Agenda and draft minutes

To receive apologies for absence and note substitutions.

Members who are unable to attend this meeting must submit apologies by the end of Tuesday 18 June 2024 to enable a substitute to be arranged, if applicable.

Apologies were received from cllrs Peter Clark and George Hesse. No substitutes attended.

To approve the Minutes of the meetings of the Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee held on 26 March 2024 and 22 May 2024 and published on the Council’s website. 

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 March and 22 May 2024 were agreed as a correct record.

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.

There were no declarations of interest submitted for this meeting.

The Chairman to respond to any questions submitted by members of the public in accordance with Procedure Rule 10.

The deadline for submission of written questions for this meeting is Monday 17 June 2024.

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There were no questions from members of the public submitted for this meeting.

The Chairman to respond to any questions received from Members in accordance with Procedure Rule 11.

The deadline for submission of written questions for this meeting is Monday 17 June 2024.

There were no questions from members submitted for this meeting.

The Services Overview & Scrutiny Committee is responsible for managing the Committee’s work programme.

The current work programme (attached) includes items agreed and takes account of items identified on the latest Executive Forward Programme (Annexe 2) as due to come forward for decision.

Recommendation

Members are invited to consider their work programme and make any comments and/or amendments they consider necessary, including suggestions for any additional topics that the Committee may wish to add to its work programme.

James Dearling, Senior Democratic Services Officer (Scrutiny), Guildford, updated the members on the forward work programme.

Members asked if the Homeless Prevention Strategy had been launched successfully and if there had been any lessons learnt?

Julian Higson, Joint Strategic Director for Housing and Environment (Interim), agreed to provide an update to committee.

It was noted that the Committee were to consider the corporate antisocial behaviour policy at the September meeting and enquired what stage this was at? Officers advised it was currently in its first draft and would be going out to consultation soon.

The Corporate Performance Report provides an analysis of the Council’s

performance for the 4th quarter of 2023-24. 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.

Jenny Sturgess, Policy and Performance Officer, introduced the Corporate Performance Report for Q4 of 2023/24 advising the Committee that pages 22 introduced the Corporate Dashboard and the areas under this committees remit were from pages 54 onwards.

The Committee were advised that officers were looking at a new reporting template for 2024/25 and were encouraged to submit questions to officers in advance to allow them to collate answers for the meeting.

The Chair welcomed the report and the narratives outlining the hard work each service was doing.

Regeneration and Planning Policy

Officers were asked if the planning application for Loungers had been submitted yet and were advised that it was due soon.

Members welcomed the information on the Godalming mobile youth service as they were keen to launch a similar project in Haslemere.

Officers were asked when members could hope to have an update on the ‘call for sites’ and were advised a member briefing would be arrange in the near future.

Commercial Services

The Chair welcomed the update on Building Control and asked the members to note the revised title of Registered Building Inspectors (previously Building Control Surveyors).

Community Services

Sam Hutchison, Assistant Director for Communities gave a brief overview of the report for this service. She highlighted that the cost of living crisis was still having huge impacts to our residents and that Careline were having issues with accessing stocks of digital alarms which will be needed for the digital phoneline switchover.

Members advised they were having calls from residents about residents’ concerns regarding the digital phoneline. Officers advised they were happy to speak to members offline.

Environmental Services

Members were pleased to note that targets around missed bins had been met in this service following a number of quarters of them been off target. It was highlighted that although the collections of commercial and residential waste was on target that collections of refuse on our green spaces and streets was lacking in areas with waste bins overflowing etc. The need for more dog waste bins was also highlighted by members.

Cllr Jane Austin advised that residents in Bramley were receiving an additional collection of plastic bottles due to the emergency they were currently experiencing. She highlighted this had taken some time as the instruction to the waste collection company was not passed across in a timely manner.  Julian Higson, Joint Strategic Director reiterated the apology that this had not been carried out as quickly as possible.

Planning Development

The Chair advised members that she had attended the Dunsfold consultation and was pleased to announce that, after a number of years of uncertainty for this site, the team leading this seem to be keen to progress and a reserved matters application would be submitted this summer.

Members welcomed all the targets that had been met this quarter after a number of missed targets in previous years.

Officers were asked to quantify the target for percentage of enforcement actioned within 12 weeks. It was showing as good but it  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

Sam Hutchison and Katie Webb to provide an update presentation.

Sam Hutchison, Assistant Director of Community, attended with Katie Webb and Jane Todd to update the Committee on the Guildford and Waverley Health and Wellbeing Partnership  Board (slides attached for information). She advised that the presentation would be honest and open about the failings in this provision. 

Members were advised that the board consisted of a number of strategic partners as it was accepted that one unit cannot fix this issue alone, however, it should be noted that having multiple units has its own issues as each unit has its own agenda. It was established that partners had a desire for a more strategic and operational alliance but it was acknowledged that each have their own intentions.

Another challenge for the Board is that the area is covered by two integrated partnerships (Surrey Heartlands and Frimley) who both work in differing ways and have a very differing focus.

The four neighbourhood groups that were set up across Guildford and Waverley were outlined and it was explained that the focus was going to be to work alongside local people and communities.

Officers outlined the challenges that would need to be addressed which included language barriers, being people centres rather than clinical, the differing systems within the health services, lack of resources available and funding.

The purpose of the Partnership was outlined alongside the proposed structure, the key partners and the focus of the partnership. 

Members were advised of the current self-harm and loneliness health data which showed that Guildford and Waverley had the highest statistics in the country. This showed it was not just a issue for the disadvantaged but the wealthy too.

Since 1^st April 2024 Waverley have established three new mental health support projects which were outlined alongside the Mental Health Investment Fund which had received 26 expressions of interest, 15 shortlisted and 4 confirmed awards so far.

The Committee were advised of future plans with lots of projects beginning and moving forward.  It was also outlined what is already in place that would be supported and a list of 23 organisations who had received grants from the Thriving Communities Commissioning Fund were circulated to members for information. It was emphasised that the voluntary sector were struggling due to the bureaucracy they have to go through when all they want to do is help those who need it.

The committee were reminded that the following priorities would be carried forward:

·         To keep the focus on people not patients

·         To ensure our corporate priorities are weaved into the whole system of health and wellbeing priorities

·         Align our future TCCF objectives to whole system success

·         To build resilience in our partner’s ability to deliver projects and overcome challenges as a partnership

The Chair thanked the officers for the update and advised she would like to take away the information they had provided and send any questions through off-line.

Members felt this was a fantastic document and highlighted the number of ‘hidden’ residents in the Borough.

Cllr Robini asked if Surrey  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69.

To consider, if necessary, the following recommendation on the motion of the Chairman:

Recommendation

That pursuant to Procedure Rule 20 and in accordance with Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following items on the grounds that it is likely in view of the nature of the proceedings, that if members of the public were present during the items there would be disclosure to them of exempt information (as defined by Section 100I of the Act) to be identified at the meeting.

There were no items to discuss in exempt session so the Chair closed the meeting.