Agenda item

1.  The Chair made the following statement: “I am giving notice that I intend to call a special meeting of Cabinet (rule 4D, 7) in late January to agree the City Region Sustainable Transport Settlement before it is submitted by WECA to the Department for Transport.  In so doing, I am also using rule 4D, 20 to suspend the necessary rules so that no public or councillor questions are permitted at this meeting, and only statements on the agenda item.  This is to enable a focussed debate on the issue, and the usual public and councillor opportunities to engage with Cabinet will operate at the next scheduled meeting in February.  Please can I have a seconder for this proposal and then ask Cabinet to indicate their support.” Councillor Sarah Warren seconded the proposal

RESOLVED to recommend to Cabinet on 16^th December 2021 that rule 4D, 20 be used as outlined above regarding the January 2022 meeting of the Cabinet.

2.  The Chair announced that Councillor Alison Born, Cabinet Member for Adults and Council House Building would make a statement on ‘The Sale of Virgin Care to Twenty20 Capital’

Councillor Alison Born made the following statement.

“I would like to make a statement about the sale of Virgin Care to the Private Capital company Twenty20 Capital.

The recent decision to extend the Virgin Care contract by three years, until 2027, was taken because it appeared to offer continuity and certainty during a time of great challenge and upheaval in health and social care services. It was a joint decision with colleagues in the CCG and was based on a detailed options appraisal using the information available to us when the decision was made on 11th November.

The announcement, three weeks later on 1^st December 2021, that Virgin Care had been bought by the private capital company Twenty20 Capital, and is now known as HCRG Care Group, came as a total shock to all who had worked on the contract extension and all those working in local community health and care services, including valued colleagues in our voluntary and community sector.

We have been reassured that nothing will change but it appears to us that our community health and care services may have transferred from an organisation that had given a commitment not to make any profit from its health care contracts to one with a very different business model. If that is the case, it is clearly a significant change.

This raises a number of concerns, many of which have been raised with me by

service users, elected members, third sector organisations, staff and residents.  As the very basis for the extension decision appears to us to be in question, our confidence in continuity and consolidation has been undermined. As a consequence, we have decided to pause and reflect whilst we work jointly with colleagues in the CCG to seek specialist advice and undertake a comprehensive analysis and due diligence on the implications of these changes to our local services.

We aim to conclude this work as quickly as possible and to clarify our intentions well within the deadline for a decision on the contract extension of March 31^st 2022. We wish to reassure all those working in our local community health and care services, including third sector organisations, that our primary motivation will always be to provide safe, high quality services that meet the needs of our local residents and that public money will be safeguarded for the provision of front-line services.

Above all, we must ensure continuity of service provision and protect the interests of staff working in community services who at this time are working incredibly hard to support the most vulnerable people in our communities whilst supporting the delivery of an expanded vaccination programme. We must also safeguard the collaborative, user-focused culture that we, the CCG, our third sector organisations and other partners have built over a number of years”.