Notice of Meeting                                                                                                               

 




Community Safety Scrutiny Committee

Monday 27 October 2008 at 10.00 am

at County Hall, Oxford

Membership

 

Chairman – Councillor Rodney Rose

Deputy Chairman – Councillor Carol Viney

 

Councillors:

M. Altaf-Khan

Patrick Cartledge

John Farrow

 

Jenny Hannaby

Olive McIntosh-Stedman

Charles Mathew

 

Bill Service

Nicholas P. Turner

 

 

Notes:            Date of next meeting:   Monday 1 December 2008

                       A pre-meeting will be held for all members of this committee at 9 am in meeting room 2.  A committee lunch will be provided at 12.45 pm in meeting room 3.

 

What does this Committee review or scrutinise?

·                     Fire and rescue; consumer protection; emergency planning; police issues; coroner’s service; travellers; drugs and alcohol awareness

·                     Those regulatory functions of the Planning & Regulation Committee not falling within the remit of the Environment Scrutiny Committee

·                     Conduct of best value reviews as specified in Paragraph 9 of Schedule 2 to the Functions Regulations

 

How can I have my say?

We welcome the views of the community on any issues in relation to the responsibilities of this Committee.  Members of the public may ask to speak for up to 5 minutes on any item on the agenda or may suggest matters which they would like the Committee to look at.  Requests to speak must be submitted to the Committee Services no later than 9 am on the working day before the date of the meeting.

 

For more information about this Committee please contact:

Chairman                                         -      Councillor Rodney Rose

                                                            E.mail: rodney.rose@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Committee Officer                             -      Kath Coldwell, Tel: (01865) 815902

                                                            E.Mail: kath.coldwell@oxfordshire.gov.uk

 

Tony Cloke

Assistant Head of Legal & Democratic Services                                                           

 

October 2008

About the County Council

 

The Oxfordshire County Council is made up of 74 councillors who are democratically elected every four years. The Council provides a range of services to Oxfordshire’s 630,000 residents. These include:

  • schools
  • social & health care

·        libraries and museums
  • the fire service
  • roads

·        trading standards
  • land use
  • transport planning

·        waste management

Each year the Council manages £0.8 billion of public money in providing these services. Most decisions are taken by a Cabinet of 10 Councillors, which makes decisions about service priorities and spending. Some decisions will now be delegated to individual members of the Cabinet.

 

About Scrutiny

Scrutiny is about:

·        Providing a challenge to the Cabinet

·        Examining how well the Cabinet and the Authority are performing

·        Influencing the Cabinet on decisions that affect local people

·        Helping the Cabinet to develop Council policies

·        Representing the community in Council decision making

·        Promoting joined up working across the authority’s work

Scrutiny is NOT about:

·        Making day to day service decisions

·        Investigating individual complaints.

Five Scrutiny committees ‘scrutinise’ or review and challenge decisions made by the Cabinet or the appropriate Cabinet Member and help it develop Council policies.  There are Scrutiny Committees for:

·        Corporate Governance

·        Children’s Services

·        Environment & Economy

·        Community Safety

·        Social & Community Services

There is also a Joint Health Overview & Scrutiny Committee which brings together councillors from the County and the five district councils in Oxfordshire to scrutinise health issues.

What does this Committee do?

The Committee meets up to 6 times a year or more. It develops a work programme, which lists the issues it plans to investigate. These investigations can include whole committee investigations undertaken during the meeting, or reviews by a panel of members doing research and talking to lots of people outside of the meeting.  Once an investigation is completed the Committee provides its advice to the Cabinet, the full Council or other scrutiny committees. Meetings are open to the public and all reports are available to the public unless exempt or confidential, when the items would be considered in closed session.

 

AGENDA

 

1.                Apologies for Absence and Temporary Appointments

 

2.                Declarations of Interest – see guidance note

 

3.                Minutes

 

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 15 September 2008 (CM3) and to note for information any matters arising on them.

 

4.                Speaking to or Petitioning the Committee

 

5.                Second Flu Pandemic Select Committee: Progress Monitoring

10:15

Background Information:

On 7 July members of this Committee conducted a select committee investigation in order to ascertain whether the County Council was making sufficient and appropriate progress in preparing for a flu pandemic. Following the select committee a number of recommendations for improvement were drawn up and sent to the County Council Management Team and the lead officers in each Directorate (who had been tasked with taking forward the planning and ensuring that the plan for their Directorate/service was kept up to date) (CM5(a)). Members formed the view that, whilst planning was moving in the right direction and a lot of good work had been done, there was a need for greater urgency in some areas if the target of having good quality plans in place by the end of this year was to be achieved.

Why has it been included?

To enable members of this Committee to monitor progress in relation to their previous recommendations.

How is the Committee going to deal with it?

Directors or their nominated representatives, together with the lead officers for flu pandemic planning and other officers as appropriate, have been invited before the Committee in order to answer the Committee’s questions on progress to date. A programme is attached at CM5(b).

Work to be done prior to the meeting:

Members’ attention is drawn to the progress document detailing responses in relation to its previous recommendations, which has been circulated to them outside of this meeting and  has been given limited distribution.

Documents Members should bring to the meeting:

The document setting out progress to date in relation to this Committee’s previous recommendations.

 

6.                Scoping Template: Debt and Money Advice

14:50

 

Background Information:

In July this Committee agreed to undertake a scrutiny review into debt and money advice, which would look at:

·        the range of voluntary organisations in Oxfordshire delivering debt and money management advice;

·        the quality and effectiveness of this advice;

·        the extent to which these organisations can attract qualified advisors;

·        if the County Council needs to do more in terms of signposting people to services or providing advice;

·        whether the County Council is suitably resourced to signpost people to these services;

·        what services nationally the County Council can tap into.

A suggested scoping template is attached at CM6.

Why has it been included?

The Committee is asked to comment on the draft template and agree a version to be submitted to the Scrutiny Co-ordinating Group, which meets on 17 November 2008.

Work to be done prior to the meeting:

Members are asked to consider the scoping template in preparation for the discussion. This is attached at CM6.

 

7.                Fire Service Command and Control Room – the FiReControl and FireLink Projects

15:10

 

Mr Colin Thomas (Assistant Chief Fire Officer) has provided a written update on the progress of the project (CM7).

 

8.                Update on Coroner’s Bill/Coroner’s Caseload and Interaction with Oxfordshire County Council Scrutiny Review

15:20

Why has it been included?

This item has been included on the agenda to inform the Committee of current progress on the review and to enable Councillors to ask questions on areas of interest.

How is the Committee going to deal with it?

The Committee will receive a verbal update on progress from members of the Lead Member Review Group and is asked to comment/ask questions on any issues raised.

 

9.                Scrutiny Work Programme

15:30

 

To note this Committee’s work programme (CM9) (download as .doc file).

 

10.           Tracking Scrutiny Items

15:30

 

Report back on advice by this Committee to the Cabinet or Council.

 

11.           Forward Plan

15:30

 

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.

 

(Please bring along to the meeting the latest copy of the Forward Plan which, at the time of writing covers October 2008 to January 2009).

 

(Members are asked to contact the Chairman, Deputy Chairman and/or the Committee Officer at least 3 days before the meeting should they wish to raise an item on the Forward Plan for possible consideration).

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