Agenda and draft minutes

The Lead Member for Education, Children and Families offered on behalf of members her congratulations to Councillor Kelly Clewett who had won a prestigious award and was named Chwarae Teg Womeninspire Women in Health and Social Care Champion. She thanked Councillor Clewett for her dedication and hard work in the Social Care sector especially during the Covid Pandemic. All members offered congratulations with a round of applause.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors David Williams and Huw Williams.

There were no declarations of interest raised.

The Chair provided members with details of events he or the Vice Chair had attended since May 2022.

Reference was made to the following:

·         The first event attended by the Chair had been the Urdd Eisteddfod.

·         Attendance at an Advocacy event at the end of June was noted.

·         School visits had taken place during the month of July.

·         An excellent ceremony had taken place in Rhyl for the Lifeboat renaming.

·         Five remembrance events where attended in remembrance of the late Queen Elizabeth II (a 30 second silence in remembrance was observed).

The Chair thanked the Vice Chair for attending events when he was unavailable.

To receive the minutes of the meeting of County Council held on 19 July 2022 (copy attached).

The minutes of Full Council held on 19 July 2022 were submitted.

Accuracy – No matters were raised.

Matters arising –

Page 11 (item 8 –Committee Timetable) – Councillor Gareth Sandilands asked for an update regarding the timing of meetings. The Corporate Director- Governance and Business confirmed a report was presented to the Democratic Service committee the end of September which provided details of a survey that was due to ascertain members preference to timings of meetings.

RESOLVED that the minutes of Full Council held on 19 July 2022 be confirmed as a correct record.

To receive a report by the Joint Interim Head of Business Improvement and Modernisation (copy attached) to approve the final draft of the Corporate Plan 2022 – 2027.

The Lead Member for Corporate Strategy, Policy and Equalities, introduced the Corporate Plan 2022-2027 report (previously circulated).

Thanks was given to all those that had been involved in shaping the proposed new Corporate Plan. A wide and varied amount of consultation had taken place. Thanks was extended to all political groups for the positive and constructive comments to help refine the plan.

It was a statutory requirement that Local Authorities publish Well-being Objectives, Equality Objectives, and identify areas for Organisational Improvement. Denbighshire’s Corporate Plan 2022-27 served all of those functions.

The draft plan outlined the priorities and vision of what Cabinet with the support of Council aimed to achieve over the next five years.

The key pledges which the Local Authority were committed to, to achieve in the Plan are organised by themes. They were important because they either:

·         Require significant capital / revenue funding, e.g. roads and new schools (but not everything requires extra funding);

·         Require significant cultural / organisational change, e.g. to become a Denbighshire of Thriving Welsh Language and Culture, and/or

·         Will impact across the whole county, e.g. establishment of an electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

The Corporate Plan was an important document to demonstrate a collective vision that we all work towards together. The plan focused on enhancing the wellbeing of Denbighshire communities and residents by creating good conditions within the community. It also focused on the quality of services offered to those that required support.

The plan had been separated in to nine key themes each of which would be allocated to a Cabinet member to oversee. Each theme described objectives that we aim to deliver over the next five years. The priorities outlined in the Corporate Plan had been arrived at via a thorough and clear process of evidence-gathering and analysis and in-depth consultation with communities.

The Corporate Plan did not and was not intended to represent all Council business. A lot of important work took place outside the scope of the plan.

The plan is intended to be flexible with any changes required reported to Council.

During discussion, the following issues were raised:

·         If the plan is agreed, research to establish the work that would be required to deliver each of the pledges would take place. At that stage officers and the Lead member would be able to establish what was deliverable and when given resource, time and funding that is available.

·         During the time to develop the draft Corporate Plan, the financial position had deteriorated. The financial outlook for the next two years had changed from the being of the year. A finance update was due to be presented at the next Council Workshop which would provide detail of the changes. Correspondence with members with changes and saving plans regarding the budget would take place as soon as the budget figures were made available.

·         A number of the projects included in the plan, had already been or in the process of being approved and included in the budget.

·         As an authority, borrowing for investment purposes was not authorised.

·         Active travel and the use of foot paths and cycle paths were encouraged under theme 5 of the plan.

·         It was about 1300 responded during the phases of consultation. Work to encourage participation had taken place. Quality of conversation was a focus when engaging with the public. It was confirmed an offline version of correspondence was offered for those that wished to respond. The importance of talking to the public was included in theme 9.

·         The title of the 21^st century school scheme had been renamed as Welsh Government Sustainable Communities for Learning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

At this juncture (11.32 a.m.) there was a 15 minute comfort break.

The meeting reconvened at 11.48 am.

To receive a report by the Democratic Services Manager (copy attached) to appoint the Chair of Democratic Services Committee.

Nominations were sought for a member to be appointed as the Chair of Democratic Services Committee.

The Monitoring Officer confirmed the Chair of the committee could not be a member of a political party represented on Cabinet.

Councillor Peter Scott nominated, seconded by Councillor Julie Matthews, Councillor Martyn Hogg be appointed as the Chair of Democratic Services committee for the 2022/23 municipal year.

There were no other nominations.

Members

RESOLVED that Councillor Martyn Hogg be appointed as the Chair of Democratic Services Committee for the municipal year 2022/23.

To receive a report by the Deputy Monitoring Officer (copy attached) to appoint for one year term of office, a Lay Member to the Councils’ Standards Committee.

The Monitoring Officer introduced the report (previously circulated), reminding members that an open recruitment process had taken place to recruit lay members to the Standards Committee.

Council had previously nominated a Standards committee special appointments panel. The panel included County Councillors Bobby Feeley, Peter Scott and Arwel Roberts along with Community Councillor Gordon Hughes and independent representative Noela Jones, to interview prospective lay members for the one vacant position on the Council’s Standards Committee.

The panel made a recommendation to Full Council for the appointment of Mr Samuel Jones be appointed to the Council’s Standards Committee.

Councillor Arwel Roberts proposed Mr Samuel Jones be appointed as a lay member to the Standards Committee, seconded by Councillor Peter Scott.

All members were in agreement.

It was therefor;

RESOLVED that Mr Samuel Jones be appointed as a Lay Member to Denbighshire’s Standards Committee.

At this juncture it was agreed to vary the order of the agenda.

To receive a report by Ann Lloyd/ Rhiain Morrlle (copy attached) to seek Council’s approval of the North Wales Market Stability Report.

The Lead member for Health and Social Care introduced the North Wales Market Stability report (previously circulated) along with the Lead Member for Education, Children and Families.

The Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 introduced a new duty on local authorities and health boards to develop a joint assessment of the sufficiency and sustainability of the social care market. The report had been

produced by the North Wales Regional Partnership Board and took into account the findings from the North Wales Population Needs Assessment 2022.

The report assessed the sufficiency of care and support in meeting the needs and demand for social care, as set out in the population needs assessment and the stability of the market for regulated services.

The aim of the report was to assist the region to effectively commission and support providers of health and social care services to meet the demands of the population. The report would form the base for future plans and decisions.

The report was approved by Performance Scrutiny on 14 July 2022.

Illustrated within the report was the challenges faced by social care across not only Denbighshire but all Wales. Denbighshire services would continue to work hard to offer support for individuals, families and children where needed.

The Interim Head of Community Support Services confirmed Denbighshire County Council had significant input as a local authority in the creation of the report.

During discussion, the following issues were raised:

·         Bwythyn y Ddol was a multi-disciplinary team working with children across Denbighshire and Conwy. The aim of the team is to provide intensive intervention for children on the edge of care, with a view to supporting the family as a whole. An assessment centre was also being built to offer support and rest bite to families and young people. It will allow children to remain local during the family support.

·         Individuals are assessed in hospitals at different times, it is sometimes before an individual is due to be discharged. Close working with health colleagues to enable individuals to go home at the earliest convenience continued. The correct care package or establishment for each individual needed to be established before they are discharged from hospital.

·         District nurses do receive training to administer I.V in the community, it was stressed it was only a certain type of antibiotic was allowed to be provided from district nurses.

·         Concerns around recruitment and retention were an ongoing issue. It was stressed it was a national concern and not just Denbighshire. A number of initiative ways to encourage individuals to join the social care team.

·         Close working with the health board to establish any social care needs continued to take place when individuals leave hospital.

PROPOSED by Councillor Bobby Feeley, SECONDED by Councillor Brian Blakely.

RESOLVED that:

·         Members approve the North Wales Market Stability Report 2022 and

·         Members confirm they have read, understood and taken account of the Equalities Impact Assessment as part of its consideration.

To consider the Council’s forward work programme (copy attached).

The Corporate Director – Governance and Business introduced the Council Forward Work Programme together with the Council Workshop Forward Work Programme (previously circulated).

It was confirmed that Central Rhyl and Prestatyn Coastal defence schemes, the results from Member survey regarding timing of meetings and the approval of the petition scheme would be presented at the December 2022 meeting.

Members were reminded that the Council Workshop was scheduled for the 24^th October to discuss the SLT review.

Code of Conduct training was scheduled to take place following the meeting in the Council Chamber, Ruthin for members who had not the training previously.

It was noted the Council Workshop Forward Work Programme had been included in the pack. It listed the suggested reports for members discussion. Members were encouraged to feedback to officers any suggested amendments.

Members were reminded that County Council meetings were a decision making body, therefor items that require a decision should be presented before members for discussion and a resolution.

Council Workshops were scheduled to allow members the opportunity for an in-depth discussion and context on the relevant topic.  

RESOLVED that, subject to the above, the Council and Council Workshop Forward Work Programme be approved and noted.