Agenda item

Report of the Assistant Chief Executive (30 mins)

The Assistant Chief Executive introduced the report which had been requested by this committee.

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services hoped all members had taken the opportunity to read his email dated the 22 February 2011, in which he had outlined the current position of the Council in its move to become a strategic commissioning authority.

A members working group had been established some time ago and was originally tasked with assessing the rationale behind the move to strategic commissioning. 

In December 2010 Council agreed the move to strategic commissioning and associated changes to the Council structures. He acknowledged that even though Council had supported the Chief Executive’s report at Council, some members still had some concerns about how they  would influence the process and their role.

The working group were now focussing on member roles and he was attending the meeting in this instance to seek the views and comments of the committee on who should be involved, when and how.  He had already attended Social and Community O&S and Environment O&S. 

He was confident that this was an opportunity to enhance the role of all members.  Commissioning required knowledge of needs of the community and members had a role in feeding back from their wards, constituents and the town in general. They could act as a critical friend in the analysis and planning stage of any commissioning review.

The relevant Cabinet Member(s) would sit on the Programme Board for each commissioning exercise and maintain a dialogue with all members to ensure that they were all fully engaged.  He was also keen to see Cabinet Working Groups established to support these reviews.

Whilst Cabinet Members were accountable, Overview & Scrutiny had a role in monitoring services and ensuring the outcomes were being delivered. 

Establishing member roles and a way of approaching commissioning exercises with which all members were comfortable was crucial.  No decisions had yet been made, it was an evolving process and as such he urged members to respond to his email. 

The working group had discussed the current three committee O&S structure and whether this was the right way forward and whether there was an opportunity to change the structure, though it was not for Cabinet to decide how scrutiny was organised.  The County had a different model for O&S, elements of which could be used. 

Working groups were focussed, interesting and could prove more effective, enabling more open dialogue on options.  The Budget Working Group could prove a useful example.

Councillor McLain spoke in support of an overarching scrutiny committee supported by task and finish groups. These groups would be able to analyse performance indicators and carry out detailed performance monitoring.

The Chair was keen to see a schedule of commissioning reviews and understand the rationale for setting priorities. He also asked who would be responsible for making sure that the claims in the budget for making savings from the commissioning approach would be realised.

The Cabinet Member Corporate Services replied that it would be for the Cabinet to work with officers to develop a work plan. This would be incorporated within the Corporate Strategy which would be agreed by Council.

Resolved that the report be noted and a Commissioning work plan is brought back to this committee as soon as it is available.