Priority

Scrutiny Committee Comments

Educational Attainment

• Gypsy/traveller children are the largest minority group in West Oxfordshire, should they not be included in the priority?
• What is a meaningful measure when looking at the performance of small groups e.g. ethnic minorities? Whilst the small numbers make targeting easier they can also give rise to large fluctuations in performance from year to year.
• Final results are not the best measure of a school’s performance, value added and other tracking methods should be used to track pupil performance from one stage to the next.

Foundation Stage Learning

• Welcome the focus on key areas of provision in this important area but concerned that resources will not be matched to ambition.

Child Protection

• There were concerns that social workers may have to face a violent situation due to an emergency callout. Understaffing could lead to the call not being fully risk assessed and a social worker attending alone.

Delayed Discharges from Hospital

• Oxfordshire’s position vis-à-vis national position is considered important
• The impact of the ‘Reimbursement Act’ was noted.
• The link to the Elderly Care priority was noted.

Support for Older People

• Home Support visits should be longer.
• Recruitment issues exist – e.g., career paths and salary

Public Transport

• Noted tension between PSA target (focuses on primary bus routes) and increasing use in rural areas.
• Impact of staff shortages on achievement.

Maintenance of Local Roads and Pavements

• No comments made.

Waste Minimisation and Recycling

• No comments made.

Youth Crime Reduction

• The 90% target set by the Youth Justice Board for the number of people in full time education, training and employment by the end of the YOT intervention is considerably higher than performance in Oxfordshire and should be reviewed in favour of a locally set, more realistic target, which could help staff morale.
• Request that further work is done to generate good quality information which will enable the service to set more locally relevant targets, working towards the national target of 90%.
• Welcomed the focus on the links between education, under achievement, truancy, drugs and crime.

Better Use of our Property

• Perceived priority to be Property Review implementation
• Linked priority to West End of Oxford re-development (e.g., opportunity for County and City Councils to move to new offices)

Affordable Housing

• ‘Essential workers’ – term requires clear definition
• Queried Oxfordshire County Council’s role in what is a District Council statutory responsibility. [The County Council’s strategic role was explained].
• Oxfordshire County Council’s role as a major landowner highlighted.
• PSA target ‘unambitious’. [Relationship of PSA target as a pilot study explained]
• Land taxation initiative should be considered (i.e., this ensures that land does not sit unused while owner waits for development opportunities – not using land for example, affordable housing, would lead to higher levels of taxation).

West End Oxford

• Importance of GTE development and rail station re-location highlighted by officer. Most members considered both to be non-starters and that the work for the next year merely concerned feasibility studies.

Drugs and Alcohol

• No comments made.

Social Inclusion

• Not considered by Scrutiny Committees.