Issue - meetings

Under regulation 4(2)(a) of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012 the public must be excluded during this part of the meeting whenever it is likely, in view of the nature of the business to be transacted or the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during the item, confidential information would be disclosed to them in breach of an obligation of confidence. The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman report has been supplied under an obligation of confidence and has required their report to be kept confidential until the LGSCO publishes on their website.

(Option A): That the Cabinet adopts the report from the Director of Children’s Services as the Cabinet’s section 5A (8) report, and endorses the response from Children’s Services to address the findings and to implement all the recommendations of the LGSCO,

That the Cabinet notes that all members of the local authority and the Monitoring Officer will be provided in confidence with a copy of the Cabinet’s prepared section 5A (8) report as soon as practicable if not already given a copy.

In private session the Cabinet considered the LGSCO report and the response from Children’s Services, following a complaint made to the local authority in August 2018 relating to personal budgets.

The findings of the LGSCO were detailed within the report and appendices, along with actions taken to date.

The Council had accepted the findings and agreed to implement the recommendations, all of which had either been completed or were in training.

At the request of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee a report had been produced which showed that 90 per cent of complaints were resolved at Stage 1. The Committee had been satisfied with the procedure.

The Chairman thanked the Director of Children’s Services and his team for their support to the Cabinet Member.