Agenda and minutes
Venue: Council Chamber - Time Square, Market Street, Bracknell, RG12 1JD. View directions
Contact: Kirsty Hunt 01344 353108
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Apologies for Absence/Substitute Members To receive apologies for absence and to note the attendance of any substitute Members. Minutes: Councillor Thompson was substituting for Councillor Allen. |
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Minutes and Matters Arising PDF 225 KB To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission held on 15 November 2018. Additional documents: Minutes: RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Commission held on 15 November 2018 be approved as a correct record, and signed by the Chairman.
The Chairman extend his thanks for the extremely comprehensive and well written minutes from the last meeting as it had been a mobile and interactive environment.
Responses to all of the queries and requests for information raised in the meeting had been received or formed part of the agenda. |
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Declarations of Interest and Party Whip Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary or affected interests and the nature of that interest, including the existence and nature of the party whip, in respect of any matter to be considered at this meeting.
Any Member with a Disclosable Pecuniary Interest in a matter should withdraw from the meeting when the matter is under consideration and should notify the Democratic Services Officer in attendance that they are withdrawing as they have such an interest. If the Disclosable Pecuniary Interest is not entered on the register of Members interests the Monitoring Officer must be notified of the interest within 28 days.
Any Member with an Affected Interest in a matter must disclose the interest to the meeting. There is no requirement to withdraw from the meeting when the interest is only an affected interest, but the Monitoring Officer should be notified of the interest, if not previously notified of it, within 28 days of the meeting. Minutes: Councillor Mrs McCracken declared a personal interest as the spouse of the Executive Member for Culture, Resources and Public Protection.
There were no indications that members would be participating while under the party whip. |
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Urgent Items of Business Any other items which, pursuant to Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972, the Chairman decides are urgent. Minutes: There were no items of urgent business. |
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Public Participation To receive submissions from members of the public which have been submitted in advance in accordance with the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny. Minutes: No submissions had been made by members of the public under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny. |
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The Councils Budget Consultation PDF 281 KB To consider the Council’s draft budget proposals for 2019/20:
a) Resources (Finance, OD, Transformation and HR), Chief Executive’s Office and Council Wide draft budget proposals. b) Feedback from Overview and Scrutiny Panels and overall conclusions.
Feedback from Adult Social Care, Health and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel on the 15 January 2019 to be circulated as a supplementary due to the timing of the meeting.
Panel members are asked to give advance notice to the Chairman of any questions relating to the draft budget consultation in advance of the meeting.
Please use the page numbering that appears in the published agenda when asking questions or referencing material rather than the numbering in the full budget packs as internal colleagues have not had the full budget packs.
Additional documents:
Minutes: The Commission considered a report that set out draft budget proposals for 2019/20. It was reported that the Executive would be considering all representations made at its meeting on 12 February 2019, before recommending the budget to Council.
The Director: Finance updated the Commission and made the following points:
In response to the Members’ comments and questions, the following points were made:
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Quarterly Service Reports (QSRs) PDF 1 MB To consider the latest trends, priorities and pressures in terms of departmental performance as reported in the Quarterly Service Report for the second quarter of 2018/19 (July to September) relating to the Resources Directorate. An update on key issues relating to the second quarter will be provided at the meeting.
Panel members are asked to give advance notice to the Overview and Scrutiny Team of any questions relating to the Quarterly Service Report where possible
Minutes: The Commission considered the latest trends, priorities and pressures in terms of departmental performance as reported in the Quarterly Service Report for the second quarter of 2018/19 (July to September) relating to the Delivery Directorate.
The interim Executive Director: Delivery, commented that her commentary seemed along time ago as considerable changes had occurred since the second quarter, such as the directorate restructure.
Members raised concerns about changes of payment method. The interim Executive Director: Delivery gave reassurance that in circumstances where a resident could only pay by cheque, that this would continue. Every resident who had paid for transactions with cash and cheque had been written too and the response so far had been positive.
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Executive Key and Non-Key Decisions PDF 155 KB To consider scheduled Executive Key and Non-Key Decisions of a corporate nature. Minutes: Members received and noted the scheduled Key and Non-Key Executive Decisions of a corporate nature. |
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Work Programme and Panel Activity Update PDF 264 KB To note the progress against the Overview and Scrutiny work programme, and the reports from Overview and Scrutiny Panel Chairmen on each Panel’s progress against the work programme. Additional documents: Minutes: The Commission noted the progress against the Overview and Scrutiny work programme, and the reports from Overview and Scrutiny Panel Chairmen on each Panel’s progress against the work programme.
Councillor Harrison, Chairman of the Adult Social Care, Health and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel commented that an additional panel meeting was being help in February to scrutinise why the local CCG would not be providing an item of equipment for sufferers of diabetes. Flash testing was being undertaken nationally but the equipment was not been made available by the local CCG. As this decision had been taken locally, Members from the CCG would be attending the additional meeting which would allow the panel to investigate and understand the reasoning for why this was not being offered locally.
Councillor Brossard, Chairman of the Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMO) Working Group gave an update to the Commission on the progress of the Working Group to date. So far five meetings had been held, however the process had been stop/start due to changes of staff. In the past week a productive meeting had been held with a letting agent from Prospect, as they had a number of HMOs in their portfolio. Prospect had been selective in their approach to attract the best HMOs as some were not well managed. The next meeting would be with an HMO landlord in order to help understand the process for an applicant and how security, fire and health and safety arrangements were provided. Councillor Brossard stated that this was uncharted waters for the Working Group who were learning as the meetings went along. It was estimated that the working group was within one meeting of wrapping up and the final report would be shared with the panel.
Councillor Brossard thanked his fellow Members for their support throughout the Working Group.
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Exclusion of Public and Press To consider the following motion:
That pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of the following item which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of that Act:
(1) Information relating to any individual (Item 11). Minutes: RESOLVED that pursuant to Section 100A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended, and having regard to the public interest, members of the public and press be excluded from the meeting for the consideration of the following item which involves the likely disclosure of exempt information under the following category of Schedule 12A of that Act:
(1) Information relating to any individual (Item 11 ). |
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Update on the Outcomes of the Retention and Recruitment Workshop Nikki Gibbons, Director: OD, Transformation and HR to provide an update to the Commission on the outcomes of the recruitment and retention workshop. Additional documents:
Minutes: Nikki Gibbons, Director: OD, Transformation and HR was invited to the Commission to provide an update on the outcome of the retention and recruitment workshop which had been requested by the Overview and Scrutiny Commission in 2018 in order to review the problems facing the Council in recruitment and retention of staff.
The Director: OD, Transformation and HR gave an overview presentation which focused on a number of issues that had been looked at and the key priority areas.
As the item was heard under the Exclusion of public and press, it was requested that the presentation be circulated to Members of the Commission.
(ACTION: Hannah Stevenson to circulate presentation to Members.)
As a result of Members comments and questions, the following points were made:
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