To receive apologies for absence from Members.

Apologies for absence were received from the following Members:-

Councillor T Thomas

Councillor J Gebbie

Councillor T Giffard

Councillor RE Young

To receive declarations of personal and prejudicial interest (if any) from Members/Officers in accordance with the provisions of the Members Code of Conduct adopted by Council from 1 September 2008 (including whipping declarations)

Councillor C Webster declared a personal interest in Agenda item 6, in that her son had previously been in receipt of Social Care support.

To receive for approval the minutes of 14/12/17 and 25/01/18

RESOLVED:                  That the Minutes of the meetings of the Corporate O&SC 1 dated 14 December 2017 and 25 January 2018, be approved as a true and accurate record.

The Corporate Director Operational and Partnership Services submitted a report, which presented:-

a)    The items due to be considered at the Committee’s meeting to be held on 30 April 2018, and seek confirmation of the information required for the subsequent scheduled meeting, the date for which has yet to be confirmed;

b)    A list of responses to comments, recommendations and requests for additional information from the previous meeting of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee;

c)    A list of potential Forward Work Programme items for formal prioritisation and allocation to each of the Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committees

Feedback from the previous meetings of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee was attached at Appendix A to the report.

Attached to the report at Appendix B was the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Forward Work Programme, which included the items scheduled for the next two meetings to be held today and on 30 April 2018.

Further attached at Appendix C to the report, was the Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committees FWP, which included the topics prioritised and agreed by the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee for the next set of Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committees in Table 1 attached to the report, as well as a list of proposed future topics at Table 2.

The Scrutiny Officer reminded Members that additional items using the criteria form for future consideration on the Scrutiny Forward Work Programmes, could be identified by Members following the establishment of future dates of Scrutiny meetings following the Annual meeting of Council in May coming.

Members agreed to make some changes to the FWP’s for the next two scheduled meetings of each of the four different Scrutiny Committees, and these were reflected in the decision below, together with the original items also being listed for the sake of completeness.  

RESOLVED:               That the following agenda items be considered for the next two rounds of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee, and Subject Overview and Scrutiny Committees 1,2 and 3:-

Corporate O&SC

18 June - Public Service Board update

                2017-18 Quarter 4 Financial Performance

                Social Services Annual Report

26 July -  Collaborative working with the Police

                Quarterly Performance report Quarter 4

Subject O&SC 1

24 May – Budgetary impacts of Parc Prison

4 July – School Standards

Subject O&SC 2

6 June – Home to School Transport

12 July – Safeguarding

Subject O&SC 3

12 June – Highways Services

10 July – TBC

Invitees

All Members of Cabinet and the Corporate Management Board

Yuan Shen, Group Manager, Corporate Performance, Partnerships and Transformation

The Scrutiny Officer presented a report, the purpose of which, was to present the Council’s draft Directorate Business Plans for 2018-2019 for the Committee to comment upon.

The Chairperson advised that the relevant Cabinet Member and Corporate Director would both be invited to the meeting, in turn, to respond to questions on their Business Plans. She added that the Corporate Director – Organisational and Partnership Services, would remain present throughout the meeting as he was deputising for the Chief Executive who was presently on annual leave.

The Cabinet Member – Education and Regeneration advised Committee in response to a Members question, that the Council were lobbying Network Rail for electrified rail connections and were looking to design a scheme at Pencoed for the new bridge, together with a traffic management scheme. He added that the likes of the Welsh Government Transport Secretary and the appropriate Member of Parliament needed to discuss the scheme further, and give consent for a date for this being given the go ahead.

The Member responded by stating that the Cardiff Regional City Deal should also be lobbied for a contribution to the scheme, as it was scheduled to be completed by March 2019, and electrified trains may not be in operation within the location by this time.

The Corporate Director – Communities advised that there was a whole range of schemes that the Council had submitted to the City Deal initiative to be progressed, however, other participating authorities and organisations had put similar bids in for schemes in their areas also. Therefore, if the scheme at Pencoed railway station was added to these, it would firstly need to be assessed and prioritised against others that had been put forward for consideration.

The Chairperson referred to page 106 of the report, where it stated a Key Achievement, namely that the Council supported 722 local people develop skills so that they could take advantage of opportunities to succeed through our Communities for Work, Bridges into Work and BESP programmes. She felt that these groups should to some degree interlink, so that more information was shared between them, which would then in all probability equate to this number increasing and resulting in better outcomes for people who commit to these programmes.

The Corporate Director – Communities advised that Cabinet had considered a report this week entitled Employability Programmes, and the main thrust of this, was to establish a single team to create and join up programmes such as those detailed above. Funding from Welsh Government and European funding would be committed to these programmes also.

The Cabinet Member – Education and Regeneration added that the Authority also needed to keep track on young people still in school as it had an obligation as the local Education Authority to track individuals up to the age of 25 (NEETS, etc), and this would assist in encouraging them to look at developing their skills which would assist them in subsequently obtaining employment opportunities.

A Member referred to page 124 of the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 50.

Invitees

Cllr PJ White, Cabinet Member - Social Services and Early Help;

Susan Cooper, Corporate Director - Social Services and Wellbeing;

Darren Mepham, Chief Executive;

Gill Lewis, Interim Head of Finance

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing submitted a report, that shared with Committee the Social Services and Wellbeing Future Service Delivery Plan.

She explained that over the last 4 years, the Council has reduced the budget by over £12m in social care and wellbeing. This had been achieved by doing things differently, ie remodelling, reconfiguring, restructuring and developing new ways of working together with new service delivery models. The strategy for the next few years was to manage demand and introduce new ways of working, in order to lessen dependency and enable people to maximise their independence. This required to be achieved within existing budget and after taking account of the current overspend of £2.2m.

Attached at Appendix 1 to the report, was the Future Service Delivery Plan (“the Plan”), however, it was be noted that the Plan was an evolving document, and the planned actions and targets within it may potentially be subject to change.

The Plan was made up of two sections, namely Section A – highlighting work completed and MTFS savings achieved to date and MTFS shortfalls, while Section B – Delivery Plan, set out the planned actions to be undertaken in order to make the required MTFS savings and maximise income opportunities by March 2019.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing added that under the Plan, MTFS savings of over £400k had been achieved in 2017/18 through reviewing and implementing new models of delivery for partnership contracts. There remained a shortfall of £237k for which additional planned actions were being developed, as identified in the Plan.

She added that a Corporate Governance Board had been established to monitor and review the Directorate’s Plan. The Board was to be chaired  by the Chief Executive and was made up of Officers as shown in paragraph 4.6 of the report.

Attached at Appendix 2 to the report, was a table that detailed governance arrangements in the Directorate.

The report went on to advise that the projected overspend in the quarter 3 Cabinet Budget Monitoring report, was £200k against older people’s services. However, at period 10, the projected overspend had reduced to £70k. This together with Welsh Government also having recently allocated winter pressure grant funding to local authorities, would mean older persons services will at least break even by year end.

In respect of Looked After Children, the projected overspend in the quarter 3 Cabinet budget monitoring report was £1.049m. This was mainly due to children being placed in Out of County placements, with such placements costing up to £460k per annum per placement.

The Corporate Director – Social Services and Wellbeing reminded Members however, that the Directorate were presently in a more improved financial  position this year than the previous year, which reflected the Service’s Strategy to place more children into more cost effective placements.

Similarly, high cost independent fostering placements had also actually reduced from an average of 90 in 2016/17 to an average of 75 in 2017/18. As a consequence, the average  ...  view the full minutes text for item 51.

To consider any item(s) of business in respect of which notice has been given in

accordance with Part 4 (paragraph 4) of the Council Procedure Rules and which the person presiding at the meeting is of the opinion should by reason of special circumstances be transacted at the meeting as a matter of urgency.

None.

The Report relating to the following item is not for publication as it contains exempt information as defined in Paragraph 16 of Part 4, and Paragraph 21 of Part 5 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007.

If following the application of the public interest test the Committee resolves pursuant to the Act to consider this item in private, the public will be excluded from the meeting during such consideration.

RESOLVED:                    That under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007, the public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business as it contains exempt information as defined in Paragraphs 16 Part 4 and Paragraph 21 of Part 5 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as amended by the Local Government (Access to Information) (Variation) (Wales) Order 2007.

    The Senior Democratic Services Officer - Committees confirmed that this item was not subject to the public interest test for reasons of legal professional privilege and should therefore be considered in private.  The public interest therefore did not apply in respect of this item.       

Invitee

Andrew Jolley, Corporate Director - Operational and Partnership Services