Agenda and minutes

Councillor Wilmshurst (Councillor Viney attending as substitute) and Councillor Sherwood.

Councillor Brighouse declared a personal interest in Item 5, Directors Update as her husband is an executive director of Research Machines who tender for Council contracts.

Councillor Tilley  declared a personal interest in Item 5, Directors Update as her son-in-law is an employee of Research Machines who tender for Council contracts.

To approve the minutes of the meetings held on 27 May 2010 (SYP3) and to note for information any matters arising on them.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 27 May 2010 (SYP 3) were approved and signed.

With regard to Minute No 10/10 members had yet to receive the dates of partnership meetings.

It was agreed that members receive a copy of the Communication Strategy once it was available.

Minute No 8/10 – Responding to comments the Assistant Chief Executive & Chief Finance Officer advised that ICT had been considered by the Audit Working Group and Audit Committee and undertook to circulate the relevant report. It was suggested that Councillor Wilmshurst could report back to the September meeting.

The Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer will give a verbal update on key issues.

The Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer reported that there had been   considerable focus on the Business Strategy and detailed the changes that had taken place. She referred to the report to Cabinet on 20 July that would be considered at the Council meeting on 27 July. The management changes were aimed at making the County Council even leaner. In terms of funding there was a need to find new ways of delivering services.

A key isssue for members would be how the budget process would be considered by this and other Scrutiny Committees. It would not be possible to have the detailed Annex 3 reports to the November/December cycle of meetinbgs as had happened in the past and a radical new approach would be needed.

Following comments from Councillor Brighouse about the need for better communication with members and concern that she had read of proposals first in the Oxford mail, the Deputy Leader agreed that information should be with Members first and gave an assurance that it would not happen again. Councillor Nick Carter referred to the new protocol in the constitution and suggested its effective implementation throughout the Council might be an area for a quick re view. It was agreed that he explore this possibilityfor future consideration by the Committee.

There was some discussion of the current position on the schemes on hold.

Responding to comments about individual schemes and services, such as Bayards Hill and the Youth Offending Services Councillor Couchman advised that the situation on schemes was dependent on the Spending Review. There would be very few services that could be exempt from the budget consideration.

The challenges provided by the financial situation also provided an opportunity to consider new ways of doing things.

In 2006 the Cabinet decided to implement Shared Services following a detailed business case proposal.

Adopting Shared Services offered both financial and service quality improvements to Oxfordshire County Council by consolidating Human Resources, Financial Services and Financial and Management Accounting services.

In April 2010 Shared Services were able to report full delivery of the programme's objectives and targets.

This report provides a short summary of the project rationale, major challenges and achievements. 

The Strategy and Partnerships Committee is invited to consider the success and continued improvement demonstrated by Shared Services in reducing resource expenditure and improving processes to support directorate and council outcomes.

The Strategy and Partnerships Committee noted the success and continued improvement demonstrated by Shared Services in reducing resource expenditure and improving processes to support directorate and council outcomes.

In welcoming the paper the Committee raised the following points:

1.   There was discussion about the importance of the income from schools and Councillor David Robertson stated that the income was being tracked. There had been discussions with academy schools about their needs and steps were in place to ensure that the Council could continue to provide a service.

2.   Sue Scane,responding to a query, advised that the intention in future was to reduce the number of targets to focus on 1 or 2 key targets.

Quarterly financial report on revenue and capital spending against budget allocations.

The Scrutiny Committee noted the financial monitoring report.

To undertake a Select Committee of the work/governance of the Children’s Trust to explore partnership working through the Children's Trust and to look at ways in which this can be strengthened in the future.

There will be a short presentation from officers followed by a question and answer session.

Councillor Louise Chapman, Cabinet Member for Children, Young People & Families, will attend as Chairman of the Children’s Trust Board. The following will also be in attendance:

Meera Spillett, Director of Children, Young People & Families

Paula Tansley, Interim Head of Commissioning, Performance and Quality Assurance

Jan Paine, Head of Service - Southern Area, Young People & Access to Education

Sally Taylor, Head of Northern Area, Raising Achievement

Jim Leivers, Interim Head of Service for Children and Families

Sian Rodway, Strategic Lead, Performance
Sarah Breton, Strategic Lead & Head of Joint Commissioning

The Scrutiny Committee received a presentation on the role and work of the Children’s Trust and Children’s Trust Board. The Director of Children, Young People & Families highlighted the work with young people through the Sounding Boards that sought the views of young people on a range of topics. Partnership working had brought about changes and she highlighted work with Police on first time entrants into police statistics where the Police had set aside their own targets to work to reduce this figure. Councillor Louise Chapman added that at Board level partnership working was resulting in success stories and fostering strong working relationships at an operational level.

During discussions and in response to questions the following matters were raised:

1.            The importance of pre-schools to the  well being and development of children.

2.            The statutory guidance relating to Children’s Trust was very complex and would benefit from being simplified. It was suggested that a simple summary was needed defining the Children’s Trust, explaining what they do and addressing how it provided value for money.

3.            The current financial situation provided an opportunity to strip away the target driven obsession. The Committee sought information on the thinking about how kpi’s might be reduced, removed or a different approach taken. Councillor Chapman undertook to provide a list of targets that she personally would like to see removed. She added that a sub group was looking at performance and that what drove her were the local targets. Some measures of performance were necessary.

4.            Councillor Chapman undertook to provide a written response on the cost of the Children’s Trust Board.

5.            Responding to questions from members the Director for Children, Young People & Families confirmed  that the Children’s Trust was a statutory body and outlined the type of activity that the Trust brought about that was different to what could achieved by individual organisations working alone. She highlighted actions to tackle the problems of families in temporary accommodation and tackling school absenteeism. Process had been simplified.

6.            Asked what she was most proud of in relation to the Trust, Councillor Chapman referred to the work to raise awareness of Looked After Children and their representation at Board level.

7.            The Director for Children Young People & Families recognised the need to guard against the Trust Board becoming a talking shop. The Children’s Trust was about more than Board membership and efforts were made to keep the representation on the Board to the minimum required for effective working. The Board ensured that the Children’s Plan was being delivered. Responding to criticism that time had been spent on developing the Plan when what was needed was already known, the Committee heard that there had been a great deal of consultation; there was a duty to consult as the Plan was statutory and guided all that was done in this area.  

8.            A member who had attended meeting of the Children’s Trust Board commented that they had been well run, well chaired and with a good level of engagement.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30/10a

 Update for information from the Head of Partnerships Working (SYP8a)

In view of the time it was AGREED to note the report without discussion.

The Committee is asked to suggest items from the current Forward Plan on which it may wish to have an opportunity to offer advice to the Cabinet before any decision is taken, together with details of which it thinks could be achieved by looking at any item.

The Scrutiny Committee recognised that the Scrutiny budget consultation process would need to be different this year. There needed to be holistic consideration of the issues. It was AGREED that information on the Spending Review 2010 be brought to the  first available meeting and that the Chairman and Deputy Chairman discuss with officers the most appropriate way forward.