Agenda and minutes

Councillor Peter Raynes – Finance Portfolio Holder

Councillor Rhoda Bailey – Cabinet Support Member

Councillor Phil Hoyland – Chairman Children and Families PDG

Councillor David Neilson – Chairman Care Leavers Task and Finish Group

Julie Lewis – Principal Manager Cared for Children

Dominic Oakeshott – Head of Business Management and Challenge

Mark Nedderman – Senior Scrutiny Officer

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 21 February 2013.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting held on 21 February 2013 be confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To provide an opportunity for Members and Officers to declare any disclosable pecuniary and non-pecuniary interests in any item on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of the existence of a party whip.

There were no members of the public present who wished to make a statement.

To consider a report of the Care Leavers Task and Finish Group.

The Committee considered a report of the Borough Solicitor relating to a report of a task and finish group set up by the former Childrens and families Scrutiny Committee which explored whether the Council was doing all it could to help young people in care to make a successful transition into adulthood.

Councillor David Neilson, Chairman of the Care Leavers Task and Finish Group attended the meeting and introduced the report.

RESOLVED –

(a)  That the report of the Task/Finish group be welcomed and supported;

(b)  That the recommendations of the Group contained in the report be endorsed, and referred to Cabinet for consideration and necessary action, including referral of any matters considered appropriate to the Children’s and Families Policy Development group for further investigation.

(c)  That the appreciation of the Committee be placed on record for the endeavours of Mark Grimshaw Scrutiny officer in supporting the work of the Task and Finish group.

To consider a report of the Interim Borough Solicitor.

The Committee considered a report of the Borough Solicitor regarding the 2012/13 work programme.

The Chairman informed the Committee that he had reviewed the current work programme and had noted that in the main, the work programme consisted of matters handed to the committee from committees that had existed under the Council’s previous scrutiny arrangements.

He suggested that due to the spread in the role of the committee it would have to be extremely discerning in its choice of work programme items and would therefore have to focus its attention on a small number of high level, but important matters. He therefore proposed that the current list should be reduced to more manageable levels.

He also had noted that in February 2013, the Committee had considered a report on the conclusions of a peer review of the Council’s arrangements for the safeguarding of children, which had taken place between 3 and 7 December 2012. The Committee was informed that this review had now been superseded by an Ofsted inspection which was currently underway in respect of the Council’s child protection arrangements. All of this led the Chairman to conclude that the committee should, as an important area of council services, include safeguarding of both children’s and  adults services, and proposed that the Committee should consider adding a standard item on all future agendas, to consider updates on  safeguarding issues. 

The Committee then reviewed the schedule attached to the report and recommended that the following changes be made:

·         Libraries Strategy – Defer any scrutiny activity until such time as the new library arrangements have been in place for 6 months

·         Car park management task and finish review, update – delete and monitor performance through the quarterly performance reports;

·         Christmas Bins collection -  delete and monitor performance through the quarterly performance reports;

·         Report on project slippages – capital programme - delete and monitor performance through the quarterly performance reports;

·         Children’s/Adults ICT update - Defer any scrutiny activity until such time as the new ICT arrangements have been in place for 12 months;

·         Regulation 33 Visits – to be reported upon quarterly;

·         New Item – Review of Ofsted report and improvement plan on child protection and  safeguarding arrangements

·         New item – The effectiveness of the new Management Restructure;

·         New Item – BeWilderwood;

·         New Item – The impact on schools of the new Ofsted framework;

·         New Item – Impact of Academy provisions in respect of primary schools.

RESOLVED –

(a)  That the report be received;

(b)  That the changes listed above be approved;

(c)  That the Chairman and Vice Chairman be requested to review the revised work programme prior  to the next meeting and to allocate, wherever possible, indicative dates for completion; 

(d)  That the review children’s and adults safeguarding issues be included as a standard item on all future agendas for this committee.

To consider how the Committee will select items from the budget savings which are considered the most sensitive, critical and difficult to achieve as set out in the minutes from the 21 Feb meeting, with a view to adding those items to the Committee’s work programme.

The Committee considered selecting items which had been identified in the approved 2013/14 budget as being the most sensitive, critical and difficult to achieve.

The Chairman asked members of the committee to think about potential items to be included under this heading in order that further consideration of specific suggestions could be considered at the next meeting of the committee.

The Finance Portfolio Holder suggested the committee might wish to concentrate in the following areas:

·         Adult Social Care – where costs were increasing

·         Leisure Services

·         Public Health

·         Value For Money

RESOLVED- That this matter be considered further at the April meeting