Agenda and minutes

Councillor Liz Brighouse OBE sent her apologies.

None

To approve the minutes of the meeting on 15^th March 2012. (SYP3)

The minutes of the meeting on 15^th May 2012, to appoint the Chairman & Deputy Chairman, will be circulated separately

Councillor David Turner queried minute 23/12 from 15^th March and asked what would happen to members of staff while the Pension Fund Committee considers other options. Sue Scane said individual members of staff will remain on the LGPS and not be affected..

Minutes from 15^th March were then AGREED

Minutes from 15^th May were AGREED

None

10.10

The new Chairman will lead a discussion about the future direction of the Strategy and Partnerships Scrutiny committee and priorities for members.

Councillor Lindsay-Gale explained that the Cabinet had asked the committee to consider undertaking a review of the way in which scrutiny currently functions within OCC and examine its influence on decision making. Recommendations could then be presented to Council in March. She welcomed views from the committee. .

As an introduction to the topic Peter Clarke gave a presentation on the governance options available to the County Council..

A discussion took place about the current scrutiny structure, members raised some concerns about the opportunities for back benchers to influence decision making through scrutiny and an apparent reluctance in some committees to really challenge officers.

It was suggested that more first-hand experience of issues through visits would be a useful way to improve the process..

Councillor Wilmhurst and Councillor Sanders highlighted that the Audit Working group uses a model which works well.

Members also reflected on their experiences under the previous Committee Structure which was seen as more inclusive with greater opportunities to influence prior to a decision being taken.

It was AGREED that the committee supported the review and that a working group of 5 councillors would be set up to confirm the scope of the review and agree next steps to report back to the committee at the July meeting. The working group will include 2 Councillors from the opposition, group leaders will be asked to put forward nominations to Cllr Lindsay-Gale 11^th June 2012.

10.40

The Committee has the opportunity to review the draft scrutiny annual report (SYP6) and offer comments, prior to the report going to full council, given the Committee’s responsibility for overarching policy coordination and strategy.

Item 6 was taken ahead of item 5.

Alexandra Bailey (Senior Performance and Improvement Manager) asked the committee to comment on the draft Scrutiny Annual report prior to its agreement at full Council.

The committee expressed some concerns that the report appeared to lack outcomes and did not pin point the issues which scrutiny had helped to resolve.

Alexandra Bailey acknowledged the committees frustrations and explained that the report was a reflection of the current position of scrutiny committees and the issues raised were something to address over the coming year rather than in the current report. Councillor Lindsay-Gale stated that the report illustrated the need for a review of scrutiny to be discussed under the next item.

10.50

The Assistant Chief Executive and Director of Environment and Economy will give a verbal update on key issues.

Sue Scane (Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Finance Officer) gave her Directors update and also spoke on Huw Jones’ (Director of Environment and Economy) behalf.

·        Local government finance – a new funding system will be introduced in April 2013; detail is still emerging on the new system and through the Local Government Resource Review. It is likely that in future the council will be able to retain 50% of its business rate and will continue to receive some specific grants and an element of revenue support grant.

It was AGREED that the committee would receive further details on the local government resource review at its October meeting.

Sue also highlighted the on-going implementation of the Localism Act – it was AGREED that this would be discussed at a future meeting.

·        Staff Development programme

Sue highlighted that the Staff conference this year will be on 12^th June and that a range of development opportunities for senior leaders in the organisation have begun.

E& E issues within the committee’s remit:

·        Graham Shaw, Interim Deputy Director, is currently reviewing the Customer Service Centre and back office function in OCS.

·        The new Property and Facilities contract with Carillion will go live on 1^st July and 1^st September for Food with Thought and QCS.

11.20

The development of the Oxfordshire Health and Wellbeing Board is a significant change to the Oxfordshire partnership landscape. The Committee will receive a brief update (SYP9a) on the Board and in particular the draft Health and Wellbeing Strategy which is currently out for consultation. Attached is the summary (SYPb) and full consultation document (SYPc)

The Committee is asked to comment on the draft strategy.

Peter Clarke (Head of Law & Governance) & Jackie Wilderspin (Assistant Director of Public Health) gave a presentation on the Oxfordshire Draft Joint Health & Wellbeing Strategy and the current position of the Oxfordshire Health and Wellbeing Board.

The Board will become a formal committee of the Council in April 2013 and will be Chaired by Councillor Hudspeth. The Joint Health and Wellbeing Strategy will drive the work of the partners on the Board. Members were asked to comment on the draft strategy..

Councillor Lindsay-Gale asked to see a report from this new committee once a year at the Strategy & Partnership Scrutiny Committee. This was AGREED.

Councillor Turner queried an intention in the strategy to reduce the number of care homes. Peter Clark AGREED to get further information from John Jackson. Councillor Sanders suggested that supporting people to live at home safely should be a specific priority alongside any priority on care homes.

A further query was raised about how ambitious some of the targets within the strategy were for example a 0.6% increase in satisfaction is referred to in one area. 

Jackie Wilderspin AGREED to feed the comments back into the consultation process and get responses on the issues raised. She highlighted that Oxfordshire was fairly unique in committing to specific targets as other areas had shied away from this approach.

11.45

An update on the five asset led locality reviews that were commissioned as a pilot programme by the County Council’s property service. (SYP9)

It provides an opportunity to explore issues that this Committee might wish to be taken into account as the work on asset led locality reviews is taken forwards.

Martin Tugwell Deputy Director (Growth and Infrastructure) and Nigel Cunning (Strategy Manager) came to the table to discuss the Asset Led Locality reviews paper. Nigel provided a specific example of the review process in Didcot which has generated results within 6 months of the review being completed. However this varies from review to review as some are more about longer term strategic thinking and facilitating the work of other partners.

Councillor Lindsay-Gale raised that she was disappointed with the lack of detail in the report. She also queried what had been the overall savings achieved through the project. Martin Tugwell explained that it was too early to say as many savings will be generated over the longer term. .

Councillor Badcock asked what were the plans to roll out this approach to other parts of the county. Martin Tugwell explained that asset management will be a key part of the council’s work in localities and the authority aims to be flexible to opportunities that arise rather than putting a rigid programme in place.

Martin Tugwell stressed the importance of member engagement and the role they can play in highlighting local issues. He also highlighted that as part of the new property and facilities contract Carillion are committed to member engagement and the council is keen to develop this once the contract is live.

It was AGREED that Martin Tugwell would return to the committee in 6 months with an update on progress with asset management.

12.05

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. The current Forward Plan can be found on the council’s website: http://mycouncil.oxfordshire.gov.uk/mgListPlans.aspx?&RPID=115&bcr=1

The corporate plan has been programmed in for the October meeting.

No other issues were highlighted.

12.10

No other business

12:15

Meeting closed at 12.30pm