Agenda item

That Cabinet provided the following collective approval across the four transformation programmes: Property Programme, Temporary Accommodation and Homelessness Programme, Children’s & Education Transformation Programme and Adult Social Care Transformation Programme to:

1.      Approved spend of up to £21.4m (for the four corporate transformation programmes), of which £14.0m will be designated from within corporate held resources as outlined in the finance commentary.

2.      Authorised the Chief Executive in consultation with the Director of Finance and Deputy Mayor for Finance, Governance and Performance to take all steps required to procure and award a contract for a transformation consulting partner (which may be above the key decision threshold and subject to an urgent decision with a retrospective report to Cabinet) to provide oversight and assurance and support delivery across the portfolio of four transformation programmes.

Cabinet recommendations specific to the Our Families Programme:

That Cabinet:

3.      Endorsed Our Families programme approach, objectives, investment and saving priorities as set out in this report;

4.      Approved of spend up to £4.78m to support the delivery of the Our Families Programme of which £1.74m will be initial drawdown from the £14m and £3.04m will be fund from other resources.

5.      Authorised the Executive Director for Children and Education in consultation with the Cabinet Member Children, Education and Equalities to take all steps required to procure and award the contracts (which may be above the key decision threshold) to support the programme within the agreed scope, allocated budget and approved schemes of delegation as outlined in this report;

6.      Authorised the Executive Director of Children and Education to invoke any subsequent extensions/variations specifically defined any contract(s) being awarded, up to the maximum budget envelope;

7.      Authorised the Head of Strategic Procurement & Supplier Relations to approve appropriate procurement routes to market where these are not yet fully defined in this report, or if changes to procurement routes are subsequently required;

8.      Noted the total revenue costs of the Children’s & Education (Our Families) programme for 23/24 of £4.781m of which £3.037m is already funded through grants and change reserve for Family Hubs, ControOCC, Home to School Travel;

9.      Noted the total costs of DSG deficit mitigations of £2.6M to date, grant fund of £3.5m;

10.  Noted the ambition of Our Families programme to deliver DSG deficit mitigations, MTFP savings and stretch savings to mitigate against budget pressures;

11.  Noted that we will be consulting in September 2023 for 6-weeks on the options generated from the procured partner within DSG workstream 2 of the Delivering Better Value project;

12.  Noted that a further report will be brought to Cabinet (for information) in July 2023 on the High Needs Block Recovery Plan;

13.  Noted that further report will be brought to Cabinet in December 2023 regards to the Review of SEND Statutory and Non-Statutory Element 3 Funding;

14.  Noted that further report will be brought to Cabinet in December 2023 to seek approval for proposed changes in post-16 policy for 24/25 and the introduction of Independent Travel Training (ITT) for all applicable children from age 11+ following public consultation between August and September 2023.