Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies received.  The Chairman welcomed Councillor Liam Walker to the Committee having replaced Councillor Jeannette Matelot since the last meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve the minutes of the meeting held on 14 January 2021 (PSC3) and to receive information arising from them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 14 January 2021 were approved.

On Item 4/21, the second bullet point under Investment Strategy, Councillor Charles Mathew stated that he did not recall receiving any more information on the Eynsham West proposal and asked for that action to be followed-up on.

This meeting will be held virtually in order to conform with current guidelines regarding social distancing. Normally requests to speak at this public meeting are required by 9 am on the day preceding the published date of the meeting. However, during the current situation and to facilitate these new arrangements we are asking that requests to speak are submitted by no later than 9am four working days before the meeting i.e. 9 am on Friday 5 March 2021. Requests to speak should be sent to colm.ocaomhanaigh@oxfordshire.gov.uk together with 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 am 2 working days before the meeting.

Where a meeting is held virtually and the addressee is unable to participate virtually their written submission will be accepted.

Written submissions should be no longer than 1 A4 sheet.

The Chairman had agreed to a request to speak on Agenda Item 6 from Councillor John Howson.

10:10

Report by the Corporate Director for Customers and Organisational Development and Director of Finance

The report and appendix set out Oxfordshire County Council’s progress towards Corporate Plan priorities during January2021.  The report will be considered at Cabinet’s 16  March meeting.

The Committee is RECOMMENDED to

a)              note the report and consider any matters for future attention by theCommittee;

b)              report the issues raised to the Cabinet discussion of the papers on 16 March 2021.

The Committee had before it a report on the Council’s progress towards Corporate Plan priorities during January 2021.  The Committee was requested to consider any matters for future attention by the Committee and to report issues raised to the Cabinet meeting on 16 March 2021.

Louise Tustian, Head of Insight and Corporate Programmes, introduced the report.  Of the 27 indices, 52% were rated Green and 44% were Amber.  One additional Leadership Risk had been added: LR21 County Elections May 2021.  The latest information was that all polling stations had been secured and work was continuing on preparations to make them COVID compliant.  There were no score changes in the other risks.

Louise Tustian provided responses to questions from Members of the Committee that had been raised earlier:

·         The Council was in procurement for new contract arrangements to deliver streetlighting maintenance and improvements, and returns were being evaluated.

·         Improvements to FixMyStreet with better messaging were expected to be delivered the following week.  There were regular meetings with the developers of the software to feedback issues and further improvements had been agreed including better hand-off of issues to district partners.

·         The Agency Educational Psychologists contract and the Annual Review team were both short-term agreements.  For the Annual Review contract, it was based on 6 months or clearing the backlog if this happens sooner.  The initial agreement for the EP team was to clear the backlog of 90 assessments.  It was a fix to deal with the existing backlog of cases but recruitment of EPs is an issue nationally.

Lorna Baxter, Director for Finance, noted that the details of the COVID-19 government grants were outlined on Agenda Pages 115 and 116.  The government had extended some of the grants to the first financial quarter of 2021/22 (April to June).  It was estimated that around £10m of the costs to the Council of COVID-19 originally expected to fall in the 2020/21 financial year would how fall in 2021/22 and provision was being made for that.

Councillor Jenny Hannaby asked how bad debts were monitored as some of them were very large amounts.  Councillor Glynis Phillips responded that the Audit and Governance Committee, of which she was a member, regularly examined the repayment situation.

The following suggestions were made by Members:

·         There was a request to simplify the information in the commentary for “Listening to residents” under “Number of pothole enquiries ..” which currently contained too many layers of percentages.  There was also a request to see the average times to do repairs.

·         It was noted that there were a lot of drainage issues reported under Fix My Street but that many did not meet the criteria.  Members asked if the criteria needed to be reviewed as drainage was a big issue in many areas.

·         With regard to the backlog in assessments for Education Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) and the shortage of education psychologists, Members asked if there was a problem with the terms and conditions being offered since agencies had staff available.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 13/21

10:30

A report from Oxfordshire Children’s Safeguarding Board.

The Committee considered the report commissioned by the Oxfordshire Children’s Safeguarding Board on the case of Jacob.  Kevin Gordon, Corporate Director for Children’s Services, introduced the item stressing that some aspects of the case were confidential.  The Chairman asked for the discussion to focus on improvement and learning from the case.

The Chairman had accepted the following request to speak on the item:

Councillor John Howson recalled that there was a great awareness of the difficulties in placing children taken into care in academy schools at the time of Jacob’s case.  The six Oxfordshire MPs and the Cabinet Member with responsibility had written to the Secretary of State on the issue.  He asked then why no system had been put in place to tackle the problem.

Councillor Howson referred to the audit of cases of children missing from education ordered by the Local Government Ombudsman in 2019 and asked was Jacob’s case not covered by that review or had it only focussed on excluded children.  He believed that all academies must recognise that they had a responsibility to all children in respect of providing an education.

Lara Patel, Deputy Director - Safeguarding, presented slides summarising the case.  She noted that it was unusual to name the child in a case such as this but it was the family’s wish.  One of the main conclusions was that Jacob had been let down by the education system – having not been in school for 22 months.  There was a need to improve work with professionals and families to identify and tackle exploitation and to ensure that all parties were working together.

Joe Kidman, Commander for Oxford City, Thames Valley Police, added that there was now a violence reduction unit in place, the systems operating in Oxford City that were praised in the report had been rolled out across the county and there was greater cooperation with other forces such as West Midlands and London.

Hayley Good, Deputy Director Education, stated that the local authority could not direct an academy to take a child but that there was now a more robust challenge to schools that refuse to take a child.  The In Year Fair Access Protocol had been revised to ensure that a child was placed within 20 days of them coming to the panel.  A meeting had been held recently with multi-academy trusts to work on building relationships and this was attended by 21 representatives  There was also a new data sharing agreement across BOB (Bucks, Oxon, Berks West) on health visitor records which will help in tracing children.

Hannah Farncombe, Deputy Director Children’s Social Care, concluded by emphasising the importance of the whole safeguarding system being on alert and to ensure that effective processes were put in place so that a situation was not allowed to drift.

Officers responded to issues raised by Members as follows:

·         The new Youth Justice and Exploitation Service brings together the high-performing Kingfisher and Youth Justice Service teams.  Kingfisher was put in place to tackle  ...  view the full minutes text for item 14/21

10:50

Report by Jane Portman, Senior Responsible Officer Climate Action and Corporate Director

Oxfordshire County Council declared a climate emergency in April 2019, pledging to be carbon neutral by 2030 for its own operations and estate.  The climate emergency declaration was followed by a public commitment in November 2019 to prioritise action on climate change across the council’s decision-making, services and activities.

This paper (PSC7) introduces the framework that has been developed to inform the council’s approach to climate action and provides an update on the work being done through the joint Climate Action Programme.

The Performance Scrutiny Committee is RECOMMENDED to

(a)                note the publication of the council’s Climate Action framework in response to the climate emergency declaration;

(b)                note the progress made in delivering the Climate Action Programme.

The Committee had asked for an update on progress on climate change actions following the Council’s recognition of the climate emergency in April 2019.

Jane Portman, Interim Senior Responsible Officer (SRO) for Climate Action, introduced the item.  Sarah Gilbert, Climate Action Team Leader, gave a presentation which summarised the Climate Action Framework developed to guide the mobilisation of a cross-organisational Climate Action Programme.  Sandra Fisher-Martins, Programme Manager – Climate Action, presented a summary of the 80 work streams in operation.  She emphasised that the Council’s Green House Gas (GHG) emissions were reducing before the COVID lockdown and had continued on that trajectory.

Officers responded to Members’ questions as follows:

·         Councillor Yvonne Constance, Cabinet Member for Environment (including Transport), had responsibility for climate action.  Bill Cotton will be the new Corporate Director for Environment and Place, starting the following week, and will take over as SRO.

·         A series of in-year targets were being developed to ensure a clear trajectory to 2030.  CEDR was considering how to report on the wider issues.

·         The measurement of the Council’s own-estate carbon emissions was based on fuel-use.

·         OCC and CDC reviewed how to resource themselves to address their commitments on Climate Action.  A new joint team has been created.  A Service Level Agreement was in place with the County Council and CDC contributed £50,000 to the costs of the joint team.

·         Hydrogen may have a role and was being primarily considered in relation to fleet replacement, especially for HGVs.  i-Hub was also looking into how the Council can link in with and promote other developments around the county.

·         The Thame cycleway was being considered as part of the review of priority investments in the Active Travel programme.

·         The Council will work with academies as well as maintained schools to provide advice and support on reducing GHG emissions.  There was recently put in a place a contract for zero-carbon electricity supply that the Schools Forum has been asked to opt into on behalf of schools.

·         New legislation (Future Homes Standard) on building standards aimed at being carbon neutral or even carbon negative will drive measures like triple glazing.

Councillors Nick Carter and Jenny Hannaby expressed frustration that the expenditure on Active Travel was not being distributed fairly around the county.

The Chairman thanked officers for a very good update on the work being done.

RESOLVED: to

(a)                note the publication of the council’s Climate Action framework in response to the climate emergency declaration

(b)                note the progress made in delivering the Climate Action Programme.

11:30

Report by Corporate Director Commercial Development, Assets and Investment (PSC9)

Each year the fire authority creates an action plan which proposes a number of new or provides an update on existing projects to support the CRMP 5-year strategy. The 2021-22 Annual action plan provides an update of the projects being conducted by the fire & rescue service in order to meet identified demands or risks.

The Performance Scrutiny Committee is RECOMMENDED to accept the continuation of the projects and adopt in the final version of the CRMP Action Plan 2021-22.

The Committee was asked to consider and adopt the Community Risk Management Plan (CRMP) Action Plan.

Rob MacDougall, Chief Fire Officer and Director for Community Safety, introduced the report and summarised the three ongoing projects: the pro-active role in improving housing standards, acting as community safety advocates and improving diversity in the service.

Rob MacDougall noted that they had made some improvements in the number of female firefighters but still had work to do to improve the recruitment of people from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic communities. 

While the service’s 365 Alive outcome targets were in the document the current data on progress towards the targets will be added to the final publication.

Rob MacDougall and Jo Bowcock, Assistant Chief Fire Officer, responded to issues raised by Members as follows:

·         The Fire Cadet programme did not have a direct entry into the fire service – there was still a recruitment and training process to go through – but it certainly gave cadets a good insight from which to make an informed decision.  The service also had apprenticeship schemes including some for leadership roles.

·         The service worked with the city and district councils, landlords and tenants on improving standards of accommodation and energy certification in the rental sector.  They would have to come back with more information on the outcomes of the work.

·         The work on water safety was focussed on advice related to people falling into water and was not about water quality.  There was a pilot scheme in Henley and if it was successful, they would look at rolling it out to other areas.  Officers and firefighters in Oxford City also had a high level of awareness and training on water safety given the presence of canal ways in the city.

·         Fire service officers were integrated into the Council’s work on climate action especially in relation to buildings and vehicles.  Hydrogen power was in its early stages but might provide a solution for the fleet.

·         The service was represented on a joint preventative group with Public Health and would make sure that they were aware of the potential benefits of the cotoneaster plant in absorbing air pollutants.

RESOLVED: to accept the continuation of the projects and adopt in the final version of the CRMP Action Plan 2021-22.

11:50

Reports by Corporate Director Commercial Development, Assets and Investment

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Report on the Inspection of Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service Carried Out in 2018

HMICFRS released the report on their inspection of Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service in Spring 2019. This report graded the service as good in the three areas of the inspection, Effectiveness, Efficiency and People, and also highlighted ten areas for improvement. This report (PSC10a) is an update of the actions that have been worked on over the past 18 months by the service, to address these areas.

The Performance Scrutiny is RECOMMENDED to note the report and accept the update from the Director of Community Safety setting out the continuous improvements being made by Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Rescue Service.

Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire and Rescue Services Inspection Report on Oxfordshire Fire and Rescue Service Response to Covid-19 Pandemic 2020 (PSC10b)

In August 2020 the HMICFRS were commissioned by the Home Secretary to inspect how fire and rescue services in England are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Performance Scrutiny Committee is RECOMMENDED to accept the report and the recommended actions for Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Rescue Service.

The Committee had before it two reports from HMICFRS that were introduced by Rob MacDougall, Chief Fire Officer and Director for Community Safety.  On the update with regard to progress on actions from the inspection in 2018, five of the actions were complete and it was expected that the rest would be completed in the next 12 to 18 months.

RESOLVED: to note the report and accept the update from the Director of Community Safety setting out the continuous improvements being made by Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Rescue Service.

The inspection in October 2020 of the service’s response to the COVID-19 epidemic was very positive.  It acknowledged how the service maintained core operations while contributing to PPE distribution, driving ambulance crews and distributing laptops to schools for children who couldn’t be in school.

It was also the first report that acknowledged that having a fire and rescue service within the County Council had significant benefit.  It recognised the good work done in supporting the wellbeing of staff.

RESOLVED: to accept the report and the recommended actions for Oxfordshire County Council Fire and Rescue Service.

The Chairman thanked the officers in particular for the leadership shown during the pandemic.  She also thanked Councillor Judith Heathcoat, Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member with responsibility for the fire service, for her work over many years and for being a regular attender at scrutiny committee meetings.

12:10

To agree the Committee’s work programme for future meetings based on key priorities and discussion in the meeting.

It was agreed to recommend to the new Committee elected in May to prioritise the following issues:

·         Transport, Place setting and S106 monies

·         Education, Health and Care Plans and CAMHS

Councillor Charles Mathew also asked that Air Quality be prioritised.

The Chairman thanked Members, especially Councillors Carter, Fox-Davies and Mathew who were not contesting the coming election.