Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence from the meeting were received by Councillors Jamie Lane, Suresh Patel, Nilesh Parekh and Lee Mason, Councillor Winston Strachan substituting for Councillor Mason.

Members to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 13 December 2012.

The minutes of the meeting held on 13^th December 2012 were approved and signed by the Chairman.

There were none.

There were none.

Members to consider the Council Wide draft Budget 2013-2016

The Reporting and Monitoring Group has considered the draft budget in detail and has made recommendations of a number of budget items it considers merit further review by Overview and Scrutiny.

The Committee considered a report on the Council Wide Draft Budget 2013-14.

The Overview and Scrutiny Reporting and Monitoring Working Group met on 9 January 2013 and identified the following budget proposals that it wished to scrutinise further.

The items were:-

·         Savings Arising from Changes to Terms and Conditions (General Fund)

·         Savings from moving services into LGSS Conditions (General Fund)

·         Raising sponsorship to offset cost of NBC events Conditions (General Fund)

·         Dealing with Welfare Reform and the Impact on Rent Income CollectionConditions (General Fund)(HRA)

Savings Arising from Changes to Terms and Conditions (General Fund)

Councillor Mackintosh as the Cabinet member with responsibility for changes to terms and conditions and Councillor Bottwood as Finance Cabinet Member addressed the Committee to discuss this Budget proposal. The main points of discussion were as follows:-

It was explained that this matter impacted on both the General Fund and the Housing Revenue Accounts.

Members asked if the proposals had had an effect on staff morale and what feedback had been received during the consultation process. It was felt that there had been an impact on staff morale but that it needed to be taken in the context of the current difficult economic climate. Staff realised that there were several additional pressures on the amount of money available to deliver services which also had to change rapidly to encompass major new legislation.

It was explained that the whole consultation process had started in October last year. The main focus :

·         Essential Car User Allowances – Removal of the essential car user allowance and replace with a casual car user allowance.

·         Professional Fees

·         Charging Staff for car parking.

At the same time employees were also asked if they wished to put themselves forward for voluntary redundancy or early retirement.

There were 22 people interested in voluntary redundancy 19 of those were in services which were to be subject to reorganisation. Therefore 3 people were agreed for voluntary redundancy release.  The release of those concerned had been agreed by their managers and a Panel which looked at the impact that their leaving might have on the service.

Members questioned whether these changes could be implemented if they were part of employees’ contract. They were advised that changes in the contracts were introduced as part of the pay and grading exercise and introduced a condition that non contractual conditions such as essential car users allowance could be changed if three months’ notice was given.

The combined savings achieved from the agreed voluntary redundancies and the removal of the essential car user allowance was sufficient to achieve the required salary savings for this year. It was therefore decided to give 12 months’ notice that the other proposals i.e to remove payment of professional fees and the introduction of staff car parking charges would be introduced in 2014.

Members were advised that the Trade Unions had not agreed to the changes and had stated that they intended to hold a ballot of their members.

Members asked whether alternatives to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Committee to receive details of the consultations feedback - Tenancy Engagement Strategy.

Councillor Markham, Cabinet Member for Housing, Lesley Wearing, Director of Housing and Tim Ansell, Housing Services Manager attended the Committee to provide an update on the Consultation Feedback on the Tenancy Engagement Strategy.

The main points of the discussion were as follows:-

The Council has a good record of tenant engagement. The new engagement strategy builds on ensuring that the tenants are involved in the decision making process and the development of service improvement. All the feedback on the proposed strategy has been very positive and the consultation meetings have been very well attended.

The new Strategy introduces tenant scrutiny panels which will be examining specific areas of service. Those service areas being the ones that were identified through the tenancy agreement process. The chairs of these tenant scrutiny panels will form a Scrutiny Board.

The themes of the five boards will be:-

• Home- including repair issues
• Solutions – Considering choice based letting process
• Neighbourhoods- Communal Areas, estates, Anti-Social behaviour
• Involvement and Empowerment- Customer Service
• Strategy- Performance targets and value for money.

There will be support and training provided for tenants who wish to serve on panels. In March Housing will be holding a recruitment day looking for scrutiny panel members, mystery shoppers, volunteers for estate walkabouts etc. Training will then be tailored to need.

It was emphasised that this engagement would be in addition to existing processes.

Members were pleased to see that the proposals had been supported by tenants and hoped that the tenant panels might be able to join in with scrutiny done by the Committee. They considered that the tenants panels might be able to identify work for a potential Scrutiny Review, and felt that it would be useful if the Overview and Scrutiny Committee received updates on their progress.

AGREED:

1.    The Cabinet Member for Housing be invited to the Committee in six months’ time to give an update on the progress of the implementation on the tenants’ engagement strategy.

2.    Overview and Scrutiny Committee to receive regular updates from the Housing Scrutiny Panels.

The Committee to consider Cabinet’s response to its report on Customer Services.

The Committee received the Cabinet response to the recommendations of the Scrutiny Report on Customer Services.

The recommendations included in the Overview and Scrutiny report on Customer Services were all accepted.

AGREED:

1.    The report detailing Cabinet’s response be noted.

2.    The report be added to the Overview and Scrutiny Monitoring Work Programme 2013/14.

3.    The Cabinet member be invited to attend the Committee in six months’ time to provide a progress report on the accepted recommendations.

The Committee to consider Cabinet’s response to its report on Hate Crime.

The Committee received the Cabinet response to the recommendations of the Scrutiny Report on Hate Crime.

The recommendations included in the Overview and Scrutiny report on Hate Crime were all accepted.

The report included a recommendation that a Councillor Hate Crime Reporting Champion be elected and Councillor Matt Lynch has been elected to this position. Members asked if they could receive an update detailing the proposed work programme and reporting process for the Councillor Champion.

AGREED:

1.    The report detailing Cabinet’s response be noted.

2.    The report be added to the Overview and Scrutiny Monitoring Work Programme 2013/14.

3.    The Cabinet member  and the Councillor Hate Crime Reporting Champion be invited to attend the Committee in six months’ time to provide a progress report on the accepted recommendations.

The Committee to monitor the implementation of the accepted recommendations contained in the Community Centres report.

A summary of the history of this Overview and Scrutiny report is attached for information.

Councillor Brandon Eldred, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and Julie Seddon, Director of Customers and Communities attended the meeting to provide an update on the accepted recommendations of the report.

The main points of the discussion were as follows:-

Of 21 Community Centres, the transfer of 19 had been agreed. There are just two at Parklands and Weston Flavell that are outstanding. Parklands had now submitted a Business Plan. There were issues regarding Western Flavell and agreements held by the County Council which were being resolved.

With regard to Western Flavell Members raised concern that the Community Centre user groups did not feel that they had been properly consulted over the potential change in Management. It was also commented that it did not appear to be part of the normal process to inform the local councillor when these changes were brought forwarded.

Members asked whether all opportunities were being taken to support the new management groups by using the Community Centres for Council business. It was pointed out that the Council would now be subject to hire charges and would no longer have any kind of priority over booking.

The transfer of the management of all of the Community Centres to local management groups was seen as best practice and there is starting to be some very positive feedback from communities with regard to the changes. There had been some instances were groups had not been happy with the groups chosen to run the centres, but on the whole these had been resolved. The project had also been nominated for a national award.

Members queried whether the creation of new parish councils might affect the future of some community centres. This would depend on whether the Parish Councils wish to be involved in running local Community Centres and would have to be considered between any new Parish Council as they were formed and any current management committee.

Members also asked whether it would be possible to be advised of the types of activities that are being held at the Community Centres and whether they are being self-sufficient.

AGREED: The Cabinet Member for Community Engagement be invited to the Committee in a year’s time to give an update on how the Community Centres are being run, whether they are achieving self-sufficiency and whether they are providing a full range of activities for the local communities.

The Committee to monitor the implementation of the accepted recommendations contained in the Commissioning Framework for the Voluntary and Community Sector report.

A copy of Cabinet’s response to this Overview and Scrutiny report is attached for information.

Councillor Brandon Eldred, Cabinet Member for Community Engagement and the Director of Customers and Communities attended the meeting to provide an update on the accepted recommendations of the report.

The main points of the discussion were as follows:-

In the current economic climate it is vital that any grants given achieve the maximum impact. Therefore the grant process is currently being reviewed. In particular looking at the way in which the large grants can be geared to make the most impact.

Members commented that the County Council have moved to a system whereby the making of a grant is done via awarding a contract. This was being considered by the Borough Council but it was considered that it was still vitally important to ensure that there was still as system which would allow smaller organisations to be able to access grants without the process being too bureaucratic. There was concern that the voluntary and community sector have already seen their caseloads increase and that the forthcoming welfare reform changes will put them under even more strain.

AGREED: The Cabinet Member for Community Engagement be invited to attend Committee in a year’s time to provide an update on how the grants process is working.

The Cabinet Member for Finance attended the Committee. Committee considered the performance monitoring report to December 2012.

The main points of the discussion were as follows:-

Performance Indicators are constantly being monitored and reporting is done on an exception basis i.e. those items which are not meeting their current targets.

The figures received by Committee are usually at least a month out of date by the time that they receive them but there is little that can be done as figures need to be collected retrospectively.

Members asked whether there was an automatic trigger point at which an item showing red became an unacceptable risk. They were advised that the indicators are constantly monitored by officers and they will be taking action.

Committee members were asked whether there were any areas that they wished to see indicators on. Members responded that there was a new responsibility on the Council for peoples’ well-being and that measures needed to be found for that.

Members considered that it would be important to concentrate on Performance Indicators which could be affected by the Welfare Reform changes and ensure that they were promptly dealt with. In particular they considered that this would affect the rent collection and rent arrears figures- H1 12 and H1 13.

Members also noted that the trends for car crime and cleanliness of open spaces and parks seemed to be showing downward trends.

AGREED

1.    A report be made to the next meeting of the Committee on Performance Indicators H1 12 and H1 13 to establish a base line against which to measure the impact of Welfare Reforms.

2.    A report be made to the next meeting of the Committee on the Performance trends for car crime and cleanliness of open spaces and parks.

The Committee noted the report on the progress of the Serious Acquisitive Crime, Violent Crime and Community Scrutiny Panel.

The Committee noted the report on the progress of the Retail Experience Scrutiny Panel.

The Committee noted the report on the progress of the Infrastructure requirements and Section 106 Agreements Scrutiny Panel.

The Committee to receive a progress report on the LGSS Scrutiny Inquiry.

The Chairman gave the Committee an update on the progress of the Local Government Shared Services Scrutiny Inquiry.

The Inquiry has been meeting fortnightly and has been looking at each of the affected services in turn. It was the intention of the Inquiry to cover all of the service areas before the LGSS is approved by Council in March, although this date may be delayed. The last meeting considered ICT and the next will look at Revenues and Benefits and Human Resources.

The Inquiry has also been receiving a management overview of the progression of discussions on all the aspects of transition.

Councillor Danielle Stone provided a briefing note on the Northamptonshire County Council’s Health and Social Care Committee.

The main points of her update were:-

On a visit to Northampton General Hospital Members had been informed that of 650 beds, 150 were blocked because of needing to arrange adaptions or care for the patients in order for them to be released. Members were informed that there was a very good scheme which provided some beds in a care home environment whilst provisions were being made, however this was limited in its scope.

They were also informed that the health care commissioners were looking at payment by results schemes.

AGREED: That the update be noted.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider any potential issues for future pre decision scrutiny.

No items were identified.

There were none.