Agenda item

The purpose of the report is to support and advise Committee members to determine their work programme for the 2021/22 municipal year.

1.       The Committee is RECOMMENDED to

(a)      Consider the results of the limited work programme engagement exercise as detailed in Appendix 1;

(b)      Consider suggestions made by the Cabinet and Senior Officers;

(c)      Consider the methods by which the Committee would like to undertake its Overview and Scrutiny activity;

(d)      Consider and agree the work programme for the Committee for the 2021/22 municipal year;

(e)      Agree on whether to create any task group reviews and appoint membership of that review;

(f)       Identify any specific training and support needs required to deliver the 2021/22 work programme.

Consideration was given to a report which  provided details of a limited engagement exercise which contained the views of Members and senior officers on possible items for this Committee’s work programme.

Members were informed that the following key principles of effective scrutiny should be considered when determining the Committee’s work programme:

·       Be selective – There was a need to prioritise so that high priority issues were scrutinised given the limited number of scheduled meetings and time available. Members should consider what could realistically and properly be reviewed at each meeting, taking into account the time needed to scrutinise each item and what the session was intended to achieve.

·       Add value with scrutiny – Items should have the potential to ‘add value’ to the work of the Council and its partners. If it was not clear what the intended outcomes or impact of a review would be then Members should consider if there were issues of a higher priority that could be scrutinised instead. It was recommended that Members limit the number of items they wished to consider at a meeting to 2 or 3 to maximise the time and attention they can give the topic and maximise the potential for adding value.

·       Be flexible – Members were reminded that there needed to be a degree of flexibility in their work programme to respond to unforeseen issues/items for consideration/comment during the year and accommodate any developmental or additional work that falls within the remit of this Committee.

A discussion took place on the work programme suggestions which had been received. Reference was made to the limited time available as the Committee only had four meetings and it was noted that Task and Finish Groups could work on scrutiny reviews and submit reports to the Committee with their findings.

The importance of Scrutiny having the opportunity to comment on Cabinet reports was discussed and Members noted that there was an opportunity for any Member of the Council to attend Cabinet and ask a relevant Cabinet Member a question.

The following items within the scope of this Committee were asked to placed in the work programme:

·       Budget Scrutiny Process – Opportunity to develop a best practice approach to budget scrutiny at OCC for the benefit of future years – Members were informed that the Director of Finance would be submitting a report to this Committee in January on Budget proposals to enable Overview and Scrutiny comments to be considered at Cabinet.

·       Capital Programme – was it delivering for Oxfordshire? This would also be reported to this Committee in January to enable Overview and Scrutiny comments to be considered at Cabinet.

·       Transformation Programmes – an opportunity to review the Council’s ongoing service redesigns and plans for the future.

·       Democratic Processes – Particular mention was made of the Forward Plan and the sequencing of meetings of Forward Plan items to ensure pre-scrutiny took place

·       Council Plan – an assessment of the Council’s strategic aims and objectives.

·       Council approach to public engagement and consultation - The Corporate Director of Customers and Organisational Development reported that to enable the report to be considered by this Committee, this report would now be moved back to Cabinet in the Spring of 2022. It was agreed that this Committee would consider this at its next meeting in December.

·       Performance Management and Business Planning – The Committee asked to look at key performance management targets. The Corporate Director of Customers and Organisational Development reported that to enable this Committee to have an opportunity to comment on this an informal briefing meeting could take place which could formulate comments to be reported to Cabinet. It was agreed that this would be taken forward.

The Director of Law & Governance and Monitoring Officer raised two potential items: Outcome of Fire Service inspection and the Annual Community Safety Report and it was agreed that these should be forwarded to Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee as the items did not fall within the scope of this Committee. 

RESOLVED – That the recommendations in the report be noted and approval be given to the work programme items outlined above.