1.            Question from Councillor MC Voisey to the Cabinet Member Education and Regeneration

 

In the last budget round, funds were allocated for a Festival of Learning, and to replace the School uniform grant that was withdrawn by the Labour WAG.  I understand the festival of learning was a success and self-funding and that the Assembly did a U turn on the school uniform grant"

 

Therefore the money taken from Council tax payers in Bridgend was not used as intended.  Please confirm what the money was used for, or where it is now?

 

2.            Question from Councillor T Thomas to the Cabinet Member Communities  

 

Since a motion calling for the County Borough to go 'plastic free' in July 2018, will the Cabinet Member clarify what progress this authority has made in reducing its non-recyclable plastic use 6 months on from the original motion? 

 

3.            Question from Councillor A Hussain to the Cabinet Member Social Services and Early Help

 

Traditionally, local authorities should have a budget to purchase assistive equipment if it supports someone to live independently and fully.  We would want to see this continue.  In many authorities we are hearing of a kind of informal means-testing where the person assessing tries to ascertain if someone could pay for the equipment themselves.  This is fraught with difficulty and I hope BCBC doesn’t try it.

 

Will the Cabinet Member let the Council know as how is the Telecare Service being provided to the residents in the County and how much will be the estimated saving to the Council?

 

 

 

 

Question from Councillor MC Voisey to the Cabinet Member - Education and Regeneration

In the last budget round, funds were allocated for a Festival of Learning, and to replace the School uniform grant that was withdrawn by the Labour WAG.  I understand the festival of learning was a success and self-funding and that the Assembly did a U turn on the school uniform grant"

Therefore the money taken from Council tax payers in Bridgend was not used as intended.  Please confirm what the money was used for, or where it is now?

 

Response

The total cost to Bridgend County Borough Council of the Festival of Learning 2018 is expected to be in the region of £12k. This is funded from the additional £65k which was approved by Council for the Festival of Learning 2018 on 28 February 2018 as a one-off pressure as part of the Council’s Medium-Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) 2018-2019 to 2021-2022.

 

The £53k underspend was returned to the Corporate Budget in Period 9. For 2018-2019, this will be used to establish any earmarked reserves required at year end for unforeseen one-off pressures in 2019-2020. For 2019-2020, it will supplement the corporate pressures budget to meet any unavoidable pressures in that year.

 

Regarding the funding allocated to replace the Welsh Government Uniform Grant, it has also been clawed back corporately and will also be used to establish earmarked reserves at year end. For 2019-2020, this has been included in the draft MTFS as a proposed budget reduction.”

 

Supplementary question from Councillor MC Voisey (to the Cabinet Member – Communities)

Would Cabinet consider using the unspent money outlined above, to keep open certain public convenience facilities situate within the County Borough, that either have been closed or are subject to closure.

 

Response

This is not possible as this allocation of resources has been committed to the Education and Family Support Directorate, in order to negate an over spend within that Directorate during the current financial year. The Interim Chief Executive added that any under spend that may occur in any Directorate in one financial year is normally committed to the Council’s Corporate budget for the following financial year, as opposed to being re-allocated to the Directorate where the under spend originated from (that current year).

 

Question from Councillor T Thomas to the Cabinet Member – Communities

Since a motion calling for the County Borough to go 'plastic free' in July 2018, will the Cabinet Member clarify what progress this authority has made in reducing its non-recyclable plastic use 6 months on from the original motion?” 

 

Response

The plastics free motion referred to was made in April 2018, but was not approved at the time, however the issue was referred to considered further by Subject Overview and Scrutiny 3 O&S Committee in July 2018.

 

We have since taken positive steps to encourage plastic’s and other packaging waste to be minimised, specifically we are rolling out in conjunction with Keep Wales Tidy and  Porthcawl Town Council (and to follow hopefully all of the town councils) a funded education campaign with the boroughs schools that amongst other promotions includes a “waste free lunch challenge” for school children and parents to have a lunch that avoids single use plastic packaging with drinks in re-fillable bottles and food in suitable reusable Tupperware. This engagement programme also encourages local business to waste less, where practicable avoid single use plastic and display a sticker in their window to demonstrate their support to the environmental initiative.

 

It is clear that a significant resource would be required to fully analyse all of the authority’s procurement transactions that may involve the purchase of a single use plastic item, or items with single use plastic components. To determine if suitable environmentally friendly and economically viable alternatives could be sought in replacement. Given current financial pressures this is yet to be pursued further. However simple steps have been taken such as within the Council office environment with the majority of departments, plastic cups, spoons or milk sachets are no longer purchased and loose coffee, milk and sugar is used in meetings where refreshments cannot be avoided.  In Elections on count night, where individual milk sachets have been used in the past, now large cartons/bottles of milk are used and the spoons are also now wooden spatulas. Whilst avoiding unnecessary plastic use is to be commended, and re-use encouraged. It is also however important to not vilify plastic as a material, and make the right choices. The use of plastic packaging in keeping food content fresh has significant beneficial environmental effects, as an example the use of individually contained long life milk sachets, in an environment of variable levels of use would potentially be more environmentally friendly than opening larger containers and ending up wasting significant quantities of fresh milk, sensible use of plastic when justifiable along with recycling of the discarded material, ensuring it does not become part of the marine pollution problem is what is vital.

 

Bridgend Council continues to be at the forefront of plastic’s recycling within wales collecting via the weekly recycling service, 2109 tonnes of plastics per year from the kerbside. For plastic materials that cannot be recycled at the doorstep, such as hard plastic (i.e. garden furniture, children’s toys), recycling outlets are provided at the Community Recycling Centres (CRC) sites resulting in a further 1197 tonnes per annum of plastics being recycled.”

 

Supplementary question from Councillor T Thomas to the Cabinet Member – Communities

I am pleased to note the above pilot project involving Keep Wales Tidy and Porthcawl Town Council, with the aim of targeting the minimisation of plastic’s and other packaging waste, particularly in schools. How can Members be kept up to speed on developments regarding projects such as this, and any future projects with similar aims and objectives.

 

Response

Through reports being presented to Cabinet (all Members now received an electronic copy of the agenda/reports for this meeting) or through approaching him personally.

 

The Cabinet Member – Education and Regeneration added, that any Member was also welcome to visit schools with himself, to see first-hand the excellent work they were undertaking in terms of recycling. Primary Schools were leading the way here, he further added.

 

Second supplementary question from Councillor K Watts to the Cabinet Member - Communities

I’m very pleased to hear from the Deputy Leader and the Cabinet Member – Communities of the good work being carried out by our Litter Champions and Cleaner Street teams. However, I’ve noted that there is excessive litter being dumped in hedges and on grassed verges and highways throughout the County Borough. What work was being done to alleviate the depositing of such litter on these areas, including those that linked our major towns

 

Response

I will take this up after the meeting with Officers in our Litter Enforcement team.

 

Question by Councillor A Hussain to the Cabinet Member – Social Services and Early Help

Traditionally, local authorities should have a budget to purchase assistive equipment if it supports someone to live independently and fully. We would want to see this continue. In many authorities we are hearing of a kind of informal means-testing where the person assessing tries to ascertain if someone could pay for the equipment themselves. This is fraught with difficulty and I hope BCBC doesn’t try it.

 

Will the Cabinet Member let the Council know as how is the Telecare Service being provided to the residents in the County and how much will be the estimated saving to the Council?

 

Response

Telecare is about using technology as a way of managing risks to independence, to monitor and respond to emergencies as they happen and to support lifestyle changes over time.  The Telecare Service is one that is intended to maintain and increase the independence of individuals at home and reduce their reliance on services.  This supports the Council’s corporate priority of helping people to be more self-reliant and making smarter use of resources. This service also supports hospital discharge and the prevention agenda.

 

Telecare employs wireless technology which links Telecare sensors via a community alarm unit in the home to a central monitoring centre. These sensors can send an alert to the monitoring centre, without the need for the user to call for help, by pressing a pendant button. The range of innovative non–intrusive Telecare sensors includes wireless enabled sensors such as the smoke, flood, extreme temperature sensors, falls and bed/chair occupancy. These work within the home to offer a comprehensive way of managing risk to a person’s health and home environment, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

 

Telecare equipment has become part of the wide range of community equipment services currently available. Telecare helps to:

 

•            Increase independence and choice for service users

•            Give carers effective support, respite and peace of mind

•            Increase capacity for maintaining people at home

•            Help to manage risk at home

•            Prevent admission to hospital and facilitate timely discharge

•            Delay admission to residential or nursing care accommodation services

•            Support Intermediate Care and Home Care services

 

The Welsh Assembly Government previously prioritised the development of Telecare services across Wales. The Social Services Direction Paper ‘A Strategy for Social Services in Wales over the next decade: Fulfilled Lives, Supportive Communities’ 2006  advocated the development of Telecare services specifically in order to maximise independence and support more domiciliary rather than residential care. In 2008 Bridgend set an informal target of 500 new users by March 2009. In 2019, 10 years later we have 2634 individuals using the Telecare services.

 

The Service is further enhanced by the addition of a Mobile Response Team, to our knowledge, Bridgend was the first Council in Wales to link such a team to Telecare. This team are registered to deliver personal care and provides rapid assistance to users of the Telecare service. The team provide a 24 hour service, seven days a week, utilising a duty vehicle and a mobile phone, providing rapid assistance by reacting to calls via a community alarm centre.

 

BCBC are fully committed to increasing and maximising the use of the Telecare Service, which it sees as one of the keys to supporting people to feel more confident and remain at home for longer, having the Mobile Response Team adds further security for those who require it or have no family to respond to crisis that can happen at home. This has seen the service more than double in the last 5 years, with over 2,400 individuals now receiving the service. We currently have a budget of £380k to fund telecare equipment, installation, maintenance and monitoring, and there are no proposals within the MTFS to cut this budget.

 

All charges for mobile response are calculated in accordance with the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014 (Charging and Financial Assessment), where currently no one pays more than £80 per week for a non-residential care service. As such, those with the least disposable income will receive services at a lesser-cost, or even free of charge, which is in line with charges for other social services.

 

In line with individual agreements, charges are being introduced during 2019 for lost or replacement equipment, which is one of the proposals identified in the MTFS 2019/20 to maximise income generation, which are forecast to increase income by £150k during 2019/20.

 

Supplementary question from Councillor Altaf Hussain to the Cabinet Member – Social Services and Early Help

 

Assistive living technology is proven nationally, to improve outcomes and reduce costs to social care. Could the Cabinet Member let the Council know about the evidence of benefits in reduction of escalations of care in our clients and saving for the council generated since its use (2008), and keeping in mind the benefits and the savings - why can’t we make this technology free for all deserving residents in our County?

 

Response

The response to this question will be researched and provided outside the meeting.

 

The Leader added that approximately 2,500 residents received Telecare from the Council, and this greatly assists them in helping to maintain their independence in a residential environment.

 

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing added, that there were presently more vulnerable people living at home when previously they had been in care, including some of the more complex cases, which had historically always been a huge pressure on the Authority and its partners. Some of these cases were very complex in their nature. She echoed the comments of the Leader, in that Telecare was an invaluable support service that helped prevent individuals going into long term care.