Issue - meetings

That the feedback from the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee be NOTED. 

6.1             The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee was invited to provide feedback from the last meeting of the Committee held on 26 March 2024.

6.2             The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee advised that Members had considered the financial update report for the third quarter of 2023/24 and were broadly content with the stated position.  The lack of overall debt recovery targets was noted, as it was the intent for the Audit and Governance Committee to take a more active role in debt management.  It was noted that the Lead Member for Customer Focus had attended the meeting in relation to the Customer Care Strategy and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had welcomed the introduction of a new set of Care Standards and the omnichannel customer care portal.  Questions had been raised about the appropriateness of the Citizens’ Panel, particularly in terms of representing the diversity of the community, and asked for this to be investigated further.  The Committee had found it disappointing that there were no meaningful metrics to assess the success, or otherwise, of the Customer Care Strategy and hoped that any new strategy would ensure that it could be effectively and meaningfully scrutinised.  It was felt that the governance of customer care needed to be tidied up going forward – currently both the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and Transform Working Group provided scrutiny – and, as Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, he would speak with the Lead Member about the best way forward.  Since the meeting in March, the Committee had spoken with the Lead Member in relation to the Housing and Homelessness Strategy Action Plan to express the view that, whilst the actions delivered by the team were laudable, the strategy was currently too ambitious rather than being focused on what was achievable and did not provide the ability to measure progress and effectively communicate real success to the community.  It was noted that a revised strategy was being developed and would come before the Overview and Scrutiny Committee in October.  With regard to the Depot Services Working Group annual report, it was noted that the Working Group continued to have its finger on the pulse of in-year delivery of Ubico services; the future of the Working Group would be discussed as part of the development of the new Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme.  The Chair indicated that the Committee was looking forward to scrutinising the work delivered under the new Council Plan; however, it was recognised that its Work Programme was likely to come under some pressure given the ambitions within the plan and the new and revamped strategies and action plans being considered.  Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee were holding preliminary conversations with Lead Members and Officers about the best time for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to consider policies and strategies over the next 12 months.  To date, meetings had been held with the Lead Members for Economic Development, Environmental Services, Health and Wellbeing, Housing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6