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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 1

Contact: Democratic Services Tel: 01684 272021  Email:  democraticservices@tewkesbury.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

15.

Announcements

When the continuous alarm sounds you must evacuate the building by the nearest available fire exit. Members and visitors should proceed to the visitors’ car park at the front of the building and await further instructions (during office hours staff should proceed to their usual assembly point; outside of office hours proceed to the visitors’ car park). Please do not re-enter the building unless instructed to do so.

 

In the event of a fire any person with a disability should be assisted in leaving the building.

Minutes:

15.1           The evacuation procedure, as noted on the Agenda, was advised to those present.

15.2           The Chair welcomed Sarah Scott, Director of Public Health for Gloucestershire County Council, to the meeting and indicated that she would be giving a presentation on the annual public health report at Agenda Item 9.  Councillor            R E Garnham, the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel, was in attendance and would be providing an update at Agenda Item 7.  It was noted that Councillor Mrs G F Blackwell, Lead Member for Organisational Development – which included scrutiny - was also present as an observer.

16.

Apologies for Absence and Substitutions

To receive apologies for absence and advise of any substitutions. 

Minutes:

16.1           Apologies for absence were received from Councillors G J Bocking and                      M G Sztymiak.  There were no substitutions for the meeting.

17.

Declarations of Interest

Pursuant to the adoption by the Council on 26 June 2012 of the Tewkesbury Borough Council Code of Conduct, effective from 1 July 2012, as set out in Minute No. CL.34, Members are invited to declare any interest they may have in the business set out on the Agenda to which the approved Code applies.

Minutes:

17.1           The Committee’s attention was drawn to the Tewkesbury Borough Council Code of Conduct which was adopted by the Council on 26 June 2012 and took effect from 1 July 2012.

17.2           There were no declarations made on this occasion.

18.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 137 KB

To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on 13 June 2017.

Minutes:

18.1           The Minutes of the meeting held on 13 June 2017, copies of which had been circulated, were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair. 

19.

Consideration of the Executive Committee Forward Plan pdf icon PDF 72 KB

To determine whether there are any questions for the relevant Lead Members and what support the Overview and Scrutiny Committee can give to work contained within the Plan.

Minutes:

19.1           Attention was drawn to the Executive Committee Forward Plan, circulated at Pages No. 15-19.  Members were asked to determine whether there were any questions for the relevant Lead Members and what support the Overview and Scrutiny Committee could give to the work contained within the plan.

19.2           It was

RESOLVED          That the Executive Committee Forward Plan be NOTED

20.

Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2017/18 pdf icon PDF 81 KB

To consider the forthcoming work of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Minutes:

20.1           Attention was drawn to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2017/18, circulated at Pages No. 20-27, which Members were asked to consider.

20.2           The Head of Corporate Services recognised there were a number of pending items contained within the plan and he provided assurance that these would come forward during the course of the financial year.  He made particular reference to the Tewkesbury Borough News Review Working Group which would shortly be coming to a conclusion and indicated that the report would be brought to the next meeting of the Committee on 5 September 2017.  It was subsequently

RESOLVED          That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2017/18 be NOTED.

21.

Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel Update

To receive an update from the Council’s representative on matters considered at the last meeting.  

Minutes:

21.1           Members received an update from Councillor Rob Garnham, the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Panel, on matters discussed at the last meeting of the Panel held on 14 July 2017.

21.2           Councillor Garnham advised that this was the first meeting following the May local elections and, as well as a change in membership from some District and County Councils, a new Chair and Vice Chair had been elected; Gloucestershire County Councillor Will Windsor-Clive and Cheltenham Borough Councillor Colin Hay respectively.  For the benefit of the new Panel Members, a presentation had been given on the role of the Police and Crime Panel.  In terms of the Chief Executive’s report, crime statistics had been reported from the www.police.uk website which had shown that crime levels in Gloucestershire were classed as ‘normal’ when assessed against peer forces.  As regards the direction of crime, i.e. crime taken over two periods of 12 months, Gloucestershire was rated as 17 out of 41 forces, excluding City of London.  In respect of delivery, i.e. crimes per 1,000 population, Gloucestershire was rated as 11 out of 41 forces, excluding City of London; the lower the number in both categories the better.   In terms of the emergency services collaboration, the Panel had been advised that external consultants were still reviewing the advantages and disadvantages of the Fire Service being taken under the control of the Police and Crime Commissioner.  The report had also noted that Detective Sergeant Nigel Hatten had been awarded the Queen’s Police Medal for his work in protecting children in Gloucestershire and his tireless dedication to victims of sexual abuse.

21.3           Members were advised that the hard-hitting report in relation to Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) national child protection inspection for Gloucestershire had provoked most discussion from the Panel.  The Police and Crime Commissioner had been keen to point out the seriousness of the review and acknowledge the findings of HMIC.  The inspection had identified areas of significant concern and a number of recommendations had been made as a result.  Reference was made to Gloucestershire County Council’s inspection of children’s services which had also raised serious concerns.  The Constabulary was required to produce a report within six weeks - due around the end of July - which would be followed by a re-inspection in October.  The Police and Crime Commissioner had stated that he aimed to hold a summit conference of all relevant parties so that failings in child protection could be discussed across the board and addressed in a non-political and collaborative manner.  Councillor Garnham indicated that it was a lengthy report and a number of the cases were extremely worrying.  Whilst the good work of frontline Officers was acknowledged, the Panel had picked up on the statement from HMIC that “we found limited strategic oversight by senior leaders and lack of effective supervision of child protection investigations” and reassurance was sought from the Police and Crime Commissioner that the leaders of the Constabulary were prepared to address the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

22.

Gloucestershire Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee

To receive an update from the Council’s representative on matters considered at the last meeting.  

Minutes:

22.1           Members received an update from Councillor Mrs J E Day, the Council’s representative on the Gloucestershire Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee, on matters discussed at its last meeting held on 11 July 2017.

22.2           Councillor Day advised that the Committee had received a presentation demonstrating the outcomes of the 12 week engagement exercise in respect of the Gloucestershire Sustainability and Transformation Plan.  Feedback from the general public had included approval of focus on prevention and self-care; difficulties navigating a complex system; importance of treating the whole person; and better use of technology.  The Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group was now developing service change proposals for consultation with partners.  These were required to go through the NHS England assurance process and would be received by the Health and Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee in due course. There was a view that the number of responses – 638 completed surveys – was relatively small and it was suggested that this related to the lack of detail in the Sustainability and Transformation Plan.  The expectation that there would be a significant increase in responses once the proposals for change were put out to consultation was acknowledged.  It was hoped that the consultation process would begin later in the year.  It was also recognised that, in a rural county, it would always be a challenge to ensure that a wide range of stakeholders were engaged, but the Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group was of the view that the engagement activity did cut across all parts of the county.  Members had remained frustrated by the lack of detail in the plan and the time taken to bring forward the proposals relating to urgent care centres and the Forest of Dean.

22.3           The Committee had engaged in a detailed debate with the Director of Adult Social Services on the lessons learnt in relation to Cleeve Link.  Members had agreed that the way in which members of staff and Cleeve Link carers had responded to this situation was to be commended, particularly the carers who had gone into work despite no longer being employed by the organisation.  The report had described in detail the lessons learnt and there remained a shared view and concern that signs were missed.  Assurance was provided that the Commercial Services Team did have the necessary level of expertise in procurement and contract management, and that the Finance Team had the necessary skill base; notwithstanding this, confirmation was provided that additional expertise would be brought in if the situation required it.  There was deep concern that Gloucestershire County Council was unaware of how unmanageable staff rotas were until the collapse of the company; this was a significant learning point for the Council which should be taken forward in terms of future contracts.

22.4           Councillor Day advised that the Care Quality Commission follow-up inspection of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust had taken place and the Trust remained rated as ‘requires improvement’. The Committee would consider the report at its Care Quality Commission workshop.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

23.

Public Health Annual Report

To receive a presentation from Sarah Scott, Director of Public Health, on the public health annual report.

Minutes:

23.1           The Chair introduced Sarah Scott, Director of Public Health for Gloucestershire County Council, and indicated that she would be giving a presentation on the annual public health report.

23.2           The Director of Public Health for Gloucestershire County Council indicated that she had been in post for 18 months and had worked as a consultant prior to that.  Whilst the requirement was to produce an annual public health report, this had fallen behind and the report she would be presenting was a two year report covering the period 2014/15 – 2015/16.  The 2016/17 report was currently being produced and she would be happy to bring this to the Committee when it was ready in the autumn.  She explained that a slightly different approach had been taken to producing this report in terms of the way that the relevant information was presented to the public and stakeholders, for example, short films had been used in order to try to describe the impact of interventions which had been funded through public health. 

23.3           The report contained a snapshot of health and wellbeing in the county using information from the Inform Gloucestershire website which combined the information held on the Multi-Agency Information Database for Neighbourhoods (MAIDeN), and Inform to provide district profiles.  Gloucestershire was predominantly healthy and wealthy with a good quality of life and above average life expectancy.  It did have an ageing population, with people tending to leave the county in their early twenties and return in their forties, and one of the key challenges was how the healthcare system could best be used to reflect the needs of that population.  It was 19 years since the teenage pregnancy reduction targets had been set and Gloucestershire was a national leader in this area.  Notwithstanding this, men living in the most deprived parts of the county could expect to live eight years less than men in the least deprived areas with the gap for women being six years; it felt particularly unjust that, in 2017, men and women were dying earlier just because of where they lived.

23.4           The public health ring-fenced grant for 2015/16 was £24,934,000; £4,178,000 had been spent on sexual health; £3,521,000 on healthy lifestyles e.g. stop smoking, weight management service on GP referral, breastfeeding peer support; £6,924,000 on commissioning the drug and alcohol treatment service; £507,000 on public mental health; £200,000 on domestic abuse; £5,225,000 on children aged 0-19 e.g. school nursing service, specific activities in children’s centres such as Health, Exercise and Nutrition for the Really Young (HENRY); £812,000 on NHS Health checks; and £3,549,000 on the public health function which paid for the Public Health Team, additional staff based in other teams, health protection contingency, and data storage and licences.  A compulsory spending review in 2015 had reduced the ring-fenced grant and there was a further £1.2M reduction to make. 

23.5           Attention was drawn to six case studies which showed how the public health grant had supported people in Gloucestershire.  Members were shown a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

24.

Development Services Review

To receive a presentation on the proposed improvements to the planning service.

Minutes:

24.1           The Chair welcomed Annette Roberts, Head of Development Services, to the meeting and indicated that she would be giving an update on the review of the planning service.

24.2           Members received a presentation which covered the following key points:

·      Planning Service Review – Three strands: Planning Advisory Service (PAS) data capture – national benchmarking and data sets to see how the Council was doing and compare with other similar authorities; procedure review and analysis i.e. why were things done in the way they were and what could be done to improve them; and customer service improvements e.g. answering the telephone within a certain number of rings, making it easier for customers who did not use the planning service on a regular basis.

·      Principles Behind the Review – Delivery of service in a resilient manner; maximise best use of resources; improve procedures; retain and attract quality staff; drive improvements to service; best planning service; deliver growth ambitions; and offer a customer orientated service.

·      Data Collection Information – Report - cost, income, productivity and performance; benchmarking; analysis, opportunity identification; and change and improvement work.

·      Procedure Review and Enhancement – Critically looking at the Development Management Service end to end; interviewing/discussing the service with Officers to gain their perspective; identifying key areas that may need further investigation e.g. pre-application, validation, application assessment, decision-making including conditions and Section 106; suggesting approaches to service improvement, identifying other relevant good practice or templates where appropriate; and identifying areas where service sharing, joint working and/or a consistent approach to service standards would, or may, be beneficial for the service/s and customers.

·      Customer Service – Telephone calls capture exercise i.e. how many do we get, what type of enquiries; research into IT in Planning Awards; benchmark quality service based on IT systems; feedback forms – create feedback forms to be sent out with decision notices; create a Tewkesbury Borough Council ‘Apply for Planning’ factsheet; create a standard signature for all pre-application responses; forms/prompt sheets for duty planning appointments; publish planning information i.e. number of houses approved, number of planning applications dealt with etc.; enforcement plan – to help the public understand how it was dealt with and the procedures that were followed; planning interactive map to enable customers to self-serve; Parish briefings on applications; planning forums.

·      Next Steps – First draft of PAS work received today; reports on key strands of work expected early summer; provide information to joint and independent reviews; implement service improvement towards end of year (“quick wins” would be implemented straight away); Member forums and agent/architect forums in the autumn.

24.3           A Member expressed the view that Parish Councils needed more assistance and training and this was echoed by several other Members of the Committee.  The Head of Development Services advised that she had been to see a number of Parish Councils in relation to specific applications but she agreed that a more formal approach was needed in terms of how they dealt with applications and their relationship with the Planning Team.  Parish  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.