To receive any apologies for absence.

An apology for absence had been received from Councillor Werner. Councillor Bond was unable to attend in person, he would be attending the meeting virtually as a non-Panel Member.

To receive any declarations of interest.

Councillor Story declared that his wife was an employee of RBWM and requested that this was noted in the minutes. This was in relation to items 4 and 5 on the agenda.

The Chairman said that he was a Cabinet Member when the RBWM Property Company action plan was considered by Cabinet and originally referred to overview and scrutiny.

To consider the minutes of the meeting held on 22^nd June 2022.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 22^nd June 2022 were approved as a true and accurate record.

The Chairman said that there had been discussion around scrutiny of the waste contract and which elements should be considered and by which Panel.

Councillor Price said that she had raised the idea at the last meeting of the Panel having the opportunity to review how a meeting had gone. The Chairman had suggested that this could be done outside of the meeting, Councillor Price asked if this would be taking place.

Councillor Sharpe suggested that it could be something to consider as part of the ongoing review of how the scrutiny function was performing, rather than after every meeting.

Councillor L Jones said that a review should happen quarterly, so that the Panel could change how it operated if required.

The Chairman said that a quarterly private meeting could be held to review progress and actions from previous meetings. The Panel could then see if there were any benefits to holding the review meetings.

ACTION – The Chairman to work in collaboration with Democratic Services to organise an offline meeting to review Panel progress.

Councillor Price noted that at the last meeting, Mr Andrew Hill had asked a question which required a written answer after the meeting. Councillor Price requested that the answer was made publicly available in the interests of transparency.

The Chairman confirmed that Mr Andrew Hill had received the written answer, he agreed that the answer should also be made available publicly on the website.

ACTION – Written answer to Mr Andrew Hill’s question to published as a supplement to the minutes.

To consider the report.

Rachel Kinniburgh, Service Lead – Strategic Policy, Performance & Insights, said that this was the first performance report against the RBWM Corporate Plan. The report considered performance up until May 2022. Following the adoption of the Plan, officers across the council had identified measures and milestones which reflected progress against the 50 goals.

The criteria developed by the Strategy, Policy and Performance Team to govern the compilation of the Panel’s reports was set out in the report, considering areas of progress and concern along with the direction of travel. The first report had been compiled based on direction of travel alone. Each of the three corporate plan objectives were set out in the report with their respective areas of concern and progress. On the whole, the position was broadly healthy, with 15 goals making significant progress and four goals where there were some areas of concern.

With the ‘council trusted to deliver’ objective principally focused on satisfaction, trust and feeling that the council delivered value for money, it was noted that operational service delivery was likely to influence these areas and so more data around service delivery would be published on the Citizens Portal. Rachel Kinniburgh encouraged Panel Members to engage with the team throughout the summer to share their thoughts on what could be included.

The Chairman thanked all officers that had been involved in the work that had been undertaken to improve reporting and identify criteria. He felt this would be a good way of monitoring performance and targets.

Councillor Walters commented on the A308 study which was ‘successfully completed’. He felt that it had not been completed successfully and was three years late, there had been significant impacts as a result on the village of Bray.

The Chairman said that it was completed successfully, although the timetable of the study was something that came under the Panel’s remit with monitoring and performance.

Councillor Walters felt that the result of the study was disappointing.

Councillor Sharpe said that the report was an important piece of work. He asked where issues may appear looking to the future, over the next few months.

Rachel Kinniburgh said that there was nothing significant which was causing concern at the moment. The areas of concern outlined in the report had insightful narrative which had been provided by officers. This was the first report, there were a number of measures where data was still being sourced or where there was limited data available.

Councillor L Jones noted that some of the goals had a target in the narrative while others had the target in the commentary. She asked if it was possible for a target box to be included to show Panel Members clearly what the target was and when it was due to be reached by. Councillor L Jones agreed with the comments made about the A308, the study had only got to the first stage and the council were now considering options. The Biodiversity Action Plan was not yet complete as it was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

To receive the report.

Nikki Craig, Head of HR, Corporate Projects & IT, said the report was produced on an annual basis and was also published on the website. The report covered a number of areas including: head count, grade bands, part time employees, length of service, voluntary turnover and starters and leavers, up until 31^st March 2022. The second section of the report covered the nine protected characteristics. Under the Equality Act 2010, the council was required to report and publish this information. It was hoped that there could be a comparison with the 2021 Census data, however only data on gender and age had been released so this comparison was not yet possible. Comparisons had been made between previous years where possible.

Councillor Walters noted that there were more staters than leavers over the course of the year, he asked what jobs the additional starters were in.

Nikki Craig said that the overall head count had only increased by five, from 548 to 553. The starters and leavers were across all areas, some areas had higher turnover than others. Nikki Craig said that she would be able to share a list of which service areas the starters and leavers had come from, this could be shared with the Panel after the meeting.

ACTION – Nikki Craig to share starters and leavers list with the Panel.

Councillor Walters commented on sexual oriental, with a percentage saying that they ‘would prefer not to say’. Councillor Walters felt that it was important that the employee was the best person for the job.

Nikki Craig said that it was not useful if the protected characteristics data was not completed, the data was collected at the start of the recruitment process. HR were considering what positive action could be taken to reduce the number of people who ‘preferred not to say’. The reason for collecting data on protected characteristics was to ensure equality and to make sure that nobody was being discriminated against. The recruitment process was about someone’s capacity and ability to fulfil a role. Part time working was less at a more senior level, work had been done to understand what the barriers were to working part time for senior staff.

Councillor Story asked what conclusions could be drawn from the number of staff that were 65+. He asked if there was an obligation for the council to have a workforce which was proportionate, under the Equality Act.

Nikki Craig said it would be good for the council to have an age profile which was reflective of the local area. The number of elderly residents was due to the number of care homes and that a number of residents had chosen to retire. Around 50% of the current workforce nationally were millennials, this was not reflected in the employee make up of RBWM.

Councillor Story asked if volunteers made up this age group.

Nikki Craig clarified that the report did not include volunteers, but a number of volunteers in the borough were in that age  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

To consider and comment on the strategy.

Andrew Vallance, Head of Finance, explained that the Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) had been considered by the Panel at their last meeting in June. Comments from Panel Members had been incorporated into the report, which had since been considered by Cabinet before coming back to the Panel. Cabinet had recommended the MTFS to Full Council, which would be considered in September. The numbers element of the plan was included in the report, this showed an anticipated savings gap of £7 million. There was estimated to be an additional £3 million of costs from the adult social care reforms. Assumptions had been made around inflation and interest rates, these were subject to change. Appendix B considered a sensitivity analysis which showed the effect of changing some of the assumptions, for example a 1% increase in the council tax cap could increase the amount of council tax by £800,000. The draft budget would be considered by Cabinet in November, before two months of consultation which would include scrutiny in December.

The Chairman asked, for the benefit of any residents watching the meeting, why the council needed to provide a balanced budget.

Andrew Vallance said that there was a legal requirement for the council to have a balanced budget. Savings would be made across the five years of the MTFS. Officers were currently asking service areas for income generation or savings, which would be considered by Cabinet Members in the autumn. The budget consultation would then feed into Cabinet at the beginning of February 2023, before going to Full Council for approval at the end of February 2023.

Adele Taylor said that RBWM was in a similar position to many local authorities across the country. This was the start of the budget setting process, a set of assumptions needed to be laid out. The uncertainty at a national level meant that there was a lot of unknown and the financial situation was very volatile. Officers spoke to treasury bodies, other Berkshire colleagues and CIPFA to be as accurate as possible in assumptions that had been made.

Councillor Walters said that he had a lot of confidence in officers to make accurate assumptions and set a balanced budget. RBWM had traditionally had a low council tax level, which was what residents wanted. However, due to the financial position, this might have to change.

Councillor L Jones agreed that officers were doing a good job, there was stable reporting. There were a few challenges which were unique to RBWM. The council had the lowest council tax level outside London, coupled with low reserves and with increased levels of borrowing had made the financial position more challenging. Councillor L Jones noted that £7 million of savings needed to be made, with the potential for a further £3 million needed, she asked how confident officers were that there was sufficient financial resource available to achieve the objectives set out in the corporate plan, including climate change. Councillor L Jones asked if the voluntary sector had the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13.

To consider the report.

Adele Taylor explained that the report set out an update on the action plan, the action plan itself had been considered at a previous meeting of the Panel. As of 1^st April 2022, the client officer had changed from the Chief Executive to the Executive Director of Resources. The majority of the actions had now been completed, with some actions ongoing. Some of the items still outstanding were around shareholder protocol, CIPFA had recently produced a best practise document on management of public companies, officers were ensuring that the Property Company complied with this best practise before the shareholder protocols were agreed. The Property Company was a wholly owned company, property services in the council were undertaken by the Property Company. All other actions were expected to be resolved in the next couple of months.

Councillor Price mentioned that when the business plan had been considered by Cabinet, it was done so in Part II. She asked if the shareholder protocols would also be in Part II.

Adele Taylor said that as much content as possible was being discussed in Part I, she would confirm with Councillor Price after the meeting exactly how much could be discussed in public.

ACTION – Adele Taylor to confirm how much of the Property Company action plan could be discussed in Part I and which parts could only be discussed in Part II.

Councillor Walters asked if the Property Company had their own retained firm of lawyers.

Adele Taylor confirmed that they did, she would confirm the name of the firm after the meeting.

ACTION – Adele Taylor to inform Panel Members of the law firm for the Property Company.

The Chairman welcomed the transparency around the Property Company.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel noted the report and:

i)             Offered any comments on the latest updated action plan.

To consider the Panel’s work programme for upcoming municipal year.

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

Councillor L Jones said that she had been trying to get the customer journey on to the Panel’s agenda for over a year. She had been told that there was a working group, once work had been done it would be shared with the Panel. However, Councillor L Jones was concerned that the Panel would not be involved and would just receive a final report. The peer review team were visiting the council again in October, it would be good for the Panel to see the report. Councillor L Jones said that she wanted the Tivoli contract to be considered, Corporate should consider the contractual obligations. Annual complaints and compliments would link in well with the performance monitoring reports.

The Chairman said that there was a significant amount of work ongoing around the ‘report it’ system. This should be a useful tool to understand if issues were being resolved. He said that he would contact the relevant officer with regard to the customer journey.

Adele Taylor said that she was happy to take the item away and bring an item as an update on the customer service and journey, she would speak to the relevant officers.

ACTION – Adele Taylor to confirm the customer journey item on the work programme and speak to relevant officers.

Nikki Craig said that RBWM was legally required to report the compliments and complaints for adult and children’s services, the council reported all complaints and compliments which had been received. The report did not include the ‘report it’ function. Nikki Craig said that she would discuss with the strategy team to see if current detail could be matched with the performance monitoring report.

ACTION – Nikki Craig to discuss with the strategy team to see if feedback from residents in the form of complaints and compliments could be incorporated into the performance monitoring report which would be considered by the Panel.

Emma Duncan said that an update on the action plan from the peer review was due at Cabinet in August. This could be brought to the next Panel meeting.

Councillor Price said that she would be meeting with officers this week to finalise the scrutiny scoping document on her suggested topic around equalities. She would circulate it to Panel Members shortly and it was hoped that it would be ready to come to the next meeting. On the transformation programme, she suggested that it would be good to look at this sooner rather than later as there had been some changes in the transformation team. On the Cabinet Forward Plan, there was an item on the Covid Relief Fund, Councillor Price asked if this was relevant for the Panel to consider.

Adele Taylor said that there were some potential changes to the transformation team, this would be brought forward at the appropriate time. On the Covid Relief Fund, the council had been given money for business rate relief, this was for businesses that had not had any other support. There was a strict criteria  ...  view the full minutes text for item 15.