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting held on 1 February 2022.

The Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board:

RESOLVED:

(i)  Subject to the above correction, to agree the Minutes arising from the Resources and Delivering Value Scrutiny Board meeting held on 1 February 2022 as an accurate record.

The report before the Scrutiny Board outlined the progress made in delivering the Solihull Council Plan 2021/22 and sought the Scrutiny Board’s views for the content of the 2022/23 plan update.

The Lead Programme Manager presented the ‘look back’ element of the report and informed Members that the report addressed the Council Plan period 2021/22 and provided Council Plan highlights, notable areas of progress made, delivery outcomes and financial ratings. 

Members were invited to ask questions at this point in the meeting, which in summary included the following matters:

In respect of in-house foster care and related staff recruitment, the Board sought further detail concerning the work taking place to develop a fostering marketing campaign, as well as work on-going for the retention and support of existing foster carers.

The Head of Business Intelligence & Improvement advised that work was on-going in this area of the recruitment campaign and was initially targeting existing Council staff and partners as part of the first phase of the campaign, with the second phase taking an external, outward looking perspective.  It was reported that the months of January, May and September were considered good windows for recruitment. Members were advised that consideration of the national safeguarding enquiry also had to be recognised and factored into the Council’s recruitment activity accordingly.

Councillor Tildesley noted that it was a worrying scenario regarding the difficulties the Council was evidently experiencing in meeting the Council Plan target of recruiting 6 foster care households. The Interim Director for Children’s Services and Skills advised the Scrutiny Board that the market for foster carers was very competitive and had been further impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic since 2019, which has led to the Council’s strategy of initially seeking to identify and recruit foster carers internally as rapidly as possible.  Councillor Grinsell added that the Council was working with partners to ensure that Solihull was supportive of foster carers, citing as an example discussions held with NHS UHB whereby they had offered to review their policies to help support foster carers, for example, to ensure continued employment opportunities. 

Councillor Rebeiro noted that in June 2021 some Members of the Council had been alerted to the difficulties associated with foster carer recruitment and that there had been some suggestion of increasing the size of the foster care team capacity in order to implement a targeted foster carer recruitment campaign via social media. 

The Interim Director for Children’s Services and Skills advised Members that context was required in relation to current national events being experienced by the Council pertaining to an Improvement Notice and related on-going inspections within Children’s Services.  However, Children’s Services were currently reviewing targets for foster care recruitment to establish what would be realistically achievable in the current climate.

Members questioned whether there were any associated costs or budget implications in relation to the procurement exercise for the delivery of 50+ rapid Electric Vehicle Charging Points in 2022/23. The Director of Economy & Infrastructure advised Members that a detailed report was scheduled for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The meeting is not open to the public during discussion of the following item because the report contains exempt information as defined in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

The meeting was not open to the public during discussion of the following item because the report contained exempt information as defined in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.