At the Cabinet meeting on 30th November at 2pm and important announcements were made as follows:
1) Cabinet Approved the draft 2022/23 budget paper: as well as day to day spending, the paper also sets out an ambitious £1.9bn ‘capital programme’ of investment including:
- Highways resurfacing
- Extra school places
- The River Thames Scheme and other flood alleviation projects
- Low-emission buses
- Over £300m to help tackle climate change.
Please do to take part in the public consultation here on Surrey County Council’s draft budget for the 2022 – 2023 financial year, which closes on 28th December 2021
2) Agreed to a strategic response to child poverty: a report will go to Council in December and include recommendations on how to support families to get out of financial distress for the long term. Tackling inequality and helping every child thrive in Surrey are fundamental parts of the council’s overriding ambition to ensure no one is left behind in Surrey
3) Agreed to transforming children’s homes: to ensure children receive the best possible care that is appropriate for their needs, whilst remaining close to their families and communities
4) Committed to investing in all 52 of Surrey’s libraries in order to modernise the county’s library estate
5) Approved funding for the biggest Your Fund Surrey project to date: Over £500k from the fund will be allocated towards the construction of a community shop and café located in Normandy, Surrey
6) Discussed a new strategy for supporting older people in Surrey age well and live as independently as possible. Hundreds of people – residents, unpaid carers, staff, partners and providers – helped shape the nine-year plan. The strategy has 3 focus areas: support people to stay healthy and happy to prevent their needs escalating, where possible, enable people to continuing living at home as long as possible with support and to ensure intensive support in care homes is tailored to needs
7) Discussed plans to provide supported housing for people with mental health needs, which would see skilled staff be available to give support as needed
8) Agreed for the council to run the school admission process the same as this year, but with key dates updated for 2022/23.