Agenda item

To consider the future work programme being recommended for the OSPB (yellow pages).

The Council had before it a report on the proposed Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme for 2016/2017.

The report set out that effective work programming was the bedrock of an effective scrutiny function. Done well, it could help to lay the foundations for targeted, incisive and timely work on issues of local importance, where scrutiny could add value. Done badly, scrutiny could end up wasting time and resources on issues where the impact of any work done was likely to be minimal.

The report made clear that Worcestershire County Council had a rolling annual Work Programme for its Overview and Scrutiny function, the Work Programme was developed by taking into account the results of the annual Work Programme consultation exercise, the views of the budget scrutiny process, and by prioritising work using scrutiny feasibility criteria in order to ensure that Work Programme topics were selected objectively and that the 'added value' of a review was considered right from the very beginning.

The report also set out that Overview and Scrutiny was a Member-led function and it was important that Members were involved in every stage of development of the Work Programme.

The Work Programme consultation exercise for 2016/17 had involved consideration of the following:

(a)        Items from 2015/16 Work Programme that were not completed or required follow up

(b)        outcomes of the Budget Scrutiny 2015/16 process

(c)        views of Members as community champions

(d)        views of the Executive

(e)        views of officers

(f)        views of stakeholders and partners

(g)        views of the public.

Each Overview and Scrutiny Panel and Committee had received an item at their last meeting (with the exception of Environment and Economy where the March meeting had been cancelled) to discuss and make suggestions for items to be included in the Work Programmes from a Panel/Committee perspective. A series of suggestions were made through this process.

The Leader of Council had consulted his Cabinet members as part of the consultation exercise in order to develop suggestions for the Work Programmes from a Cabinet perspective. A series of suggestions were made by the Cabinet.

County Councillors had been contacted directly by the Scrutiny Unit as part of the consultation exercise asking for suggestions from a Divisional Councillor perspective; a number of suggestions were made through this process.

The Chief Executive consulted the Strategic Leadership Team as part of the consultation process and provided a series of suggestions.

The report also set out that a central part of the consultation exercise was the creation of a webpage where anyone wishing to make suggestions for the Work Programme could go and make them. The web page asked if participants were a County Councillor, council officer, partner, business or member of the public and then invited them to make suggestions based around the current four Council Priority areas of:

·         Open for Business

·         Children and Families

·         The Environment

·         Health and Wellbeing

The online survey did allow other suggestions to be received outside of the Council priority areas.

The survey had been promoted in a number of ways, which were set out in the report, to try and draw attention to the consultation exercise and increase the number of surveys completed.  65 suggestions were received directly by the Head of Legal and Democratic Services and 305 respondents completed the questionnaire, providing in excess of 3,000 topic suggestions.  Responses to the questionnaire came from all across the county.

A criteria and scoring system was developed which encouraged higher scores for suggestions that reflected the concerns of the public and service users and to promote suggestions that could genuinely lead to service improvements and outcomes.

The work programme suggested by the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Board for approval by Council contained a wide range of topics all of which had been suggested through the consultation exercise. The suggestions had been predominately made by members of the public but have also been supported by partner agencies, council officers and elected members. The report considered the full suggested list. 

In addition each Overview and Scrutiny Committee/Panel had items that were part of the 2015/16 work programme that required completion.

As well as the items suggested each Overview and Scrutiny Committee/Panel had standard agenda items that it would include in its activities, these were:

·           Review of Work Programme and Cabinet Forward Plan

·           Performance Management

·           Call-ins (OSPB)

·           Budget Scrutiny Process

·           Leader of Council Q&A (OSPB)

·           Crime & Disorder meeting (OSPB)

·           Substantial Variation considerations (HOSC)

·           Quality Accounts (HOSC)

·           Safeguarding (A&WB and C&F)

At the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Board meeting on 21 April 2016 the Leader of the Council had committed to involve the Overview and Scrutiny function in the Corporate Plan Refresh process. OSPB would advise the Overview and Scrutiny Committees/Panels on how they feel this should be delivered in consultation with the Leader of Council.

A discussion ensued during which the following principal points were made:

·         the extensive nature of the consultation undertaken to produce the proposed work programme.

·         that the work programme proposed was imposing an enormous workload on members and officers.

·         how closely the proposed work programme mirrored the outcome of the consultation.

·         during the course of debate an amendment was moved, seconded and adopted that items 2 and 3 from the Economic and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Panel proposed work programme be removed.

RESOLVED that

(a)        the 2016/17 Scrutiny Work Programme (as amended by the removal of items 2 and 3 on page 25 of the report) be endorsed.

(b)       the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme consultation exercise be noted.