Agenda item

At the Overview & Scrutiny Management Committee on 25 June 2013, it was

agreed that the task of scrutinising the Draft Business Plan 2013 – 2017 would be undertaken by the individual select committees, each looking at topics of specific interest to their committee.

 

The views of each committee will then be considered by the Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the Overview & Scrutiny Management Committee and the three select committees on Monday 8 July 2013 and then incorporated into one report to go to the Cabinet meeting on 23 July.  The Chairman has agreed that this meeting be called at short notice in order to meet this very short timescale.

 

At the meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Management Committee on 25 June, the Executive indicated that it had identified 12 priorities or

‘deliverables’ for the Council and has provided the list for each select committee to consider, as follows:-

 

Key Deliverables

1       Invest additional money between 2014-17 to reduce the historic backlog in highways maintenance.

 

2       Stimulate economic growth and create additional jobs in partnership with the LEP.

 

3       Further enhance the role of Area Boards, developing innovative community led approaches to designing and delivering services.

 

4       Improve the attainment, skills and achievement of all children and young

People.

 

5       Support the most vulnerable in our local communities and improve our

safeguarding services.

 

6       Invest to refurbish council housing and encourage the development new

affordable homes, including supported living in rural areas.

 

7       Build on the work of the Military Civilian Integration Programme and

maximise benefits arising from the Army Basing Plan.

 

8       Delegate cost neutral packages of land, services and assets to town and

parish councils.

 

9       Create a campus opportunity in each community area.

 

10     Integrate public health at the heart of all public services.

 

11     Doing things differently for less to deliver at least £120m budget cost

reductions over the four years.

 

12     Develop the knowledge, skills, behaviours & leadership of our workforce & our managers.

 

A copy of the overall Business Plan is included.

The Chairman reminded those present of the purpose of the meeting and the process to be followed:

 

At the O&S Management Committee on 25 June 2013, it had been agreed that each of the overview and scrutiny committees would hold extraordinary meetings to consider the relevant areas of the Draft Business Plan 2013-17. The comments of all four committees would then be considered by the chairman and vice-chairman on Monday 8 July, before being submitted to Cabinet for consideration.

 

At this stage the Committee had been asked to provide a broad and strategic overview focusing on the 12 key deliverables already outlined by Cabinet and included within the agenda. Opportunities for more detailed scrutiny would come once the services plans were available, potentially prior to the Business Plan coming to Full Council should the O&S Management Committee consider this to be the appropriate approach.

 

The Cabinet Member for Children’s Services highlighted the following points:

 

• The draft Business Plan contained a number of priorities that did not appear to link directly with children’s services. However, she would ensure that the impact on children would be considered when addressing all of  them.

 

• Local authorities’ role in education had changed significantly  due to the academies programme. She suggested this might be a fruitful area for overview and scrutiny to focus on in the future.

 

• Although the attainment of children in Wiltshire was higher than the national average, the Cabinet Member felt that it could still improve.

 

• In keeping with Wiltshire’s  DCA Pathfinder project, in future, the Council would be looking at the ‘whole life’ needs of people with SEN and LDD.

 

• The Council’s children’s services teams may have been isolated from the transformations of ways of working implemented in recent years and this would need to change and would involve making services child- and family-centred.

 

The Committee worked through the draft Business Plan 2013-17 and made the following comments (the headings within the draft Business Plan are included in bold for ease of reference):

 

“People and Places”

 

• It should be clarified that the Business Plan is for everyone i.e. people across the age ranges.

 

• It was suggested that a Young Person’s version of the Business Plan be produced.

 

• There was a need to focus more on the implications of the Academies Programme – the biggest change to the schools system for a generation. How does the Council need to change approach to ensure better engagement with/from schools?

 

• There was a need to increase young people’s engagement with their communities and democracy.

 

“People in Wiltshire work together to solve problems locally and participate in decisions that affect them”

 

• There was a suggestion to add an aspiration to increase young people’s engagement with local decision making (see above).

 

• Mention the need to attract more higher education provision into Wiltshire.

 

• The Committee endorsed the aspiration to support “all to achieve their aspirations”, suggested something be added extra regarding helping people caught in an ‘aspiration trap’.

 

• More could be done to help our gifted and talented young people.

 

• More focus should be put on encouraging and enabling children and young people to live active, healthy lives by becoming involved in healthy activities – both organised and non-organised. This should include a focus on providing sporting facilities and also addressing the reduction in participation in sporting activities after leaving school.

 

“Protecting from avoidable harm”

 

• All Council decisions should include a consideration of the impact on avoidable harm to children and young people.

 

2. Principles:

 

• Page 13, point 2:  Mention looking at the explicit and hidden financial costs that can prevent young people from engaging with support services (e.g. counselling) and activities.

 

• Page 13, point 3:  The hidden impact on young people should always be assessed when the Council makes decisions.

 

• Page 13, point 5:  Mention the need to ensure children’s voices are heard when decisions are made, particularly through the Youth Area Groups (YAGs).

 

• Page 13, point 7: Include a mention of also encouraging and developing the leaders of the future (i.e. young people).

 

• Page 13, point 8: Staff adopting a ‘can-do’ approach must include them thinking about improving accessibility to young people.

 

“Making it happen”

 

• Include  a mention of developing the Youth Advisory Groups (as well as the Area Boards).

 

Wiltshire has inclusive communities where everyone can achieve their potential (p. 17)

 

• Include a mention of assessing the potential impact on young people whenever decisions are made.

 

• Include a specific mention of supporting young carers.

 

“People have healthy, active and high quality lives”

 

• Reducing the cost of participation in sports for young people (e.g. reducing the cost of gym membership) (see above)

 

• Supporting schools to provide sporting activities in and outside of schools hours

 

• A mention of promoting sexual health (under Public Health)

 

Developing Leaders and Managers

 

• Include aspiration to develop our young community leaders at an early age.

 

“Working with partners”

 

• Include school bodies like Wiltshire Association of Secondary School Headteachers (WASSH) and Primary Heads Forum (PHF) on the colour wheel of the Council’s major partnerships.

 

“Measuring success “

 

• Include a key performance indicator (KPI) on developing effective YAGs within the first row of the table

 

• Include a KPI on widening the number of young people engaged with local decision making

 

• KPIs need to reflect the ‘value added’ in terms of attainment (each child’s academic improvement year-on-year).

 

“Key Deliverables”

 

3.  This could include a specific mention of young people i.e. YAGs

 

4. This needs to be more ambitious and better worded.

 

8. There is a need here to think about the impact of this on young people.

 

Resolutions:

 

1. To submit the Committee’s comments on the draft Business Plan 2013-17 to the chairmen and vice-chairmen of the overview and scrutiny committees to be discussed at their meeting on 8 July 2013.

 

2. To note that the chairmen and vice-chairmen of the four overview and scrutiny committees will agree a final report containing the committees’ comments on the draft Business Plan and will submit this to Cabinet for consideration prior to it receiving the final version on 23 July 2013.