Agenda

To receive any apologies for absence and temporary appointments.

See guidance note on the back page.

The Committee is recommended to APPROVE the minutes of the meeting held on 13 June 2025 and to receive information arising from them.

Members of the public who wish to speak on a substantive item on the agenda at this meeting can attend the meeting in person or ‘virtually’ through an online connection.

Requests to speak must be submitted no later than 9.00 a.m. three working days before the meeting, i.e., Tuesday 8 July, 2025.

Requests should be submitted to the Scrutiny Officer at scrutiny@oxfordshire.gov.uk.

If you are speaking ‘virtually’, you may submit a written statement of your presentation to ensure that if the technology fails, then your views can still be taken into account. A written copy of your statement can be provided no later than 9.00 a.m. on the day of the meeting. Written submissions should be no longer than 1 A4 sheet.

Where there are a number of requests from persons wishing to present similar views on the same issue, the Chair may require that the views be put by a single spokesperson. It is expected that only in exceptional circumstances will a person (or organisation) be allowed to address more than one meeting on a particular issue in any period of six months.

The public is reminded that the Committee is not a decision-making body and that it cannot investigate individual complaints.  The Committee requests that no individual children are named when addressing the Committee.

The Executive Director of Resources and Section 151 Officer, Lorna Baxter, and the Director of Property and Assets, Vic Kurzeja, have been invited to present a report on proposals for the Council’s school catering service.

The Committee is asked to consider the report and raise any questions, and to AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet arising therefrom.

The annex to the report is exempt from disclosure.  The information in this case is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed categories: 3. Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that a negotiation is ongoing and would prejudice the position of the authority in the process of that negotiation and the Council’s standing generally in relation to such matters in future, to the detriment of the Council’s ability properly to discharge its fiduciary and other duties as a public authority.

The Executive Director of Resources and Section 151 Officer, Lorna Baxter, and the Director of Property and Assets, Vic Kurzeja, have been invited to present a report on proposals for the Council’s cleaning service.

The Committee is asked to consider the report and raise any questions, and to AGREE any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet arising therefrom.

The annex to the report is exempt from disclosure.  The information in this case is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed categories: 3. Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that a negotiation is ongoing and would prejudice the position of the authority in the process of that negotiation and the Council’s standing generally in relation to such matters in future, to the detriment of the Council’s ability properly to discharge its fiduciary and other duties as a public authority.

The annex to the report is exempt from disclosure.  The information in this case is exempt in that it falls within the following prescribed categories: 3. Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that a negotiation is ongoing and would prejudice the position of the authority in the process of that negotiation and the Council’s standing generally in relation to such matters in future, to the detriment of the Council’s ability properly to discharge its fiduciary and other duties as a public authority.

The Committee is recommended to AGREE its work programme for forthcoming meetings, having heard any changes from previous iterations, and taking account of the Cabinet Forward Plan and of the Budget Management Monitoring Report.

In order to inform its work planning, the Committee has requested a data pack and has invited officers to advise as it devises its plan.

The Cabinet Forward Plan can be found here: https://mycouncil.oxfordshire.gov.uk/mgListPlanItems.aspx?PlanId=448&RP=115

The most recent BMMR, submitted to Cabinet in March 2025, can be found here: https://mycouncil.oxfordshire.gov.uk/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=115&MId=7477&Ver=4

The Committee is recommended to NOTE the progress of previous recommendations and actions arising from previous meetings, having raised any questions on the contents.

Attached is the draft Cabinet response to the Education and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee report on The Virtual School, expected to be approved at the 15 July 2025 cabinet meeting. The Committee is asked to NOTE the response.