Agenda item

Challenge Board Interim Report 2 for the Member Oversight Group

To consider and respond to the second interim report of the Challenge Board, provided to the Member Oversight Group on the 3rd March 2023.

Challenge Board Interim Report 2 for the Member Oversight Group

Members were asked to consider and respond to the second interim report of the Challenge Board, provided to the Member Oversight Group on the 3rd March 2023.

The report was proposed by the Leader and seconded by Councillor Stewart.

Councillor Dale commented that she would like to see an overarching plan of how leadership of the Council as a whole would be taken forward, which members could all sign up to. This could be considered by Group Leaders.

The Leader responded that one of the recommendations in the Caller Report was around member development and a template on member personal development plans had been sent to members for them to complete. This would enable them to highlight those areas where they wanted more development and would inform a tailored programme of training beginning in May. This work was being overseen by the Member Services Working Group.

Councillor Dickinson commented that there were a number of recommendations and issues in the report which members had seen twice now around member engagement and access to information. The Group Leaders were not confident that the MOG was working so he asked how the engagement process could be corrected and how could they be supported in terms of actual oversight of the work being done. There were a number of recommendations which needed to be achieved and quickly, because staff and partner organisations involved with the Council deserved this to be done correctly. To remain on the trajectory which Councillor Wearmouth had previously referred to, the rest had to be got right.

Councillor Hill asked if the Council was going to keep the Challenge Board and if so, what were the timescales. What was the process going to be regarding their work?

In response to these comments, the Leader replied that the next phase would be discussed with the Challenge Board soon. He was confident that the Council was on track meet the recommendations and was keen to maintain the pace of progress, to think of the next big challenges and to place the Council at the forefront of County Councils in the country. He was grateful to the Group Leaders for their collegiate approach and was happy with the progress which had been made.

Councillor Kennedy referred to the comments in the report regarding the budget process and the involvement of the Opposition Groups. The budget was clearly a key milestone and he asked the Leader if this point could be addressed properly in future years. The Leader stressed this was the Challenge Board’s report and if there were questions on its content, they should be addressed to the Board.

Councillor Morphet suggested that the report’s recommendations should be for the Council to “accept” and not “note” the findings of the Challenge Board report. The Monitoring Officer advised that this was in effect an amendment to the report’s recommendation. This would need to be written down and seconded, and then dealt with as an amendment by the Chamber.

The Leader reiterated this was the report of the Challenge Board and the recommendation was to note the findings and suggested next steps, and this was what the Council had been asked to do. He felt members should stick with that. The Monitoring Officer confirmed this report was not the findings of the Council. The cover report allowed the interim report findings to be put to members for their attention. Members were not being asked to accept or to agree, simply to note. Councillor Morphet was entitled to put an amendment but it would need to be dealt with in the way she had outlined. The cover report was a matter of process as outside bodies could not place matters on the Council agenda and it  as not a report of the Leader of the Council. The Challenge Board report was a report to the Member Oversight Group which had been laid here and was part of the Leader’s promise to members that when there were reports from the Board, they would come to all members.

Councillor Morphet commented that if the Challenge Board was happy with members “noting” their report, then he was satisfied.

Councillor Reid asked how comfortable the Leader was about how uncomplimentary the Challenge Board report was in light of the previous report which had just been considered.

The Leader felt that the previous report had been very complimentary about the Council and its staff. Any questions about the Challenge Board report should be directed to the Board and he had no further comment.

RESOLVED that the findings and suggested next steps proposed in the Challenge Board’s second interim report be noted.