Agenda item

Budget Scrutiny Planning

It was agreed that a meeting would be set up between Vice Chairman and Chief Finance Officerto discuss the Budget Scrutiny process for 2020/21.

Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC)

The Chairman of HOSC advised that an additional meeting had been scheduled for 8 October 2019 to consider Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust Care Quality Commission Inspection Report published on 20 September and a report on the development of the Trust’s Clinical Services Strategy.

At its last meeting, HOSC had considered a report on dentistry and was expecting a summary of the services available in Worcestershire.

The Chairman of the Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Panel suggested some joint work with HOSC to look at the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) considering the existing service provision, what was needed (including the evening and weekend service) and the challenges faced by the Service.  The Chairman of HOSC reminded the Board that the HOSC had previously looked at this Service.  It was agreed that a scope for this work would be prepared and submitted to OSPB for approval.

Children and Families Overview and Scrutiny Panel

The Chairman reported that the work on Future Provision of Overnight Unit-Based Short Breaks for Children with Disabilities had concluded and the Panel supported the recommendations in the Cabinet report and would wish to receive a further report on the service after the new model of delivery had been running for six months, to include levels of parental satisfaction.

Elective Home Education was the next in-depth piece of work that the Chairman was looking start

Adult Care and Well-being Overview and Scrutiny Panel

The Chairman’s reported that at its last meeting, the Panel had looked at support for carers and had met with the Worcestershire Association of Carers and some parent carers.  Arising from this discussion the Panel had identified that it wished to look into Continuing Health Care, which it was agreed could be added to the Panel’s Work Programme.

The Quality Assurance Task Group was ongoing and visits to residential care and nursing homes had been undertaken and the Care Workers as a Career Task Group was just getting under way.

Crime & Disorder

The Lead Member for Crime & Disorder advised that following the Annual Crime & Disorder meeting in July, she was planning to review the Council’s polices which were within the crime and disorder remit. 

It was noted that an Integrated Drug and Alcohol Service for Adults and Young People was being recommissioned and the Lead Member advised that she would wish to carry out some Scrutiny and feed comments into the re-commissioning process.  It was agreed that the web link to the Cabinet Member Decision dated 12 September would be circulated to the Board for information.

It was suggested that it would be helpful if the Council’s representative on the West Mercia Police and Crime Panel (PCP) could provide a regular report back to the Board following meetings of the PCP.  It was agreed that Officers would get in touch with the Council’s representative to request this.

Corporate and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel

The Chairman had submitted his apologies but had provided a written report for the Panel which was read out:

At the Panels recent meeting the County Council’s Employment Policy and Procedure relating to bullying and harassment was discussed, the main points were:

·         The Bullying and Harassment Policy had been introduced in September 2018 as part of a raft of new core employment policies. In keeping with the ACAS Code of Practice on Discipline and Grievances, a separate policy had been developed for bullying and harassment, whereas previously, these issues had been dealt with through the Council’s grievance procedures.

·         The importance of the Council’s statement of commitment which set out a clear, strong message in simple language which was easy to understand.

A number of responses were made by members which are detailed within the minutes. The Chairman felt the Panel had clearly benefitted from their detailed examination of this Policy

The Panel also discussed Commissioning including the Development of the Procurement Strategy, the main points discussed were:

·         The development of the Procurement strategy to enable a more efficient and effective approach to contract management.

·         The Strategy to develop the skills of the current employees, which was being realised with some of the Procurement Team having now achieved the level 4 qualification. This investment in staff, blending qualifications, alongside practical experience was deemed to be the best way forward to ensure individual employees’ personal development and the development of the Service. The CMR advised that it would also help with staff retention in the longer term.

·         The Panel was informed that 12 months’ notice had been given on the Civica contract. The Director outlined some of the issues, which would be considered in developing the Strategy for managing customers.

·         The Head of Commercial provided a demonstration of the Power BI management tool which captured every contract on the system and allowed detailed data analysis. Currently, the dashboard was being used to report on issues including contract liquidity and spend.

It was agreed that the Director would advise in due course, how the Panel could be involved in the development of this new strategy on the Civica contract.

The Panel were very impressed with the new Power BI system, its capabilities and future potential. They could see how it would transform the Council’s procurement work, allowing Officers to view trends, compare performance and have all the current data readily available to inform their work.

The Chairman commented that he was very pleased with the progress that had been made in this area and he thanked the Officers involved for their hard work and for the informative demonstration. It was agreed that the Panel would be provided with an update report on Commissioning and the continuing development of the Procurement Strategy at its March meeting.

It was agreed that the following additional items would be added to the Panels Work Programme:

·         Gypsy Service

·         Council Energy providers and costs following queries on competitive energy costs and procurement

·         Civica contract re-commissioning

·         Case management of councillor issues, monitoring and performance.