Issue - decisions

a)  Noted the draft SCF’s business plan for 2023/24 to 2027/28 at Appendix A and agree that this should not be approved as the annual business plan.

b)  Approved a Contract Sum for 2023/24 of £36.062m, an increase of £4.632m on the 2022/23 base budget.

c)  Delegated authority to the Executive Director of Strategy and Improvement, in consultation with the Lead Member of Customer Services, Procurement & Performance, to offer an enhanced level of support services with a charging mechanism to reflect cost recovery. 

d)  Noted that a report will be brought back to Cabinet in Quarter 2 of 2023/24 with a new business plan for SCF, following consultation with key stakeholders and alignment with the Council’s Corporate Plan.

e)  Noted and accept the recommendations from the People Scrutiny Panel Task and Finish Group and delegate authority to the Chief Executive, in consultation with the Lead Member for Children’s Services, to appoint lead officers to progress each recommendation and to request that the SCF Board of Directors ensure that these recommendations are considered and reflected in a new business plan.

(a)  That SCF’s Annual Report be noted.

(b)  That the governance review of SCF be noted and in particular the recommended actions and recommend to the Audit and Corporate Governance Committee that it receives six monthly reports on progress against the governance review recommendations. 

(c)  Noted that People Scrutiny Panel was receiving a report recommending that it set up a task and finish group to review the Mutual Ventures report, Annual Review process and draft business plan to make recommendations to cabinet on approval of the business plan as part of the budget setting process.