To receive a verbal update on the roles and responsibilities of the Committee, including the Terms of Reference, and to discuss and consider how these will be discharged by the Committee. In addition, to receive a presentation on People and Communities.
Minutes:
The Group Manager for Governance and Assurance gave members a presentation, ‘Making a Difference to People’s Lives’, which focused on how to effectively use the overview and scrutiny functions.
He highlighted the new committee structure and the importance of a member led approach, noting that training for members and senior officers had already been provided, but more may be needed. He also referred to an Overview and Scrutiny Guide that had been produced and circulated to support transition to the new arrangements. It was explained that this was a very new and different approach in order to help members and officers gain a holistic view of the outcome priorities of the County Council and to work closely together to improve the lives of residents and communities we served.
The use of Policy Development Panels and Task and Finish groups was highlighted in order to understand more about how members could make a difference and to allow work to progress in a timely manner outside of formal committee meetings. The overview and scrutiny committees were now cross cutting committees across the authority and a one council view had been taken.
The Group Manager for Governance and Assurance focussed members’ attention on the delivery of outcomes and highlighted the 4 overarching principles which the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board had established to guide the work of the new committee:-
· Doing less – but doing it more thoroughly
· When selecting topics there must be a clear link to the corporate plan outcomes, supported by a clear rationale and prioritised accordingly
· Topics must be clearly and concisely scoped to ensure a structured review process
· Reviews should deliver clear conclusions and recommendations for improvement that Executive can consider leading to robust outcomes
He briefly reviewed the Committee’s broad terms of reference and the Chairman reaffirmed that the Committee shouldn’t duplicate the work of other committees, but the opportunity was there to consider like subjects from different angles, such as housing for better health.
The Interim Director for Adult and Community Services also gave members a presentation to highlight the range of topics that they might consider to review and scrutinise. She reminded them of the wide ranging terms of reference and asked that the term "people of all ages" be used to more accurately describe the age range within the Committee’s remit.
The Interim Director referred to the real opportunity to respond and develop plans for the future to ensure communities were safe, healthy, independent and prosperous. She commented on the increasing demand on health and care services and highlighted that issues such as unemployment could be masking other such as poor mental health.
The Head of Strategy, Partnerships and Performance in Children’s Services commented on the number of children in care and the associated costs of this. She confirmed this subject overlapped with the Safeguarding Overview and Scrutiny Committee, but stated that they may not have the capacity to consider a review of the care homes. Members may therefore wish to consider life-long outcomes and what officers were doing to support vulnerable children. It was very clear that in order to prevent high costs, early intervention and prevention was key.
In response to a question regarding the budget available to the Committee and supporting officers to carry out their overview and scrutiny role, the Group Manager for Governance and Assurance pointed to the scrutiny scoping and planning document template that included an initial assessment of the level of potential resources and any specific budget requirement associated with proposed scrutiny or overview work. Whilst it was agreed that any budget requirements must be proportionate in terms of the anticipated return on investment, it was important that the committees have the ability to commission the work it feels necessary to deliver against its terms of reference. Equally the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board would discuss and seek to ensure that an appropriate level of resources were available to support the committees in their work and are allocated and channelled effectively across the various committees.
Noted