Venue: Online only
Contact: Alison Spall/Samantha Morris Overview and Scrutiny Officers
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Apologies and Welcome Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillors Mr K D Daisley and Mrs A T Hingley. |
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Declarations of Interest and of any Party Whip Minutes: None |
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Public Participation Members of the public wishing to take part should notify the Assistant Director for Legal and Governance 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 8 September 2020). Enquiries can be made through the telephone number/e-mail address below. Minutes: None |
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Confirmation of the Minutes of the Previous Meeting Minutes: The Minutes of the Meeting held on 21 July 2020 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman. |
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Minutes: The Panel received a report which set out the processes used by the Council to manage requests for information made under both Freedom of Information (FOI) and Data Protection (DP) legislation and provided an overview on how the Council complied with DP legislation, primarily the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Data Protection Act 2018.
The Strategic Director of Commercial and Change (Strategic Director) provided an overview of the key areas, including what constituted a valid FOI or Environmental Information (EI) request, response timescales, charges and the internal management processes including the use of the request management system, Veritas and also the process for handling Subject Access Requests (SAR’s).
The Panel was informed that the number of requests received, their complexity and scope were increasing each year and the impact of the Data Protection Regulations in 2018 had accelerated this trend.
Members raised a number of issues and questions, which the Strategic Director responded to as follows:
· In respect of charges made for responding to FOI requests over an appropriate limit, the Panel was informed these were only made occasionally. The Strategic Director agreed to provide the Panel with details about the level and frequency of charges that have been made. · In response to a question about whether information was publicly available about the types of requests already responded to, so that the public could check whether the same or similar request had already been made, the Strategic Director confirmed he would check where the requests and responses were published and how the public gained access or were signposted to these. · With reference to 2020-21 (Q1) information, it was questioned why for Children’s Services/WCF there had been a reduction in the number of requests completed on time from 86.7% (2019/20) to 71.1%. The Strategic Director agreed to check the reasons for this including whether it related to COVID-19. · Rather than recording the actual time taken to complete requests which could be difficult to do when several people were involved in responses, requests were categorised into 3 categories; less than 5 hours, between 5 and 15 hours and over 15 hours. Members felt there would be benefit from being able to be clearer on actual time taken to deal with requests for resourcing and evaluation purposes and suggested that a fourth category of less than an hour might be helpful for those simple requests that were easily and quickly dealt with. This would be given consideration as to whether this would be helpful going forward. · The Strategic Director confirmed that the Council received requests that were also being issued to a large number of local authorities or other public bodies. He explained that they liaised with colleagues in other authorities to keep abreast of current happenings. · The Panel was informed that work was ongoing with partner authorities to develop protocols to look to reducing the very labour-intensive process that was currently involved in ensuring that information sent in response to SAR’s was appropriately redacted. The Strategic Director acknowledged that an ... view the full minutes text for item 285. |
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The County Council's Commissioning Arrangements PDF 285 KB Minutes: The Panel received a report on the Council’s current commissioning arrangements including:
The Strategic Director explained that the Council was a commissioning organisation taking a strategic approach to ensure that the best performance was achieved for the most competitive price for the delivery of services.
In the commissioning process, all mechanisms of service delivery were considered, and a range of outcomes were possible. Many of the Council’s outsourcing arrangements had continued to provide high quality, value for money services, however in recent times a few smaller services had been brought back in house. As a consequence, the Council had been required to review its approach to effective insourcing and to gain an understanding of the best practice in this area.
The report detailed the 4 key phases involved in this process and the considerations that the Council takes when undertaking effective insourcing programmes.
The Strategic Director also provided an update on the effect of COVID-19 on commercial activities affecting the Council, as well as suppliers and service providers to the Council. The Report detailed the time limited support which was made available to third party providers to ensure ongoing service continuity, which as restrictions lifted was withdrawn. The implications of the pandemic on the commercial forward plan were also set out, with details of action taken and the impact on major contracts due for renewal.
Members raised a number of questions which were responded to as follows:
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Performance and In-Year Budget Monitoring PDF 329 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: The Panel received details on the performance and financial information for services relating to Corporate and Communities for Quarter 1 (April to June 2020).
Performance Indicators
The Chairman complemented the staff for all their efforts which had resulted in many indicators receiving a green RAG (Red, Amber, Green) rating. The Panel wished to focus discussions on some of the indicators which had a red or amber RAG rating.
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Work Programme 2020-21 PDF 133 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The Panel reviewed its current work programme, which was being considered by Council the following day as part of the annual Scrutiny Work Programme.
The work programme was noted.
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