Search decisions

To seek approval to issue a Main Works contract modification to Tilbury Douglas Construction to increase the scope of Phase 1 priority works at the Old Library on Union Street.

RESOLVED - That:
Option 1: proceed with a Phase 1 contract modification
A contract modification would facilitate a process that targets best value for the Council and opportunities to access time and cost benefits of a fully integrated development programme.

The purpose of this report is to consider a request for the introduction of a Prohibition of Driving Order, with an exemption for cyclists, along part of Wellington Street, Oldham, to promote active travel in and out of the Oldham Town centre.

RESOLVED - That a prohibition of driving order, with an exemption for cyclists, be introduced on part of Wellington Street, Oldham, for an experimental period of 18 months, in accordance with the schedule at the end of this report. It is also recommended that the no right turn from Wellington Street into Rhodes Bank be revoked for the same experimental period. If no objections are received it is recommended that the Orders be made permanent.

To grant a lease of an area of land to Northern Roots.

RESOLVED - That: the Council grants to Northern Roots a lease of land within the project area and adjacent to Alexandra Park. The area would be used by Northern Roots to encourage community engagement, support volunteering and work placement activity.

Seeks approval for changes to our current establishment in Children’s Social Care Business Support to retain coverage of the essential duties, staff experience, skills and knowledge in order to maintain a high standard of service delivery. To reduce our dependency on agency and support the recruitment challenges facing the service.
This is set within the context of the development of our Target Operating Model to ensure the service is fit for the future in line with our vision for Children’s Services in Oldham.

RESOLVED - That:
Incorporate 1 FTE grade 4 Senior Business Support Officer, 1 FTE grade 3 CLA Administrator, 1 FTE and 0.8 FTE grade 3 Higher Level Business Support Officer into the Children’s Social Care business support establishment in budget code 63955.
To retain coverage of the essential duties, staff experience, skills and knowledge in order to maintain a high standard of service delivery. To support the reduction on our dependency for agency workers and the recruitment challenges facing the service. To continue support of the statutory duties for our Children Looked After and LADO. To continue supporting the financial processes for statutory payments to our service users.

To seek approval to relocate by agreement a former school caretaker and his wife (the Tenant) from the council owned property known as No.1 School Lane, Failsworth, which is located at the entrance to the Kaskenmoor site, to a new home to be built in a better position on the same Kaskenmoor site, on the terms set out in the Further Information section of the report.

RESOLVED - That:
to relocate by agreement the former school caretaker from the council owned property known as no.1 School Lane, Failsworth, to a new home to be built on the Kaskenmoor site, on the terms set out in the Further Information section of the report.

The purpose of the report is to request Cabinet Member approval to allocate the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) £2,419,369.23 Household Support Grant funding for Oldham over the period 6 October 2021 to 31 March 2022. The report sets out the proposed allocation of funding across several initiatives including food support for children and young people over the school holiday period and help with the cost of fuel and essential items for vulnerable households.

RESOLVED - That: To spend the full £2,419,369.23 DWP allocation for Oldham of the Household Support Grant over the Winter Period to support vulnerable households including families with and without children and individuals. This includes supporting children and young people with a food offer over school holiday periods, help for households with fuel costs and digital inclusion support to Oldham residents.

Seeks approval to administer the Council Tax Energy Rebate as set out in the 2022/23 Revenue Budget Report (approved on 2 March 2022) and to agree a local Council Tax Energy Rebate Discretionary Scheme.

RESOLVED - That:
The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Finance and Low Carbon approves:
•The proposals in the report setting out the operation of the Council Tax Energy Rebate scheme
•The Discretionary Council Tax Energy Rebate scheme

The Assistant Director for Commissioning and Partnerships post became vacant in December 2021 after the previous post holder left the authority. This has provided an opportunity to rethink the current arrangements in the light of wider system changes and the evolving need of the directorate. Approval is now sought to restructure the children and young people’s commissioning function initially on an interim basis. This proposal, if approved, will continue the delegation of the function to the Director of Education, Skills and Early Years, on behalf of the whole directorate. It will also ensure system wide flexibility, positioning us to take advantage of the development of integrated commissioning intentions including the Integrated Care System and resultant changes to current CCG functions. In addition, this will realise a saving from the overall staffing budget.
Interim arrangements for the Children and Young People’s Commissioning Team would enable senior leaders to have flexibility moving forward as Oldham, Greater Manchester and national agendas emerge and develop.
It is also recommended as part of these proposals that the Commissioning Team is known as Children and Young People’s Commissioning rather than Startwell.

Interim arrangements for a fixed term ensure we do not commit to a permanent structure, allowing a flexible approach to adapt as the direction of the Integrated Health and Care System evolves avoiding unnecessary redundancy or TUPE implications.
The interim structure will ensure that children and young people’s commissioning functions remain a priority within the scope and control of children’s service contributing to Directorate outcomes and performance
The proposed structure options consider the need for increased placements and sufficiency capacity in order to meet the increasing demands of children’s social care and contribute to sufficiency plans to reduce the reliance on external high cost out of borough placements. The recruitment of an additional G6 Placement Officer will enable a G10 post to deliver strong strategic oversight including quality assurance, sufficiency and GM/Northwest Framework developments.
Re-distributed commissioning capacity will ensure consistency, accountability, contract management and quality assurance, and will work across the directorate on community-based services, placement providers, Oldham Learning, SEND including personalization developments and Virtual School activities and provision.

To create a post of Practice Support Coordinator for a 12 month period to assist in achieving the Council's stated goal of providing good outcomes for children.

In this regard the report details 3 options:
Option 1 - To keep things as thy are and not to create this post.
Option 2 - To create the post of Practice Support Coordinator for a period of 12 months on the grade detailed in the submitted confidential report.
Option3 - To try and resolve the issue through the engagement of existing Business Support Officers.

RESOLVED - That: option 2, as outlined in the submitted report be approved (to fund the post of Practice Support Coordinator) for a fixed 12 month period)

Oldham Council, through Department for Education (DfE) Opportunity Area grant funding, have developed a bid to improve the early identification of special educational needs, including Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This project is called the Early identification of Need project and Oldham is one of three other areas to receive this additional funding.
Grant funding was confirmed by the DfE on 13 December 2021.
The overall ASD Diagnosis Support Service is delivered within scope of a contract with Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust who sub-contract an element of delivery to Parents of Oldham in Touch (POINT). This also supports Oldham’s coproduction and partnership principles. ASD primary need accounts for c.35% of the EHC plans maintained by Oldham Council, and continues to increase locally and nationally.
An additional grant of £30,000 has been identified for pre-diagnostic support work as part of the Early Identification of Need Project. It is proposed this is delivered by POINT under the arrangements outlined above as this would strengthen and extend the existing offer to Oldham families. The current offer in Oldham already exceeds the GM agreed minimum standards, and this opportunity would benefit Oldham families further.

Approved - Approval is sought to seek agreement from Pennine Care to vary their existing post diagnosis contract with POINT to include a prediagnostic element from January 2022 up until 31 August 2022 as part of the pilot project. This element will be delivered by POINT with a funding envelope of £30,000. Contract monitoring will be completed by Pennine Care following their existing arrangements.

The purpose of the report is to request approval to invest in the online resource library and electronic delivery system, Essential Parent, that has been piloted and evaluated by GMCA, to offer digital content and an online resource library providing expert-led, evidence-based parental advice on a range of physical and mental health and wellbeing topics alongside an e-Care delivery system, to parents and carers in Oldham.

RESOLVED - That:
Invest in the Essential Parent online portal.

The purpose of the report is to request approval from the Chief Executive to allocate the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) £2,419,369.23 Household Support Grant funding for Oldham over the period 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022. The report sets out the proposed allocation of funding across several initiatives including food support for children and young people over the school holiday periods and help with the cost of fuel and essential items for pensioners and vulnerable households.
It is important that the Council does not delay in mobilising financial support to vulnerable residents

RESOLVED - That the Household Support Grant funding is spent in full with regard to option one (see below). Any decision to increase the fund with Council resources to augment the offer during the period April to September 2022 will be deferred until there is greater clarity on future Government funding intentions.

Oldham Council has secured funding from the following source:
•Environment Agency – Grant in Aid
The purpose of this report is to confirm the value of the grant currently available to Oldham of £269,941 (a £180,668 contingency is also available if required funded by Grant in Aid and Local Levy Fund) and to notify the Portfolio Holder of the intention to bring this additional resource into the transport capital programme to commence delivery of the scheme.

RESOLVED - That:
Accept the grant offer and deliver the above scheme in an appropriate timescale.

To seek approval for the allocation of resources secured through Section 106 planning obligations to fund the implementation of a traffic calming scheme and associated improvements (including the removal of the zebra crossing and speed cushions adjoining the site) to the highway on Counthill Road, Oldham including the junction at Ripponden Road

RESOLVED - That:
To approve the allocation of £86,945.07 Section 106 resources from DB 414 – Land at former Counthill School, Counthill Road, Oldham (PA/341339) for the purposes of the implementation of a traffic calming scheme and associated improvements (including the removal of the zebra crossing and speed cushions adjoining the site) to the highway on Counthill Road, Oldham including the junction at Ripponden Road.

This report sets out the proposed redesign of the Youth Service following formal consultation with Staff and Trade Unions.
Approval is sought to implement the proposed redesigned service structure that allows for alignment to the wider placed based approach across the 5 geographical districts of Oldham, as well as an increase in youth work staffing capacity following the investment of an additional £80k into the youth service annual budget.

RESOLVED - That: the redesign of the Youth Service achieves the desired alignment of Youth Services to the placed based working in each of the 5 districts as well as providing a robust structure and management. This proposed structure will also mean the service can increase the capacity for delivery of the core youth work from an average of 20 youth work sessions per week to 35.

The report seeks approval to recruit five agency Family Workers to increase capacity in the targeted early help district teams on temporary contracts to 31 December 2022.

RESOLVED - That: five agency Family Workers be recruited in the targeted early help district teams to 31 December 2022

The report seeks to provide grant funding to grow the capacity of voluntary, faith and community groups in Oldham to support children
and young people, including through social prescribing.

RESOLVED - That: Grant funding of £60k per year for three years be agreed, to be administered through the One Oldham Fund by Action Together