Agenda and minutes

Venue: Online only via Microsoft Teams

Contact: Kirsty Hunt  01344 353108

Media

Items
Note No. Item

None

10.

Minutes of previous meeting pdf icon PDF 173 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission held on 9 June 2022.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Commission held on 9 June 2022 be approved as a correct record, and signed by the Chair.

None

11.

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:

There were no declarations of interest made.

 

There were no indications that members would be participating while under the party whip.

None

12.

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.

13.

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.

14.

Environment and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel Report: Integrated Enforcement pdf icon PDF 364 KB

To consider the draft Integrated Enforcement review report prepared by the Environment and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel for submission to the Executive on 20 September 2022.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair of the Commission advised that as both the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Environment and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel were unable to attend the meeting to present the report so it would fall to other members of that panel to answer questions. Members present commented that the clarity and presentation of the report was excellent and thanked the officer supporting the review, Joey Gurney for the quality of the information provided. Arising from the discussion the following queries were raised:

·        the report lacked examples of when each appropriate officer would be looking at their area to have enforcement

·        the review did not appear to have considered the frustration of the timescales for resolving enforcement issues, it was acknowledged that there was a crossover with different authorities working together and that it does take a lot of time to work through and get a proper outcome

·        it was queried whether there were enough parking attendants working within the borough

·        the level of success of enforcement court cases was queried

 

It was noted that some of the queries raised fed into the rationale for the proposed companion review.

 

The Commission agreed to defer the decision whether to endorse the recommendations within the Integrated Enforcement review report for submission to the Executive until the next meeting of the Commission, when the Chair, Councillor Porter, would be able to address the issues raised directly.

None

15.

Work Programme Update pdf icon PDF 255 KB

Overview and Scrutiny Panel Chairs to provide verbal updates on the work programme and highlight any proposed changes such as scope, scheduling or duration.

 

The Commission to consider the scope for the Enforcement Strategy review from the Environment and Communities Overview & Scrutiny Panel.

 

Minutes:

Each Panel Chair in attendance provided a verbal update on work programme progress.

 

Education, Skills and Growth Overview and Scrutiny Panel

 

The SEND review was due to be completed in July 2022 but had taken longer because of the extensive investigative work being undertaken. Panel members had visited SEND units in schools and special needs settings and interviewed a number of witnesses. The draft review recommendations would be discussed with representatives from the local authority and health partners on 18 July 2022. The final report would be available for discussion at the September Overview and Scrutiny Commission meeting. In response to a question, the Chair stated that the SEND department needed to be reorganised, that SEND data was not being collected in the right way for management to monitor activity and that the panel were pleased this had been recognised and was being worked on by officers.

 

The next review had been scoped and was being called ‘Child Criminal Exploitation’ instead of ‘County Lines’. County Lines had been widened since the pandemic as during lockdown methods of undertaking activities morphed into something else broader.

 

The Education, Skills and Growth Panel would meet on 28September 2022 to reflect on what the Panel had achieved in the last three years in order to evaluate what had gone well and what could be improved.

 

Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Panel

 

The Health and Care Panel would meet on 19 July 2022 to discuss the impact of the review on blue badges and how the recommendations had been carried out. The meeting would also discuss the next project for the Panel to review. It was planned to bring the scope to the next Overview and Scrutiny Commission meeting for consideration.

 

Environment and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel

 

The Commission agreed the Enforcement Strategy review scope.

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk