Agenda item

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 the Councils Budget following the Government settlement.

Ø  January OSPB – feedback from Panels and comments to Cabinet.

It was also agreed that there would be 4 dedicated OSPB meetings to look at overall in-year budget monitoring and performance (this was in addition to the Panel's in year budget and performance monitoring).

Cabinet Forward Plan

No items for further Scrutiny were identified.