To elect a new Chairman for the remainder of the municipal year.

Mark Beeley, Democratic Services Officer, opened the meeting and explained that there had been a change to the Panel Membership. Councillor Haseler was now a Member of Cabinet and therefore could not sit on the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel, he had been replaced by Councillor Clark. As Councillor Haseler was Chairman of the Panel, a new Chairman needed to be elected for the remainder of the municipal year.

Councillor Werner proposed that Councillor L Jones was Chairman of the Panel. This was seconded by Councillor L Jones.

Councillor Sharpe proposed that Councillor Clark was Chairman of the Panel. This was seconded by Councillor Luxton.

As two nominations had been received, a named vote was taken on each nomination.

The nomination fell.

RESOLVED: That Councillor Clark was elected as Chairman of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel for the remainder of the municipal year.

To receive any apologies for absence.

An apology for absence was received from Councillor Muir, Councillor Luxton was attending the meeting as a substitute.

To receive any declarations of interest.

There were no declarations of interest received.

To consider the minutes of the meetings held on 20^th December 2021 and 26^th January 2022.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes from the meetings held on 20^th December 2021 and 26^th January 2022 were approved as true and accurate records.

Mark Beeley, Democratic Services Officer, explained that as had been agreed at the last meeting, an actions table would be produced which listed all of the actions and then the outcomes from those actions. This had been circulated to the Panel at the end of last week and covered actions from the November 2021, December 2021 and January 2022 meetings.

Councillor L Jones commented on the minutes from the December 2021 meeting, in the section regarding longer term view of financial estimates. She had asked at the meeting for an explanation of the affect the budget had on reserves and how the reserves would be strengthened, this had not been covered in the personal report. Councillor L Jones asked if she could have an explanation on this from officers.

The Chairman suggested that a written answer could be provided to Councillor L Jones after the meeting.

ACTION – Finance team to provide response to Councillor L Jones query on the effect of the budget on reserves.

To consider the performance monitoring report.

Rebecca Hatch, Head of Strategy, said the report would be split into three elements. An update would be provided on the new performance monitoring arrangements following the adoption of the new Corporate Plan, there would be a brief overview of Q3 performance and finally an introduction to the new Citizens Portal. The new Corporate Plan set out three overarching objectives along with 50 specific goals which RBWM would look to achieve over the next five years. Officers had been working hard to achieve the goals set out in the plan and had been considering relevant milestones and metrics with which to show progress against the goals. This information had been brought together to create the performance monitoring Citizens Portal. The goals were primarily focused on outcomes, with a small number of goals focused inwards which considered the council as an organisation and how it was viewed by residents. As had been discussed at the January 2022 meeting, the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel would have a key responsibility in the oversight of the process. The Panel would receive quarterly performance reports, with reporting by exception so that there was focus on areas where there had been challenges. The first report would be brought forward at the July 2022 meeting. Officers would be encouraging Members to review the data on the Citizens Portal so that progress could be viewed independently. The role of the Panel would be to review the performance against the plan, the Panel could make recommendations to other Panels if required for further scrutiny and consideration. Further data and support would be provided by officers for any review and the Panel could look to make recommendations on how performance could be improved.

Councillor Sharpe commented on the proposal for reporting to be by exception, so that issues would be flagged up by officers where they arose. He asked if a goal was amber for a long time, would this be flagged up to the Panel.

Rebecca Hatch said that Members would be able to review the performance of all of the goals from the Corporate Plan on the Citizens Portal, officers would choose a selection of goals which they felt should be highlighted to the Panel. This would include, for example, goals which were felt could turn amber.

Councillor Werner asked if things could be flagged up by Members and brought to the meeting, he asked if there was assurance that relevant officers would attend Panel meetings to answer any questions from the Panel.

The Chairman commented that timing was important, questions from the Panel could be asked of officers but Members needed to allow officers time to give factual information. If questions came at the meeting, it could lead to more questions needing to be answered offline after the meeting.

Councillor Werner said the issue was timing, Members only received the agenda a week before the meeting.

Adele Taylor, Executive Director of Resources, said that the Citizens Portal would allow Members to review trends over previous  ...  view the full minutes text for item 172.

To consider the update.

Andrew Vallance, Head of Finance, said that the report had been to Cabinet last week. It covered month 10, which was January 2022, and showed an underspend of £239,000 which was an increase of £138,000 from the month 8 report. The main changes had been the increase in wedding income, reduction in the estimate of library staff used and finance staff interims. There had been a recovery of parking income of £250,000 but across the year this figure was still way down due to the pandemic. The contingency sum in the budget of nearly £2 million was now not required, this had been put into the reserves.

Councillor L Jones said that there was a shortfall on the savings tracker of £2.29 million forecast across the year. The report stated that this should be mitigated within the service, she asked what the likelihood was of this happening and the saving being mitigated, where the funds were coming from within those services and if it would affect anything that the council did.

Adele Taylor said that she was confident that a number of the amber savings would move to green. Improvements needed to be made on the savings tracker, where there were alternatives these should be shown and a more sophisticated format of showing this could be needed. Alternatives should not affect the quality or level of services, the total number of savings outlined would be delivered.

Councillor L Jones commented on property and the Covid pressure on the budget of £1.2 million that was not needed, what would happen to this. On vacancy savings, was this because the council could not recruit and whether services were resourced effectively. Councillor L Jones continued on adult social care, the council had received £1.3 million more income than budgeted but despite this the area was £769,000 overspent and she would like to understand why this had happened. Councillor L Jones concluded by asking about the COMF (Contain Outbreak Management Fund) grant which was £4.5 million, less spend, which took it down to £4 million, she suggested taking this point offline as she wanted to know what this had been spent on.

In response, Adele Taylor explained that on property, this had been picked up and reported throughout the year. During Covid, some of that funding had been rolled forward that was not needed to help close the gap on some of the one-off Covid costs. This had already been included in the budget for the next financial year. On vacancy savings, there had been a number of new posts created, some of which had been vacant for a period of time. Vacancy savings were not something that was aimed for. Considering social care income, there was more income but there was also increased service costs. There would always be pressures on adult social care and the service was good at making savings from transformation. A demographic reserve was set aside of £750,000 for demographic pressures in next years budget. On hospital discharges, there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 173.

To agree the final version for the report.

Mark Beeley explained that the annual scrutiny report had been circulated amongst Panel Members and a draft had been produced, which was attached to the agenda. If Panel Members had any comments or amendments to the report they could either be discussed in this agenda item or discussed offline after the meeting.

Councillor L Jones commented that the majority of topics considered by the Panel were brought by officers. The Panel needed to carefully consider what it wanted to do, she felt the Panel should be more proactive.

The Chairman said it was important to consider items which were of value and could be scrutinised. Questions could be asked and answered by relevant officers.

Councillor Sharpe said the Panel had been through a process over the year, a lot of topics had been scrutinised.

To consider the Panel’s work programme for the remainder of the Municipal year.

To include consideration of items scheduled on the Cabinet Forward Plan.

Councillor L Jones said that the item on the RBWM Property Company Governance Action Plan Update was coming to the Panel at the end of the process, the item had gone to Cabinet without the Panel being involved beforehand. Items were often added to the Cabinet forward plan late and this was a process that could be reviewed, she felt it was out of step with scrutiny.

The Chairman said he would look at this issue, items needed to be added to the forward plan in a timely manner.

Adele Taylor said that the action plan update on the Property Company would be considered by the Panel at the next meeting. Officers were trying to clarify the shareholder responsibilities and how scrutiny would fit into the process.

The Chairman said it was linking in with the Cabinet forward plan and things should be added as early as possible.

Councillor Werner suggested that transformation should be something that the Panel considered across the year.

To consider passing the following resolution:-

“That under Section 100(A)(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the remainder of the meeting whilst discussion takes place on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 1-7 of part I of Schedule 12A of the Act."

Members had no further comments on the Financial Update, therefore there was no need for the meeting to move into Part II.

To consider Appendix J.

Members noted the appendix and had no further comments or questions.