Agendas, Meetings and Minutes - Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: County Hall, Worcester

Contact: Samantha Morris/Alyson Grice  Overview and Scrutiny Officers

Media

Items
No. Item

1054.

Apologies and Welcome

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the Meeting.

 

Apologies were received from Mrs J A Brunner and Mr B Allbut.

 

1055.

Declaration of Interest and of any Party Whip

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

 

1056.

Public Participation

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 25 September 2018).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

 

1057.

Confirmation of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting

(previously circulated)

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 24 July 2018 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

 

1058.

LTP4 Consultation Successes - Scrutiny Review pdf icon PDF 74 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board was asked to consider and approve the draft Scrutiny Report on LTP4 Consultation Successes, following which it would be circulated to all Cabinet Members to inform future consultations and the Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Transformation and Commissioning to specifically respond to the Report's recommendations.

 

On 7 November 2017, the Board discussed the Local Transport Plan for Worcestershire 4 (LTP4).  During the discussion the Board complimented the effectiveness of the consultation process for the Plan and it was agreed to carry out a short Scrutiny Review of the consultation process, to learn about and share good practice.  The Review was led by Councillor Paul Middlebrough.

 

Councillor Middlebrough introduced the Report and in doing so reminded the Board that the Scrutiny had been about the learning points from the Consultation process not the Local Transport Plan 4 (LTP4) itself.  He also explained that the Team under taking LTP4 consultation had the good fortune through personal knowledge to have had access to the public consultation toolkit. Unfortunately, this was no longer available. It was in some ways dated but had helped to develop a framework.

 

The recommendations in the Report were:

 

·       Recommendation 1: Officers preparing to consult should check the legality of their plans with the Council's Legal Services.

·       Recommendation 2: Investigate any proprietary consultations templates which could be made available corporately.

·       Recommendation 3: Inform all groups within the Council about the impending consultation so enabling them if appropriate, to have input at an early stage.

·       Recommendation 4: Prepare a Consultation Plan including resources costed timeline and share it with all groups who may be needed at the earliest opportunity.

 

Discussion points:

 

·       It was suggested that a further Scrutiny should be carried out to look at the presentation, content and readability of consultation documents.  It was noted that the public and parish councils had been interested in the LTP4 Consultation but it was a very bulky document and difficult to read and navigate. 

·       The Board further discussed how because of the presentation it was not obvious to the reader which policies the Consultation referred to eg the Street Furniture Policy.  A key role for Scrutiny was pre-policy Scrutiny, which should be carried out routinely for all key Council policies before they were signed off.

·       In response to a Members suggestion that there should be a 5th recommendation that all transport policies should be refreshed as a result of the Consultation process, Councillor Middlebrough reiterated that this was outside of the terms of reference of the Scrutiny.  It was however, pointed out that at its meeting on 27 September, Cabinet would be discussingPackage 1 of the overall A38 Bromsgrove Major Scheme works, which was critical in supporting the objectives of the Bromsgrove Development Plan (BDP), the Redditch Local Plan and the LTP4 and that the Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Panel would also be discussing theLTP4 as part of its Work Programme too.

·       The point was made that sadly the County Council had a poor reputation in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1058.

1059.

Scrutiny Proposals pdf icon PDF 82 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board was asked to consider and determine whether they wish to set up Scrutiny Task Groups to look at the Family Front Door and Bus and Community Transport Provision.

 

Family Front Door

 

The Family Front Door was the single way for members of the public or professionals to report a concern about a child or young person, or request additional help for a family.

 

The Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Panel identified as part of its work programming process that it would wish to look at how the relationship between the Family Front Door and Partners was working.

 

The suggested terms of reference were to investigate how the Service was currently working, taking into account the relationship between the County Council and partners, and the progress made since the Ofsted Inspection and subsequent monitoring visits.

 

Due to the heavy workload of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Panel, it was suggested that Jane Potter, Vice-Chairman of the Panel would be asked to lead this Task Group.

 

The Board agreed to set up a Scrutiny Task Group to look at the Family Front Door led by Councillor Jane Potter, Vice-Chairman of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

 

Bus and Community Transport Provision

 

On 13 September 2018, Council agreed the following Notice of Motion:

 

"The Council is concerned at the unexpected cuts in bus services announced by First and Diamond bus companies in August which take effect on 17 and 3 September respectively.

 

We welcome the undertaking that the Council will carry out a fundamental review of its entire subsidised services which will involve a public consultation exercise.

 

We ask that this review is supported by an urgent cross-party scrutiny into current bus and community transport provision which should include the availability of transport at crucial times of the day to get to work, to school or college, to medical appointments and for shopping. The scrutiny exercise should be completed by middle/late November to feed into the 2019/20 budget-setting process."

 

The suggested terms of reference were to investigate current bus and community transport provision including the availability of transport at crucial times of the day to get to work, to school or college, to medical appointments and for shopping.

 

Discussion points

 

·       It was emphasised that the problems with bus and community transport varied across the County and it was important that the Task Group had geographical balance and representation from each district.

·       The Task Group should be mindful of other work which had gone before it in order to avoid duplication.

·       The crux of the Scrutiny was whether the existing bus services met the needs of the bus users across the County.

·       It was suggested  that consideration should be given to widening the scope of the Scrutiny to look at the needs of the community who do not have access to a car and the options for travel.  The Chairman of the Board explained that the Scrutiny Proposal being considered was for a short Scrutiny looking at  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1059.

1060.

Refresh of the Scrutiny Work Programme pdf icon PDF 78 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board was asked to:

 

  • consider the reports from Panel Chairmen on Panels' discussions on potential work programme topics;
  • consider whether there are any issues which should be added to the OSPB's Work Programme
  • determine its Scrutiny Work Programme for 2018/19 to be considered by full Council.

 

The Work Programme was discussed and its was agreed that the following issues should be added prior to it being submitted to Council for consideration at its November meeting:

 

·       Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC) – NHS forward plans to ensure that there was sufficient health capacity to meet current and future service demand should be added as priority 2 for the HOSC'S Work Programme.  A Member expressed a concern that NHS England were not routinely applying S106 funding when new houses were built and as a consequence the health infrastructure was not going to be sufficient to meet future demand.

·       Adult Care and Well-being Overview and Scrutiny Panel – A reassurance statement of quality assurance of residential care homes should be provided to the Board.

·       Crime and Disorder – supervision of Domestic Abuse perpetrators.

·       Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Panel - Mobile phone coverage.

 

1061.

Member Update and Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 85 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Panel

 

The Panel was meeting with headteachers to discuss KS2 attainment on 9 October 2018.  All schools with responsibility for KS2 had been invited to attend.

 

As previously advised, the decision on future provision of Overnight Short Breaks for Children with Disabilities was considered by Cabinet on 12 July. The Chairman of the Panel had asked the Cabinet Member whether Task Group Members  would be allowed to observe meetings with parents to maintain a watching brief of the process, this had been agreed and Members of the Task Group were due to attend a meeting in this respect on 27 September.

 

Corporate and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel

 

Due to lack of member availability, the Panel meeting scheduled for 20 September had been rearranged for 23 October.  The Panel would be discussing commissioning.

 

HOSC

 

The Chairman of the HOSC advised that he was disappointed that Michelle McKay, the Chief Executive of the Trust which runs the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, Kidderminster and Worcestershire Royal Hospital had announced that she was moving to a new post in her native Australia later this year.

 

The Committee at its last meeting received an overview of the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), which also included the wider wellbeing work.

 

Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Panel

 

A budget briefing by the Chief Financial Officer had been arranged for the Panel for 1 October, the Director for Economy and Infrastructure was also attending.  Following the briefing a small Task Group would be set up to look at the budget detail and would report back to OSPB in January 2019.

 

Budget Scrutiny

 

The Chairman expressed his concern about the effectiveness of previous budget scrutiny and suggested that moving forward, there should be continuous budget and performance monitoring throughout the year.  There was also concern about the level of detail provided to Scrutiny Panels and it was suggested that Panels had a role to look at more in depth information to really understand the budget, pressures and challenges and OSPB had a strategic role to bring it all together.

 

It was agreed that:

 

·       Unless Panels wished to run a Task Group style budget scrutiny as in the case of the Economy and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Panel, there would be:

Ø  Two educational/training sessions groups for Panels based on people and places i.e. the people group would be aimed at HOSC, Adult, Children's, crime and disorder and the places group would be aimed at the Corporate and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel. The focus of the people session would be on demand led services and for Corporate and Communities would cover the Panel remit. 

Ø  November Panel meetings - the CMRs/Directors would be invited to Panels to discuss progress made against current savings plans and where costs were being reduced/avoided they would also start to look at pressures and ways to manage demand.

Ø  January Panels – CMRs/Directors would be invited to Panels to discuss future savings plans and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1061.