Agenda item

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 April meeting, the Committee would be looking at Quality of Acute Hospital Services – Update and Quality Priorities for 2019-20.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Fire and Rescue Service

A Member advised the Board that notification had been received that on 5 and 6 June 2019, the Judicial Review Hearing into the Home Secretary’s decision to grant governance of Hereford and Worcester, Shropshire and Cambridgeshire FRSs to their relevant Police and Crime Commissioners would take place.

Crime and Disorder

Cllr Middlebrough reported that planning was taking place for the Annual Crime and Disorder meeting for July.

Adult Care and Well-being O&S Panel

Delayed Transfers of Care (DTOC) would be discussed at Adult Scrutiny Panel meeting scheduled for 14 May. As this was an area of overlap it would take the format of a joint discussion with HOSC.

Forward Plan

No new items were referred from the Forward Plan to Scrutiny.