Agenda and minutes

1.         This meeting is to be webcast. Members are reminded of the need to activate their microphones before speaking.

2.         The Chairman will read the following announcement:

“This meeting will be webcast live to the Internet and will be archived for later viewing. Copies of recordings may be made available on request.

By entering the chamber’s lower seating area you consenting to becoming part of the webcast.

If you wish to avoid being filmed you should move to the public gallery or speak to the webcasting officer”

The Chairman reminded everyone present that the meeting would be broadcast live to the Internet, and that the Council had adopted a protocol for the webcasting of its meetings.

The meeting stood for one minute in silence in memory Councillor Ken Angold-Stephens, who recently passed away after a long illness. Councillor Angold-Stephens was the Vice-Chairman of this Committee and chaired various other committees. He would be remembered for his great wealth of knowledge and experience and for being a friend to all. Councillor Murray also paid tribute to him as his fellow ward councillor.

(Director of Governance). To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

It was reported that Councillor J H Whitehouse was substituting for Councillor B Surtees.

Councillor M Sartin was appointed vice-chairman for the duration of the meeting.

Decisions required:

To confirm the minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 23 February 2016.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the last Committee meeting held on 23 February 2016 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

(Director of Governance) To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview and Scrutiny Committee members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial interest in any matter before an Overview and Scrutiny Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub-Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee, or Joint Sub-Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an overview and scrutiny meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

(1)          Councillor L Girling declared a non-pecuniary interest in the following item of the agenda by virtue of being an end user of the services under scrutiny. He advised that his interest was not prejudicial and he would remain in the meeting for the duration of the item and consideration thereon:

·         ECC Children Services Presentation.

(2)          Councillor S Neville declared a non-pecuniary interest in the following item of the agenda by virtue of being a voluntary advisor of the Buckhurst Hill Money Advice Service who benefitted from Grant Aid. He advised that his interest was not prejudicial and he would remain in the meeting for the duration of the item and consideration thereon:

·         Final report of the Grant Aid Task and Finish Panel.

In 2012/13 this Committee had requested an annual presentation from the Youth Council giving an update on the developing Youth Council programme.

Members of the Youth Council will attend the meeting to outline:

(i) achievements from the last year; and

(ii) the plans for the Youth Council for the coming year.

The Committee received their annual presentation from Epping Forest Youth Council giving an update on the year past and their future programme.

Speaking on behalf of the youth councillors were Jaymey McIvor, Chloe McKendrick, Joseph Pascoe, Doncho Atanassov and Matthew Tinker. They were joined by other members of the Youth Council.

They thanked the members for their involvement  and loyalty to the Youth Council over the past eight years. Noting that without member support they would not be in such a strong position to represent young people’s views on issues that they cared about.

The Youth Council was elected for a two year period and they were now coming to the end of their term of office. Due to the recent completion of the Youth Engagement Task and Finish Panel, a review into the Council’s youth engagement function; the Youth Council elections were consequently rescheduled from March to November 2016 and the current youth councillors have been asked to extend their term until December.

Their highest profile event in their year 2 was the Youth Conference held on 9^th October 2015. Their aim was to promote Local Democracy Week and they invited the local MP, Eleanor Laing to talk about her work in the House of Commons. About 90 young people attended representing nine secondary schools in and around the Epping Forest District. Among other things they had a ‘Make your Mark’ ballot where they voted on which campaign they would like to pursue in the coming months. The top item they decided would be the living wage for young people, secondly tackling racism and religious discrimination and thirdly emotional wellbeing and mental health.

It was recognised that emotional wellbeing and mental health were major issues in the district and was not always addressed by schools. The Youth Council was working with North East London NHS Foundation Trust looking at ways they could design a project to support young people in the Epping Forest area. They were currently designing an ‘Emotional Wellbeing and Mental Health Workshop’ to deliver to secondary schools.

Social media was an important part of their work as it not only promoted what they did but raised the positive profile of young people in the district. They now have 765 followers on ‘Twitter’ and 427 likes on ‘Facebook’.

They have also contributed to 14 consultations during the year and had representation on the Epping Forest Youth Strategy Group, the Police and Crime Commissioners Youth Forum, the Young Essex Assembly, the Youth Parliament, the Jack Petchey Achievers Network and numerous school councils. They have also all completed a Dementia Friends Awareness Raising session and basic First Aid course.

Volunteering remained a big theme for the youth councillors; they were passionate about encouraging other young people to volunteer and were working closely with their individual schools and had set up Youth Volunteer Days. In February they set up a youth volunteer day and were supported by staff from the City of London to help clear an area of  ...  view the full minutes text for item 65.

Following on from the last successful talk on Children Services given in November 2014, and this committee’s desire to have an update, officers have arranged a follow up presentation.

To this end we have a representative from the County, Chris Martin, the Integrated Commissioning Director (West), at Essex County Council coming to speak to the Committee. He will be talking about:

·         The background and an update on the Children’s Centres in Essex Consultation taking place now; and

·         The Current position of Essex Children Services –

-          How are they coping with staff shortages;

-          Loss of budget

-          Involvement of outside and voluntary services in the provision of children services.

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee welcomed Chris Martin, the Essex Commissioning Director - Children and Gill Holland the lead on Children Centre Performance in the west of the County. They were there to talk about Children Services in our area of the County and the ‘Children’s Centres in Essex’ Consultation taking place.

Mr Martin noted that the Children’s consultation was to consult on the Children’s and young persons plan. This plan was to run from 2016 to 2019 and would set the direction of children services across Essex. This would affect children and young people from pre-birth to 19 and would improve joint accountability and decision making and move on to family centred plans.

ECC was in the process of redesigning the current service offer for Children’s Centres and the Healthy Child Programme (including Health Visiting, Family Nurse Partnership, School Nursing Services and Healthy Schools Programme). This would also place parents, children and families at the heart of the service redesign. They were focusing on designing systems to ensure that information, advice and support made a real difference to families, children and young people. They undertook various engagement activities and following on form the findings of the Ethnographic Research they undertook a series of activities including local focus groups and workshops.

It was noted that Children’s Centres were used by many people, 144 out of 367 respondents have used the service (40%). This was valued work carried out by the centres. 90% of the parents said they were accessible, in good locations and felt they were listened to when using them. They helped reduce the isolation that some parents were feeling. Some people felt that services and activities had been reduced and many wanted more. Parents would like the centres open for longer periods and on different days. Some wanted to use them but they were closed when needed. And some families in greatest need were not accessing the services at all. There was an outreach service but about 30% of families were not being reached; there needed to be a different way to interact with them.

Many did not know what was available to them and half of the respondents said this when asked why they had not received formal advice, information or support. They did not know where to go to get help or who to contact and were not accessing services as a result.

As part of the consultation they had proposed to extend the current children’s centre service by increasing the age range to support  families with children from pregnancy to age 19 (up to 25 with Special Educational Needs (SEND)) and by brining these five services together:

·         0-5 Healthy Child Programme;

·         5-19 Healthy Child Programme;

·         Children’s Centres;

·         Healthy Schools;

·         Family Nurse Partnership.

They were also proposing to stop calling them Children’s Centres and call them Family Hubs. This was because they will be important places for young people and families as well as children and the name reflected the wider range of services that would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

To receive the final report of the Grant Aid Task and Finish Panel.

The Chairman of the Grant Aid Review Task and Finish Panel, Councillor Caroline Pond introduced their final report. The Panel acknowledged the £11,500 saving made from the Grant Aid Budget for 2015/16 in respect of the one–off major grants and considered whether any further reductions could be made to the overall Grant Aid funding programme. It also looked at the various criteria for the distribution of funding; the monitoring and evaluation for each grant awarded and the Service Level Agreements applied.

More detailed consideration was given to the higher level funding agreements, in respect of Voluntary Action Epping Forest and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, who provided presentations to the Panel on their work. In addition, visits were made by the Panel members, to various organisations in receipt of grant funding.

Early in the review process the Panel came to the conclusion that it would be easier and more logical to break down the review into two parts, namely one focussing on the major grants and associated policy and procedure and the other relating to the Service Level Agreements with voluntary groups active in the District, including the CAB and Voluntary Action Epping Forest, which had been carried out in 2015/16.  This report related to the second part of the review. 

Within Part 1 of the Grant Aid Review, the Panel recognised the vital role that the voluntary and community sector brought to local community well-being in the Epping Forest District.  However, it also acknowledged the need for a more proactive approach to monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of grants awarded, and particularly the higher level grants.

The Committee reviewed the recommendations made by the Panel. Councillor Mohindra noted that recommendation 5 said that a rigorous process of monitoring was adopted for the higher Grant Awards. What did this mean. Councillor Pond said that officers should look at the various grants every year. Councillor Waller noted that there was always room for improvement in monitoring and for the use of SMART objectives.

Councillor Keska asked if the performance management benchmarking for the VAEF and the Epping Forest CAB would be for the whole district and would that mean they would be returning to Ongar. Councillor Pond said that they would restore it to one day a week.  Councillor Waller noted that services tended to be directed to the more populated parts of the district. The CAB should be involved in the more out reaching parts of the district as they also had needs.

RESOLVED:

(1)          That the current level of Grant Aid funding be maintained;

(2)          That, from 1 April 2016, funding of less than £5,000 per annum for three years be provided for Voluntary Groups without the need for a formal Service Level Agreement, but, subject to the receipt of an Annual Report from each Group outlining the benefit to the District from the funding;

(3)           That the revised Service Level Agreement as agreed by the Panel, be adopted by the Council;

(4)          That the District Council maintain provision for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 67.

(Director of Governance) To consider the attached report.

The Director of Neighbourhoods introduced the report on the Equality Objectives plan for 2016 to 2020. The Council was required to publish equality objectives every four years to take forward its public sector equality duty. This duty required that we proactively consider how discrimination could be addressed through the work that we did, and also whether we could advance equality of opportunity and encourage good relations between different protected groups. The setting of objectives provided a focus on the outcomes to be achieved during the next four years.

In 2012 the Council adopted equality objectives which reached the end of its lifespan in March 2016. New objectives had been developed to take the Council up to April 2020, and because the objectives must be specific and measureable, an action plan had also been developed to deliver them.

The setting of equality objectives every four years was required of public bodies under the Equality Act 2010. It was therefore, a key statutory duty that the objectives were set and published, together with the ongoing progress to achieve them.

Four objectives were proposed and are set out below together with a brief outline of the reasons for their proposal:

Objective 1:   To integrate the Council’s public sector equality duty into our partnership working

The public sector equality duty was relevant across the full range of its activity including its work through partnerships. The duty also applied to its public sector partners and it may be the Council could access good practice or share work to comply with the duty.

Objective 2:  To apply robust equality requirements in commissioning, procurement and contract management

Procurement by local authorities was identified by the government as a key area for the development of equality and where there was the potential to improve the lives of people. Whilst it was evident there was some consideration of equality in our procurement practices, procurement had not been a focus for equality work to date, and integration was required if the duty was to be fully met.

Objective 3:  To develop our capacity so that our employees have the knowledge, skills and confidence to deliver our plans

Employee understanding of Council requirements remains important. Whilst some progress had been made in the course of the current set of objectives, the CEWG considered there was the potential to refine and refocus training for employees to reflect the Council’s current position.

Objective 4:  To improve and develop equality in our business activities

This included projects and reviews, and along with Objectives 1 and 2, sought to build on progress already made in integrating equality into service planning and delivery, and extend it into our wider activities, and at an earlier stage of our investigation and research.

It was noted that as part of the objectives action plan, under item 4, each Directorate of the Council would undertake organising the work experience for three young people, making a total of 12 persons for each year. This would be different from the council apprentices  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

(Director of Governance) to consider the attached report.

The Democratic Services Manager introduced the report on the review of the Select Committee Framework. As the Committee was aware, a new Overview and Scrutiny framework based on a structure of four ‘select committees’, was established with effect from the commencement of the current municipal year, on a basis mirroring the new directorate structure.

As the first year of the select committee arrangements came to an end, it was considered that it would be useful for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to review the operation and management of the select committees, particularly in terms of the allocation of service responsibilities between individual committees and the achievability of their associated work programmes.

The views of the current chairmen and lead officers of the select committees had therefore been sought in connection with the operation and management of the select committees over the last year. An item was also included in the Council Bulletin during February 2016, inviting other members to contribute to the review, and a number of officers have also submitted observations on the current arrangements.

The comments and observations that have been submitted in relation to the operation of the select committee arrangements over the last year were largely focussed on the division of service responsibilities. The main issue raised was the imbalance of workload in the Neighbourhood and Communities Select Committee. They had a heavy workload last year leading to long meetings and overcrowded agenda.

The Technology and Support Services Portfolio Holder, Councillor Lion also submitted comments to the effect that he considered the scrutiny function was still not strong enough and needed to get behind the real issues to improve the functions of the Council. He believed that the work programmes for each select committee needed to be linked  to the corporate objectives, business plans and to the business as opposed to the financial audit. He suggested that portfolio holders could be asked  to present the business plan for their portfolio and  what they were planning to achieve in the year ahead. He also suggested that meetings should be held between the Chairmen of the Overview and Scrutiny and the Select Committees at the start of each year in order to plan the work programme for the year.

Councillor Sartin noted that she had made her comments in the report. Her Select Committee had covered a lot of areas while the Housing Select Committee has had to cancel one meeting. She proposed that the Select Committees be aligned to the directorates for the coming year, to be reviewed at the end of the year.

Councillor Stallan, the Housing Portfolio Holder, noted that there was not total support given by the Management Board, where the Director of Communities had said that the current system had not been detrimental and with the Housing Bill coming out they would have larger agendas in the coming year and asked that the system remained the same.

Councillor Sartin added that the Neighbourhood and Communities Select Committee has not had enough time  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69.

At this point in the proceedings the Chairman, Councillor Morgan had to leave to attend to a prior engagement. The Vice-Chairman, Councillor Sartin took over the Chairmanship of the meeting.

RECOMMENDATION:

To consider and comment on the draft O&S Annual Report for 2015/16.

The Committee is asked to consider whether they are happy with the draft report (attached) and to make amendments where necessary. Any comments should be submitted to Democratic Services by Friday, 13 May 2016 for inclusion in the final version. 

A copy of each Select Committee section of the report has been sent to the relevant Chairman and lead officer of that committee for comments.

This draft is still incomplete as not all Panels have held their last meeting for the year at the time this agenda went to print.

The final report will be submitted to the next Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 7 June 2016 for endorsement and then on to the nearest Full Council meeting.

The Committee considered the draft Overview and Scrutiny annual report. They noted that a copy of each Select Committee section of the report had been sent to the relevant Chairman and Lead Officer for comment. The draft was still incomplete as not all Committees had held their final meeting by the time the agenda went to print. If there were more any comments, they should be submitted to Democratic Services by Friday, 13 May 2016.

A final version of the report would be submitted to the next Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting on 7 June 2016 for endorsement and then on to the nearest full Council meeting.

Councillor Neville queried a point under the Neighbourhood and Communities Select Committee section, item (xii) on the 20mph speed limit. He thought that bullet point 6 should say between 20 and 24mph and not 24 and 29mph. 24 to 29mph was for Urban Areas.  Officers agreed to look into this and change as appropriate.

Councillor Janet Whitehouse said that there was an omission under the Governance Select Committee section, item (i) Review of Elections – May 2015 – Lessons Learnt. It should have had something about the mix up of ballot books and the lesson learnt from that issue. Councillor Church (Chairman of that Select Committee) agreed that this should be included. Officers said that they would alter the report to include this point.

RESOLVED:

That subject to the comments on the speed limits and the review of elections item, the draft Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report for 2015/16 be agreed.

(a)          To consider the updated work programme

The current Overview and Scrutiny work programme is attached for information.

(b)          Reserve Programme

A reserve list of scrutiny topics is required to ensure that the work flow of OSC is continuous.

OSC will ‘pull out’ items from the list and allocate them accordingly once space becomes available in the work programme following the completion of existing reviews.

Members can put forward any further suggestions for inclusion in the reserve list either during the meeting or at a later date.

Existing review items will be dealt with first, then time will be allocated to the items contained in the reserve work plan.

(a)          Work Programmes

Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The committee considered their work programme and noted the progress at this their final meeting of the year. They noted that the programme was now mostly complete except for two items. Item 12 the progress on the 6^th form consortium and item 15, the management of Epping Forest; both of which were scheduled for the new municipal year.

Councillor Girling noted that we have had the Corporation of London here once before (September 2012) and asked that the notes from that last meeting be circulated to members for information.

Select Committees:

Housing Select Committee

The Committee noted that there was nothing to report.

Governance Select Committee

The Chairman had nothing further to report but thanked the members of his Select Committee for their work during the past year.

Neighbourhood and Communities Select Committee

The Chairman noted that all their work had now been completed.

Resources Select Committee

The Chairman noted they had received a presentation from the Council’s apprentices at their last meeting. The Committee thought that it would be informative to ask them to address either an O&S Committee or full Council meeting on their experiences at this Council.

Task and Finish Panel:

Grant Aid Task and Finish Panel

The final report for this  Panel was at this meeting for agreement.

(b)          Reserve Programme

The Democratic Services Manager reminded the meeting that to put an item in the reserve programme members should complete a PICK Form.

To review the Key Decision List (Cabinet Forward Plan) on a meeting by meeting basis.

The Committee noted the Cabinet’s Key Decision List for February 2016. They had no specific items that they wished to consider.

Councillor Sartin, on behalf of the Chairman, Councillor Morgan, thanked the Committee for the work done during the year. She also thanked the officers for their behind the scenes work and also the Cabinet members who regularly attended these meetings