Agenda and minutes

Members are asked to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary or Affected Interests in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.

Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.

Any Member with an Affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting.  There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting.

To consider and approve the minutes of the meeting of the Executive held on 21 March 2023.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Executive on 21 March 2023 together with the accompanying decision records be confirmed as a correct record.

There were no urgent items of business.

The Executive considered the following items.  The decisions are recorded in the decision sheets attached to these minutes and summarised below:

To update on implementation of the SEND Written Statement of Action for the second review meeting with the Department for Education and NHS England and request additional funding to maintain momentum; and to seek approval for the SEND Strategy 2023-25.

RESOLVED that

i.       the progress made on implementing the SEND written statement of action

to improve services to children and families and the feedback received from the Department for Education and NHS England relating to the end of January 2023 is noted.

ii.     that the Council has secured £1m through the Government’s Delivering

Better Value in SEND programme and in its bid to build a new specialist Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) special school in the Borough, to improve further inclusive, local services for children and young people with SEND is noted.

iii.    the release of £350,000 from the Council’s corporate contingency included in the 2023/24 budget to fund additional short term staffing capacity within the SEND team is approved to ensure momentum is maintained to deliver the

identified service improvements.

iv.    the SEND Strategy 2023 – 2025, that has been developed through close working with professionals, parents, carers and young people is approved to provide a clear direction for the service in the years ahead.

RESOLVED that

i.       the planned and accelerated initiatives set out in 5.4 are endorsed to address the local cost of living challenges to be delivered within the next three months.

ii.     the Executive commit to reviewing the existing Financial Hardship Action Plan with a report back to Executive in autumn ahead of Winter 2023.

RESOLVED that the performance of the council over the period from January- March 2023 highlighted in the Overview Report is noted.

RESOLVED that

i.       That the Executive approves this Strategic Procurement Plan (Appendix A) to tender the appointment of a main contractor under a Traditional building Contract to create up to seven new temporary homes.

ii.     The Executive delegates the award of the works contract to the Executive Member for Finance & Business Change in consultation with Executive Director Delivery.

To consider the following motion:

That pursuant to Regulation 4 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2012 and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of item 10 which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972:

(3)        Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information).

NB:      No representations were received in response to the 28 day notice of a private meeting.

RESOLVED that pursuant to Regulation 21 of the Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Access to Information) Regulations 2000, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of item 10 which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972:

(3)        Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority).

RESOLVED that the Executive:

i.       Supports additional investment in the Bracknell Leisure Centre based on Option 2 described in paragraph 5.5 that will secure significant enhancements to the facility to benefit users in addition to meeting the invest to save threshold through an increased management fee payment for the Council, and to enable this.

ii.     Agrees to release section 106 funding allocated to the provision of built sports and recreation

RECOMENDED to Council to approve a Supplementary Capital Approval with the associated borrowing costs already accounted for within the Option 2 figures detailed in recommendation 2.1.