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 and Management Committee 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 and 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 and the Management 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 members that 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 and the Management Committee each looking at topics of specific interest to their committee.

The views of each committee would 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 incorporated into one report to go to the Cabinet meeting on 23 July.

It was noted that this meeting was called at short notice in order to meet this very short timescale.

At the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee on 25 June, the Executive indicated that it had identified 12 priorities or ‘deliverables’ for the Council and provided the list for each select committee and the Management Committee to consider and comment upon along with the draft business plan.

In considering the draft Business Plan and the 12 key deliverables the Management Committee made the following comments:

Section 1

• Concern about the layout of the Business Plan – needed to be more user friendly
• Support for the emphasis on vulnerable people, which included Adult Social Care, Looked After Children and Children in Poverty. However, it would also be important to focus on other area in addition to Adult Social Care.

·         Need to communicate to the public the case for raising parish precepts in order to devolve responsibility and services to town and parish councils.

·         Need to focus on risk and finance, but money should not be the only factor in making decisions. The Business Plan was an aspirational document.

Section 2

·         Page 13/14 of the draft Plan:  It was iportant to focus on reaching hard-to-reach communities as they tended to be more vulnerable

·         Procurement: When a service was outsourced the community must understand who was accountable and the focus should be on quality and a user-friendly service, not just the price of the contract.

Section 3

• Environment Select Committee: There was a need to look at the governance of Local Enterprise Partnerships and how they were held to account.
• Environment Select Committee:  Need to ensure there was transport infrastructure so people could access employment opportunities.
• Environment Select Committee: Strong support that Overview and Scrutiny become involved in holding partnerships to account, particularly those that received funding from the Council.
• Environment Select Committee:  Need to look at how Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) are managed.

Section 4

• Suggestion to establish a dedicated task group to look at performance.
• Environment Select Committee:  Need to look at where other Councils have performed well in a service area and learn from this (and learn from our own mistakes).
• Strong support for Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee to have a role in helping develop the Council’s performance framework to enable meaningful monitoring and scrutiny.

General

• Possible need for a dedicated scrutiny task group looking at Housing.
• A need for better communication of good news stories.
• Need to focus on the smaller pockets of deprivation as well as more populated areas.
• Promotion of tourism should be mentioned.

Key deliverables

• More emphasise on the need to lobby for Wiltshire at a national level.

1. Highways maintenance: 

Should this aspiration be broadened to include pavements?

2. Area Boards and Campuses:

Important not give a disproportionate voice to vocal local interest groups.

Importance of having a structured approach to problem-solving at a local level.

3.    Agreed

4.    Agreed

5.    The word “support” needed to be defined more here

6.    A need to work closely with providers of social housing and to investigate all kinds of affordable housing.

7.    Military: Possible question about whether this was a key priority or not.

8.    Agreed

9.    Agreed

10.Public health:  The Council needs to be more involved in decisions about local healthcare.

11.Agreed

12.Councillors should be included in this. Performance management also important.

13.Need an additional Key Deliverable on the promotion of Tourism

The Chairman thanked members for their valuable input and explained that the Chairmen and Vice- Chairmen of the Select Committees and Management Committee would be meeting on 8 July 2013 to consider all the views and comments for submission of a final Overview and Scrutiny report to the Cabinet on 23 July 2013.

Resolved:

That the comments, detailed above, be considered by the Chairmen and Vice- Chairmen of the Select Committees and Management Committee prior to submission of a final Overview and Scrutiny report to the Cabinet on 23 July 2013.