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

1088.

Apologies and Welcome

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Mr A Adams.

1089.

Declaration of Interest and of any Party Whip

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

1090.

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 27 March 2019).  Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

None.

1091.

Confirmation of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting

(previously circulated)

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Minutes of the Meetings held on 14 and 24 January 2019 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

 

1092.

Performance and In-Year Budget Monitoring pdf icon PDF 77 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board was asked to consider the feedback provided by Scrutiny Panel Chairmen, following the discussion of Quarter 3 (October – December 2018) performance monitoring information and the draft Cabinet Resources Report – Revenue and Capital Budget Monitoring to Period 10 (Month Ending 31 January 2019).

 

Members were reminded that performance and financial monitoring were part of the Scrutiny Panels’ role in maintaining oversight of service provision and a key role for Scrutiny. Recently, performance monitoring had varied on a panel by panel basis and in-year budget monitoring was not taking place in a formalised way, although each Panel was carrying out budget scrutiny from November to January each year.

 

At the March Scrutiny Panel meetings, members were provided with sample performance information reports and feedback was requested.The Panels welcomed the information and gave both general and panel specific feedback, which was being considered (and would be incorporated where possible) in future reports.

 

The aspiration moving forward was that the information available to each Panel would be broadly similar in format and consistent with the information presented at Directorate Leadership Team (DLT) meetings, acknowledging that some Panels may require additional information from time to time.

 

During the discussion, the following general points were noted:

 

·         the way in which the Adult Care and Well-being Overview and Scrutiny Panel report related to the Adult Services Business Plan priorities was suggested as a good approach for all Panels

·         it was noted that the Balanced Scorecard available on the public website was out of date

·         the Chairman reiterated that there was a challenge around providing information to Scrutiny, which was pitched at the right level without information overload, whilst also being manageable to produce for a public meeting.  Ultimately, a digital solution was likely to be the best way forward

·         significant progress had been made over the last 12 months, but it was important to keep up the momentum

·         it may be helpful for a Scrutiny Officer to attend DLT meetings to pick up on areas/issues that may require Scrutiny.

 

It was agreed that Officers would be invited to attend the May meeting of the Board to provide an update on the information which would be available for the July Panel meetings.

1093.

Scrutiny Proposals pdf icon PDF 81 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board was asked to consider the following scrutiny proposals:

 

(a)   Quality Assurance of Care Homes 

(b)   Care work as a Career

 

Having considered the proposals, the Board was asked to determine whether they would wish to set up scrutiny task groups to look at the Quality Assurance of Care Homes and Care work as a Career and if so to consider, comment on and agree the terms of reference and scrutiny proposals and the timing of the Task Groups. 

 

(a)       Quality Assurance of Care Homes

 

Quality Assurance of Care Homes (residential and nursing) and how Worcestershire County Council carried out this role in the County had been identified as a priority for the Adult Care and Well-being Overview and Scrutiny Panel (Adult Panel) through its work planning process.

 

The suggested terms of reference were to investigate how the Council carried out and monitored quality assurance of care homes in Worcestershire.

 

It was proposed that Juliet Brunner, Chairman of the Adult Panel be asked to lead this Task Group.

 

(b)       Care work as a Career

 

On 14 February 2019, Council agreed the following Notice of Motion:

 

"Council acknowledges and respects the 15,000 Worcestershire residents who work in the care industry.  Many more residents are dependent upon their care.   Council asks the Cabinet Member Responsible to consider ways in which their work can be celebrated and encouraged and how more people can consider care work as a viable career option."

 

The Council discussion highlighted that it was important to boost the self-worth of care workers and emphasise the importance of care workers’ role.

 

The Cabinet Member with Responsibility (CMR) for Adult Social Care suggested a Scrutiny Task Group to look at how to develop the career pathway for care workers, and to promote care work as a career with justifiable rewards. The CMR suggested that the Council needed to find a way to develop a career pathway for carers i.e. into social work or management and not just accepting care work as a role for life.

 

 The terms of reference were to investigate:

·           How the Council could and develop care work as a career

·           How the existing care workforce can be better supported and celebrated

 

It was proposed that Juliet Brunner, Chairman of Adult Panel be asked to lead this Task Group.

 

During the discussion, the following main points were made:

 

·         the Chairman of the Adult Panel suggested that priority should be given to starting the Quality Assurance of Care Homes Scrutiny first, this approach was supported by the Vice-Chairman of the OSPB

·         Cllr Liz Tucker, Vice-Chairman of the Adult Panel should be asked to lead the Care work as a Career Scrutiny. Members supported this suggestion as the Vice-Chairman of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Panel was currently leading a scrutiny looking at the relationship between schools and the Family Front Door, which was working well

·         the outcome of the national Brexit discussions could have an impact on the number of care workers available, especially if  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1093.

1094.

Member Update, Work Programme and Cabinet Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 87 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny (O&S) Panel

 

The Panel had recently received a training session from the LGA (Local Government Association) about how to carry out effective scrutiny of Worcestershire Children First (WCF), during which concerns were expressed about the mechanics of how to scrutinise an arms-length company.  The types of concerns raised were around who would be held accountable, would scrutiny be able to carry out its role in respect of WCF in exactly the same way as it does now and how would call-in work. The Panel also remained concerned about the risk of losing control of the budget. 

 

The Chairman of the Children’s Panel wanted to arrange a meeting to talk about the detail of WCF and seek reassurance about the Panel’s legal entitlement to scrutinise WCF with the Chief Executive.

 

It was agreed that the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the Board would take the lead role on this and would request a meeting with the Chief Executive and the Head of Legal and Democratic Services, so that they could be reassured that the legal rights of Scrutiny would be enshrined in WCF and clarify how this would be achieved. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman of Children and Families (O&S) Panel would be involved in the meeting too.

 

It was further agreed that the Centre for Public Scrutiny, the Council’s own Internal Audit Department, the National Audit Office and other local authorities would be contacted to gather guidance, opinion and relevant experience in this area.

 

WCF would also be a standing item on the OSPB Agenda for the time being.

 

Corporate and Communities O&S Panel

 

At its March meeting, the Panel Chairman reported that the Panel had considered reports on the County Council’s workforce (which included looking at apprenticeships, succession planning and up-skilling), an update on the progress with the libraries re-modelling process, commissioning update and performance monitoring.

 

The Panel would be considering the Cabinet Report and final proposals for libraries remodelling on 3 June, which was a few days prior to the meeting of the Cabinet.  The Chairman of the Panel, whilst understanding the reasons for the Cabinet and the Panel meeting being a few days apart was concerned that it if the Panel wanted to carry out further Scrutiny in this area prior to the Cabinet consideration of this issue, there wouldn’t be sufficient time to do so.

 

Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC)

 

At its March meeting, HOSC had been briefed on the NHS Long-term Plan and the implications for Worcestershire. The Chairman of HOSC mentioned a few of the key themes of the discussion and referred the Board to the minutes from the meeting.

 

The Chairman of the Board made the point that the NHS Long-term plan hadn’t included the Implementation plan for the workforce, which would be available later in the year. Concerns were expressed about the about the possible future skills gap in the NHS and the importance of scrutinising this Plan when it was available.

 

At its  ...  view the full minutes text for item 1094.