Bracknell council this week: care charging and school places

Cabinet meets on Tuesday evening to decide whether to send a new adult social care charging policy out to public consultation. The same meeting is asked to adopt the school places strategy for 2026 to 2031 and a ten-year health and wellbeing strategy. On Thursday, the scrutiny commission questions the cabinet member for adults, economy and regeneration on his portfolio.

All three public meetings are in the Council Chamber at Time Square, Market Street, Bracknell, RG12 1JD. The council’s calendar of meetings carries the agendas.

Tuesday: Cabinet

Four decisions are on the agenda. (Cabinet, 13 October 2026, agenda)

Adult social care charging policy. Cabinet is asked to approve a draft policy, version 2.0, for a 12-week public consultation. We reported the detail last week: a flat £20 a week disregard for disability-related expenditure, charging for people whose main need is a sensory impairment, and arrangement fees for self-funders. The council’s own assessment says more than 650 people would be better off and more than 35 would pay more. Our story: Bracknell adult social care charging policy.

Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2026 to 2036. The Health and Wellbeing Board approved this on 10 September. Cabinet is asked to note its publication and to use the refreshed Joint Strategic Needs Assessment in its decisions. The strategy is built around starting well, living well and ageing well, with six principles, the first of them “prevention first”. The report says the borough is, overall, healthy and prosperous, but that differences in healthy life expectancy and access to opportunity persist between communities. (Cabinet report, Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2026-2036, PDF)

Education Sufficiency Strategy 2026 to 2031. This is the final version after public consultation. It names the schools with spare places and the ones that are oversubscribed, and sets out where new places are needed. Our story on the draft: Bracknell school places strategy.

SEND capital programme. The agenda says the programme invests about £5m in the borough’s education estate in 2026/27, mostly from high needs and basic need capital grants, with three core projects starting this financial year. The report itself is taken in private session because it contains commercial information; only Appendix B is public. The programme includes the specialist unit at The Pines School we reported on 29 September.

Wednesday: SEND advisory panel

The Cabinet Member Advisory Panel for Special Educational Needs and Disabilities meets at 6.30pm. Its three substantive items, a SEND stocktake, a draft SEND self-assessment and an update on the SEND reform plan, are all marked for private session. (Agenda, 14 October 2026)

Thursday: scrutiny questions the adults and economy portfolio

The Overview and Scrutiny Commission has invited Councillor Paul Bidwell, the cabinet member for adults, economy and regeneration, to account for his portfolio. Members of the public can speak if they have registered in advance under the council’s public participation scheme. (Overview and Scrutiny Commission, 15 October 2026, agenda)

His presentation, dated August 2026, runs to several dozen slides. The figures worth asking about: (Portfolio update presentation, PDF, 5.6 MB)

• 73% of adult social care enquiries are resolved at first contact
• 84% of people kept their independence after reablement, needing no ongoing care or no bigger care package
• 93% of Forestcare calls were resolved without escalation, and more than 1,200 residents are monitored remotely at home
• safeguarding cases finalised within two weeks rose from 84.7% in April to 92.4% in June
• the Bracknell Forest Skills Hub closed in March 2026 after engaging 355 businesses and 327 career seekers
• the Berkshire Connect to Work programme, launched in January, has a five-year target of 324 Bracknell Forest residents helped into supported employment
• the High Street car park demolition is waiting on agreements with adjoining owners; the council has vacant possession and has disconnected services
• three council properties were to be auctioned in September or October to help meet a £1.5m asset sale target

The presentation also lists what the portfolio has to manage: sustained demand and complexity in adult care, provider requests for fee uplifts within budget, and health system funding pressure. Forestcare’s digital transition, which we reported on 27 September, is listed among the next six to twelve months’ priorities.

Decisions published this week

Those three auction properties now have names. Officer decisions published on 8 October declare each surplus and send it to a national auction:

• Lily Hill Lodge, Bullbrook, once housing for council rangers and latterly storage for the parks team, described as in disrepair (decision 4385)
• The Lodge, Stoney Road, Priestwood and Garth, former housing team accommodation with structural problems (decision 4384)
• 23 The Square, Harmans Water, a flat once tied to a shop lease, to be sold on a 125-year lease (decision 4387)

Also on the record:

• the 50 and 40mph limits for Bracknell Road and Foresters Way, Crowthorne, approved on 6 October: our story
• a 20mph limit on Albion Road, Sandhurst, decided by the executive director (decision 4382)
• the Warfield Area 3 masterplan is due for a cabinet member decision on 5 November, following a public exhibition (issue 139750)
• the 2027/28 revenue budget and capital programme have appeared on the forward plan, the first formal step towards next year’s council tax decision

What it means for you

If you or a relative pays for care at home, Tuesday’s decision starts a 12-week consultation, not a price change. We will add the consultation link to our charging policy story once the council publishes it. If you want to speak at Thursday’s scrutiny meeting, you must register in advance with democratic services at committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk. Council tax bands and what you pay now are on our council tax page.