Meeting documents

            Meeting: Overview and Scrutiny Committee (County Hall, Durham - Council Chamber - 16/10/2007 10:00:00 AM)

                  Item: A0 Minutes

         

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At a Special Meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held at the County Hall, Durham on Tuesday 16 October 2007 at 10.00 a.m.


Present:

Members:
Councillors Barker, Bowman, Burlison, C Carr, Chapman, Davies, Douthwaite, Ebbatson, E Foster, N C Foster, Gray, Henderson, Holroyd, Mason, Mair, Morgan, O’Donnell, Ord, Priestley, Pye, Shuttleworth, Southwell, Tennant, Wade, Williams and Wright

Co-opted Members:
Rev A Letby

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors R Carr, Chaplow, Coates, Porter and Young


A1 Declarations of Interest

There were no declarations of interest.


A2 Briefing for Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA)

The Committee was informed by Feisal Jassat, Head of Overview and Scrutiny that the purpose of the meeting was to provide an opportunity to work with members and provide relevant information which may be of use during the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA).

He continued that Chairmen and Vice-Chairmen of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Sub-Committees had been invited to attend a focus group meeting with the CPA on 18 October and it was confirmed that to date twelve had indicated that they would attend.

In addition the Inspectors had also asked to meet with fifteen Overview and Scrutiny members in a focus group on the 25 October and to date twenty members had indicated that they would like to attend.

The Chairman of Overview and Scrutiny, Councillor Armstrong informed members that the Vice-Chairman (Councillor Stradling) and himself had already attended a meeting with the Inspectors and emphasised that members will be asked as to what projects/work Overview and Scrutiny had undertaken during the year and the priorities identified for 2007/08.

Key Themes

In relation to the Key Themes for the Assessment Members were referred to the report of the Chief Executive, ‘CPA Corporate Assessment: Self Assessment Document’ (for copy of report see file of Minutes) together with a presentation by the Head of Overview and Scrutiny (for copy of slides see file of Minutes).

The following issues were highlighted during the presentation:-

CPA THEMES:

· What is the Council, together with its partners trying to achieve?

· What is the capacity of the council, including its work with partners, to deliver what it is trying to achieve?

· What has been achieved?

Challenge Meeting

· Ambition for the Council
· Prioritisation
· Capacity
· Performance management
· What has been achieved?

EMPHASIS

· Children and Young People
· Older People
· Economy
· Environment
· Community Cohesion
· Involvement /Engagement

OUR ACHIEVEMENTS

· Our Overview and Scrutiny approach is:

· Evidence based - e.g. the need for a community buildings strategy

· Outcome focussed - e.g. narrowing the gap between boys/girls at key stage 4 (GCSE)

· About Community Leadership and Strategy development - e.g. Influencing domestic violence policy through the County Durham Domestic Violence Executive; shaping OS function of partnerships via Children’s Trust arrangements in County Durham;

· Inclusive - e.g. involving LGBT communities, Victim Support, Durham Racial Equality Council etc. in gathering evidence on Domestic Violence

· Creative and Innovative - e.g. working with Investing in Children Services to engage young people as facilitators for the NEET review; weekend site visits to see the impact of alcohol misuse on our streets and hospitals;

· Involving local people and community organisations in scrutiny activity - e.g. defining what community trustees want for their community buildings;

· Developing dialogue with public service providers outside and inside the council - e.g. work with the NHS to inform a strategic approach to scrutiny of health services and health improvement issues;

· Reviewing whether goals are being achieved - e.g. systematic review of scrutiny recommendations. Inviting Cabinet to respond with an action plan

· Being Member led - e.g. responding to community concerns about broadband “not spots”; setting OS work programme within context of corporate priorities/forward plan

· MAKING A DIFFERENCE!

The Committee was informed that the focus of the CPA is to look at the Council in relation to three key questions and five themes as follows:-

· What is the Council, together with its partners trying to achieve?
· What is the capacity of the Council, including its work with partners, to deliver what it is trying to achieve?
· What has been achieved?
o Sustainable Communities
o Safer and Stronger Communities
o Healthier Communities
o Older People
o Children and Young People

The main challenges for the County Council as set out in the Self Assessment Document are as follows:

· Demographic change - providing services for older people and helping to keep them in their homes and be part of the local community;

· Community Development - improving community engagement and the capacity of individuals and community groups to fully participate in decisions that affect their lives;

· Crime and Fear of Crime - responding to public concerns about anti-social behaviour;

· Educational attainment and adult basic skills - improving the levels of attainment in schools, particularly secondary schools, and adult skills for the modern labour market;

· Economic vulnerability and lack of employment - addressing the need to diversify and strengthen the economy and the fact that too many people are without jobs;

· Environment - tackling waste management and the need for environmental improvements in towns and villages and increasing awareness of sustainability issues;

· Public health and adult care - meeting the needs of increasing numbers of people with learning disabilities and helping to tackle high levels of ill health, teenage pregnancy and obesity;

· Inequalities - supporting vulnerable adults and children and addressing the impact of inequality and social exclusion, including transportation and access to services and opportunities.

Members were then referred to the additional papers produced for the meeting detailing information produced from the Challenge Meeting of the Corporate Assessment Team (for copy see file of Minutes). It was highlighted that this document identifies areas of potential challenge.

The following issues were highlighted in the paper as areas of challenge:

WHAT IS THE COUNCIL, TOGETHER WITH ITS PARTNERS, TRYING TO ACHIEVE?

[1. AMBITION; 2. PRIORITISATION]

· Are there clear and challenging ambitions for the area and its communities?
· Are ambitions based on a shared understanding amongst the Council and partner organisations of local needs?
· Does the Council with its partners provide leadership across the community and ensure effective partnership working?
· Are there clear and robust priorities within the ambitions?
· Is there a robust strategy to deliver the priorities?
· Is robust action taken to deliver the strategy?

Areas of Challenge

· Need to understand links between Sustainable Community Strategy, Corporate Plan, LAA and determine ambitions

· How challenging are the Council’s ambitions?

· Do they meet the needs of a changing and diverse population e.g. older people, migrant workers?

· Are these ambitions shared by partners and understood by staff and residents?

· What is the outcome of the refresh of the Sustainable Communities Strategy and how does this impact on the council’s plans?

· How does the Council consult with “hard to hear” groups?

· What has changed as a result of community consultation and engagement?

· How do priorities reflect views of partners, residents and businesses?

· How is the Council fulfilling its community leadership role?

· Examples of the Council taking difficult decisions?

· How does council integrate and influence regional aims?

· Progress on the Joint Access to Services strategy and older people’s strategy?

· We need to understand how ambitions are linked to priorities, e.g. 1 year priorities links to 3 year priorities and links to budget.

· What are not priorities?

· How does the improving health priority contribute to reducing health inequalities?

Discussion/issues raised by Members in relation to ambition and prioritisation

Members highlighted that the priorities of the Authority are children and young people, jobs and older people.

In relation to community and engagement, Councillor Armstrong, Head of Overview and Scrutiny commented that Overview and Scrutiny have co-opted members who serve on the various sub-committees who represent various groups and local communities. With reference to Working Group meetings representatives from community groups are invited to give evidence in relation to specialist areas/issues.

Feisal Jassat, Head of Overview and Scrutiny commented that in relation to consultation and engagement, the Authority performs well however the CPA may identify that there is a need for the Authority to do more.

He continued that over the last twelve months, Overview and Scrutiny had undertaken evidenced based work in relation to many of the priorities of the Authority thereby contributing to policy development and Local Area Agreement targets. It was emphasised that in relation to Local Area Agreements and Multi-Area Agreements, Members now have the opportunity to input into the process as Member representatives now serve on the Board.

Councillor Mason commented that the CPA will look at the consultation carried out by the Authority to date and therefore there is a need to have detailed evidence available showing how this had been undertaken.

It was confirmed that in the near future a seminar would be arranged for members to assist in understanding the process of target setting.

In relation to targets Tom Bolton, Principal Scrutiny Support Officer commented that at the last Environment Scrutiny Sub-Committee Members had questioned as to whether current targets contained in the Performance Report were stretching for the Authority.

He continued that with reference to the Footways Scrutiny Working Group Report (Cracking Up) the recommendations of the Report included a reference to additional classes of footways which would have additional indicators attached to them.

Councillor Tennant commented that in relation to priorities and target setting the Authority has focused resources at Key Stage 4 however he suggested that resources should be targeted at primary schools to ensure a higher level of attainment at secondary school level.

The Head of Overview and Scrutiny, Feisal Jassat commented that he had recently met with Ken Jarrold, Chairman, County Durham Economic Partnership looking at the issue of Skills Development and the focusing of resources to target attainment levels.

Councillor Wade commented that Overview and Scrutiny had a significant monitoring role in relation to ensuring that recommendations made to Cabinet, when approved are then actioned.

Councillor C Carr commented that he had recently taken part in a CPA Inspection of another Local Authority where questions asked of members focused on what members have done or are doing in their local communities.

Councillor Southwell suggested that the CPA should look at the work undertaken by Overview and Scrutiny for the previous two year period, look at timescales to see whether they had been met and if recommendations had been implemented.

In relation to working with partners, Councillor Wade commented that the authority undertakes a lot of joint working via Overview and Scrutiny with the District, Town and Parish Councils (i.e. Health Scrutiny Sub-Committee, Transport Working Group, NEET Working Group).

WHAT IS THE CAPACITY OF THE COUNCIL, INCLUDING ITS WORK WITH PARTNERS, TO DELIVER WHAT IT IS TRYING TO ACHIEVE?
[3. CAPACITY; 4. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT]

· Is there clear accountability and decision making to support service delivery and continuous improvement?

· Is capacity used effectively and developed to deliver ambitions and priorities?

· Does the Council, with its partners, have the capacity it needs to achieve change and deliver its priorities?

· Is there a consistent, rigorous and open approach to performance management?

· Do the Council and partner organisations know how well they and each other are performing against planned outcomes?

· Is knowledge about performance used to drive continuous improvement in outcomes?

Need to explore political capacity, management and relationships including:

· Councillors/officers working together to deliver the priorities

· Relationships between Cabinet, Portfolio holder and officer delegation and decision making

· Councillor development

We need to explore operational capacity:

· Financial capacity over the medium term including risk management and procurement (including services)

· Achievement of value for money and efficiency agenda, including links to service prioritisation

· Progress on joint commissioning

· The difference that the workforce development agenda is making

· Performance management of staff - appraisal and personal development

· Partnerships and capacity building, e.g., with the voluntary sector, town and parish councils

· How do you make best use of partnerships and what outcomes have been achieved as a result

· IT infrastructure and support · What progress has been made in reorganising social care services?

· What progress on single status/equal pay

We need to look at the performance management framework:

· Role of councillors

· Connections between activities and outcomes

· The role of the user - the links between consultation, planning and performance management activity (including comments and complaints)

· Links from departments down through service/business plans to teams and individuals

· Performance management in partnerships

· Examples of performance management effectively addressing underperformance

· Learning from benchmarking, reviews and external evaluation

· Mechanisms to demonstrate equity of performance - geographical and equality strands

· Target setting: how and who contributes

· Progress on sickness absence?

Discussion/issues raised by Members in relation to Capacity and Performance Management

Feisal Jassat, Head of Overview and Scrutiny commented that members receive reports on a regular basis via Sub-Committees and Budget Working Group meetings where Members challenge officers in relation to value for money, service delivery, risk management and procurement. He continued that Members receive various performance data, i.e., regular reports in relation to sickness absence.

Various Scrutiny projects have been undertaken which focus on the performance of the Authority, in a particular service provision i.e., Key Stage 4, Footways (a key performance indicator).

Councillor Wade commented that Overview and Scrutiny Members vote on a yearly basis as to the projects they will undertake. The work of Overview and Scrutiny enhances the key aims and priorities of the Authority.

In relation to Local Government Review, Tom Bolton, Principal Scrutiny Support Officer, commented that Members need to stress that this is not distracting the Authority from the normal business of the County Council, with members placing significant emphasis on what had been achieved in the previous 12 to 18 months.

Councillor Henderson commented that in relation to capacity, the Authority had selected those priorities which can be achieved within the financial capacity of the Authority.

5. WHAT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED? SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES AND TRANSPORT

· What has the Council, with its partners, achieved in its ambitions for a sustainable economy and labour market?
· What has the Council, with its partners, achieved in its ambitions and priorities for the local housing market?
· What has the Council, with its partners, achieved in its ambitions for the local environment?
· What has the Council, with its partners, achieved in its ambitions for and through transport?

o
How will the new Economic Strategy accelerate the County’s economy to reduce the gap between productivity in the County and the rest of the country?

o What measurable outcomes have these initiatives/programmes delivered? (URR).

o Progress on Regional Spatial Strategy?

o Progress on carrying out housing market assessment?

o What plans are in place to improve recycling rates and reduce waste arisings, and in particular, biodegradable waste to landfill?

o Progress on letting the contract for Municipal Waste Management

o What is the Council’s approach and achievements to climate change o Has the integrated approach to transport reduced car usage?

o What are your plans to improve bus services?

Discussion/Issues raised by Members in relation to sustainable communities and transport what has been achieved

Councillor Davies commented that in the ‘Harder Test’ the focus is on customer satisfaction, what had Overview and Scrutiny done which enhanced customer satisfaction, he continued that the Urban and Rural Renaissance Initiative ‘Light Touch’ project had talked to ‘Customers’, listened to their comments and incorporated them into the recommendations which were then contained in the final report.

In relation to improving bus services a Transport project is currently underway involving the District Council which will look at bus service provision within the County.

6. WHAT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED? SAFE AND STRONGER COMMUNITIES

· What has the Council, with its partners, achieved in its ambitions for reducing and preventing crime and the fear of crime?
· What has the Council, with its partners, achieved in its ambitions for reducing anti-social behaviour (ASB)?
· What has the Council, with its partners, achieved in its ambitions to reduce the harm that drugs and alcohol cause to society?
· What has the Council, with its partners, achieved in its ambitions for reducing accidents and making people feel safer?
· Is the Council well prepared for internal or external emergency situations?
· What has the Council, with its partners, achieved in its ambitions for building stronger communities?

o
o How is the Council using its strategic role to reduce crime and disorder across the County?

o How is the Council helping to reduce the fear of crime?

o What are the targets in the drug and alcohol strategy?

o What are the links between drug and alcohol misuse and the health agenda?

o What are the plans for meeting the road casualty targets in 2010?

o In addition to reducing accidents, what is the Council doing to make people feel safer?

o We need further information on emergency planning, e.g., internal business continuity arrangements.

o What is the Council’s approach to community cohesion?

Discussion/Issues raised by Members in relation to Safer and Stronger Communities

Feisal Jassat, Head of Overview and Scrutiny, referred Members to the Alcohol and Drugs Misuse Working Group project (‘A Question of Culture) and the Domestic Abuse Working Group Project (‘A Hidden Trust’) both projects have received input from the police identifying various initiatives to stop offending and re-offending. In addition, a previous Scrutiny project had looked at the Fear of Crime and Anti-Social Behaviour, receiving evidence from the police and young people.

7. WHAT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED? HEALTHIER COMMUNITIES

· What has the Council, with its partners, done to achieve its ambitions for the promotion of healthier communities and the narrowing of health inequalities and are these achievements recognised by the local population?

o Response with partners to current health improvement and inequalities issues
o Lower than national average life expectancy for males and females
o Higher levels of smoking than national average
o Teenage pregnancies are reducing but outstanding rate is higher than national average
o Levels of obesity that are amongst the worst in England
o Relatively large numbers of people with disability or long term limiting illness and
o Forecast increase in number of school leavers with learning disabilities

Extent of contribution of Council departments to the health agenda and how embedded this is - links to wider determinants of health

· Progress of Council’s healthy workplace programme?

It was confirmed that the Government has set over 200 targets for LAA’s, plus 17 (statutory), each LAA has to choose 35 targets from the 200.

Discussion/Issues raised by Members in relation to Healthier Communities

The Committee was reminded of the work undertaken by the Health Scrutiny Committee which works in partnership with the District Councils and the Health Authority, focusing on current health improvement issues.

8. WHAT HAS BEEN ACHIEVED? OLDER PEOPLE

· What has the Council, with its partners and with older people, done to develop a strategic approach to older people as citizens that goes beyond health and social care and covers the areas that older people say are most important?
· What has the Council, both corporately and with its partners, done to undertake meaningful engagement with older people and their representative groups on all aspects of the strategic approach to older people and service provision?
· What has the Council, with its partners, achieved in its ambition to deliver a comprehensive, co-ordinated range of services to older people?

o How has the changing context and national and local levels affected the delivery of the older people’s agenda?

o Progress of “Living Well in Later Life” draft strategy for older people?

o Need to look at the Council’s approach to service commissioning.

o Need to explore the strategic approach beyond social care, including promotion of good health and healthy lifestyles.

o What is being done to meet the needs of greater numbers of ageing learning disabled people?

o What is the sustainable strategy for residential care provision?

o Consistency and performance of integrated service provision?

o How has the Council met the information needs as prioritised by service users.

Discussion/Issues raised by Members in relation to Older People

Reference was made to the current Scrutiny Working Group looking at the future of residential care, which had involved input from residents, relatives and home providers, it was highlighted the depth/detail of the work undertaken by the Authority in relation to Residential Care and the ‘Hard Decisions’ made in relation to this issue.

‘Our Achievements’

In relation to the achievements of the Authority via the Overview and Scrutiny process, the following was highlighted to Members by the Head of Overview and Scrutiny:

· Evidence based - the Community Buildings project identified the need for a community buildings strategy.

· Outcome focussed - the Key Stage 4 project looked at narrowing the gap between boys/girls.

· About Community Leadership and Strategy Development, e.g., influencing domestic violence policy through the County Durham Domestic Violence Executive, Shaping Overview and Scrutiny function of partnerships via Children’s Trust arrangements in County Durham.

· Inclusive - involving LGBT Communities, Victim Support, Durham Racial Equality Council for the Domestic Violence Project.

· Creative and Innovative - e.g., working with investing in Children Services for the NEET project, weekend visits to nightclubs and Accident and Emergency Departments to see the results of alcohol misuse on our streets and hospitals

· Involving local people and community organisations in the scrutiny activity, i.e., obtaining Community Trustee’s views as to what they want for their community buildings.

· Developing dialogue - with public service providers outside and inside the Council - work with NHS to form a strategic approach to Scrutiny of health services and health improvement issues, involvement of District Parish Councils in various projects.

· Reviewing whether goals are being achieved - systematic review of scrutiny recommendations inviting Cabinet to respond with a plan.

· Being Member led - responding to community concerns about broadband ‘not spots’ setting Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme within context of corporate priorities.

It was emphasised the success of Overview and Scrutiny in relation to gaining funding for proposals which had resulted from Scrutiny projects, in relation to:

· Tourism in County Durham
· Access to the coast
· Access to the countryside
· Footways
· Alcohol and Drug Misuse
· Improving the health of vulnerable people (domestic violence)
· Educational attainment
· Investment in community buildings
· Reducing worklessness

Councillor Tennant commented that there is a need for the design and location of accommodation for older people to be looked into (such accommodation needs to have two bedrooms and be located in the centre of the village/town).

It was suggested that this issue could be considered as part of the Regional Spatial Strategy ‘Light Touch’ Review.

Resolved:-
That the information provided be noted.


Attachments

 Minutes 16th October 2007.pdf