To elect a Chair from the Panel Membership for the 2023/24 municipal year.

Councillor Howard proposed that Councillor Moriarty be elected Chair of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel for the 2023/24 municipal year. This was seconded by Councillor Wilson.

As no other nominations were received, a named vote was not required.

AGREED: That Councillor Moriarty be elected Chair of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel for the 2023/24 municipal year.

To elect a Vice Chair from the Panel Membership for the 2023/24 municipal year.

Councillor Wilson proposed that Councillor Howard be elected as Vice Chair of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel for the 2023/24 municipal year. This was seconded by Councillor Moriarty.

As no other nominations were received, a named vote was not required.

AGREED: That Councillor Howard be elected as Vice Chair of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel for the 2023/24 municipal year.

To receive any apologies for absence from Panel Members.

There were no apologies for absence received.

To receive any declarations of interest from Panel Members.

There were no declarations of interest received.

To consider and approve the minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd April 2023.

Councillor Howard commented on the actions which were part of the previous meeting.

Mark Beeley, Principal Democratic Services Officer – Overview and Scrutiny, explained that after each meeting, an actions table would be produced. This would list all of the actions from the meeting and confirm the answers or outcomes from those actions. The actions from the previous meeting and any from the meeting tonight would be circulated to the Panel in due course.

RESOLVED UNANIMOUSLY: That the minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd April 2023 were approved as a true and accurate record.

This report sets out the council’s response to the Cost of Living rises and includes a summary of activity undertaken to date. A scoping document has been agreed by the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Panel and this is attached as part of this evidence pack.

The Panel are asked to consider the schemes in place to support vulnerable residents from across the borough and to review targeting and outreach to residents in need in particular. There is a specific opportunity to influence the refresh of the Household Support Fund partnership scheme, which will be relaunched at the start of July.

The Panel are asked to provide feedback and relevant recommendations to officers for consideration.

Rebecca Hatch, Head of Strategy and Communications, said that the report was structured around four main aspects of the council’s response. Here to Help was the initial response to the increase in cost of living and brought together help and advice from a number of different sources in to one centralised place. The campaign had initially been launched in May 2022 and was refreshed in October 2022 to reflect the winter pressures that many vulnerable residents had faced. The second focus was on central government schemes, for example council tax support and energy rebates. The revenues and benefits team had worked on administering this support to residents. The design and delivery of the Household Support Fund had also been considered, this was a national scheme and RBWM had been allocated a grant sum of funding to spend. The fund had initially been targeted at children who were on free school meals but more recent tranches of funding allowed the council to be more flexible with who they supported. The council had also facilitated a network of warm spaces across the borough, which included community organisations and libraries coming together to offer safe spaces for the community.

Councillor Price thanked officers for the clear and detailed report. She had initially suggested the topic as she wanted to see the effective work which had taken place and whether there were any groups of vulnerable residents which were not being reached. Leaflets had been distributed but this had not provided an uplift in applications for support. Another area to consider was residents who had mortgages but had seen the mortgage rate increase rapidly. It was important for the council to look forward at what it could do to help residents.

David Adam, from Citizens Advice Bureau East Berkshire, explained that Citizens Advice was one the delivery partners for the Household Support Fund. The fund had allowed the organisation to reach out to residents and also for residents to see what support can be provided. There was a national figure of £19 billion worth of benefits which went unclaimed each year and it was therefore important that residents were made aware of the support available. There was concern that more people could find themselves in financial difficultly.

Councillor Howard asked how much of the funding provided by the council had been spent and how much had gone unclaimed.

Rebecca Hatch confirmed that for the Household Support Fund, this had all been spent. A number of residents received funding automatically in the form of vouchers for free school meals. Vulnerable residents were identified by one of the 14 partners organisations which were working with the council, with a range of different organisations being part of the scheme. A big communications push had been launched earlier this year as there had been concern that not enough residents were aware of the additional support which could be provided.

Councillor J Tisi understood that the reason why there were no financial implications in the report was because the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 56.

To consider what topics the Panel would like to consider over the course of the municipal year.

An example scoping document has been added to the work programme, these are used to understand the scope of a topic and what the review will try and achieve. A scoping document needs to be agreed by the Panel once it has been completed.

Mark Beeley explained that the work programme contained information on topics which the Panel would consider over the course of the municipal year. Any topics which were requested by Panel Members needed to have a scoping document completed.

Councillor Hunt commented on the call in on Maidenhead United’s proposed move to Braywick Park.

Mark Beeley explained the context of the call in and that the Place Overview and Scrutiny had referred the matter back to the decision maker. The Executive Director of Place, as the decision maker, had considered the recommendations made by the Panel and had decided to refer the matter back to Cabinet. As the decision had already been called in, the decision would not come back to overview and scrutiny.

ACTION – Mark Beeley to share a link to the Officer Decision Notice which had been published following the call in.

Councillor Wilson felt that there had been a number of changes amongst council officers over the past few years. He considered whether some roles had been vacant for some time and whether changes made to roles were appropriate.

Councillor Howard said that the Community Infrastructure Levy and S106 funding was an area of interest, particularly financial implications and how it could be revised for the future.

Councillor Price said that there were a number of items which were always considered by the Panel.

Mark Beeley confirmed that he would work with officers to schedule statutory items into the work programme.

Councillor Reeves understood that the council was engaged in a number of contracts, he was interested to scrutinise the contract management group and what the plans were to ensure that there was a robust contract management process.

Councillor Howard suggested that the Panel could look to understand the council’s powers to improve the water pollution situation.

Councillor Tisi said that the corporate risk register was an important document, risks could change over time and this could be explored.

Mark Beeley said that the risk register was under the remit of the Audit and Governance Committee but if this could be explored to see if there was an area which could be scrutinised.

Councillor Howard said an understanding of the RBWM Property Company could be useful. He also suggested a review of parking enforcement in the borough and how it could be improved, particularly in rural areas.

Mark Beeley said that he would contact individual Councillors to discuss their proposals after the meeting and work on the scope of topic items.