Agenda and draft minutes
Venue: Meeting Space - Block 1, Floor 2 - County Hall. View directions
Contact: Rebecca Greally
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MEMBERSHIP AND TERMS OF REFERENCE The Committee are asked to note the following membership and terms of reference for the Communities and Place OSC which were agreed by Council on 26 May 2021
Membership and Terms of Reference
10 Members (5:3:1:1)
Quorum – 3
Chair: D. Bawn
Vice Chair: L. Dunn
Terms of reference: (1) To maintain an overview of the Council’s Annual Budget and Budgetary Management via the Medium Term Financial Plan. (2) To review the state of Northumberland and the County Council’s activity in delivering its Corporate Plan. (3) To maintain an overview of the Council’s performance management arrangements; highlighting areas of poor performance and monitoring recovery delivery plans. (4) To maintain an overview of the Management Agreements in place between the Council and Advance Northumberland. (5) To monitor, review and make recommendations about: · Corporate Services: Organisational Development, Health and Safety, ICT Strategy, Corporate Governance, Financial Services, Procurement Strategy, Risk Strategy, Shared and Traded Services · Partnership development coordination with local organisations · Relationships with external bodies · Regeneration and Economic Development · Strategic Transport Network and Infrastructure · Employability, Skills, and removing barriers to work · Capital Programme and Asset Management · Support to VCS organisations and the Council’s relationship with town and parish councils.
Minutes: The membership and Terms of Reference agreed by Council on 26 May 2021 was circulated for information.
RESOLVED that the information be noted.
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APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillors Taylor and Wearmouth |
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Minutes of the meetings of the Corporate Services and Economic Growth OSC held on 8 March 2021, as circulated, to be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chairman. Minutes: RESOLVED that the minutes of the meetings of the Corporate Services and Economic Growth Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 8 March 2021, as circulated, be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.
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DISCLOSURE OF MEMBERS' INTERESTS Unless already entered in the Council’s Register of Members’ interests, members are required to disclose any personal interest (which includes any disclosable pecuniary interest) they may have in any of the items included on the agenda for the meeting in accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the Council on 4 July 2012, and are reminded that if they have any personal interests of a prejudicial nature (as defined under paragraph 17 of the Code Conduct) they must not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must leave the room. NB Any member needing clarification must contact Legal Services, on 01670 623324. Please refer to the guidance on disclosures at the rear of this agenda letter. Minutes: Councillor Oliver advised of an interest in item 8 on the agenda and would leave the room when this was being discussed.
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FORWARD PLAN OF CABINET DECISIONS PDF 100 KB To note the latest Forward Plan of key decisions. Any further changes made to the Forward Plan will be reported to the Committee.
Minutes: RESOLVED that the latest Forward Plan of key decisions be noted
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This report will outline to Cabinet the implications of the Borderlands Place Programme for those towns prioritised in the Business Case approved by the Government to prepare a Place Plan to identify economic projects eligible for investment from the Borderlands Growth Deal. Minutes: The Cabinet report outlined the implications of the Borderlands Place Programme for those towns prioritised in the Business case approved by the Government to prepare a Place Plan to identify economic projects eligible for investment from the Borderlands Growth Deal. Councillor Sanderson, Leader stated that this was a wonderful programme to be part of and recognised the work of J Rose and her team.
J. Rose – Head of Economy and Regeneration, introduced the report and provided a presentation, a copy of which would be attached to the signed minutes and uploaded to the website.
Following questions from Members; it was established that:
Members welcomed the investment in the town centres that the Borderlands Deal would bring and congratulated those involved during the negotiations over the last 3 to 4 years.
RESOLVED that Cabinet be advised that this Committee support the recommendations as outlined in the report.
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The purpose of this report is to provide an annual position statement in relation to strategic workforce related areas of assurance, workstreams/associated action plans and progress to date within key areas for Northumberland County Council for the full financial year of 2020/21.
To provide assurance to the Corporate Services and Economic Growth Overview & Scrutiny Committee that there is provision and monitoring in place to achieve necessary Key Performance Indicators relating to the workforce on an ongoing basis.
To provide elected members with an overview of the strategic direction for the Council’s workforce related matters as part of the Covid-19 recovery plans for the county as these continue to evolve.
To provide members with an overview of the monitoring and actions taken during the period from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021 in accordance with the Council’s Whistleblowing Policy for employees. Members are asked to note that other aspects of Whistleblowing which are not employee related are logged and maintained by the Council’s Monitoring Officer
Minutes: K. Angus - Executive Director
of HR and OD and Deputy Chief Executive, introduced the report
paying tribute to the staff of the Council for their resilience and
the emergency response provided for Covid as well as continuing
with all business as usual
activities. The year had been very
different, and staff had adapted fantastically to undertaking
different ways of working and a wide number of health and wellbeing
activities had been developed to assist and support staff during
this period.
· An annual position statement in relation to strategic workforce related areas of assurance, workstreams/associated action plans and progress to date within key areas for Northumberland County Council for the full financial year of 2020/21 · Assurance to the Corporate Services and Economic Growth Overview & Scrutiny Committee that there was provision and monitoring in place to achieve necessary Key Performance Indicators relating to the workforce on an ongoing basis. · Elected members with an overview of the strategic direction for the Council’s workforce related matters as part of the Covid-19 recovery plans for the county as these continued to evolve. · Members with an overview of the monitoring and actions taken during the period from 1st April 2020 to 31st March 2021 in accordance with the Council’s Whistleblowing Policy for employees. Members were asked to note that other aspects of Whistleblowing which were not employee related were logged and maintained by the Council’s Monitoring Officer.
Following questions from
Members it was established that:
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The purpose of this report is to provide the Corporate Services and Economic Growth Overview and Scrutiny Committee with information relating to the level of outstanding debt owed to the Council so that the Committee may satisfy itself as to the efficiency and effectiveness of its collection and recovery policies and systems.
The Write-Offs report is circulated for information only.
Additional documents: Minutes: G. Barnes - Revenues, Benefits and Customer Services Manager introduced thereport which provided the Corporate Services and Economic Growth Overview & Scrutiny Committee with information relating to the level of outstanding debt owed to the Council so that the Committee might satisfy itself as to the efficiency and effectiveness of its collection and recovery policies and systems. The Write-Offs report was circulated for information only.
It was noted there was a typographical error on paragraph 52 of the Debt Recovery report. It should read “therefore those on Universal Credit are performing worse than those that aren’t”
From members questions it was established that:
RESOLVED that this information was noted.
Councillor Oliver returned to the room at this point.
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The Committee is asked to review and note the Corporate Services and Economic Growth Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme and Monitoring Report for the 2021/22 council year. Minutes: The committee was asked to review and note the Corporate Services and Economic Growth Overview & Scrutiny Committee Work Programme and Monitoring Report for the 2021/22 council year.
RESOLVED that this information was noted.
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URGENT BUSINESS To consider such other business as, in the opinion of the Chair, should, by reason of special circumstances, be considered as a matter of urgency. Minutes: Councillor Hunter had requested that the Committee be advised of the statutory consultation on the new timetable for the East Coast mainline between Edinburgh and London which was to be introduced.
R O’Farrell, Executive Director advised that a briefing note had been circulated to Members earlier in the day. There had been four separate consultations packaged together and these would cause significant impact on the County with a loss of 24 services per day. The North East region as a whole would be adversely affected by these proposals and the only gain was one extra train an hour to Newcastle and a reduction of 5 minutes on the journey. The Council supported the suspension of these introductions and that a task force established to look at capacity. The Leader of the Council had written to the Department of Transport and had also asked that the four MPs from the area object to the proposals. The response from these was not yet known.
Members expressed their dismay at these proposals and requested that a representative of the body proposing these cuts be invited to attend this Committee to explain the reasoning behind these proposals. RESOLVED:
1. The Committee supported Councillor Sanderson effort’s in relation to the proposals; and 2. A representative of the body proposing the cuts be invited to attend this Committee to explain the reasoning behind the proposals.
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EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC The Committee is invited to consider passing the following resolution:?? ?? (a) That under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the?following items on the?Agenda?as they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the 1972 Act, and? ?? (b) That the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure for the following?reasons:-???
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Minutes: RESOLVED ? ?? (a) That under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the?following items on the?Agenda?as they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part I of Schedule 12A of the 1972 Act, and? ?? (b) That the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure for the following?reasons:-???
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MINUTES Confidential minutes of the meeting of the Corporate Services and Economic Growth OSC held on 8 March 2021, as circulated, to be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chairman.
Minutes: RESOLVED that the confidential minutes of the meeting of the Corporate Services and Economic Growth OSC held on 8 March 2021, as circulated, be confirmed as a true record and signed by the Chairman
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REPORT OF RECOMMENDATION TO CABINET At the meeting of the Committee on 8 February 2021, the OSC?considered the above report prior to its determination by Cabinet on the following day.? This?briefing note reports on how the Cabinet dealt with an?additional recommendation?made by the Committee.? (Briefing note for information only). Minutes: RESOLVED that the confidential report circulated to members was noted.
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