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 12 December 2023.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Executive on 12 December 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:

RESOLVED that the performance of the council over the period from July-September 2023 highlighted in the Overview Report in Annex A be noted, this includes any recommendations made by Overview and Scrutiny in Annex B.

RESOLVED that

       i.         the consultation responses and the suggested amendments to the Strategy are noted.

     ii.         the Bracknell Forest Economic Strategy 2024-2034 and action plan is approved.

    iii.         the repositioning of the Bracknell Forest Economic & Skills Development Partnership to the Bracknell Forest Economic Partnership as set out in paragraphs 5.12-5.15 of the Executive Director’s report is endorsed.

RESOLVED that the Executive agrees to the recommendations contained in the Strategic Procurement Plan:

       i.         That BFC enter into a partnership agreement (the Partnership) with 20 local

authorities’ where Southampton City Council will be the lead procuring  authority for the procurement of a new framework for children’s residential

provision (4 + 2 + 2 year contract commencing in October 2024).

     ii.         It is anticipated that the total expenditure by the Council through the South

Central Children’s Residential framework will be between £3,500,000 and

£4,000,000 per annum, giving an estimated total expenditure for the initial

four year term of £16,000,000. Approval of this Strategic Procurement Plan

therefore authorises all future call offs from this Framework up to £16,000,000

for the initial 4 year term of the framework, and up to a maximum of

£40,000,000 for the total 4 + 2 + 2 year term of the framework.

    iii.         That at the Framework Board Meeting on the 12th December 2024, BFC

votes for the following uplift approach for the new Framework recognising that

a quorate (50%) decision needs to be reached which may be slightly different

from BFC’s preferred position:

·       Placements on the current residential framework will be uplifted in line

with new framework placements.

·       Uplifts will be given annually at the start of the financial year from the

second year of the framework onwards. This means providers will be

eligible for their first uplift in April 2026 and every April thereafter.

·       Uplifts should be determined by Consumer Price Index including owner occupiers housing costs (CPIH) average for the year with a cap applied.

·       The cap should be set at a maximum of 7-8%.

·       Uplifts will apply to both existing and new placements