Agenda and draft minutes

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Contact: Louise Connelly  01344 354047

Media

Items
Note No. Item

None

4.

Apologies for Absence

To receive apologies for absence and to note the attendance of any substitute Members.

None

5.

Minutes of previous meeting pdf icon PDF 119 KB

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission held on 16 March 2023.

Minutes:

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Commission held on 24 May 2023 be approved as a correct record, and signed by the Chairman.

None

6.

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 indications that members would be participating while under the party whip.

None

7.

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.

8.

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.

9.

Statutory Scrutiny Officer Report pdf icon PDF 81 KB

Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission are asked to consider the Statutory Scrutiny Report and agree the recommendations.

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Statutory Scrutiny Officer, Kevin Gibbs, introduced the Statutory Scrutiny Officer Report covering an overview of good governance and scrutiny and a reduction in the number of meetings of the Overview & Scrutiny Commission in the forthcoming year.

 

It was explained that Overview & Scrutiny Panels were expected to pull together ideas from members of their Panels for topics to scrutinise over the next four years. Ideas would be fed back into a future Commission meeting to decide which ones to take forward.

 

Members of the Commission also discussed the need for training and support to enable Councillors to put a good work programme together and stressed the importance of the voice of people with ‘lived experience’ being part of those reviews.

 

RESOLVED that the Commission reduce the number of meetings from ten to five meetings this year (April 2023-March 2024) and the Commission use the previous work programme to help focus their work in the future.

 

 

10.

Overview and Scrutiny Review Reports - Enforcement Strategy and Child Criminal Exploitation pdf icon PDF 66 KB

To consider two Overview and Scrutiny reports to be presented to the Executive on 19 September 2023.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Statutory Scrutiny Officer, Kevin Gibbs, drew Overview and Scrutiny Commission members’ attention to two outstanding reports carried out by the previous administration which did not have the opportunity to be presented to the Executive and three options to resolve how they would be dealt with.

 

A discussion took place which included the following points:

·       A request had been received from the Parent Governor representative on the Commission who could not be present, Victoria Hill, advocating for the Child Criminal Exploitation Scrutiny Review Report to be received by the Executive at the September meeting.

·       The importance of the reviews going to the Executive as soon as possible so as not to delay any positive impact the recommendations would have on children.

·       Members of the Commission who had been involved in the reviews advocated how useful they had been and that the recommendations should be presented to the Executive as soon as possible.

·       Some members of the Panel felt they had not had an opportunity to read the documents thoroughly and a discussion was had about document accessibility.

 

RESOLVED – that Option 1 be followed and the Chairs of the relevant Panels present both reports and recommendations, in their entirety, to the Executive on 19 September 2023.

 

Abstained: Cllr C Eberle and Cllr M Forster

 

Contact Information

Democratic services

Email: committee@bracknell-forest.gov.uk