Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Coates, Councillor Harrod (Councillor Waine substituting) and Councillor Mathew (Councillor Owen substituting).

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 18 December 2014 (PSC3 – to be circulated separately) and to receive information arising from them.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 18 December 2014 were agreed and signed subject to the following amendment:

Minute 45/14 Under the heading for Environment & Economy the following sentence to be amended as shown in bold and italics.

They noted that it is important to ensure quality services are provided and not just to drive out value down cost.

1010

Head of Policy, Maggie Scott will present a report outlining the Council’s performance for the second quarter of 2014/15. Deputy Directors Seona Douglas, Adult Social Care and Kate Terroni, Joint Commissioning will be present to allow for a focussed performance discussion on key areas of concern.

Performance Scrutiny Committee is RECOMMENDED to note and discuss the performance reported in the dashboards and to make any comments necessary for escalation to Cabinet.

Head of Policy, Maggie Scott presented a report outlining the Council’s performance for the second quarter of 2014/15. Deputy Directors Seona Douglas, Adult Social Care and Kate Terroni, Joint Commissioning attended.

During discussion the following matters were raised and actions agreed:

1)            Following a query on the Placement Strategy it was agreed that it be circulated to Performance Scrutiny Committee members.

2)            Following discussion of the education attainment figures it was agreed that the Education Scrutiny Committee consider how all councillors be informed of the information once verified.

3)            Councillor Hoare in welcoming the children’s home in Witney acknowledged it was a long term plan and queried what short term plans existed. Maggie Scott undertook to respond directly to the councillor.

4)            Questions were raised around placements requesting clarity on legal responsibilities for visiting out of county placements and information was requested on whether we are looking at other placement providers.

5)            On Drug Treatment & Rehabilitation it was noted that information was coming to the February meeting of the Oxfordshire Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee.

Performance Scrutiny Committee noted and discussed the performance reported in the dashboards.

1100

Deputy Director for Joint Commissioning, Kate Terroni will present a report detailing the service provided through our Reablement contract with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. The report includes information about the performance of the reablement service and draws conclusions about its effectiveness.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED tonote the report.

Deputy Director for Joint Commissioning, Kate Terroni and Seona Douglas, Deputy Director, Adult Social Care presented a report detailing the service provided through the County Council’s Reablement contract with Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust. The report included information about the performance of the reablement service and drew conclusions about its effectiveness.

Following detailed discussion of the issues raised by the report including the lack of referrals from the community including from GP’s it was agreed that this was an area the Committee should continue to monitor with a further report to be submitted on progress. It was suggested that it would be helpful to compare our referral figures to those of other local authority areas. A suggestion was made that in terms of community engagement it would be useful to involve parish councils.

Following queries Councillor Heathcoat, who had come to the table for this item, undertook to provide an update on the Individual Living Fund.

The Committee noted the report.

1140

Deputy Director for Joint Commissioning, Kate Terroni will present a report outlining the Council’s work to ensure the safety of vulnerable adults.

The committee is RECOMMENDED to

(a)            Note the report;

(b)            Agree that officers ensure all councillors are aware of their adult safeguarding responsibilities; and

(c)            To review the implementation of the action plan following the work with East Sussex.

Deputy Director Adult Social Care, Seona Douglas presented a report outlining the Council’s work to ensure the safety of vulnerable adults.

During consideration of the report the Committee stressed the importance of their involvement and the need to continue to keep on top of the issue. There was a suggestion that the information be reported on by categories and it was explained that this was already available as it was part of the national reporting. The Safeguarding Board received that information.

Following a query it was agreed to provide information on the numbers of “no further actions”.

The Committee was advised that further work would be scheduled in for the Committee and there will be the annual report.

The committee AGREED to:

(a)          Note the report;

(b)          Agree that officers ensure all councillors are aware of their adult safeguarding responsibilities; and

(c)          review the implementation of the action plan following the work with East Sussex.

1210

Maggie Blythe, independent Chair of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board will present their annual report.

Maggie Blythe, independent Chair of the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children’s Board presented the Board’s annual report. She highlighted the increase in activity and that the Board had been impressed by the ability of all organisations to adapt systems to meet the needs of adolescents at risk. Tackling Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) remained a priority.

During discussion the Committee noted the  importance of performance targets around CSE in order to flag issues. The issue of children running away was raised and it was queried how the Committee could get underneath the figures to find out what was happening. One suggestion was to look again at the indicators to move away from the straight numbers to indicators, for example around return interviews. The challenge generally in this area was to drill down into the information.

Responding to comments Maggie Blythe commented that she was pleased with the level of engagement from all partners. Councillor Tilley, who had come to the table for this item, detailed some of the awareness raising work that was taking place.

There was some discussion on the pressures on staff to deal with the increased activity and Maggie Blythe agreed that although she was reassured by the recent Ofsted report and the report in June that it would remain something to be aware of as a potential concern for all organisations.

The need for strong transition processes to protect from childhood to through to adulthood was flagged. Councillor Tilley commented that it was an area for improvement and work was ongoing.

The Committee welcomed the direct contact with schools whilst one member flagged an area of concern around the operation of limited timetables, with the suggestion that these should be scrutinised by the governing bodies. The increase in the number of protection plans would be an issue for schools. Councillor Tilley undertook to raise the role of schools and governors with the Schools Forum.

1250

Lorna Baxter, Chief Finance Officer, will present savings proposed for Capital and Treasury Management. The Committee will also be asked to consider the draft Corporate Plan and Performance Indicators for 2015/16. Comments will be fed back to Cabinet in order that they can take the comments into consideration in proposing their budget and Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) at the end of January 2015. Council will meet to agree the budget and MTFP in February 2015.

The Performance Scrutiny Committee is invited to consider and comment on the draft corporate plan, the corporate performance indicators, highways asset management programme and capital proposals for 2015/16 – 2018/19, and the draft Treasury Management Strategy Statement and Annual Investment Strategy for 2015/16.

Lorna Baxter, Chief Finance Officer, presented savings proposed for Capital and Treasury Management. The Committee was also asked to consider the draft Corporate Plan and Performance Indicators for 2015/16. It was agreed that the following comments be fed back to Cabinet in order that they can take the comments into consideration in proposing their budget and Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) at the end of January 2015.

Corporate Plan

• The committee wanted to ensure that the principles of public scrutiny and public accountability were reflected more clearly within the corporate plan.

• The committee also made suggestions including: making our values more prominent in the plan; establishing public performance values as well as commercial values; acknowledging the potential negative impact of economic development; removing references to the ‘golden thread’ and rethinking the use of the terms ‘safety net’ and ‘thriving’.

Corporate Performance Indicators

• The committee would like Cabinet to note the importance of having realistic and manageable indicators that create transparency around the Council’s performance, in support of our need to remain accountable to the public.

• Furthermore the committee asked directorates to review the level of challenge within targets in the following areas: timeliness of child protection reviews, delayed transfers of care, missing children, numbers of apprenticeships and community information networks.

Capital Proposals and Treasury Management Strategy

The committee noted the treasury management strategy and capital proposals. They invited Cabinet to consider taking any necessary steps ensure that the capital receipts from property disposal are maximised by considering future property value.