Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from the Committee Chairperson, Councillor John Guy. The Committee were advised that in the absence of the Chairperson, the Committee would need to nominate and vote another member of the Committee to act as Chair for this meeting. The Committee nominated Cllr Miqdad Al-Nuaimi to Chair the meeting, which was agreed unanimously by the Committee.

None

The minutes of the meeting held on 26 July 2018 were confirmed as a true record, subject to the following amendment:

• Item 2, ‘Minutes of the Meeting held on 21 June 2018’:

The Committee commented that the request for details of the legality of the blanket ban on begging that had been implemented by towns such as Swindon and Kettering, had not been recorded in the minutes, and had been requested at both the June and July meetings. 

Attendees;

-       Alison Rees – WAO - Performance Auditor

-       Non Jenkins – WAO - Local Government Regional Manager (South East Wales Region)

-       Elizabeth Blayney – Scrutiny and Governance Manager

-       Eleanor Mulligan – Democracy and Communications Manager

The representatives from the WAO introduced the Overview and Scrutiny – FFTF Report at Appendix 1 and outlined the key findings of the report and the six proposals for improvement being suggested for Newport City Council’s Scrutiny arrangements.

The Democracy and Communications Manager outlined the Management Response to the WAO proposals for improvement, at Appendix 2.  It was advised that what was being recommended had already been reflected within the Scrutiny Annual Report, within the Actions for this year, which had been considered and approved by the Committee at its last meeting.

The Committees questions and related responses are outlined below;  

·                The Committee enquired whether examples of good practice of public consultation could be provided to the Council by the WAO, particularly relating to how the Committees could engage with the public more effectively and how to identify who to invite to meetings and encourage public involvement in the process. Members were advised that as the review was conducted nationally, examples of good practice could be shared with Councils at a later date.  There was a network meeting in November to share examples of good practice where this could be incorporated.  The WAO representative agreed to look at obtaining specific examples and distributing them to Local Authorities. The WAO continued to state that they were challenging all Local Authorities to go into the Community to hold scrutiny meetings to make it easier for the public engage.

·                The Committee discussed the recommendations and comments within the report relating to the engagement with the Executive. The Committee agreed with the comments within the report noting the Scrutiny tended to direct questioning to the Officers rather than the Executive. The Committee agreed that this needed to be addressed by all Committee’s and believed it would require a ‘culture change’ in order for some of the recommendations to be effectively implemented.

·                The Committee discussed communication between Cabinet and Scrutiny, noting that the Cabinet forward work programme was more dynamic than the Scrutiny Work Programme which had made it difficult to align the work programmes in the past.  The Committee agreed that further work was required to align the work programmes, in order to develop an effective working relationship between Scrutiny and the Cabinet. The Democracy and Communication Manager explained that the department had recently undergone a restructure and this had impacted on the time it took to implement changes.  Democracy and Communication Service areas had been merged under department, and other changes included the creation of a separate Cabinet Office with a dedicated Office Manager who would manage the Cabinet Work programme.

·                The Committee noted the importance of improving the consultation for the annual budget, in particular noted the Committee’s previous recommendations that the budget saving proposals be provided for public consultation earlier to allow  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

Attendees;

-       Jonathan Keen – Regulatory Services Manager Environment and Community

-       Inspector Jason Williams – Gwent Police

-       Tracey Holyoake – Pillgwenlly Ward Councillor

The Regulatory Services Manager presented the report to the Committee and outlined that the report was an update on progress with the implementation of the PSPO in Pillgwenlly that the Committee had requested at its previous meeting where it was considered. The report contained information on the Orders restrictions, their implementation and figures on Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) use and the challenges to enforcement. The Officer advised the Committee on the key points;

·                The Officer highlighted Section three of the report, with regards to dispersing people congregating in groups of three or more. The Officer explained that the majority of groups were dispersed without the need to issue a FPN.  The Officer outlined that this reflected the impact of the PSPO as members of the public when asked to not drink alcohol, or hand over alcohol containers, have usually done so without the need to issue a FPN.

·                Eight FPN have been issued, seven for refusal to stop drinking and one for non-dispersal.

·                There had been challenges in the first year and this was covered in section five, the most prevalent was groups not dispersing. Some groups dispersed for short periods and then regrouped. The Police Officers were not sure how long the group needed to disperse for and advice had been sought from Council lawyers as to how to proceed at these times. The legal advice had been that the Police needed to demonstrate it had been reasonable if a FPN was issued following a group reforming. For example, the Police needed to be clear when asking the group to disperse in the first instance the length of time they were required not to reform. If the group then reformed within this time, they would serve a FPN.  It was anticipated that this clarification would  give the Police further confidence to issue a FPN where appropriate and necessary.

·                There have been no calls from the Community Safety Wardens to add or remove any restrictions. The Manager believed that the restrictions were clearly worded properly now and could be used more where appropriate and necessary.

The Inspector introduced himself to the Committee. He informed the Members that the Police reviewed the PSPO. Members were advised that the PSPO was an excellent tool, and in particular for dealing with groups of young people. Whilst it was acknowledged that the numbers of FPNs issued were low, the Officer were utilising the PSPO process to get  people to disperse without issuing an FPN. He added that there had been some frustration with when to issue Fixed Penalty Notice, but we had dealt with that with the advice from the Council lawyers. The Inspector stated that the Police wanted the PSPO to carry on maybe with some changes.  The Committee were also advised that similar restrictions had been used in Maesglas, as it covered anti-social behaviour i.e. the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Attendees

• James Harris – Strategic Director – People
• Sally Anne Jenkins – Head of Children and Young People
• Jenny Jenkins -  Service Manager

The Strategic Director – People introduced the report to the Committee, and advised the format of the report followed the Welsh Government recommendations. The Committee were directed that there the intention had been to make the report straightforward, manageable and readable. The final word from the Strategic Director was that the report was currently draft and based on the Committee’s comments and recommendations the draft would be updated prior to it being sent to Cabinet and Council.

Members discussed the following:

·         The Members commended the Officer on how easy and accessible the report was to read. It was noted that on page 31 – 33 there were number of statistics, but no information for comparison purposes. The Committee recommended including previous year’s figures and other local authorities achievements for comparison. Members also made comment that there had been a reliance on surveys.

·         Members discussed the Social Services Rota visits which were made to children and adult homes. The Committee enquired if Members carried out enough visits and what added value they provided. The Officer explained that visits were undertaken once a month, and it was designed to take feedback from the staff and residents and view the facilities to check if the building were fit for purpose. The visits from the Members have provided value and feedback, which was fed back to the homes and actions were taken where appropriate.

·         Members were pleased with the manager of Oaklands being recognised in the report and said it was a good example of community working. Members then queried the South East Wales Fostering Service, and asked if there was a danger of children are placed outside their local community. The example was given of a child being placed in Blaenau Gwent, which could make family contact challenging. The Committee also sought reassurance that children placed by private firms would have had the same quality of care and monitoring as they would with the Council. The Members were informed that fostering population was aging, so recruitment of new foster carers needed to be undertaken. Each region had looked at what they could contribute together and what worked for each Local Authority. There was a willingness to work together and how to share resources to improve the quality of services across the five authorities. The Council manage family contact with the children in our care, and families will be supported to maintain contact. Members were also told that there is no difference whatsoever in the support offered in public sector and private sector agencies and all children have the same access.

·         The Committee requested that more information on the transition from Children to Adults Services be included in the final report. The Member specified how many transitions were under taken and how many were on time. The Members were advised that an element of this would be added to the final  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

a)       Forward Work Programme Update (Appendix 1)

b)       Actions Arising (Appendix 2)

c)       Information Reports

Attendees:

-       Daniel Cooke – Scrutiny Adviser

a)         Forward Work Programme Update

The Scrutiny Adviser presented the Forward Work Programme, and informed the Committee of the topics being discussed at the next two committee meetings:

Thursday 15 November 2018

The agenda items included;

-           Corporate Plan – Recommendations Monitoring

-           Performance Management Strategy – Recommendations Monitoring

-           Consultation and Public Engagement Review

Following a discussion on the need to ensure an Executive representative for the agenda item relating to the Corporate Plan, the Committee decided to requested that the Leader of the Council be invited to attend the meeting on 15 November for the Corporate Plan – Recommendations Monitoring Agenda Item.

Thursday 31 January 2019

The agenda item included;

-           2019/2020 Cabinet Draft Budget Proposals

b)        Actions Arising

The Committee requested that the action sheet be next to the minutes at the front of the agenda rather than at the back. It was also commented that many of the actions were still awaiting a response. The Scrutiny Adviser informed the Committee that letters were sent to the necessary Officer to action where appropriate. Where the actions were outstanding, they would remain on the action sheet until an adequate response had been provided to the Committee.

Members also requested if reports could be in portrait rather than landscape. The Scrutiny Advisor informed the Committee that it was not always possible to have reports in a portrait orientation.

In relation to the recommendations made to the Cabinet on Item 3 of the minutes, ‘Budget Process and Public Engagement – Recommendations Monitoring’, The Committee noted that they had not yet received a response from the Cabinet.  In particular, the Committee had made a number of recommendations regarding the arrangements for public consultation of the budget which would impact this year’s consultation in December.  The Scrutiny Adviser noted that this would be provided at the Committee’s next meeting. 

An additional enquiry was made relating to how Scrutiny was still awaiting responses relating to the budget process. The Scrutiny Adviser told the Committee that the process had recently been put in place which enabled Cabinet to receive Scrutiny’s letters and we would see a faster response in the future.

c)         Information Reports

d)         None received.