The Head of Democratic Services, Bridgend County Borough Council submitted a report, the purpose of which, was

a)    To develop a Forward Work Programme (FWP) of items for future prioritisation and consideration by the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JOSC);

b)    To ask the JOSC to identify any invitees to attend future meetings to contribute to discussions and deliberations;

c)    To identify any training requirements required by the JOSC and;

d)    To develop a schedule of meetings of the JOSC; including preferred timings of meetings.

The Scrutiny Officer advised Members that the intention of the FWP would be for it to remain flexible and be re-visited at each JOSC meeting with input from Members and Officers on suggested topics for consideration.

The JOSC is asked to first consider and determine items it wishes to consider at future meetings of the JOSC and what further detail it would like the report to contain; what questions it wishes officers to address and what invitees it suggests to attend for this meeting to assist Members in their investigation.  Some suggested items for future consideration were shown in paragraph 4 of the report.

The Scrutiny Officer added that it was open for Members to also consider how many agenda items they would wish listed for future meetings. She added that Overview and Scrutiny Committees in Bridgend normally considered one main agenda item per meeting.

Attached at Appendix A to the report was a Scrutiny Criteria form which Members can use to propose further items for the FWP, which the Committee can then consider for prioritisation at a future meeting. Therefore, if Members had nothing in mind as of now, they could complete the above form and send it through by email to the Scrutiny Section  in Bridgend.

The Scrutiny Officer continued by advising that to assist Members in their role as a JOSC Member they are asked to consider any training requirements they have in relation to the CCRCD.  From this, Scrutiny Officers can then develop a schedule of training for JOSC Members which will also remain flexible and brought back to each meeting for consideration and scheduling.

Whilst it has previously been agreed that Bridgend County Borough Council is to act as the Host Local Authority for the administration of the CCRCD JOSC meetings, Members are asked to consider the location of future meetings of the JOSC, taking into consideration that all meetings of the JOSC are to be held in public.  Members may wish to consider the option of holding each meeting of the JOSC at the Host Local Authority venue or the meetings could rotate amongst the ten authorities in the JOSC. 

In considering its future meetings, the JOSC was also asked to consider the frequency of meetings and preferred timings of meetings, to allow for greater attendance of Members at each meeting.

The Scrutiny Officer advised that following the meeting she would send members copies of the training presentation that they had received earlier and also forms which the Scrutiny Officer asked them to complete and return to her with subjects that members wished to receive training on and items they wish to be included on their Forward Work Programme. 

Members then gave some observations on the content of the report, following which they reached the following conclusions:-

Conclusions:

Schedule of meetings

·       Members agreed to rotate future meetings of the JOSC amongst the local authorities that are a part of the Joint Working Agreement to give members a better understanding of each area that is a part of the CCRCD.

·       Scrutiny officer to send members of the JOSC a survey of meetings timing report to establish the preferred timings of the JOSC.

·       Next meeting of the JOSC to take place in January/ February 2019

·       Members asked that the funding for the JOSC be explored to ensure there was sufficient budget in place for members to have relevant training and be able to find expert witnesses to attend meetings of the JOSC

Training Requirements

• Members felt the training they had received was very high level and complex and future training needed to be simplified to assist all members to understand the benefits and cost implications of the CCRCD
• Members agreed to revisit the training presentation they had received and send the scrutiny officer a requirement of their training needs

Development of Forward Work Programme

·      Members asked to explore the opportunity of having a site visit at the next meeting to the semi –conductor facility in Newport

·       Members agreed that the CCRCD Business plans should be brought to the next meeting

·       Members were interested in receiving the following items to future meetings of the JOSC:

§   Semi -Conductor facility

§   An understanding of the SW Metro System and what it means for each area

§  Briefing of all planned projects.

The meeting closed at 3.22pm