Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, County Hall, Newport, Isle of WIght

Contact: Megan Tuckwell  Email: democratic.services@iow.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 229 KB

To confirm as a true record the minutes of the meeting held on 9 March 2021.

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 9 March 2021 be confirmed.

 

2.

Declarations of Interest

To invite Members to declare any interest they might have in the matters on the agenda.

Minutes:

Cllr Ian Stephens declared an interest in minute item 5.2, as a family member was due to be employed by the Council’s Children’s Services department.

 

Cllr Michael Lilley declared an interest in minute item 5.2, as a family member was employed by the Council’s Children’s Services department.

 

3.

Public Question Time - 15 Minutes Maximum

Members of the public are invited to make representations to the Committee regarding its workplan, either in writing at any time or at a meeting under this item. Questions may be asked without notice but to guarantee a full reply at the meeting, a question must be put including the name and address of the questioner by delivery in writing or by electronic mail to Democratic Services at democratic.services@iow.gov.uk, no later than two clear working days before the start of the meeting. Normally, Corporate Scrutiny is held on a Tuesday, therefore the deadline for written questions will be Thursday, 3 June 2021.

Minutes:

No public questions were received. 

 

It was clarified by officers that the appointment of the Vice Chairman, and filling of the two vacant seats, would be a matter for Full Council at its meeting on 21 July 2021.

 

4.

Workplan pdf icon PDF 232 KB

To discuss the formulation of the Committee’s future workplan for 2021-22.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Discussion took place regarding the formulation of the Committee’s future workplan for 2021-22. The Scrutiny Officer presented the criteria used for selecting topics and the current workplan (as developed by the previous Committee during 2020/21).

 

Members noted that the current workplan was designed around that of the previous administration and therefore updates would be required in line with the revised Corporate Plan which was due to be published in the Autumn. It was noted that some items would remain the same, such as strategic reporting and progress monitoring.

 

It was agreed that an informal meeting of the Committee should be arranged to discuss the approach and processes for identifying items for inclusion in the future workplan.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT an informal meeting of the Committee be arranged to discuss the approach and processes for identifying items for inclusion in the future workplan.

 

 

5.

Items due to be considered by the Cabinet

To review items due to be considered by the Cabinet at its meeting on 10 June 2021, and where appropriate, make comments or recommendations that the committee believe should be considered prior to it making a decision. The items currently shown on the latest forward plan at the time of publication of this agenda are :-

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the items due to be considered by the Cabinet, and members were invited to make comments or recommendations that the committee believed should be considered prior to it making a decision.

 

It was noted that the date of the meeting of Cabinet had been changed and therefore the agenda and papers were not available until the day of the Committee. Members requested that future meetings of the Committee be moved in line with any Cabinet changes to provide sufficient time to read any written reports.

 

5a

Enhanced Partnership Formal Notice - National Bus Strategy

Minutes:

Consideration was given to the report which sought the Cabinet’s approval to establish an Enhanced Partnership advising the Department for Transport of the Council’s intention to publish the required formal notice by the end of June 2021.

 

Members noted the report and agreed to support the Cabinet in its adoption of the strategy and requested that the Policy and Scrutiny Committee for Neighbourhoods and Regeneration add a relevant item in its workplan in relation to this matter.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the Cabinet be supported in its adoption of the strategy, and the Policy and Scrutiny Committee for Neighbourhoods and Regeneration be requested to add a relevant item in its workplan in relation to this matter.

 

 

5b

Consideration of and decision on the report of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

Minutes:

The Director of Children’s Services provided an overview of the report which outlined the findings and recommendations of the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) in response to a complaint made to the local authority.

 

Consideration was given to the report which sought the Cabinet’s approval to adopt the report from the Director of Children’s Services and to endorse the response from Children’s Services to address the findings and to implement all the recommendations of the LGSCO.

 

The Committee accepted that there was no choice other than to agree with the recommendations of the LGSCO, and believed that the Policy and Scrutiny Committee for Children’s Services, Education and Skills should be requested to include an item in its future workplan to look at lessons learnt.

 

The Deputy Leader asked a question in relation to the number of cases that had been submitted to the LGSCO. The Director of Children’s Services agreed to supply these figures and it was noted that complaints data was reported annually to the Policy and Scrutiny Committee for Children’s Services, Education and Skills.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the Cabinet be supported in its adoption of the recommendations of the LGSCO, and the Policy and Scrutiny Committee for Children’s Services, Education and Skills be requested to include an item in its future workplan to look at lessons learnt from this case.

 

6.

Forward Plan

To identify any item contained within the published forward plan that would benefit from early consideration within the workplan for either this committee or one of the policy and scrutiny committees.

Minutes:

 

Consideration was given to items contained within the published forward plan that would benefit from early consideration within the workplan for either this committee or one of the policy and scrutiny committees. No further comments were made at this stage.

 

RESOLVED:

 

THAT the forward plan be noted.

 

7.

Members' Question Time

A question may be asked at the meeting without prior notice but in these circumstances there is no guarantee that a full reply will be given at the meeting. To guarantee a reply to a question, a question must be submitted in writing or by electronic mail to democratic.services@iow.gov.uk no later than 5.00pm on Friday, 4 June 2021.

Minutes:

Cllr Brodie asked a question in relation to the rise in legal cases being dealt with by the Council. This appeared to have risen from a position in 2017 when there were approximately 8 cases per officer comparative to 250 cases per officer currently. The Chief Executive indicated that he would look at the matter and provide a written response.

 

Cllr Lilley asked a supplementary to Cllr Brodie’s question in relation to the number of external solicitors engaged in dealing with legal cases on behalf of the Council and requested that this be included in the Chief Executive’s response.