Agenda and minutes

None

The minutes were approved as a true and accurate record of the meeting held on the 10 April 2018, subject to the amendment of ‘Friendly Me’ to read ‘Ffrindi Mi’ relating to the befriending service as outlined in last bullet point on page 7.

The Committee requested the following information:-

• Can they have more information about increase in rates of exclusion?
• The Cabinet Member stated an experienced temp had been working in the team however was unable to join permanently.  Has a permanent Occupational Therapist person been employed?   

The Scrutiny Advisor introduced the Draft Annual Work Programme to the Committee and informed the Committee on each of the different items.

The Advisor explained to the Committee that the Annual Forward Work Programme was still currently in draft form and any of the topics could be removed or moved, and if new topics were identified then they could be added at any time through the year. The Committee understood the flexibility of the Annual Forward Work Programme and would discuss each topic and agree the final work programme at the end of the meeting.

The Advisor explained that there would be a change to how service areas would be reporting on performance in the new financial year. Service Plans would be reintroduced at the Mid-Year and Year End point, with each service area having its own dedicated meeting. The Advisor explained that the Adult & Community Services’ performance updates and Children and Young Peoples’ performance updates would be presented in the Service Plan for Social Services in December. Educations’ Performance Updates would be presented in the Service Plan for Education in November. Additional information that would be included in the service plans includes information relating to Budget Monitoring, Wellbeing Goals and Improvement Plan updates, as well as Corporate Plan commitments.

The Committee agreed that scrutinising large amounts of information from the entire People directorate in a single meeting was difficult, time consuming and ineffective.  The Advisor informed the Committee that by dedicating a meeting to a service area there should be more time to hold the Cabinet Member and Officers to account. The approach the Committee took in scrutinising the Service Plans would have had to have been set out in the pre meeting, as the Committee would have had more information allowing them to dive deeper into the performance.

The second item presented to the Committee was Performance Analysis (All Wales Comparative Data). The Advisor set out the purpose of the report and how it would of provided the Committee with an overall picture of the Council’s performance against other LAs in Wales. The Committee believed it was important to see how Newport compared to other LAs in Wales.

The third item on the Draft Annual Forward Work Programme was the Cabinet Draft Budget Proposals. The Advisor informed the Committee that this would have been the same as the previous year. The Committee would receive directorate specific proposals in January 2019 for the 2019/20 Budget. The Members acknowledged the importance of receiving the draft Budget proposals and accepted their place in the forward work programme.

The inclusion of the Recommendations Monitoring on the Implementation of 2018-19 Cabinet Budget Proposals had been requested by the all of the Scrutiny Committees in the previous year. The Advisor explained that each Head of Service would provide a report on how the Committee recommendations had been implemented. The Committee were also informed that the Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee would receive a report from the Heads of Finance and People and Business Change  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.