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

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

Councillor Werner said that there had been discussion at a previous meeting about having the transformation programme on the work programme, the report could consider the progress of the transformation programme and to check that things were on track.

Councillor Bond commented on the peer review which had been undertaken by the council a couple of months ago. Specific recommendations had been made as part of the review and an action plan had been developed by officers, with some strategic aims identified.

Emma Duncan said that the corporate peer review team would visit the council again virtually to follow up in October 2022, the Panel currently had an item based on the corporate peer review for the October meeting. The action plan and any further recommendations could be considered at this meeting.

Councillor Davies questioned which of the three scrutiny panels the climate and environment strategy could be considered by.

Emma Duncan said that a number of the key performance indicators from the strategy would be included as part of the performance management reports. The Panel would have oversight of how the strategy had been implemented and progress that had been made. The Panel could do a deep dive and refer pieces of work to the other Panels, for example the climate strategy could be considered in further detail by the Place Overview & Scrutiny Panel.

Councillor Werner said that he was happy with this approach.

Councillor Price was cautious about duplicating workloads, she suggested that the Chairman of the Corporate Overview & Scrutiny discussed the topic with the Chairman of the Place Overview & Scrutiny Panel, particularly as the remits of the various scrutiny panels had been altered.

Councillor Sharpe said that climate change and sustainability was part of every area of the council. Task and finish groups could be used, this could be an appropriate method to consider any deep dives that the Panel wanted to investigate. Councillor Sharpe suggested that a joint task and finish group could be established with the Place Overview & Scrutiny Panel, which could also be an option to spread the workload.

Councillor Shelim was also a Member of the Place Overview & Scrutiny Panel and said that climate change formed part of the Panel’s work programme.

Councillor Werner said that the Corporate Plan was primarily the responsibility of the Corporate Overview & Scrutiny Panel and the climate strategy had more targets in the plan than any other area.

Mark Beeley said that there had been a suggestion made by Councillor Price in advance of the meeting about equality, diversity and inclusion in the council and community. This had been discussed with officers and could be discussed by the Panel to see if it was something that they would like to add to the work programme.

Councillor Price added that it was critical for Members to have an understanding of the work that was taking place in this area. She wanted to investigate how the Panel could support officers with this work.

Ellen McManus-Fry, Equalities Officer, gave a presentation to the Panel. She explained that the corporate peer challenge had highlighted a recognition that the council was at an early stage of addressing equality, diversity and inclusion. Understanding and working with communities across RBWM consisted of a number of areas:

·         Collecting and sharing information

·         Analysing and using data and information

·         Fostering good community relations

·         Participation in public life

·         Effective community engagement

This had led to the council to develop a number of priorities to help achieve its equality, diversity and inclusion objectives:

·         Develop and promote the engagement framework

·         Strengthen relationships with communities

·         Embed equalities within the wider RBWM priorities

·         Review Equality Impact Assessments

Councillor Sharpe felt that the scope of this topic went across the council and he could understand where scrutiny came in. He felt that the topic could be more suited to the People Overview & Scrutiny Panel. If the topic was brought for review in, for example six months time, there would be something for Members to review.

Ellen McManus-Fry said that it was likely that processes would be in place by the end of the year.

The Chairman asked what the timetable would be for the Panel to be able to consider what had been achieved.

He was informed that there were no set timescales currently as this piece of work was only just being developed.

Rebecca Hatch, Head of Strategy, said it was something for the Panel to consider how much of a role they wanted to play, progress could be reviewed at a set point in time. Assessing the equalities of the council would be ongoing, work was being done with the LGA and the Equalities Lead, there was a suggestion that they could be invited to do a peer review.

The Chairman welcomed an update report to come to the Panel in due course.

Councillor Walters asked what the legislative background was.

Rebecca Hatch explained that there was a range of legislation around the council’s equalities duties, ensuring those groups with protected characteristics were always considered.

Councillor Walters asked if the council was currently undertaking any work on equalities.

Rebecca Hatch said that a lot of work was being done on equalities in each service areas, with Equality Impact Assessments regularly completed. The corporate peer review had noted that equalities was not embedded across the organisation.

Councillor Walters asked how officers could monitor equality in the organisation.

Rebecca Hatch said that the LGA framework could be used which allowed councils to compare with each other.

Councillor Walters asked how the equality requirements could be tested.

Councillor Werner suggested that officers could give Councillor Walters a briefing on equalities.

The Chairman requested that Councillor Walters contacted officers to answer any further questions that he had. He suggested that the presentation could be circulated to the Panel after the meeting.

ACTION – Mark Beeley to circulate the presentation on equalities to all Panel Members.

Councillor Price said that Members could support the project rather than just receiving information.