Agenda and minutes

          The Minutes from the meeting held on 3^rd June 2025 were taken as read and signed as a correct record.

          The Board was advised that no public questions had been received.

The Board was presented with the minutes relating to the Corporate Services Portfolio, which had been considered by the Executive Board since the last meeting of the Board.

In response to a question from the Committee, officers clarified that if something like a community centre was handed to a group then they would have to pay business rates for it but if they had charitable status then they would get an 80% relief on these rates. Additionally, they could ask the Council for an additional 10% relief on these rates.

Regarding ‘health and leisure in Halton’, the Committee noted that bowlers were feeling left out as they had no facilities in areas like Victoria Park. They expressed that the Executive Board should look to include all aspects of leisure, especially for the active older generation.

The Board considered the results of the 2025 Staff Survey as stated in the report. It was the first staff survey since 2019, and this was undertaken to see how the culture had changed and to try and address any staff issues that arose. Work was done to initiate responses through non-laptop using members of staff with ballot boxes. Going forward, the initial responses will be analysed along with the text box answers. The Corporate Workforce Board will address the concerns raised by officers with these answers and with directorate surveys going forward and create an action plan to be rolled out to the whole Council.

In response to a suggestion from the Chair regarding a competition the increase engagement, officers stated this may influence responses and they would rather have less but honest responses.

In his line of work, a Board Member noted that his job had staff surveys, but their response rate was 60-70% as they did have incentives to respond to the survey. He queried if another survey platform would get more engagement. He also would have liked to have seen the methodology in how the results were gathered.

With responding to a request for clarification regarding the behaviours that needed improving in the Council, officers clarified that respondents determined which behaviours they felt needing improving most so they put the listed behaviours in a priority order for them.

It was confirmed that the responses to the survey came from all directorates with no big majority from one directorate. They did not ask about pay grades in the survey.

The Board noted that the survey results implied that 1/3 of staff felt officers did not work well with councillors and 80% felt that Councillors did not know what officers did. They felt that Councillors needed to do ‘PR’ work with officers and increase engagement with them.

In the next survey, the Board suggested that they ask whether each department had a leadership culture and whether they were happy with it and ask how long the staff member had worked for the Council. They were keen to see how different departments understood work culture in their areas.

In response, officers said that questions alluding to this will be included in other corporate and departmental staff surveys planed with adults and children’s social care. All these surveys will be looked at by the Corporate Workforce Board. The Workforce Board may look at reoccurring issues raised and create a focus group to try to resolve the issue.

Officers clarified that there had not been a staff survey for six years because it felt inappropriate to ask for responses to their survey during a pandemic and their priorities would have been elsewhere.

The Board noted that it was important to show members of staff that their comments made a difference, otherwise they would not respond to the survey again.

In response to a point from a Board Member, officers noted that staff sickness had increased from 2024 because the Council had  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14.

          This item was deferred.

          The Board considered a report on the performance in the first quarter of the Council term for 2025-2026 which detailed the progress made against objectives, milestones, and performance targets and provides information relating to key developments and emerging issues that have arisen during the period.

          It was confirmed that the new Welfare Officers had started but there was a bit of a learning curve for the Benefits Team.

          It was noted that there had been a significant improvement with the debt recovery, especially with adult social care where most of the debt was; this work had been done by ICB. Additional staff had been brought into adult social care as community social workers to resolve the debts issues for clients and families. The success with this has led to more of these posts being advertised.

          The Board suggested that the agency staff usage and costs be reviewed as there had not been a reduction in the usage of them. This was especially the case in children’s services; however, they had started work for this by not hiring agency social workers to cover another social worker who was off temporarily.

          Concerns were expressed with ‘Connect2Halton’ as they mainly dealt with agency staff and possibly were not as efficient as they should be. It was felt that more focus should be obtaining permanent recruitment instead of maintaining agency staff.

          It was agreed that the Head of HR could attend a future meeting present an update on recruitment.

          Regarding the One Stop Shops, the Board emphasised the need for these to remain to support service users who were not technologically confident.

          Regarding the markets, the Committee noted that work needed to be done urgently to try and save the market. The Board asked officers to check whether licences were still required for markets. (John Hughes – Property)

          Officers agreed to check whether the Leisure Centre solar panel farm was working or if it was an extension (Jim Yates)

          Regarding school academies, this was in HR’s SLA (service level agreement) with schools and there had been a general reduction in them. They were determining whether to continue SLAs with academies.

          The Board asked what the effect was following savings with school meal provision on families and increasing green bin costs with fly tipping. A Board Member noted that Area Forum money was split based on which areas had the highest population, and he queried how this would affect these area and community projects. 

          The Chair noted that the Area Forums could be reinstated when the economic situation improves.

          RESOLVED:

          That the report be noted.

          The Board considered a report on the Council’s overall revenue net spend position as of 31 May 2025 together with a 2025/26 forecast outturn position. The report was presented by the Director of Finance and it did not focus on capital spending. The Executive Board had requested that a copy of the report be shared with each Policy and Performance Board for information, to ensure that all Members had a full appreciation of the Councilwide financial position, in addition to their specific areas of responsibility. In presenting the report, it was noted that the Council had to spend in budget by the end of 2025.

          It was shared with the Board that the Council overspent by £16 million over its budget but they only had £6 million in reserves. Therefore, the Council asked Central Government for £10 million to cover the rest which they agreed to do. As a result, the Council has not needed to ask for more money yet, but this will depend on the Council’s cashflow. Interest to borrow from Central Government was high at present at 6.2% over 20 years. The Council will ask to borrow more money if it will run out of money at the end of the year which is likely as it was set to overspend by £29 million.

          It was clarified that the Chief Executive Delivery Unit was the Transformation Delivery Team, Risk Management Team and some policy staff.

          The Board noted that the school saving costs should have been brought in before the schools started the new term as they would start the year by overspending.

          In response, officers stated that due to the time taken to organise the savings, they would not be implemented until September 2026. This should prevent disruption for school placements too.

          Regarding home to school transport, officers agreed to see how many of these pupils had EHCPs.

          The Board noted that more money was spent on agency staff for adult care homes, who had relationships with the residents, than the permanent staff and they received higher wages. There were also delays with residents getting their relatives into care homes. 

          Officers noted that agency costs were costing the Council £600,000 monthly. 

          Inspectors from the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government will check the methodology for spending at the Council, but they had a backlog as 40 other authorities were overspending, and they had to visit all of them. The visit will likely happen in October or November 2025, and they will report their finding to Ministers. The Ministers will then give the final approval for the Council’s budget before it is set in February 2026.

          A Board Member noted that the Children, Young People & Families PPB wanted to look at the results of the consultation on school transport and make recommendations back to the Executive Board. After holding an extraordinary meeting, they made some recommendations back to the Executive Board with some rationalisation for their recommendations for savings. For example, whether taxis could be shared amongst  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.