30.1           The evacuation procedure, as noted on the Agenda, was taken as read.

30.2           The Chair welcomed Councillor R E Allen, Lead Member for Health and Wellbeing, to the meeting and indicated that he was in attendance for Item 7 – Healthwatch Gloucestershire Presentation.

31.1           Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Mrs G F Blackwell (Vice-Chair), Mrs J E Day, T A Spencer, M G Sztymiak and M J Williams.  Councillors Mrs J Greening and A S Reece would be acting as substitutes for the meeting. 

32.1           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.

32.2           There were no declarations made on this occasion.

To approve the Minutes of the meeting held on 19 July 2016.

33.1           The Minutes of the meeting held on 19 July 2016, copies of which had been circulated, were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair. 

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.

34.1           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.

34.2           With regard to free Christmas parking, which was due to be considered at the Executive Committee meeting on 12 October 2016, a Member noted that it was proposed to change this from the last Saturday in November to the first one in December in order to coincide with ‘Small Business Saturday’ and she questioned whether there would still be free parking for the switching on of the Christmas lights in Tewkesbury Town which was usually on the last weekend in November.  Another Member sought clarification as to what the Fee Charging Strategy, due to be considered at the Executive Committee meeting on 23 November 2016, would include.  The Chief Executive indicated that he did not have the information to respond to these queries at this time but he would ensure that answers were provided following the meeting. 

34.3           A Member raised concern that the Forward Plan did not contain many items of business for meetings beyond November 2016 and he sought clarification as to the reason for this.  The Chief Executive advised that the Plan was subject to frequent amendment, and it was often difficult to predict the work that would come forward, so it was not unusual to see fewer items on the later scheduled meetings.  Notwithstanding this, he recognised why Members may be concerned and undertook to work with Group Managers to ensure that the Plan was populated. 

34.4           It was

RESOLVED          That the Executive Committee Forward Plan be NOTED.

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

35.1           Attention was drawn to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme 2016/17, circulated at Pages No. 20-25, which Members were asked to consider.

35.2           The Chair drew attention to the Agenda for the meeting on 18 October 2016 and sought views from Members as to whether there would be adequate time to debate the Joint Waste and Grounds Maintenance items.  Members generally agreed that these would be the two most significant topics for that meeting and it would be important to allow enough time for them to be properly considered.  On that basis, it was suggested that the scrutiny of the Community Safety Partnership item be moved to a future meeting and it was agreed that the meeting on 10 January 2017 would be most appropriate.  In terms of the Grounds Maintenance Update, a Member expressed the view that a representative from Ubico should present the report as Tewkesbury Borough Council Officers may not be best placed to answer all of the queries.  The Corporate Services Group Manager agreed that this would be beneficial and he undertook to ensure that Ubico was represented at the meeting.

35.3           The Corporate Services Group Manager went on to advise that he had been in contact with a representative from Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service, as had previously been requested by Members during the review of the effectiveness of the Committee, and it had provisionally been agreed that a presentation would be brought to the meeting on 23 November 2016.  Once confirmation was received this would be removed from the ‘Pending Items’ section of the Work Programme.

35.4           It was

RESOLVED          1. That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme be NOTED.

2. That the Scrutiny of the Community Safety Partnership be moved from the meeting on 18 October 2016 to 10 January 2017.

To receive a presentation from Healthwatch Gloucestershire. 

36.1           The Chair welcomed the Chief Executive of Healthwatch Gloucestershire, Barbara Piranty, to the meeting and indicated that she would be providing Members with further information on the work of Healthwatch Gloucestershire at the request of the Committee. 

36.2           Copies of Healthwatch Gloucestershire’s annual report were circulated around the table for information.  The Chief Executive of Healthwatch Gloucestershire explained that there were 148 local Healthwatch groups in England, although it was anticipated that this would be reduced from 2017 due to local authority budget cuts which were likely to result in the amalgamation of the smaller organisations.  Healthwatch Gloucestershire was quite unique as there was only one Clinical Commissioning Group for the County.  The following key points were made during the presentation:

·      Statutory functions – Information and signposting – it was important for self-care and prevention to know the right place to go at the right time and there was a team who disseminated information from the office to members of the public and professionals; influencing – by gathering patients’ experiences and passing on comments to the commissioners and providers; advocacy – for areas which were not covered, there was a very strong advocacy network and Healthwatch worked closely with SEAP (Support, Empower, Advocate, Promote) which provided independent advocacy services to help make a complaint about any aspect of NHS care or treatment.

·      Healthwatch in numbers – 1,050 Healthwatch members as at the end of March 2016; 140,254 website visitors; 45 health and social care working groups; 197 events which Healthwatch had been involved in; 17 ‘enter and view’ inspections undertaken; 50 referrals to advocacy; 85% of calls dealt with in-house; 1,296 comments made; 27 sites visited; in contact with 60 patient participant groups.

·      What you told us – Most talked about: acute and GP; areas of increased feedback: social care, domiciliary care, transport and pharmacy; high levels of satisfaction: GPs (39% positive), acute (37% positive) and integrated community teams.

·      Health and Social Care Issues –

-               acute - hospital discharge;

-               GP services - long waits for appointments;

-               pharmacy - long waits for prescriptions;

-               community services - concerns about the number of district nurses;

-               mental health services – delayed access to the crisis team;

-               emergency care – responsiveness to care e.g. ambulance response;

-               domiciliary care – consistency of care;

-               transport – long waits for non-emergency patient transport and delays                    getting to hospital.

·      How are we making a difference? – Task group reports and recommendations; working with others; reviews/influencing; patient stories; membership; specialist website pages; readers’ panels; learning disability project; ‘enter and view’.

·      Our priorities in 2016/17 – Hospital discharge/hospital aftercare; access to early intervention mental health services for young people; dementia care; pharmacy services; access to GP services; ‘enter and view’.

·      What we did in 2015/16 – Attended 197 events throughout Gloucestershire; gathered nearly 2,500 comments and experiences; community engagement team: staff and volunteers.

·      How did we do it?

-               2013/14 - 8% talk; 13% information stand; 50% retail outlet; 7%                               enquiry hub;  ...  view the full minutes text for item 36.

To review and scrutinise the performance management information and, where appropriate, to require response or action from the Executive Committee.

37.1           The report of the Corporate Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 26-56, attached performance management information for quarter 1 of 2016/17.  The Overview and Scrutiny Committee was asked to review and scrutinise the performance information and, where appropriate, identify any issues to refer to the Executive Committee for clarification or further action to be taken.

37.2           Members were advised that the new Council Plan priorities had been approved by Council on 19 April 2016.  The four priorities were: finance and resources; economic development; housing; and customer focused services.   Progress against delivering the objectives and actions for each priority was reported through the Council Plan Performance Tracker, attached at Appendix 1 to the report.  The Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), which had previously been presented to the Committee as a separate Appendix, had been consolidated with the tracker so Members would now receive a single document.  This was the first quarterly monitoring report of 2016/17; the majority of actions were progressing well and Paragraph 2.3 of the report highlighted a number of key activities to bring to Members’ attention including: the introduction of a new commercial theme to the Council’s business transformation programme; opening of the new leisure centre; commencement of the demolition of Cascades; commencement of Phase 2 of the Planning service review; and development of a new corporate website for implementation in November.  The Corporate Services Group Manager went on to advise that, due to the complex nature of the actions being delivered, inevitably some had not progressed as quickly or as smoothly as envisaged.  Those actions were highlighted at Page No. 29, Paragraph 2.4 of the report, and related to the development of the Tewkesbury Borough Plan, which had been delayed due to the focus on the Joint Core Strategy, and letting out the top floor of the Public Services Centre as proposals were still being considered.

37.3           In terms of the KPIs, Members were informed that the status of each indicator was set out at Paragraph 3.2 of the report.  Key areas of interest included KPIs 15-16, which related to processing of minor and ‘other’ planning applications, where performance was currently below target but improved upon 2015/16; KPI 20 which suggested that the number of reported enviro-crimes would exceed the target for 2016/17; KPI 23-24 which showed that the processing of benefit claims and change of circumstances was not as good as the previous year but remained in the top quartile nationally; and, KPI 29 which demonstrated that long term sickness was impacting on the ability to meet targets.

37.4           During the debate which ensued, the following queries and comments were made in relation to the Performance Tracker:

To consider the complaints received by Tewkesbury Borough Council and the Local Government Ombudsman and to determine whether any further action is required.   

38.1           The report of the Corporate Services Group Manager, circulated at Pages No. 57-66, provided a six month update on complaints received from April to June 2016.  Members were asked to consider the information provided and determine whether any further action was required.

38.2           Members were advised that the formal complaints framework had been reviewed in early 2016 and a new complaints policy had been approved, supported by a new reporting and monitoring system, to ensure that complaints were effectively managed.  The new system had gone live on 6 April 2016.  It was noted that 26 formal complaints had been received within the reporting period, of which 23 had been responded to within the 20 day timeframe.   Three complaints had been subject to a stage two review, of which one had been justified.  A breakdown of complaints by service area, nature and remedy was attached at Appendix 1 to the report.  The Local Government Ombudsman’s Annual Review Letter provided details of the number of complaints and enquiries received and this was attached at Appendix 2 to the report.  During 2015/16 the Local Government Ombudsman had received 10 complaints/enquiries relating to Tewkesbury Borough Council and these were detailed at Paragraph 4.2 of the report.

38.3           A Member noted that the majority of formal complaints were in relation to waste and recycling and he was advised that, whilst complaints were highest in this area, the actual number was still very low and this was an incredible performance for an authority of Tewkesbury Borough Council’s size.  It was to be borne in mind that the report related to formal complaints as opposed to service complaints e.g. missed bin collections.

38.4           The Chair indicated that Officers had suggested it might be more beneficial for the report to be brought to the Committee on an annual basis, as opposed to biannually as it was currently, given the low number of complaints.  This would be in line with the Local Government Ombudsman’s Annual Review Letter.  Assurance was provided that this would not prevent a report being taken to the Committee at any time, should the need arise.  It was subsequently

RESOLVED          1.   That the six month update on complaints received for the period April to June 2016 be NOTED.

2.   That the complaints report be brought to the Committee on an annual basis, as opposed to biannually, going forward.