Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Sam Coates (Councillor David Williams substituting) and Councillor Stewart Lilly (Councillor Sandy Lovatt substituting).

To approve the minutes of the following meetings and to receive information arising from them:

(a)            Thursday 17 December 2015 (PSC3(a))

(b)            Thursday 7 January 2016 (PSC3(b)) to be circulated separately)

(c)            Thursday 4 February 2016 (PSC3(c) to be circulated separately)

The Minutes of the meetings held on Thursday 17 December 2015, Thursday 7 January 2016 and Thursday 4 February 2016 were approved as a correct record and signed.

The Chairman had agreed the following requests to address the meeting:

At its 23 February meeting Cabinet will consider a report on the proposed future of Children, Education and Family Services including children's centres and early intervention services. The report and associated papers are attached for the attention of Performance Scrutiny Committee members. 

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to consider the proposed future work of Children, Education and Families Directorate, and to make any recommendations on those matters to Cabinet.

At its 23 February meeting Cabinet will consider a report on the proposed future of Children, Education and Family Services including children's centres and early intervention services. The report and associated papers were considered by Performance Scrutiny Committee members. 

Charlie Payne, speaking as a service user, highlighted the information she had provided to members. She referred to page 108 of the report which illustrated the public rejection of the options proposed. She believed that the report failed to consider the consultation and failed to take an evidence based approach and the recommendations should be rejected. She would wish to see economic modelling and use made of the Evaluation of Children’s Centres in England Research Report. Consideration should be given to keeping all the centres open on reduced hours, if necessary’ until such time as funding can be found to return them to current levels of service.

Responding to questions from members Charlie Payne explained what she meant by economic modelling and the evidence that she felt the Council needed to consider in reaching a decision. She felt that the Council needed to understand the impact of their decision on other services. Referring to the numbers responding to the consultation she commented that as a percentage of users of children’s centres it was significant (10%) and that the consensus was to reject the proposals.

Jim Leivers, Director for Children’s Services, Lucy Butler, Deputy Director, Children’s Social Care YOS, Rebecca Matthews, Interim Deputy Director Education & Early Intervention presented the report and associated papers, explaining the context of the proposals and the approach taken including the role of the Cabinet Advisory Group.

During lengthy discussion Performance Scrutiny Committee:

·         Thanked officers for their work in developing the proposals and undertaking the extensive consultation, and to those who responded to the consultation with their views and ideas for maintaining services.

·         Recognised the financial and demand imperatives for delivering the service in a different way, and supported the overall focus on the County Council’s statutory responsibilities and services to the most vulnerable.

·         Noted that Council has agreed both a temporary £1m of 'pump priming' funding for local groups who may wish to take on the running of current universal services, and £2m of additional core funding towards children's centres and early intervention hubs (i.e. a reduction in the long-term savings target from the previously proposed £8m to the originally agreed £6m).

Performance Scrutiny Committee AGREED to:

·         Ask Cabinet to ensure that the additional funding over and above what was anticipated in preparing officer recommendations should be used to retain as many services as possible in appropriate locations, with as much open access provision as possible.

·         Request that this is delivered through the undertaking of a "service and geography gap analysis" which identified those areas and service users who would be most disadvantaged by the current proposed pattern of provision.

·         Suggest that the deployment of the additional funding should be used in a way which reduces compulsory redundancies, both to reduce the cost to the authority  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17/16

This report provides an overview of the proposed approach to reviewing the business monitoring framework for 2016/17.

The Performance Scrutiny Committee is RECOMMENDED to agree the proposed approach to business management for 2016/17, and discuss the role of Performance Scrutiny within the new framework.

Performance Scrutiny Committee considered a report that provided an overview of the proposed approach to reviewing the business monitoring framework for 2016/17. Belinda Dimmock-Smith, Policy & Performance Officer attended for this item and highlighted that the approach will restructure the framework around priorities, will reduce the number of targets but be more outcome based; targets would be better profiled across the year; there would be the ability to escalate issues outside the targets as necessary and  there would be improved integration between performance, finance and HR.

The Performance Scrutiny Committee AGREED the proposed approach to business management for 2016/17 and in particular:

·         expressed interest in the use of Task & Finish Groups as a way of undertaking some of the 'deep dives' into specific issues;

·         agreed to a smaller number of outcome measures and welcomed the opportunity to feed into discussions on those to ensure the breadth of council services is covered; additionally the Committee would like the framework to include consideration of complaints;

·         welcomed the opportunity to receive ‘escalation’ of any ‘business as usual’ performance matters (they saw this as a safety net around the smaller number of corporate measures);

·         agreed that the  list of statutory functions (as listed in the Corporate Plan) be extended to include school places, SEN, school improvement in maintained schools measures; and

·         the Committee would want assurance that financial risks are escalated from Audit & Governance Committee if impacting on performance.

Hospital Trust (OUHT), are proposing to upgrade their heating and hot water systems at the John Radcliffe and Churchill Hospitals. This innovative scheme seeks to transfer heating via new pipelines along the public highway connecting the two sites.

Upon these works being made public, significant concern has been raised by both the Local County and City Councillors, and residents, about a number of issues.  This report addresses the County Council role in allowing this work to commence.

This report sets out the powers available to and the responsibilities of the County Council, the chronology of events and suggests some changes to improve those processes.

The Scrutiny Committee is RECOMMENDED to:

(a)            Note the report and its conclusions;

(b)            Recommend to the Director of Environment and Economy in conjunction with the Cabinet Member with responsibility for highways to action the proposed recommendations for changes to process in this report.

Hospital Trust (OUHT), are proposing to upgrade their heating and hot water systems at the John Radcliffe and Churchill Hospitals. This innovative scheme seeks to transfer heating via new pipelines along the public highway connecting the two sites.

Upon these works being made public, significant concern has been raised by both the Local County and City Councillors, and residents, about a number of issues.  The Committee had before them a report that addressed the County Council role in allowing this work to commence. In particular rhe report set out the powers available to and the responsibilities of the County Council, the chronology of events and suggested some changes to improve those processes.

Patrick Coulter, Chair of Headington Action and Chair of Highfield Residents Association expressed his concerns with the process so far and the impact on the Council’s reputation. He highlighted weaknesses he saw in the role of the County Council as lead co-ordinator and called for improvements to joint working, guidance and training. Responding to a question from a member Mr Coulter stated that he had first met with City Council officers in October but on contacting the Trust he had been told only that a press release would be available in November.

Mr Dickinson, a resident of Stapleton Road, one of the roads directly affected as a result of the Council's decisions outlined his concerns. Referring to the report he acknowledged that there had been engagement up to 28 October 2015 but that there had been defects in the process thereafter. He argued that no licence should have been granted when essential information was not provided and no application was available.

District Councillor Ruth Wilkinson, speaking as a Headington councillor highlighted that in view of the congestion problem in the area at peak period effective traffic management was key. She asked that lessons be learnt to prevent a repeat of the situation and outlined suggestions for improvement, suggesting that the recommendations in the report were insufficient.

Councillor Roz Smith, speaking as a local councillor stressed that for her the issue was all about communication. The work was a big project for the Trust and she had learnt about it in a meeting on another matter. She referred to the disruption caused to residents and visitors to the hospital by S50 Notices and argued that given the numbers affected it had been a key decision. She welcomed that a liaison group had now been set up but felt that problems could have been avoided if better procedures had been in place. She suggested that Audit & Governance Committee be requested to look at S50 Notice procedures.

Councillor Phillips, speaking as a local councillor thanked officers for the report and the explanation it contained. She queried how it could have happened without communication and regretted the loss of trust that it had caused. She suggested that no S50 notice be issued until local representatives (including local councillors) had been consulted in a meaningful way at the appropriate time and suggested  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19/16