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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Civic Offices Angel Street Bridgend CF31 4WB. View directions

Contact: Mr Mark Anthony Galvin  Senior Democratic Services Officer - Committees

Items
No. Item

81.

Declarations of Interest

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)

 

Minutes:

Councillor R Shaw declared a personal interest in Agenda Item 5, Wales Audit Office – Overview and Scrutiny – Fit for the Future? He was a member of both the Public Service Board OVSP and the South Wales Fire and Rescue Authority.

 

Councillor T Giffard declared a personal interest in Agenda Item 5, Wales Audit Office – Overview and Scrutiny – Fit for the Future? He was previously a member of the Public Service Board.

82.

Forward Work Programme Update pdf icon PDF 94 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Scrutiny Officer presented the feedback from the previous meeting and asked Members to approve the responses/comments as detailed in the report.

 

A Member requested further information regarding the City Deal item and asked what businesses the Regional Business Forum and the Regional Economic Partnerships would be engaging with. She also asked what the Forum was and who engaged with it. The Member explained that it was essential to know exactly what was happening with City Deal when there was unrest due to cuts to subsidies and services closing down. Members asked for feedback from future City Deal scrutiny meetings. 

 

A Member requested further clarification regarding the response to the Financial Performance 2017-18 item because budget reductions had not been individually costed.  

 

A Member referred to Empty Properties and asked if an officer had been employed in that team and what progress had been made. The Scrutiny Officer explained it was on the forward work programme as a potential item to come back in the future.

 

A Member referred to the Financial Performance 2017-18 item and asked what support was given to schools to manage a deficit budget and what support was given to schools to help them access additional funding and to signpost opportunities.  

 

The Scrutiny Officer reported that at the next meeting, Procurement and Contracts was listed for consideration. Members asked for the report to focus on ethical procurement and employment and the use of toolkits.      

 

RESOLVED:       The Committee:

 

1)  Approved the feedback from the previous meeting and requested further information as detailed above.

2)  Identified specific information the Committee wished to receive in relation to the Procurement and Contracts report due to be considered at the next meeting. 

     

83.

Digital Transformation Programme pdf icon PDF 166 KB

Invitees:

 

Darren Mepham – Chief Executive

Martin Morgans – Head of Performance and Partnership Services

Phil O’Brien – Group Manager - Transformation and Customer Services

Councillor Hywel Williams – Deputy Leader

 

Minutes:

The Head of Performance and Partnerships gave a presentation updating the Committee on the progress made since the introduction of Phase 1 of the Digital Transformation Programme on 24th April 2018 plus the development of phase 2. The presentation outlined the key statistics from phase 1, progress with the website, Corporate Plan commitments, Discovery/Navigator plans and business process redesign plans for phase 2 and the challenges and opportunities for the programme. 

 

A member asked if an analysis had been undertaken on council tax online applications to track the areas that were using the system and to look at ways of reducing the barriers in other areas and promoting use of the website. The Head of Performance and Partnerships explained that General Data Protection Regulations restricted the way data was handled and used however they were looking at ways of finding barriers and dealing with exclusion.  From a Council Tax perspective, 70% of account holders were on direct debit and had very little contact with the authority so there was no incentive to sign up. Housing Benefits were working with partners to mitigate exclusion and he was confident that they could drive up the user base. The Committee recommend that analysis be undertaken on a postcode basis of areas that had not registered online for Council Tax.  Members asked for this information to assist with providing a demographic understanding of areas to focus on advertising for My Account.

 

The Committee noted that out of the citizens who had registered their council tax account online, only 49.59% of them had subscribed to e-billing.  A Member explained that she had signed up for paperless billing for her utility bills because a discount had been offered. This could be an option to increase the uptake although it was acknowledged that even a small discount could be challenging in the current financial climate. Members recommended that as a way of promoting paperless billing, the Council should consider offering a small discount as an incentive.

 

A Member referred to the member referral system which was “clunky” and

Awkward to use. He asked if Bridge Maps could be made available to Members and a training session offered. The Head of Performance and Partnerships explained that a working group had been set up to look at member referrals. In relation to the App called ‘Bridgend Report It’ which allowed citizens to report highways issues such as potholes and dog fouling, Members recommended that the App include the ability to report grass cutting issues and overflowing litter bins. The Head of Performance and Partnerships also agreed to look at Member training on Bridge Maps.

 

A Member asked if the Chatbot option would be the only option and replace staff. The Head of Performance and Partnerships explained that as in his presentation, they were not looking to close down channels but to add functionality. It might not be fit for purpose in all areas but they would not be losing access to a member of staff if that was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 83.

84.

Wales Audit Office - Overview and Scrutiny - Fit for the Future? pdf icon PDF 61 KB

Invitees:

 

Kelly Watson -Head of Legal and Regulatory Services

Gregory Lane - Head of Democratic Services

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Head of Legal and Regulatory Services presented a report to the Committee on the completed Wales Audit Office report in respect of the Overview and Scrutiny – Fit for the Future review. She explained that the review explored how fit for the future scrutiny functions were within the Authority.

 

The Head of Legal and Regulatory Services explained that the review concluded that Bridgend’s overview and scrutiny function was well run but needed to adapt to meet future challenges and should consider opportunities to work differently. The review proposed 5 areas for improvement as detailed in the report. She added that the report, including the proposals for improvement and how they could be addressed, had been considered by Audit Committee on 6th September 2018. 

 

A Member raised concerns that the proposals for improvement and the methods to improve scrutiny activity all had financial implications. She asked if there would be money from Welsh Government to support the activity and asked if Welsh Government were aware of the reductions to the number of staff in Scrutiny. The Deputy Leader stated that he made that case regularly and any extra funds would be gratefully received. The Head of Legal and Regulatory Services explained that that was the position and as such, the authority had to be more innovative and efficient with the resources it had. The Member accepted the explanation but if scrutiny were to hold its meetings outside of the Civic Offices, it would cost money for venue hire, translators etc. The Local Government – Performance Audit Manager, Wales Audit Office explained that they had been realistic about the resources within the authority and that the traditional way of scrutiny via committee already took a lot of resources. They had found that the impact from traditional scrutiny was limited across most authorities. If the authority thought about available resources and capacity across the organisation, it could reconsider the way it did scrutiny.

 

A Member raised the issue of scrutiny of Public Service Boards and that it had not been considered. He asked what the rationale was if it had not met since October 2017 and how could it be effective. The Committee voiced their own concerns due to the lack of meetings the Public Service Board Overview and Scrutiny Panel had undertaken in the last year and recommended that the rationale for the Panel should be explored and queried why the Panel had made such little progress.

 

A Member highlighted the lack of synergy between Cabinet, Officers and Members and recommended that the quarterly meetings between Cabinet, Corporate Management Board and Scrutiny Chairs be further developed.  The Committee also requested that the outcomes from these meetings be cascaded to all other Members. The Local Government – Performance Audit Manager, Wales Audit Office added that synergy had not been there in the past but now meetings were in place to facilitate this. The Deputy Leader explained that there were quarterly meetings with Scrutiny Chairs where they looked at the Forward Work  ...  view the full minutes text for item 84.

85.

Festival of Learning 2018 pdf icon PDF 84 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee received an information item reporting the activities that took place in the Festival of Learning 2018 during the week commencing 25 June 2018. A Member thanked the officers for a very comprehensive report and a very successful event. She thought it was pleasing to attend and meet teachers and children and a possible income generator for the future.

 

The Committee thanked the Director for the innovative approach undertaken and for level of passion expressed prior and during the event.

 

86.

Urgent Items

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.

 

Minutes:

None

 

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