Ginette Beal of Grant Thornton presented a follow-up review of Environmental Health Services, which it had been commissioned to do by the WAO.  She informed the Committee that the WAO undertook this piece of work as a follow up to a national report published in October 2014, entitled ‘Delivering with less – impact on environmental health services and citizens’.  The local review in 2019 assessed whether there have been any budget and staff changes within the Council’s environmental health services and the extent to which it has addressed the recommendations included in their 2014 national report.  The recent review focused on the Council’s progress in addressing recommendations 2, 3, 4, and 5, namely:

R2     Provide scrutiny chairs and members with the necessary skills and support to effectively scrutinise and challenge service performance, savings plans and the impact of budget reductions.

R3     Improve engagement with local residents over planned budget cuts and changes in services by:

•         consulting with residents on planned changes in services and

using the findings to shape decisions;

•         outlining which services are to be cut and how these cuts will

impact on residents; and

•         setting out plans for increasing charges or changing standards

of service.

R4     Improve efficiency and value for money by:

•         identifying the statutory and non-statutory duties of council environmental health services;

•         agreeing environmental health priorities for the future and the role of councils in delivering these;

•         determining an ‘acceptable standard of performance’ for environmental health services (upper and lower) and publicise these to citizens;

•         improving efficiency and maintaining performance to the agreed level through:

?        collaborating and/or integrating with others to reduce cost and/or improve quality;

?        outsourcing where services can be delivered more cost effectively to agreed standards;

?        introducing and/or increasing charges and focusing on income-generation activity;

?        using grants strategically to maximise impact and return; and

?       reducing activities to focus on core statutory and strategic priorities.

R5       Improve strategic planning by:

•         identifying, collecting and analysing financial, performance and demand/need data on environmental health services;

•           analysing collected data to inform and understand the relationship between ‘cost: benefit: impact’ and use this intelligence to underpin decisions on the future of council environmental health services; and

•         agree how digital information can be used to plan and develop environmental health services in the future.

She informed the Committee that overall, the WAO found that the Shared Regulatory Services (SRS) model is enabling the Council to sustain its delivery of environmental health services in a context of reducing resources and additional responsibilities placed on it by ongoing changes in legislation. It also felt there is scope for the Council to strengthen its scrutiny and oversight arrangements of environmental health services and work with SRS and other providers to explore the opportunities for future improvement. 

The Operational Manager Shared Regulatory Services informed the Committee that the report presented a positive picture.  He stated that management had been streamlined, but there would be increasing challenges ahead.  The SRS is committed to a 4 year review of the service consulting its Board, staff and Trade Unions.  He was aware that there would be opportunities for the service to be the subject of scrutiny by each of the three Councils.  The Democratic Services Manager confirmed that the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee had scheduled an item on the Scrutiny of SRS as part of its work programme. 

The Committee questioned whether the SRS was competitive with external providers of pest control services.  The Head of Performance and Partnership Services informed the Committee that the Council is consulting on whether to continue with a non-paying service for pest control services.  The Interim Head of Finance and Section 151 Officer informed the Committee that the Budget Research and Evaluation Panel had looked at this as part of the budget process, and had made recommendations. The proposal was currently part of the budget consultation process. 

The Operational Manager informed the Committee that the Head of Shared Regulatory Services was looking at the delivery of training opportunities for Members.  The Head of Legal and Regulatory Services confirmed that scrutiny opportunities were being looked at.

RESOLVED:   That the Committee noted the WAO Environmental Health Services Follow Up Report.