Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Cllr J Anand.

Apologies were also received from Tony Clements, Chief Executive. Kerry Stevens, Strategic Director of Adults and Public Health attended the meeting in his place.

In accordance with paragraph 2.6(a) of the Council’s Constitution, the following speakers addressed the Cabinet with regard to the following items:

Agenda item 8 – Ealing Serious Violence Strategy

·       Cllr Gallant

Agenda item 9 – Greener Ealing Business Plan

·       Cllr Malcolm

Agenda item 10 – Update on the future of Warren Farm Sports Ground

·       Cllr Malcolm

·       Cllr Gallant

The meeting was held in a hybrid format with members and officers able to join the meeting remotely. However, regulations did not allow for members attending virtually to be counted as present in the attendance section of the minutes, and their attendance would not count as attendance in relation to section 85(1) of the Local Government Act 1972. Members attending virtually would be able to speak but would not be able to vote.

There were none.

Items 7 and 10 both contained a confidential appendix but were not taken in private as it was not necessary to discuss the confidential information provided.

Agenda item 10 – Update on the future of Warren Farm Sports Ground

·         Cllr Blacker declared a non-pecuniary interest.

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 7 February 2024.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday 7 February 2024 be agreed and signed as a true and correct record.

There were none.

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

      I.          Authorised the procurement of a new Dynamic Purchasing System (DPS) comprising of separate service lots for adults and children’s domiciliary care services, extra care, adult day opportunities and floating support services. It was intended that the new DPS would commence from 1 April 2025 for a period of four years, with an option to extend for a further four years (2 + 2) years, expiring in March 2033.

     II.          Delegated authority to the Strategic Director Adults and Public Health and the Strategic Director for Children’s Services to award entry of identified providers on to the new DPS who had applied and successfully met the DPS entry requirements.

   III.          Authorised the direct award of a contract for domiciliary care services at Turnberry Court extra care housing unit to Hartwig Care Limited for a period of one year commencing from 3 March 2025 to 1 March 2026 at a cost of £695,620.

  IV.          Authorised the direct award of a contract for domiciliary care services at Moorlands Court extra care housing unit to Hartwig Care Limited for a period of one year commencing from 23 February 2025 to 1 March 2026 at a cost of £504,370.

    V.          Noted that the direct award of the contracts for domiciliary care services at Turnberry Court and Moorlands Court respectively would expire on the same date to enable the re-procurement of these contracts via a mini competition under the proposed new DPS referred to above.

  VI.          Delegated authority to the Strategic Director Adults and Public Health and Strategic Director for Children’s Services to make spot purchases where no suitable placements or packages could be sourced via the DPS.

REASON FOR DECISION AND OPTIONS CONSIDERED:

1.    Ealing Council has a statutory duty to meet the care and support needs of vulnerable children and young people, adults, and carers in the borough based on an assessment of their need and where the eligibility criteria are met.

2.    The procurement of a DPS provides a contractual vehicle for adults and children’s social care to purchase domiciliary care, adult extra-care, adult day opportunities, and floating support services. The DPS would include the following categories under separate lots of services:

a)    Adults domiciliary care: standard care, complex care

b)    Adults extra-care

c)    Children’s domiciliary care: standard care, complex care

d)    Adult day opportunities: building based and community-based day activities

e)    Floating support services

3.    The current DPS for domiciliary care services (known as the Ealing Homecare DPS) had commenced 1 April 2017 for a period of four years with an option to extend for a further four years (2 years plus 2 years). The DPS had been varied in 2021 to include the provision of children’s domiciliary care services. There were no further options to extend the current DPS which was due to expire on 31 March 2025.

4.    The proposed new DPS would assist in achieving:

a)    A bank of quality assured providers (by service category)

b)    A clear choice of approved providers enabling control for the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

      I.          Noted the contents of the Serious Violence Strategy 2024.

     II.          Noted the outcome of needs assessment undertaken as part of the development of strategy.

   III.          Noted the Safer Ealing Partnerships’ compliance with the Serious Violence Duty.

REASON FOR DECISION AND OPTIONS CONSIDERED:

1.     To continue the cabinet’s engagement with the Safer Ealing Partnership on its key duties as the Borough’s Community Safety Partnership, in this case, the serious violence strategy.

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

     I.        Agreed the appended Greener Ealing Business Plan for 2024/25.

    II.        Noted the related Council budget for the existing total Greener Ealing scheduled works contract sum of £23.930m for 2024/25 and £0.160m for new services.

REASON FOR DECISION AND OPTIONS CONSIDERED:

1.    The attached Business Plan for 2024/25 supports the short to medium term Greener Ealing objectives agreed with the Council in line with performance requirements and affordability.

2.    The significant investment by the Council and by Greener Ealing in people and infrastructure, has resulted in a dramatic improvement in performance across all key contract services in comparison to the previous contractor. This is demonstrated in the tables later in this report.

3.    Greener Ealing was established following a detailed options appraisal which recommended the creation of a Local Authority Trading Company (LATCO) as the optimal value for money means of delivering the Council’s environmental services. As stated in previous related reports to the Cabinet, Greener Ealing has been created with the necessary supporting infrastructure, legal and governance arrangements, together with a significant financial commitment from the Council (including an entirely new fleet of waste collection, street cleansing and grounds maintenance vehicles) to ensure that the business is positioned to fully deliver on the Council’s objectives.

4.    Greener Ealing has a public service ethos, and this is reflected in the nature of support given to its staff. All staff have benefited from an uplift in salary and are now paid at least the Real Living Wage. All staff have access to an improved pension scheme and a number of former Ealing employees have admitted body access to the Local Government Pension Scheme.

5.    The use of temporary staff is commonplace across the sector; however, Greener Ealing has reduced the reliance on agency workers in line with the Council’s good jobs objective, prioritising the provision of permanent local employment opportunities. Greener Ealing provides training and development opportunities for staff, identifying opportunities for advancement for front line staff to Drivers and beyond to Supervisory and Managerial levels and improve in areas where skills development has been neglected or left behind e.g. horticultural skills, vehicle fitters or HGV training – Greener Ealing will grow its own. Greener Ealing is also developing a new apprenticeship programme.

6.      Greener Ealing and its senior management team is transparent and held accountable to the Council with performance measured against robust key performance indicators. These are governed by monthly Board meetings in addition to management meetings and fit for purpose contract monitoring arrangements.

RESOLVED:

That Cabinet:

     I.        Agreed that the entirety of the existing green space at Warren Farm Sports Ground is retained and enhanced for the purposes of nature, rewilding and biodiversity.

    II.        Delegated authority to the Strategic Director of Economy and Sustainability to apply to Natural England with updated plans to designate the entirety of the Warren Farm Sports Ground (in red) as a Local Nature Reserve in accordance with sections 19 and 21 of the National Parks and Access to Countryside Act 1949 (as amended) in collaboration with local user groups to safeguard the land for future generations.

  III.        Delegated authority to the Strategic Director of Economy and Sustainability, following consultation with the Director of Legal and Democratic Services, to agree terms of either a) a land swap which would involve the sale of the Council’s land and the purchase of land which is owned by Imperial College London and Imperial College Healthcare NHS (Imperial’s Land) or b) to acquire Imperial’s Land (without a sale of Council land) and to enter into any legal documents necessary to facilitate the agreed option and in the event that either option requires a capital budget, delegates authority to the Strategic Director, Resources following consultation with the Cabinet member for Inclusive Economy, to approve the capital budget and financing.

  IV.        Delegated authority to the Strategic Director of Economy and Sustainability to determine the final boundaries of the parcels of land to be swapped, acquired, or leased, and to agree any balancing payment if required.

   V.        Delegated authority to the Strategic Director of Economy and Sustainability to determine the exact location of the sports facilities following consultation with local interest groups.

  VI.        Noted that there has been no change to the strategic need for community sports facilities arising from the Indoor and Outdoor Sports Facility Strategy 2022-2031.

REASON FOR DECISION AND OPTIONS CONSIDERED:

1.    Climate Action was one of the three cross cutting strategic objectives set out in the Council Plan. The Council was taking significant steps to fulfil its Climate Action strategic objectives for the borough by planting 50,000 new trees and pursuing 25% Borough wide tree canopy cover, delivering 10 new parks, enhancing biodiversity, making progress towards rewilding 800,000sqm of land, and retrofitting homes, all towards achieving its strategic target of achieving a net zero Borough by 2030.

2.    The Council had already taken decisive action by announcing plans in 2023 to create the Ealing Regional Park which would be central to the Council’s climate resilience strategy going forward.

3.    Warren Farm had a strategically important role to play as part of the Council’s Climate Action strategy through the restoration of natural habitats, increasing biodiversity and providing space for nature to re-establish itself.

4.    The last report on Warren Farm Sports Ground that went to Cabinet in January 2023 anticipated that our nature and biodiversity aspirations could be met within the green striped land in the plan (as shown in the report) which included council and Imperial land, whilst sports facilities could be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

The date of the next meeting is Wednesday 17 April 2024.

The date of the next meeting was scheduled for Wednesday 17 April 2024.