Agenda item

Work Programme Progress Report

To consider a report of the Borough Solicitor.

Minutes:

The Committee considered a report of the Borough Solicitor setting out a process to approve the work programme for 2010/2011.

This Committee at its meeting held on 19 April 2010 had approved a paper entitled ‘Strengthening the Scrutiny Function’ which proposed a more formal approach to the work programme setting process in 2010 to enable the views of Cabinet to be fed into the process. This approach had also been considered and endorsed by the Scrutiny Chairs Group. The main aim of the new approach was to share work programmes with colleagues in Cabinet and Corporate Management Team (CMT) at the outset, so that Overview and Scrutiny became an integral part of the corporate business planning process of the Council. Work programme items would subsequently be linked to relevant Corporate plan targets, and where appropriate, Performance Indicators and LAA targets.

It was intended that emerging work programmes of all five Overview and Scrutiny Committees would be presented to Cabinet informally in June, and then each Committee would formally endorse its work programme before the summer recess.

The committee was reminded that it needed to ensure that there was sufficient leeway to allow for additional activities throughout the year.

A schedule attached to the report, set out all existing items in the work programme.

Members were also requested to have regard to the emerging Corporate Plan and Sustainable Communities Strategy, both of which were currently in consultation stage and expected to be adopted by Council in July.

The Committee reviewed each work programme item and made the following comments

Issue	Description	Comment	Date
Grants to Voluntary Organisations	Task and Finish group set up to offer advice to Cabinet on a fair and equitable system of allocating financial support and grants to the Voluntary and Community sector.	Current review suspended to allow an officer working group to pull together a full picture of existing commitments from the demised authorities. The Committee to receive a progress report in the summer. This matter will now transfer to Sustainable Communities	N/A
Budget	Consultation group set up to review consultation arrangements for 2011/2012.	The group guided the 2010/2011 consultation process, but its main body of work will be to determine consultation arrangements in subsequent years. The group is due to meet again on Friday 18 June	Start June 2010 and ongoing
Sustainable Community Strategy	Sustainable Communities, will now take the lead	No action required Delete from this work programme	N/A
LAP’s	Sustainable Communities will now take the lead	No action required Delete from this work programme	N/A
Corporate Plan	Sustainable Communities will now take the lead	The future involvement of Corporate Scrutiny Committee queried. In meantime, Corporate Scrutiny be given an opportunity to comment on the plan.	July 2010
Local Development Framework	Sustainable Communities will now take the lead	No action required Delete from this work programme	TBA
Video recording of Council Meetings	Should the Council invest in providing broadcast facilities.	The Committee considered interim report based upon experience of C & N ,recommended that no action be taken until the long term meeting arrangements known	N/A
Start Time of Committee meetings	Some members in employment had problems with morning meetings. A request was received to review start times	Recommended that majority of Committee meetings begin at 2.00pm.Majority of committee chairmen not taken on board and most meetings remain in the morning	N/A
Cheshire East Culture	Part of the transformation agenda to inculcate a new ‘Cheshire East Culture’	No action taken to date	Ongoing
ICT harmonisation and Improvement	Harmonisation and improvement ICT facilities across the Council	Presentation received by the Committee in November 2010. Further presentation required to assess progress.	Presentation 13 July 2010
Risk Management	Assess the Council’s Risk management arrangements	The future involvement of Corporate Scrutiny Committee queried	TBA
Local Transport/liaison committees	Consider setting up local political arrangements to advise/determine local highway and transportation issues	New item not yet prioritised, considered to be a low priority	TBA
Libraries Progress Report	Matter referred from Sustainable Communities Committee as a result of the realignment of remits	New item not yet prioritised, considered to be a low priority	TBA
Outsourcing of discretionary Leisure and Cultural Services	Matter referred from Sustainable Communities Committee as a result of the realignment of remits	New item not yet prioritised	Presentation 13 July with view to setting up a Task and Finish group
Legal Services	Presentation on the structure and range of responsibilities covered by the legal service	New item not yet prioritised	13 July 2010
Communications Service	Presentation on the structure and range of responsibilities covered by the communications service	New item not yet prioritised	Presentation future meeting
Assets register	Presentation on the assets register and the ‘assets Challenge’ process	Not yet prioritised	Presentation13 July 2010 with view to setting up Task and Finish Group
Review of IT provision and support for Members	Review of the work of the Cabinet panel Chaired by Councillor Narraway	Regular updates	Ongoing
Sport 2012 Olympics		Delete from work programme
Events	The Committee to be consulted by the Portfolio holder on specific issues	No action required at the moment	N/A
Future of Council owned farms		Covered in Assets presentation/review
Procurement		Presentation at future meeting	TBA
Shared Services		Presentation at future meeting	TBA

Supporting documents: