Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillor Driver and Councillor Penny Hall was attending as her substitute.

None received.

Review of the terms of reference for the O&S committee

The chair referred members to the functions of the overview and scrutiny committee which had been circulated with the agenda.  As chair, he intended this to be a business meeting which would not undertake scrutiny itself but act as a commissioning body for scrutiny task groups to undertake further review work.  This committee would review any suggested topics and if agreed set up high-level terms of reference for a scrutiny task group (STG) and set a timescale. The STG would have a free hand to carry out their work but the committee would request an update when the time set for the review had elapsed. When the STG reported back their recommendations, the committee would not go through their report in detail but would satisfy themselves that the terms of reference had been met. It was his intention that the majority of scrutiny reports would be sent to Council so as many members as possible could contribute to the debate and influence the outcomes.

He acknowledged that there would be exceptions to this such as call-in. The Chief Executive also reminded members that the chair had requested that the report on the Warden Hill elections should come to the July meeting of this committee. Some members did suggest that this topic would be better dealt with by a STG but the chair responded that an independent person had been set up to carry out the review and he didn't want to set up another group to scrutinise the work of the independent review.

Referring to the specific functions for the committee set out in the constitution, a member queried the wording of the function, "nominate members to Cabinet working groups when representatives of O&S are requested”. He suggested that it should refer to "non-executive members” as “O&S” could be interpreted as being restricted to members of this committee.  The Democratic Services Manager agreed to follow this up with One Legal.

To approve the minutes of the following meetings:

Social and Community O&S committee 27 February 2012

Environment O&S committee 29 February 2012

Economy and Business Improvement O&S committee 5 March 2012

The minutes of the Social and Community Overview and Scrutiny meeting of the 27 February 2012 and the Environment meeting of the 29 February 2012       were approved as a correct record.

The chair requested that the minutes should be referred to the new Cabinet so that they could review the minutes for any outstanding actions for their consideration.

None received.

None received.

Report of the Strategy and Engagement Manager

The Strategy and Engagement Manager introduced the report which set out the corporate performance of the organisation as at the end of the financial year 2011/12. The report was due to go to Cabinet in June and so this was an opportunity for this committee to make any comments and observations.

The Chief Executive advised members that the first milestone reported as red was now green as the government had agreed to provide funding to the county council for sustainable transport.

Members requested further information on the cost of local appeals which had been upheld and the trend over previous years. The officer agreed to request this information from the Director Built Environment and pass on to the committee.

The chair concluded that there were no issues arising where a scrutiny review had been identified. Regarding commissioning, he suggested that there was an important role for scrutiny in looking at services that had been taken through the commissioning route.  Scrutiny could review the efficiency of this process as well as the delivery of the anticipated benefits.

A review of the scrutiny workplan 2012/13.

The Democratic Services Manager introduced the workplan which had been circulated with the agenda.  She explained that each of the three previous committees had maintained their own workplan and any issues which they wished to be carried forward were set out in the new plan.

Members were keen that the committee was consistent on its strategy to avoid carrying out detailed scrutiny themselves.  On this basis it was queried why this committee should look at the draft Corporate Strategy in February and why this would not be done by a STG.

The chair responded that this document should come initially to this committee and they would then have the option to set up STGs to look in more detail at sections of the strategy. He added that the chair’s briefings would also be important for reviewing potential items for the agenda. For example this would include looking at the Corporate Risk Register to see whether there were any issues that needed to be brought to committee. He intended that the chair’s briefing should involve the vice-chair and the lead member from the other political group, Councillor Dianne Hibbert.  Each of the attendees would have a responsibility for communicating to their respective groups, particularly with regard to potential nominations for STGs.

There was some discussion about the various types of working group and potential duplication if a STG was set up to look at an issue were a Cabinet working group was already in place. The chair responded that if one was already operational then it would be appropriate for that group to stay in place.  However if members of the group felt unhappy about a particular aspect they could make a request to the O&S committee for a STG to do an additional piece of work. The commissioning working groups were a good example of Cabinet led working groups where non-Executive members had been invited to participate. The purpose of a Cabinet working group was to act as a sounding board for the Cabinet Member and not to carry out scrutiny. O&S could decide to scrutinise a commissioned service once it was up and running through a STG. O&S could also decide to set up a STG to review the commissioning process for that service and in that process the group would want input from members of the Cabinet working group as well as officers and the Cabinet Member.

The vice-chair expressed some concerns that the committee did not take on too much and she suggested there could be a maximum of two or three working groups at any one time. The committee must also give consideration to the capacity of officers and non-executive members to support all the STGs being suggested.

Regarding the list of information items in the workplan, members acknowledged that these were important for all members. It was suggested that such presentations could be held in external venues for example Gloucestershire Airport rather than hold it in the municipal offices. Generally  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

A review of former scrutiny working groups and appointments to new scrutiny task groups including budget scrutiny working group and appointment to Gloucestershire scrutiny group.

The Democratic Services Manager referred members to the summary which had been circulated with the agenda. This listed all the potential scrutiny task groups as well as other bodies where O&S was required to make a nomination or have some input. It was emphasised that some of the scrutiny task groups were just ideas at this stage and terms of reference would need to be drafted and resources assessed before they were added to the scrutiny work plan. The list of potential topics had been circulated and a number of members had expressed an interest in being on one of the Scrutiny Tasks Groups should they be set up..

Regarding the Gloucestershire Scrutiny Group, Councillor Hall highlighted the value of the group and the benefit she had got from attending. After some discussion, Councillor Hall agreed to continue to represent the O&S committee and she would attend the chair's briefing of this committee to give feedback.

Regarding the Joint Planning Liaison Group, the Chief Executive explained that the member steering group for the Joint Core Strategy across the three councils had decided that they needed to liaise with a wider group of members.  This had resulted in a request to each of the three councils to set up an ad hoc group of members to understand and give feedback on the specific issues for their area. Originally the Leader had sent a request to group leaders to set up this joint core strategy working group but the Chair of O&S had suggested that this should be a scrutiny task group and as Chief Executive he supported this view. The chair added that this particular working group could be in operation for as long as two years.

Regarding the Event Submission Working group, Councillor Hall, as a member of the group, reported that it had met several times and was due to meet again soon to review the final draft of an event submission form it had been developing. She highlighted that this STG was not looking at specific events but it was noted that there may be a need in the future to set up a scrutiny review to look at a particular event if there were concerns.

The vice-chair raised concerns about the proposed Expo event and suggested that it should be scrutinised as there was a general lack of information for members about it.  The Chief Executive explained that specific applications for the Expo event would be dealt with by the Licensing and Planning Committees when appropriate and regarding the Bill in Parliament for road closures this would  come back to the Cabinet for an Executive decision. He suggested that the vice-chair should liaise with the Cabinet Member to establish a timetable for these decisions.

Regarding climate change, members acknowledged that the working group had done some valuable work.  However if this was to become a STG, it would need to have specific terms of reference. This will be discussed with the officers responsible  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

Date of next meeting: Monday 16 July 6 pm

Monday 16 July 2012.