Agenda and minutes

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Contact: J Bayley  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

59.

Apologies and named substitutes

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors Hill, Prosser and Wheeler.  The Committee was advised that Councillor Brookes was attending as a substitute for Councillor Wheeler and Councillor Chalk was attending as a substitute for Councillor Prosser.

60.

Declarations of interest and of Party Whip

To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests and / or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests, and any Party Whip.

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest nor of any party whip.

61.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 232 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

RESOLVED that

 

the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on Thursday 7th December 2017 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

62.

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sustainability and Transformation Plan - Presentation

Minutes:

The Committee welcomed Officers from the Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust and invited them to deliver a presentation (Appendix 1).  During the delivery of this presentation the following matters were highlighted for Members’ consideration:

 

·                Since the last update to the Committee progress had been made and there was now a Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership (STP).

·                A key focus of the partnership was on improving health and wellbeing within the area covered by the plan whilst tackling the financial challenges facing partners in the health service.

·                Access and outcomes were important and shaped how the STP was measured at a national level.

·                Work had been undertaken since the last update to solidify governance arrangements.  There needed to be collective decision making for the STP and to help ensure that this occurred an independent Chair had been recruited to the board.

·                An Engagement Officer had also been recruited, supported by external funding, to help improve the approach of partners to consultation in respect of the STP.

·                Work was taking place on a Local Maternity Systems Plan, which would involve consulting with women, assessing levels of demand locally and designing services to meet community needs moving forward.

·                Consultation was also being undertaken in respect of Cancer Services as it was recognised that this was a challenging area in Herefordshire and Worcestershire.

·                Such work sometimes entailed engaging with specialist groups based outside the area, such as the West Midlands Palliative Care end of life group, in order to obtain relevant expertise about how improvements could be made to local services.

·                National care was an area that required further investigation.  The STP had been able to access external funding to help address the impact of demand for services during the winter period and this had been invested in ambulatory services.

·                Neighbourhood teams had been introduced across the two counties, including two in the Borough.  This involved integrated partners pooling resources to meet health needs within their locality.

 

Following delivery of the presentation Members requested further information on a number of areas:

 

·                The current situation with regard to the Urgent Care Plan for the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch.  Members were advised that partners had planned how to manage pressures on winter services as a whole system rather than as individual organisations and this had helped services to meet demand.

·                The need to make appropriate plans to enable older patients to return to their homes with the assurance that they would receive appropriate care.  A pilot initiative to address this, involving partnership working, had been held in Malvern but it had been concluded that this would be more appropriate to deliver at the Alexandra Hospital.

·                The need for more work to be undertaken to review transport links between the north and south of Worcestershire and the impact that this might have both on patients and on staff.

·                The extent to which representatives of Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service had been involved in the work of local neighbourhood teams.  The Committee was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62.

63.

Place Partnership - Presentation

Minutes:

Members welcomed the Managing Director of the Place Partnership Limited to the meeting and invited him to deliver a presentation (Appendix 2).  Whilst this presentation was provided the following matters were raised for Members’; attention:

 

·                The Place Partnership Ltd was a public sector mutual in which partners had equal shares.

·                The organisation had been incorporated in March 2015, a Managing Director was appointed in June 2015 and the company had been launched in September of that year.

·                The partnership had succeeded the previous partnership arrangement that had been managed by Worcestershire County Council on behalf of some partners.

·                A range of partner organisations were shareholders in the company including Councils, West Mercia Police and Hereford and Worcester Fire and Rescue Service.

·                The partnership provided property services on behalf of partners and had inherited some excellent staff from those organisations.  All staff were now on the same terms and conditions.

·                The partnership had introduced a graduate programme and were due to recruit three new members of staff to this programme in 2018.

·                The partnership had around 500 contracts, though officers were working to simply this by reducing the number to approximately 15.  This included a contract with 188 schools.

·                The partnership delivered services across a wide geographical area encompassing Herefordshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire, though customers were located as far away as Altrincham in Greater Manchester.

·                The Place Partnership had been involved in recent work on the One Public Estate exercise.

·                A key consideration when managing Property Services was to maximise use of space and this could enable organisations to achieve efficiencies.

·                There was a shareholders’ agreement, a service agreement, between the company and the shareholders, and properly constituted articles all of which underpinned the governance arrangements.

·                Each shareholder had a representative who sat on the board, which met on a quarterly basis, as well as acted as a voice for their organisation.  The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources had this role on behalf of Redditch Borough Council.

·                There was also a regular forum for shareholders, which was attended by the Chief Executive and Portfolio Holder for Corporate Management.  These forums provided an opportunity to consider matters such as the partnership’s business plans.

·                When the partnership had been launched it had been anticipated that in total services would be delivered at a cost of £25 million by year five.  In fact, by year two the partnership had running costs of £21 million.

·                The partnership was achieving a greater level of savings for partner organisations than the previous shared service arrangement.

·                The partnership had inherited some systems that were not considered to be fit for purpose.  Action had been taken over the previous two years in an attempt to address this.

·                The partnership had worked on a range of projects, including Hindlip Park and Evesham Fire Station each of which had been complicated but had helped to generate new jobs at a limited cost to the public purse.

·                The partnership had been scrutinised by the Royal Institute for Chartered Surveyors  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63.

64.

Medium Term Financial Plan 2018/19 to 2021/22 - Update Report (Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources - To Follow)

Minutes:

The Executive Director of Finance and Corporate Resources delivered a presentation which updated the Committee on the current position in respect of the Council’s budget (Appendix 3) and in so doing she highlighted the following matters:

 

·                The Council was currently able to retain any additional growth over the baseline for growth of business rates.  However, the baseline was due to be reset to the level at which business rates had already grown which would reduce the benefit of any growth to the Council in financial terms.

·                The level at which the Council could increase Council Tax before triggering a referendum had been increased to three per cent.  Within the Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) Officers would be working on the basis that there would be a 2.99 per cent increase in Council tax.

·                Worcestershire Councils had been in contact with the Government to try to find out why the Worcestershire Business Rates Pilot bid had been unsuccessful.  This might help to ensure the success of any future bids.

·                As a consequence the Council was remaining in the Greater Birmingham and Solihull Local Enterprise Partnership’s (GBSLEP’s) business rates pool in 2018/19.

·                Many local authorities had raised concerns about the need to pay the Government a negative grant from 2019/20 onwards and the government was therefore consulting on alternative funding models that could be introduced.

·                Under the Local Government Funding Reform there would be a number of considerations that would be addressed by the government.  However, the service specific cost drivers referred to in the Government’s consultation papers were more like to apply to social care providers than to district Councils.

·                The Council had assumed that £196,000 would be recovered in New Homes Bonus (NHB) funding but unfortunately fewer planning applications had been approved in the period relating to Band D properties or higher than had been anticipated meaning that the Council could not receive this NHB funding.

·                In original forecasts the budget had been designed to take into account a one per cent pay rise per annum but this had since increased to two per cent in line with the national pay agreement.

·                The Senior Management Team (SMT) would shortly be meeting to discuss the budget in further detail which would involve a line-by-line review.

·                The Council needed to achieve a balanced budget for 2018/19 in the MTFP.  The subsequent three years covered in the plan did not necessarily have to balance.

·                The Council’s proposed budget would be considered by the Executive Committee on 6th February.  The Overview and Scrutiny Committee would have an opportunity to scrutinise these proposals and could report any recommendations on to Council on 19th February 2018.

 

Once the presentation had been delivered Members requested further information about the following matters:

 

·                The Government’s consultation in respect of the negative grant.  Officers advised that this would involve the Government reviewing the options available and consulting with local authorities about these.

·                The number of Councils that would need to pay a negative grant under existing arrangements from  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.

65.

Executive Committee Minutes and Scrutiny of the Executive Committee's Work Programme - Selecting Items for Scrutiny pdf icon PDF 64 KB

Members are asked to note that due to the inclement weather the meeting of the Executive Committee that was due to take place on 12th December 2017 was cancelled.  There are therefore no outstanding minutes from meetings of the Executive Committee to consider.

Minutes:

Officers advised that due to the inclement weather the meeting of the Executive Committee that had been due to take place on 12th December had been cancelled.  For this reason there were no minutes from that meeting for Members’ consideration.

 

An updated copy of the Executive Committee’s Work Programme published on 8th January 2018 was tabled for Members’ consideration.  Officers advised that the One Public Estate exercise had been postponed and was now scheduled for the Executive Committee’s consideration on or after March.  At the advice of officers the Executive Committee meeting that had been scheduled to take place immediately prior to Council on 19th February 2018 had been cancelled and the work programme had been updated to reflect this.

 

Members briefly debated the meaning of key and non-key decisions.  There was general consensus that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee should focus on pre-scrutinising any reports on the work programme that were likely to have significant implications for the Council, which could be both key and non-key decisions.

66.

Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme pdf icon PDF 176 KB

Minutes:

Members considered the Committee’s work programme and noted that the meeting of the Committee in March would now take place on 1st March 2018.  This meeting had been brought forward to provide Members with an opportunity to pre-scrutinise the Leisure Business Case.  The One Public Estate report had also been rescheduled for consideration at this meeting.

 

Officers from Worcestershire County Council were due to attend the meeting of the Committee on 1st March to deliver a presentation on the subject of Safeguarding and Early Help services.  There was general consensus that that this was likely to be a subject of interest to all Members.  It was therefore agreed that all Members should be invited to attend this meeting.

 

RESOLVED that

 

all Members should be invited to attend the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee due to take place on 1st March 2018.

67.

Task Groups, Short Sharp Reviews and Working Groups - Update Reports

a)        Budget Scrutiny Working Group – Chair, Councillor Jane Potter

 

b)        Civil Contingencies Short Sharp Review – Chair, Councillor Gareth Prosser

 

c)         Performance Scrutiny Working Group – Chair, Councillor Matthew Dormer

Minutes:

a)        Budget Scrutiny Working Group – Chair, Councillor Potter

 

Councillor Potter advised that there had been no meeting of the Budget Scrutiny Working Group since the last meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 7th December 2017.  The following meeting of the group would take place on 30th January 2018.

 

b)        Civil Contingencies Short Sharp Review – Chair, Councillor Prosser

 

In the absence of the Chair Councillor Dormer provided an update on the progress with the review.

 

Members were advised that there had been no further meetings of the group since the last meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.  The next meeting of the group would take place on 17th January.  Members had originally intended for this to be their last meeting.  However, a key expert witness had recently returned from maternity leave and would be interviewed at this meeting.  It was possible that the evidence this witness would provide would change the direction of the review.  For this reason the group was requesting an extension to their deadline to provide time for feedback from the witness to be taken into account.

 

c)         Performance Scrutiny Working Group – Chair, Councillor Dormer

 

Councillor Dormer explained that two meetings of the group had taken place since the previous meeting of the Committee. 

 

During the first of these meetings officers had been interviewed about the difficulties that Members were experiencing when attempting to access the dashboard on their iPads as well as the problems the group had experienced accessing the dashboard at a recent meeting.  Members had been advised that there had been some technical issues with wifi access, though it was anticipated that these problems had now been resolved.  Officers had also introduced a new tab which could be used to help navigate the dashboard more quickly.  It was understood that all Members could access this tab on the dashboard on their iPads.

 

At the latest meeting of the group Members had interviewed officers about a number of measures relating to the work of the North Worcestershire Economic Development Unit (NWEDR).  Many of the measures that were discussed involved data where there would be a significant lag in obtaining information from external sources.  Members had requested that where this occurred brief commentary was added for clarification.

 

For the next two meetings of the group Members had invited officers to attend meetings to discuss measures relating to sickness absence and rent arrears.

 

RESOLVED that

 

1)        the deadline for completion of the Civil Contingencies Short Sharp Review be extended to 1st March 2018; and

 

2)        the update reports be noted.

68.

External Scrutiny Bodies - Update Reports (Councillor Nina Wood-Ford)

a)        West Midlands Overview and Scrutiny Committee; and

 

b)        Worcestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC)

Minutes:

Councillor Wood-Ford confirmed that there had been no meetings of either the West Midlands Combined Authority Overview and Scrutiny Committee or the Worcestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC).

Appendix 1 - minutes pdf icon PDF 423 KB

Additional documents: