Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission held on 27 June 2019.

To review the Actions Log arising from previous meetings.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Commission held on 27 June 2019 be approved as a correct record, and signed by the Chairman</AI1>

There were no matters arising, questions or comments from Members of the Commission.

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.

There were no declarations of interest and no indications that members would be participating while under the party whip.  

There were no items of urgent business.

No submissions had been made by members of the public under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme for Overview and Scrutiny.

To consider the Chief Executive’s Corporate Performance Overview Report covering the fourth quarter, January 2019 to March 2019 (Q4) of 2018/19 financial year and the first quarter, April to June 2019 (Q1) of the 2019/20 financial year

Panel members are asked to give advance notice to Kirstine Berry in the Governance and Scrutiny Team of any questions relating to the CPOR(s) where possible.

The Commission considered the Chief Executive’s Corporate Performance Overview Report (CPOR) covering the fourth quarter, January 2019 to March 2019 (Q4) of 2018/19 financial year and the first quarter, April to June 2019 (Q1) of the 2019/20 financial year.

Panel members were asked to give advance notice to Kirstine Berry in the Governance and Scrutiny Team of any questions relating to the CPOR(s) where possible.

No questions relating to either CPOR had been received in advance of the meeting.

Timothy Wheadon, Chief Executive, introduced the Q1 CPOR to the Commission and explained that:

·         The Q1 CPOR had not yet been to the Executive.

·         The financial information in the Q1 report related to the Q4 report as the reports had been produced slightly out of sequence.

·         The overriding position was that the Council was currently in a holding pattern.

·         The service plans in place related to the Council Plan that was agreed in 2015

·         Council would be asked to agree a new plan in Nov for the period 2019-2023 and this was where the effort was being directed. 

Some of the key highlights of quarter one performance were:

·         Progress against key performance indicators (KPIs) in Q1 of the year, were overwhelmingly on target, as expected.

·         Over 80% of KPIs had green indicators.

·         3 elections had been held in the first quarter.  Democratic Services had new team dealing with the elections who had been very effective.  There may very well be more elections in the short term and at short notice.

·         The accounts were closed in the first quarter with a balanced budget for the twenty first consecutive year in a row.

·         There had been over 1500 hours of volunteering in Parks and Countryside to maintain local parks, open spaces and rights of way which equated to 43 weeks of paid work at 37 hours per week.  This was something the community and the Council should be very proud of.

·         Housing and Welfare were equal second fastest in the South east for processing new claims, and equal first for change in circumstances so we act quickly for our residents.

Areas that had caused concern during the first quarter were:

·         The close down of the accounts had been difficult because of a change in the law on pensions. Ongoing delays to The Berkshire Pension Fund accounts had taken longer to deal with and had posed a challenge.

·         58 complaints had been received in the first quarter which was more than would have been expected.

·         When the 58 complaints were put into the context of the millions of interactions the Council had with residents in the same period, this was a low figure, but it was hoped it could be lower still.

In response to questions from members raised during the meeting, Timothy Wheadon, Chief executive advised members that:

·         Complaints were processed in 3 stages.

·         The complaints recorded were written complaints.

·         The first complaint stage was dealt with by a line manager.

·         A stage 3 complaint was dealt with by the Chief Executive or  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.

To note the attached reports which advise the Commission of the current status of each Panel and its work programme, from the Chairman of the:

·         Adult Social Care, Health and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel

·         Environment, Culture and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel

·         Children, Young People and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Panel

The Chairman of the Children, Young People and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Panel advised that the Panel had not met since the date of the last O&S Commission meeting on 27 June 2019 and had no update to report.

The Commission noted the reports which advised the Commission of the current status of each Panel’s work programme, from the Chairman of the:

·        Adult Social Care, Health and Housing Overview and Scrutiny Panel

·        Environment, Culture and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel

·        Children, Young People and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Panel

The Chairman of the Children, Young People and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Panel advised that the Panel had not met since the date of the last O&S Commission meeting on 27 June 2019 and had no update to report.

The Chairman of the Children, Young People and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Panel welcomed Mr Mark Glanville, a Parent Governor from Easthampstead Park Community School, to the meeting of the Commission as an observer and hoped he would soon be joining the Commission as a Parent Governor Representative.

There were no questions from Members.

To note and discuss the report by her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) re-inspection into crime data integrity of Thames Valley Police published on 25 July 2019.

The report can be accessed via this link:

https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/publications/thames-valley-crime-data-integrity-re-inspection-2019/

Responses to the questions from Members about the report have been supplied by Councillor Harrison, Executive Member for Culture, Delivery and Public Protection.

The Commission noted and discussed the report by her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services (HMICFRS) re-inspection into crime data integrity of Thames Valley Police published on 25 July 2019.

The report was accessed via this link:

https://www.justiceinspectorates.gov.uk/hmicfrs/publications/thames-valley-crime-data-integrity-re-inspection-2019/

Responses to the questions from Members about the report had been supplied by Councillor Harrison, Executive Member for Culture, Delivery and Public Protection in advance of the meeting.

The Chairman expressed his surprise at the overall judgement of inadequate for the Thames Valley Police: Crime Data Integrity re-inspection report 2019 and observed that this was not the message that had been provided at the recent full Council meeting on 11 September 2019 from the Police when the Chief Constable, John Campbell had been present.

Councillor John Harrison, Executive Member for Culture, Delivery and Public Protection thanked Members for the questions relating to the re-inspection report they had provided to him and advised members that:

·        Their questions had been sent to the Chief Constable for a response.

·        The answers to the questions were provided in the report that accompanied the agenda.

·        He held a position on the Police and Crime Panel which was a scrutiny panel which looked at the performance of the Police Commissioner and the police force.  It was not an executive or management committee, it only held them to account. 

·        He had had a further opportunity to question the Chief Constable and the Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) about the crime data integrity and it was that which was the issue not the performance of the Police overall.

·        The Police had questions themselves over how the inspectorate had compiled the data in the report and had pushed back.

·        He was not in a position or able to answer any detailed questions about the report itself.

·        The Police and Crime Panel had asked for a report at their next meeting which would possibly be in December 2019.

·        Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, Fire and Rescue Services were annual inspections.

·        The Police and Crime Commissioner’s office had a named person who was in charge of crime statistics.

Members discussed:

·        The recent full Council meeting when the Chief Constable attended and noted how the re-inspection report was not mentioned or referred to at that meeting.

·        The appropriateness of full Council being an appropriate forum to ask detailed questions to the Chief Constable and commented that a number of questions that they had submitted for a response remained unanswered by the Chief Constable.

·        If it would be appropriate to request that the Chief Constable and/or the Police and Crime Commissioner should attend an Overview and Scrutiny Commission meeting to allow the Commission to pose more detailed questions directly.

Action:  The Chairman of the O&S Commission will discuss outside of the meeting of the Commission, the best way to take the situation forwards and decide who to invite to a focussed, single issue meeting of the O&S Commission in order to discuss the HMICFRS Thames Valley Police Crime Data Integrity  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

To consider scheduled Executive Key and Non-Key Decisions of a corporate nature.

Members received and noted the scheduled Key and Non-Key Executive Decisions of a corporate nature.

There were no questions from Members.

The Chairman thanked everyone for attending the Commission and closed the meeting.