Agenda and minutes

The Members had before them

A.    The Agenda papers (previously circulated)

B.    Presentation Handout – Communities

C.   Presentation Handout – Commercial , Change and Finance

D.   The Minutes for the meetings held on 7 September 2015 and 4 November 2015

Copies of documents A-C will be attached to the signed Minutes.

None.

None.

Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Head of Legal and Democratic Services  in writing or by e-mail indicating the nature and content of their proposed participation no later than 9.00am on the working day before the meeting (in this case Friday 27 November 2015).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

None.

The Minutes of the meetings held on 7 September and 4 November 2015 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

In attendance for this discussion were:

Communities – the Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Localism and Communities and the Head of Community and Environment.

Commercial, Change and Finance – the Leader of the Council (with responsibility for Finance), the CMR for Finance, Transformation and Commissioning, the Director of Commercial and Change, Strategic Commissioner – Service Transformation and the Head of Finance and Resources.

The Panel was asked to consider the budget challenges facing services in 2016/17 and how these were being addressed, the review of the medium term financial plan, what risks it contained, its feasibility and whether it would enable the Corporate Plan to be implemented. The Panel Chairman would then feed back key points from the Panel's discussion to the 2016/17 Budget Scrutiny Challenge Group on 2 December.

Copies of presentation slides were circulated.

Communities

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

·         With effect from 1 January 2016, Communities was transferring from Business, Environment and Community (BEC) Directorate to Children's Family and Communities Directorate and the Head of Community and Environment was transferring directorates also. 

·         The Services transferring to Children's Family and Communities were Strategic Libraries and Learning Service, Bishops Wood Visitor Centre, Public analyst and Scientific Services, County Enterprises, Libraries Services and Improvements, Countryside Greenspace, Trading Standards, Museums Service, Worcester Youth Music Service and Registration, Coroner Services and CIMU.  Archives and Archaeology would stay with BEC and Volunteering would remain in Commercial and Change (COaCH) Directorate.

·         Responsibility for the Hive would be with COaCH Directorate in terms of looking for savings and with Strategic Libraries and Learning Service for day to day responsibility.

·         The Libraries Service would be subject to further re-modelling/service transformation. There was no intention of closing any libraries but it was intended that there would be more working with partners to share buildings to ensure a viable service.  There were 21 libraries at the start of the process and it was intended that there would still be 21 libraries remaining at the end of the process.  Services would however be delivered in a different way by working in partnership, with volunteers to maximise the use of buildings.

·         All libraries except for Rubery Library had been re-modelled.  It was proving to be a challenge in terms of finding a suitable partnership.

·         The redevelopment scheme transforming the former Parkside Middle School into a one-stop shop for council services, including the register office, Job Centre Plus base, council offices, a new chamber for the district council, a customer service centre, a community hall and the new library had opened on 30 November 2015.

·         Wythall and Bewdley were other examples of libraries working in partnership.

·         The Mobile Library Service had been reviewed after 6 months and seemed to be working well.

·         It was suggested that the Library Service was a good news story and some publicity to promote this should be considered.

·         Worcestershire Shared Services Joint Committee and County Regulatory Services (Trading Standards and Animal Health Services) were being brought back in house to the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 153.