Agenda and minutes

To confirm the appointment of Cllr Kevin Deanus as Chairman of the Community Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee for the Council year 2019/20.

Recommendation

That Cllr Kevin Deanus be appointed as Chairman of the Community Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee for the Council year 2019/20.

1.1       The Committee confirmed the appointment of Cllr Kevin Deanus as Chairman of the Community Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee for the Council year 2019/20.

To confirm the appointment of Cllr Kika Mirylees as Vice-Chairman of the Community Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee for the Council year 2019/20.

Recommendation

That Cllr Kika Mirylees be appointed as Vice-Chairman of the Community Wellbeing Overview & Scrutiny Committee for the Council year 2019/20.

2.1       The Committee confirmed the appointment of Cllr Kika Mirylees as Vice-Chairman of the Committee for the Council year 2019/20.

To confirm the Minutes of the Meeting held on 19 February 2019 (to be laid on the table 30 minutes before the meeting).

3.1      The Minutes of the Meeting held on 19 February 2019 were confirmed as a correct record and signed.

To receive from Members declarations of interests in relation to any items included on the agenda for this meeting, in accordance with Waverley’s Code of Local Government Conduct.

4.1       There were no declarations of interests in connection with items on the agenda.

The Chairman to respond to any written questions received from members of the public in accordance with Procedure Rule 10.

The deadline for receipt of written questions is 5pm on Tuesday 11 June 2019.

5.1       A question had been received from Mrs Betty Ames. Mrs Ames was present at the meeting and asked her question, as follows:

“My questions relate to Agenda Item 11, starting on page 65, and first ask why the Health and Wellbeing Service review appears to be limited to commercial services only? They should surely embrace the full range of services reported on at Item 3 on page 66.

“May I please be advised on how the portfolio holder for Health and Wellbeing proposes to engage for Waverley Borough Council with all the statutory bodies involved, including the Primary Care Network, the voluntary organisations and the public, in accordance with statutory requirements as prescribed in the Care Act 2014 and the recent NHS Act, to ensure Waverley Borough Council maximises the opportunities for engagement within the ICP work streams, particularly the four groups under Independence and Prevention?”

5.2       Responding to the first question, Kelvin Mills, Head of Commercial Services agreed that Health and Wellbeing was much wider than commercial services, and this was just reflected where within the council the management responsibility lay.

5.3       With regard to the second question, the Chairman advised Mrs Ames that he was not able to respond on behalf of the Portfolio Holder, but he would forward the question on to Cllr Beaman and ask him to reply to Mrs Ames directly.

To receive presentations on the Service Areas falling within the remit of the Community Wellbeing Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

6.1       The Committee received presentations from Heads of Service laying out the headline issues for the service areas within the remit of the Committee:

Richard Homewood – Head of Environmental and Regulatory Services

          The only aspect of this service falling within the remit of the Committee was Licensing of Taxis and Private Hire vehicles, and Entertainment and Liquor Licensing. The Council had a separate Licensing and Regulatory Committee which had oversight of the Licensing function, but the Committee had an interest in the service through the four licensing objectives: prevention of crime and disorder; public safety; the prevention of public nuisance; and the protection of children from harm.

          The Council’s Taxi and Private Hire Licensing Policy would be reviewed later in the year, and would be brought to the O&S committee for scrutiny as  part of the review.

Kelvin Mills – Head of Commercial Services

            Kelvin Mills outlined:

·         the Council’s plans for investment in Godalming and Farnham Leisure Centres, and a new leisure centre for Cranleigh;

·         the Health and Wellbeing Strategy and Careline Service;

·         the Cultural Strategy, which contributed to health and wellbeing and the development of community identity through cultural assets;

·         Waverley Training Services, which provided a study programme for young people not in educations, employment or training (NEETs) and apprenticeships for many public sector organisations in the south. WTS had achieved a ‘good’ OFSTED rating, and recently relocated to the Memorial Hall in Farnham.

Andrew Smith – Head of Housing Delivery and Communities

            Andrew Smith outlined the partnership work with various voluntary sector organisations which Waverley supported with grants and a service level agreement. Organisations supported in this way included Citizens Advice Waverley, day centres in Cranleigh, Farncombe, Farnham, Haslemere and Milford, and the HOPPA community transport service. These organisations provided services that were highly valued, and Waverley worked closely with the respective governing bodies to help build resilience and good management practices.

6.2       In reviewing the scope of the services within the Committee’s remit, Members had a number of questions and the Chairman identified some specific areas of interest for review:

·         The impact of the Brightwells development on the Farnham Leisure Centre, and particularly the temporary parking at the Riverside – the path was poorly lit and narrow, and needed some upgrading before the winter and dark evenings

·         The use of the North Downs Way terminus in Farnham as a focus for tourism in the town

·         The investment in a new leisure centre for Cranleigh

·         Grounds maintenance and the maintenance of Surrey verges

·         The issues around the Farnham Museum building

·         Waverley Training Services

·         The Ageing Well Strategy, and prevention of loneliness across all age groups

·         Community safety and domestic abuse

6.3       The Chairman thanked Heads of Service for the presentations. He was keen that as the Committee developed its work programme, Members would offer to lead on areas of particular interest, but asked that any requests for further information came through him or the Vice-Chairman.

Copies of the presentation slides were circulated to Committee members following  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To receive the Corporate Performance report for Quarter 4, 2018/19 and the End of Year Out-turn.

The Corporate Performance Report provides an analysis of the Council’s performance for the fourth quarter of 2018-19. The report, set out at Annexe 1, is being presented to each of the Overview and Scrutiny Committees for comment and any recommendations they may wish to make to the Executive.

Recommendation

That the Overview & Scrutiny Committee considers the performance of the service areas under its remit as set out in Annexe 1 to this report and makes any recommendations to senior management or the Executive as appropriate.

7.1       Nora Copping introduced the Corporate Performance Report and gave a short presentation explaining the purpose and format of the report. She then took the Committee through the indicators relating to services in the committee remit, which showed a very good performance for 2018/19 as a whole.

7.2       The Committee noted that the indicators were mostly local indicators, although some services still reported against old national indicators; and some services had new government targets that they reported against. Local indicators were difficult to benchmark although managers generally had a feel for what was a good standard of performance.

7.3       The Chairman advised the Committee that its focus should be on exceptions and trends, for instance the drop in Careline clients in Q4 might just be one-off, but would need to be watched in case it continued. Then the Committee should be asking what was being done to address the issue.

7.4       The Committee noted the report, and thanked Nora for her presentation.

The purpose of this report is to bring to the attention of the O&S members the work of the Budget Strategy Working Group set up by the Value for Money and Customer Service O&S Committee in October 2017. The Committee is invited to nominate a member(s) to join the Budget Strategy Working Group.

Recommendation

That the Committee nominates a member(s) to join the Budget Strategy Working Group.

8.1       The Chairman briefed the Committee on the work of the Budget Strategy Working Group, that had been established last year by the Value for Money and Customer Service O&S Committee with membership from all four O&S committees. The Community Wellbeing O&S Committee was invited to nominate one or two members to join the Working Group for the current year.

8.2       Workstream 2, the participatory budgeting exercise was about to be launched after the procurement of a company to undertake the residents’ surveys. The Budget Strategy Working Group would be focusing on Workstream 3, looking at service delivery and opportunities for improvements and efficiencies in how services are delivered.

8.3       The Chairman advised the Cllr Hyman had offered to join the Working Group, but he was a substitute on the committee. Cllr Dickson was interested in joining the Working Group, provided meetings could be in the evening. Cllr Cosser was also interested, and would be able to meet in the day.

8.4       It was noted that Cllr Hyman was a member of the Value for Money O&S Committee. It was agreed that if he was not appointed to the Budget Strategy Working Group by that committee then he would be nominated by the Environment O&S along with Cllr Dickson or Cllr Cosser, depending on meetings were held. Yasmine Makin thanked councillors for offering to join the Budget Strategy Working Group, and would pass their names on to the Value for Money and Customer Service O&S Committee.

The Community Wellbeing O&S Committee considers a range of items within its remit which are diarised on the rolling work programme. The items of work which are currently logged on the work programme for the Committee to discuss are listed on the attached Briefing Paper together with a short explanatory note and proposed timescale. The new Committee is asked to confirm the inclusion of items on the 2019/20 work programme.

9.1       Wendy Cooper, Scrutiny Policy Officer, presented the draft work programme which set out matters that the previous Community Wellbeing O&S committee had identified for scrutiny. She emphasised that it remained for the new committee for decide on its own priorities and to set its own work programme for the year.

9.2       Cllr Cosser suggested that it would be helpful to invite the relevant Executive Portfolio Holder to brief the Committee on their priorities for the year ahead. In his experience at Surrey County Council, this had been a useful and constructive discussion. The Committee noted that Cllr Beaman had indicated that he would normally attend the committee, but he had another appointment this evening.

9.3       The Committee noted that an update on changes to health arrangements in Waverley was planned for September, and asked what the scrutiny role of the committee was in relation to health. Cllr Cosser reminded the Committee that the County Council held the statutory health scrutiny role. The Chairman advised that this was a briefing, but potentially would highlight areas that the committee might want to explore in more depth.

9.4       The Committee was content for the time being to agree the content and timetabling of the work programme, accepting that other matters for scrutiny could emerge over the course of the year.