Agenda item - Public Involvement

To consider the following matters raised by members of the public:

(a)           Petitions: 

To receive any petitions presented by members of the public;

(b)           Written Questions:

To receive any questions submitted by the due date of 12 noon on the 7 February 2025;

(c)           Deputations:           

To receive any deputations submitted by the due date of 10am on the 7 February 2025.

(c)        Deputations

1)               General Fund Revenue Budget, Capital & Treasury Management Strategy 2025-26

151.1      Cabinet considered a deputation relating to provision of childcare in the city for SEND children.

151.2      Councillor Daniel provided the following response:

Thanks for bringing this deputation to Cabinet. I know I've met with some of you and corresponded with some of you around these issues.

First, I want to talk about Drove Road. I know that families confidence in the Drove Road provision and our financial commitment to that provision has been rocked in the last month.

There was a week in January where staff wrongly were told that a council wide overtime ban applied to services at Drove Road. This was never intended to be the case, and it took little over a week to sort out and clarify that they were.

And unfortunately, on top of that happening, there's been a lot of sickness in our Drove Road staff team and managers have found it really hard to get cover. I would like to assure you they do have the finances from us as councillors to pay for it and all the authorities in place in terms of permission. To do so, this has caused some further cancellations with the sickness and all I can do is apologise for that.

There are no cuts to any budget or provision at Drove Road in the budget, nor any other budget relating to disabled children, which I know you acknowledge. We did listen to you last year and we got an independent which we listened to, and it agreed with your parental point of view.

And as a result, we are opening Rainbow Lodge this year, which is really good news because that will bring home five children from out of county to be cared for near their family.

There is a proposal to use a separate flat on the site at Drove Road currently being used full time by a young adult who is due to move on and that is to offer short term placements to neighbouring authorities to prevent the need for out of Sussex placements. This plan wouldn't impact on the main house or rest nights offered and it also doesn't impact on the plans around holiday provision.

This January, we approved new policies and papers around direct payments, and we have put an additional £500,000 into that budget because we think the new policies will make it more accessible and more likely that people can use those budgets.

Around short breaks, so there's three types of short breaks, holiday provision, wrap around school provision and respite care.

We know that you're concerned about the number of holiday sessions available to children with the most severe disabilities.

Officers are working with families on what they should look like and as an Administration, we support that as a priority. Having said that, we will review our budget proposals in light of what you have said and in the submission.

And I will be a meeting with Send Us a Break in early March to agree a work programme for the year with clear milestones focusing on all the three strands of short breaks, including respite after school clubs and holiday clubs.

And just once again, I would like to thank you for coming and for making this important deputation.

151.3      Resolved- That Cabinet note the deputation.