Decisions

see attached officer decision record

To approve the following application for grant funding from the Members Ward Budget 2021/22:-
a. Sprotbrough Village History Group
Reference No: 15/DCF/21-22/Sprot
Supported by: Councillor Ransome
Cost £500.00

b. Loversall Parish Council
Reference No: 62/DCF/21-22/Ti&Wad
Supported by: Councillor Cannings & Councillor Greenhalgh
Cost £315.00 (£157.50 x 2 Councillors)

c. 19th Doncaster Askern Scout Group
Reference No: 64/DCF/21-22/Nor&Ask
Supported by: Councillor Beech & Councillor White
Cost £1500.00 (£750.00 x 2 Councillors)

In the event of transport cancellation due to pupils not travelling the contractor would usually receive 50% of the daily price for up to 5 days. However the current spike in Covid cases has led to significantly more transport cancellations than usual.

Whilst taxi drivers are able to pick up other passengers in place of / in addition to their school runs this is not the case for taxi escorts who are employed in this capacity purely for the school run am and pm. Additionally Escorts tend to be low paid and firms are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain these staff in light of frequent cancellations and interruptions.

Maintaining the Escort payment for periods of cancellation due to pupils self-isolating may provide an extra measure of reassurance and help to maintain continuity and retain staff.

This would also apply to minibus escorts although minibus cancellations are less likely as they carry a number of passengers every day.

It is proposed that this we pay 100% of the Escort cost from January 2022 in the event of a route being cancelled due to pupils self-isolating with covid. Not for any other reason and this would only be for a maximum of 2 weeks. This would be for the period from January to the Easter break initially, so for one term. If numbers continue to be high after Easter a further ODR will be created.

To provide an additional payment to contractors to maintain Escort salaries at 100% in the event of transport being cancelled due to pupils self isolating for Covid.

See attached ODR for full details

To agree with the recommendation from Joint Commissioning Operational Group (JCOG), approved by Joint Commissioning Management Board (JCMB) on 15th December 2021, to
provide a further 12 months funding of £260k for a contract extension of the existing Social Prescribing Service. This is due to commence from 1st April 2022, from the Non-Recurrent Better Care Fund (BCF) Earmarked Reserve.

This decision is subject to all partners reviewing the strategic review and collaborating to ensure a co-ordinated system approach to social prescribing moving forward.

This decision is in accordance with recommendations made in a Cabinet Report dated 27th March 2018 which approved the spending plan for the non-recurring BCF Ear Marked Reserve
as set out in the report: and delegated detailed spending decisions for the implementation of the Doncaster Place Plan £3m, other Integrated Functions £0.7m and unallocated balance £0.7m, to the Director of People in consultation with the Chief Finance Officer and relevant Portfolio Holder

See attached Officer Decision Record for full details

To amend the Housing Adaptations Policy to authorise, depending on available funds:-
1. Assistance with re-location costs
2. Discretionary grant funding above the mandatory grant limit of £30,000 (top-up)
3. Fund equipment/adaptations that fall outside the mandatory grant criteria
4. Extend expired warranty for equipment
5. Assist with client contribution

The aim of this contract is to reduced expenditure on transport. This technology and contract has been agreed by Technology Governance Board, subject to identifying the funding. It has been agreed with Adam Transport that this solution will be (worst case scenario) cost neutral. In that Adam will refund the expenditure on the system if the reductions are less than the cost of the system.

To enter into a contract with Adam Commissioning solution in order to reduce the costs of transport provision

In the event of transport cancellation due to pupils not travelling the contractor would usually receive 50% of the daily price for up to 5 days. However the current spike in Covid cases has led to significantly more transport cancellations than usual.
Whilst taxi drivers are able to pick up other passengers in place of / in addition to their school runs this is not the case for taxi escorts who are employed in this capacity purely for the school run am and pm. Additionally Escorts tend to be low paid and firms are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit and retain these staff in light of frequent cancellations and interruptions.
Maintaining the Escort payment for periods of cancellation due to pupils self-isolating may provide an extra measure of reassurance and help to maintain continuity and retain staff.
This would also apply to minibus escorts although minibus cancellations are less likely as they carry a number of passengers every day.
It is proposed that this we pay 100% of the Escort cost from January 2022 in the event of a route being cancelled due to pupils self-isolating with covid. Not for any other reason and this would only be for a maximum of 2 weeks. This would be for the period from January to the Easter break initially, so for one term. If numbers continue to be high after Easter a further ODR will be created.

To provide an additional payment to contractors to maintain Escort salaries at 100% in the event of transport being cancelled due to pupils self isolating for Covid.

ODR 2122001 approved the planned spend of £2,975,000 for additional Social Care Support grant, which is delegated to the Director of Learning, Opportunities and Skills and Assistant Director of Finance (Section 151) in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Skills. The planned spend included up to £795,000 to Doncaster Children’s Services Trust (DCST) for additional Social Workers during 2021/22. ODR 2123023 approved that £167,000 of the £795,000 was reallocated to additional staffing capacity and resource required to support a targeted follow up of safeguarding concerns raised regarding a provider across Children’s and Adult Services in the Borough; leaving a revised allocation of £628,000.

Following the Contract Meeting between Doncaster Council and Doncaster Children’s Services Trust on 22nd July 2021 the Trust was asked to provide a position statement on current staffing to evidence the need for additional funds. Originally the additional funds were identified for additional social workers capacity but the Trust asked the Council to consider that a broader view should be applied that additional workload pressures have also affected IROs, Legal, business support, amongst others. Additionally there has been a need to increase agency social worker pay. Subsequently Doncaster Children’s Services Trust submitted a business case to Doncaster Council requesting funding of up to £510,000 for the following pressures due to increased caseloads:

IROs/CP Chairs £100,000
The Trust’s MTFS for 2021/22 included a £100k saving within this Service but this will now not be achieved in 2021/22 due to caseload demand. The caseloads for IROs have increased from March 2020 to date by 65 – according to the IRO handbook they should carry cases of 50-70, which equates to 1.6 FTE posts that need to be retained within
Safeguarding and therefore require funding.

Legal Services £106,000
Since March 2020 the number of section 31 Care and PLO cases have increased by 75. Senior Legal Officers should carry cases of c.16 and the Trust has increased SLO by
0.8fte meaning cases over capacity is 54 – c. 3.2fte. The actual additional staffing is for 2.8fte: 1.0fte LO locum (10 months) + 2.0fte SLO locum (full year). The overall additional
cost is reduced due to utilising the release of a balance sheet accrual of £50,000 (judicial process complete) and £104,000 Covid funding already received from the Council.

These agency staff (all in post) will continue to be monitored and released when caseloads allow.

Administration increase £75,000
The additional caseload and CIC numbers creates pressures and a need for additional administration support. This includes team business support as well as, for example, HR support to recruit and manage the HR processes. Therefore this funding will be utilised to increase administrative support for Teams and HR temporarily although the vast majority will be used to support the Social Work Teams. This provides funding for 7 x G7 agency for 4-4.5 months, including the agency premium.

Agency rate increase £95,000
Neighbouring authorities are paying agency social workers £38-£40 per hour compared to the Trust’s hourly rate of £32 - £35 per hour leading to some workers leaving the Trust.
To retain staff and remain competitive in the market the Trust has increased its hourly rate to £38 per hour. The additional funding will provide for 17 agency social workers uplifted to £38 per hour for 8 months.

Assessments Project Team (Team 5) £134,000
To relieve the pressure on the Front Door an additional project team has been put in place for 12 weeks as team 5. This has enabled the Trust to have 4 full teams and the
5th team as the additional resource/project team which will allow the Trust to:
- Explore the issue of increased pressure on the Front Door further
- Understand the demand and if this can be met by 4 teams (with a 5th team supporting
with the current demand and high caseloads)
- 5th team will pick up cases each week when a team can’t take anymore – this will give the Trust a better picture of the allocation process and duty process.

This will allow the Trust to understand this further and consider what issues might be present and better understand how we prevent this being a re-occurring issue.

The business case requesting funding totalling up to £510,000 was approved by the Director of Learning, Opportunities and Skills and Assistant Director of Finance (Section 151).

To approve costs of up to £510,000 for additional Doncaster Children’s Services Trust caseload pressures to be funded from the £2,975,000 Social Care Support Grant delegated to the Director of Learning, Opportunities and Skills and Assistant Director of Finance (Section 151) in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Skills.

The use of Microsoft technologies is increasing and in order to continuously support the strategic direction of the organisation, it is imperative that our support models align to this increased knowledge and skillset. The Microsoft Unified Support contract will provide the Council access to enhanced technical knowledge in response to incident management, plus it will provide proactive monitoring opportunities to ensure the technology in place is performing as expected. Training materials are also part of the support agreement.

Regular interaction with a designated Microsoft Account Manager will ensure we are achieving value for money from the investment in technology; access to best practise knowledge and specific technical training to enhance the skillset within the Council’s support teams.

To procure a Microsoft Unified Support Contract using the G-Cloud 12 Framework Agreement (RM1557.12) for a 12-month period (1st March 2022 to 28th February 2023).

To mark the Queens Platinum Jubilee, a competition is being held for a grant of City Status, with submissions invited by 8th December 2021. Doncaster Chamber, on behalf of Team Doncaster, is leading the Doncaster bid for City Status with support from Team Doncaster partners and the wider Doncaster community.

To transfer funding of £28,224.00 to Doncaster Chamber to support the procurement of external marketing support for the Doncaster City Status bid preparation.

Sheffield Council (SCC) holds responsibility for a number of funding streams within the Sheffield City Region (SCR). A financial appraisal of a scheme to build 44,000 sq ft of business space at RHABP by Robin Hood Airport Developments Limited (RHADL), identified a viability gap of £1,010,000. SCC approached Doncaster Council to apply to
the SCR Growing Places Fund (GPF), and then transfer the equivalent in aid to RHADL through a separate Facility Agreement.

Seeking a catalyst for development at RHABP, DMBC entered into a Facility Agreement with SCC to secure the GPF and a separate facility agreement with RHADL to facilitate the development and provide aid to the project.
The facility agreement with RHADL contained references to the site location within an Enterprise Zone at RHABP.

A risk assessment, completed by officers from
the Legal and Strategy & Performance Teams was presented to the Director of Regeneration and Environment, Assistant Director of Legal and Demographic Services and the Assistant Director of Finance on 29th March 2017. It was unilaterally agreed to progress with the scheme and ask the Sheffield City Region to intensify efforts to secure an Enterprise Zone at RHABP.

The RHADL Facility Agreement was completed in May 2017, at a time when:
- Sheffield City Region had agreed to adopt 10 hectares of Robin Hood Airport Business Park in a portfolio of enterprise zones;
- Written agreement was secured from the Treasury that the RHABP would be adopted as an Enterprise Zone;
- SCR had submitted a form application to the Treasury to place RHABP and a number of other sites in the SCR into law.
- The site was actively marketed by SCR, the Government and Doncaster Council as an Enterprise Zone.

RHADL completed the construction of 10 units totalling 44,000sqft in March 2018.

On 22nd February 2018 the SCR received written confirmation that the Government had rejected the SCR Enterprise Zone application. This decision has presented Doncaster with a number of new opportunities including:
- Future business rate receipts do not have to be relinquished to the Sheffield City Region and will be retained by the = Council in line with current business rate law.
- Companies located in the proposed enterprise zone were excluded from receiving aid from the DMBC Business Investment Incentive Scheme. Business Doncaster is now able to better tailor assistance to the needs of companies locating at the Business Park.

A Deed of Variation between Doncaster Council and Robin Hood Airport Developments Limited is required to reflect the position that Robin Hood Airport Business Park is not an Enterprise Zone.

See attached Officer Decision Record for further details.

To enter into a Deed of Variation to an existing Facility Agreement between Robin Hood Airport Developments Ltd (RHADL) and Doncaster Council, wherein the parties confirm that the Property at Robin Hood Airport Business Park (RHABP) is not in the Sheffield City Region Enterprise Zone and agree that all references in the Facility Agreement dated 3rd May 2017 to the Property being located in the Enterprise Zone are deleted.

The ARCGIS platform has been utilised as a corporate solution for integrated mapping for a number of years now and has been integrated within a number of business-critical systems. The ARCGIS platform has been used very comprehensively with recent major issues – Flood Prevention and the COVID-19 pandemic. The use of integrated mapping continues to grow throughout the council. There is no current intention to change systems given the investment to date and
costs and impact of changing a major corporate system of this type.

See attached ODR for further information.

Purchase 12 months support & maintenance contract with ESRI (UK) LIMITED for the provision and maintenance of the ARCGIS PLATFORM for the period 19/11/21 –18/11/22 at a cost of £67,896, and will be funded from budget code MP011. This is to ensure continuation of service for this business-critical solution. This will be procured via the Crown Commercial framework (CCS) Local Authority Software Applications framework RM1059

Background

1. In 2014 the Governance Services Team procured the Modern.Gov Committee IT system to replace the in house system that had become outdated, inefficient and could no longer be supported. The system is essential to the Council’s democratic process by facilitating decision making through a calendar of meetings, recording details of elected Members, and compiling meeting agendas, minutes and decisions to ensure openness and transparency. The package converts agenda papers and decision records to PDF files and also includes an App to enable agendas, reports and decisions to be accessed through mobile devices. The encrypted app also allows confidential information to remain secure ensuring it is only viewed by those who are entitled to access it via a password. The use of the App is becoming more important as Councillors are encouraged to use digital devices rather than paper copies to read their agendas during meetings.

2. The system is primarily used by Governance Services and elected members but has over recent years been used by other teams in the Council to facilitate other internal or partnership meetings.

3. The original contract period was from 5.12.14 to 16.12 19. A further 2 year extension was agreed with the contract expiring 16.12.21. There are no further extensions included within the original contractual arrangements.

Reason For Decision
4. Moving forward the Governance Team need to maintain a robust Committee and decision making management system. This direct award arrangement falls under the Crown Commercial Services Framework, set up in accordance with EU procurement rules, allowing the Council to purchase the services without the need to run a separate tender. A direct award is therefore the preferred option as the tender process followed by migration of data, training, roll out and implementation of a new system is time and resource intensive. The initial setting up costs of a new provider and officer time in undertaking these tasks with a new contractor would be significant compared to continuing with the ongoing annual costs of the current system.

5. The cost of the new contract will be £13,400 per annum plus annual increase in line with the Retail Price Index (RPI) for the next 2 years. The current rate is £13,385 per annum plus annual RPI increase. The budget is available within Corporate Services to continue to meet the cost of this annual contract.

6. By using a direct award the Council will continue to receive the same level of service including, ongoing maintenance and support, use of an encrypted app and the programme will continue to be hosted externally. The proposed arrangement also provides some certainty of future costs moving forward.

i.To enter into a direct award arrangement for the Council’s Committee IT system, (Modern.Gov) using the Data and Application Solution agreement RM3821 under the Crown Commercial Services Framework.

ii.To retain arrangements with Civica for hosting, providing annual maintenance, ongoing technical support and provision of an encrypted app. for the period December 2021 to December 2023 (with an option for two 1 year extensions).