a) Budget Scrutiny Working Group – Chair, Councillor Wheeler
b) Performance Scrutiny Working Group – Chair, Councillor Wheeler
Minutes:
Budget Scrutiny Working Group – Chair, Councillor Andrew Fry
Councillor Fry informed Members that at the latest meeting of the Budget Scrutiny Working Group on 15th February, 2019, Members were provided with an update on the Enterprise System (the new finance system). The group had welcomed the new system and felt that this would be more efficient for the Council going forward.
The group had also considered an update on the transfer of Property Services back to the Council from the Place Partnership Ltd and the progress that had been made with this. Staff had been transferred over to the Council and no employees serving Redditch had lost their jobs.
Public consultation had been held by the group with members of the Redditch Community Panel. One of the questions in the consultation process related to the changes to the Council’s grants process and another to the new Council lottery. The group had raised some concerns about both processes and had decided to revisit the feedback received in relation to the questions at meetings later in the year. The relevant officers and the relevant Portfolio Holder(s) would be invited to attend to comment on how both processes were working.
Members were advised that the group’s third question had asked the public to comment on their priorities for the budget from 2020 onwards. A significant proportion of the respondents had highlighted housing as a priority, though recycling and waste collection services and business support were also popular. Unfortunately the feedback did not help to clarify which aspects of each area were causing concern, with the group recognising that housing could relate to a range of issues including the availability of affordable housing, the quality of Council houses or houses in the private rented sector or even to homelessness levels. The group had agreed to investigate the areas that had been highlighted by the community group as priorities in 2019/20 and their findings would inform recommendations in respect of the Council’s budget during the year.
Members were asked to note that only 55 members of the Redditch Community Panel had responded to the group’s third question in the consultation process and fewer than that to the other two questions. It was unclear whether this was a typical response rate for surveys circulated amongst members of the community, higher than average or lower. However, the group had noted that this was a small number of residents and that further consultation with the public might be required in future.
The committee was informed that the next meeting of the Budget Scrutiny Working Group was arranged to take place on 8th March, 2019.
Performance Scrutiny Working Group
The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee raised concerns that the Group was not meeting frequently. And this could undermine its potential to monitor the performance of Council services. Members agreed that the frequency of the group’s meeting should be reviewed, and the Chair suggested that at least six meetings should be held each year.
RESOLVED that
1) the update reports be noted; and
2) the Performance scrutiny working Group should review the frequency of its meetings to ensure that at least six meetings take place each year.