RESOLVED:               That Councillor Alex Williams be elected as Chairperson of the Corporate Overview and

Scrutiny Committee for the Municipal Year.

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).

The following Councillors declared personal interests in Agenda item 4:

• Cllr Heidi Bennett as an employee of an organisation which employs community navigators and as a member of the Cwm Taf Morgannwg Regional Partnership Board (CTMRPB); 
• Cllr Jane Gebbie as Chair of CTMRPB; and

Cllr Amanda Williams as a family member is in a residential care home.

Invitees

Councillor Huw David – Leader of Council

Councillor Jane Gebbie - Deputy Leader of Council and Cabinet Member for Social Services Health

Councillor Hywel Williams - Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Legal

Councillor John Spanswick – Cabinet Member for Climate Change and Environment

Councillor Jon-Paul Blundell - Cabinet Member for Education

Councillor Neelo Farr - Cabinet Member for Community Safety and Wellbeing

Councillor Rhys Goode - Cabinet Member for Housing, Planning and Regeneration

Mark Shephard - Chief Executive

Carys Lord - Chief Officer - Finance, Performance and Change

Lindsay Harvey - Corporate Director - Education and Family Support

Claire Marchant - Corporate Director - Social Services and Wellbeing

Janine Nightingale - Corporate Director - Communities

Kelly Watson - Chief Officer Legal and Regulatory Services, HR & Corporate Policy

The Chief Officer, Finance Performance and Change presented the report, the purpose of which was to provide the Committee with an update on the Council’s revenue financial performance for the year ended 31st March 2023.

The Chair thanked the Chief Officer, Finance Performance and Change and Members discussed the following:

Council Wide

·         Variances in the budget and the robustness of the budget setting process.

·         Resource and budgetary pressures and the need for funding, change and input from central Government in order to sustain essential services.

·         Performance and data management, accuracy of information and scrutiny of accounts by Audit Wales and the Governance and Audit Committee.

·         The possibility of borrowing and draw down on earmarked reserves to ensure some projects in the Capital Programme proceed.

Workforce, Recruitment and Retention

·         The impact of the number of vacancies on Human Resources (HR) and the likely impact on the budget if the Council were fully staffed.

·        The approaches to advertising for vacancies and other methods of recruitment including development of relationships with schools and universities.

·         Time taken to recruit a successful applicant to a post and the business partner model regarding co-working between HR and Directorates.

·         National terms & conditions, rates of pay, the Authority’s ability to compete with other local authorities and the private sector and the potential for future collaborative arrangements.

Education and Family Support

·         The number of schools predicting deficit budgets, the Local Authority’s contribution towards rising energy costs, the potential  of staff redundancies and the impact of the number of pupils on the roll. 

·         Inflationary pressures and the challenge of recruitment into Catering Services and the impact on the provision of breakfast clubs and school meals.

·         The factors contributing to the underspend in the Family Support Group.

·         The vacancies in the Corporate Health and Safety Unit, the impact on delivery and what the Authority is doing to mitigate their effect.

·         The Authority’s generous home to school transport offer and the likely timescale for the publishing of the Guidance from Welsh Government.
 

Social Services and Wellbeing

·         Reliance on and cost of agency workers to meet statutory duties and the impact on continuity for families.

·         The role of Social Work Support Officers.

·         Overspend and waiting times for Disabled Facilities Grants, the increased cost of equipment and works and its impact on the ability to support people to live safely at home.

·         Capacity in care homes and cost of care for elderly residents.

·         The demographic and the impact on demand and need to ensure sufficiency of service provision. 

·         Estimated future budget pressures and the importance of cost-effectiveness, innovation and preventative services.

·         Remodelling of Day Services for older people and Learning Disability Services and the possibility of future remodelling of other services.

Communities

·         Challenges of recruitment.

·         Support for Member Referrals and ways to improve the efficiency of the Members Portal.

·         Budgetary and staffing pressures in the Planning and Development.

·         The free car parking offer and sustaining and transforming towns.

·         Reasons for the delay in opening the Pyle Community Recycling Centre.

·         An update regarding the commercial  ...  view the full minutes text for item 63.

Invitees:

Councillor Huw David – Leader of the Council

Councillor Hywel Williams - Cabinet Member for Finance, Resources and Legal

Mark Shephard - Chief Executive

Carys Lord - Chief Officer Finance, Performance and Change

Alex Rawlin - Corporate Policy and Public Affairs Manager

The Chief Executive presented the report, the purpose of which was to propose a one-year Corporate Plan Delivery Plan (CPDP) to support the Council’s new Corporate Plan and an updated Corporate Performance Framework to help the Council to measure progress on it.

The Chair thanked the Chief Executive, the Committee commended the Corporate Policy and Public Affairs Manager and the Corporate Improvement Officer for their work on the Plans and Framework and Members discussed the following:

·         The role of the Governance and Audit Committee and avoiding duplication.

·         The importance of specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely (SMART) Performance Indicators, avoidance of baseline setting unless necessary and a possible move towards Objective and Key Results.

·         The role of members of the public and the importance of communication and management of expectations.

·         Ensuring the CPDP is meaningful and relatable for the public and all staff.

·         The timeline and anticipated next steps for the CPDP.

·         The concerns recently identified by Audit Wales, including data quality and accuracy.

·         The importance of proportionate, clear and informative data.

RESOLVED:                 Following detailed consideration and discussions with Officers and Cabinet Members, the Committee made the following Recommendations:

1.    That consideration be given to how the roles as set out in the ‘I am a …’ section of the draft Performance Framework may be effectively cascaded and communicated to all staff and the public.

That future reports regarding performance be developed to include a holistic overview in the form of an executive summary to succinctly summarise performance as measured against the Corporate Plan. The Committee expressed concern regarding Officer time and effort required to present complex data and welcomed concise and proportionate information which could be more sustainable and influential.

TheScrutiny Officer presented the report, which requested the Committee to nominate one Member as its Corporate Parenting Champion to represent the Committee as an invitee to meetings of the Cabinet Committee Corporate Parenting.

The Chairperson invited nominations, following which it was

RESOLVED:                        That Councillor Tim Thomas be nominated to represent Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee as an Invitee to meetings of the Cabinet Committee Corporate Parenting.

The Senior Scrutiny Officer presented the report, the purpose of which was to present the Committee with the Cabinet response to the Recommendations made by the Committee on the Call-In of the Decision of Cabinet of 14 June 2022, in relation to the report on Recycling and Waste Service Post 2024, submitted to Cabinet on 18 October 2022.

Following discussions regarding the reasons for the delay in the response being provided it was

RESOLVED:                      That the Committee noted the Cabinet response attached as Appendix A to the report.

The Scrutiny Officer presented the Committee with the Forward Work Programme (FWP) in Appendix A for discussion and consideration, requested any specific information the Committee identified to be included in the items for the next two meetings, including invitees they wished to attend, requested the Committee to identify any further items for consideration on the FWP having regard to the selection criteria in paragraph 3.6, asked the Committee to note the Recommendations Monitoring Action Sheet to track responses to the Committee’s recommendations made at previous meetings in Appendix B, the Directorate Performance Dashboards in Appendices C, D, E and F, the Regulatory Tracker in Appendix G and asked the Committee to note that a further update to the Tracker would be reported to a future meeting for information, following its report to Governance and Audit Committee.

The Committee requested that consideration be given to the scheduling of a report regarding the challenges of workforce, recruitment and retention, avoiding any duplication of work by the Governance and Audit Committee and that consideration be given to the scheduling of the report on Cyber Security at an appropriate time in the Committee’s FWP for the upcoming year. 

There were no further items identified for consideration on the FWP having regard to the selection criteria in paragraph 3.6, and this could be revisited at the next meeting when the Quarter 4 Performance data 2022-23 was due to be presented.

There were no requests to include specific information in the item for the next meeting.

RESOLVED:               That the Committee approved the FWP in

Appendix A subject to the inclusion of the above items and noted the Recommendations Monitoring Action Sheet in Appendix B, the Directorate Performance Dashboards in Appendices C, D, E and F and the Regulatory Tracker in Appendix G. 

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.