Agenda item no._______4_______
OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY
Minutes of a meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 23 October
2012 in the Council Chamber, Council Offices, Holt Road, Cromer at 9.30 am.
Members Present:
Committee:
Mr E Seward (Chairman)
Mrs A Claussen-Reynolds
Ms V Gay
Mrs A Green
Mr P W Moore
Mr R Reynolds
Mr B Smith
Mr N Smith
Mr R Smith
Mr P Terrington
Officers in
Attendance:
The Chief Executive, the Coast and Community Partnerships Manager, the
Housing Services Manager, the Health Improvement Officer and the
Scrutiny Officer.
Members in
Attendance:
Mrs A Fitch-Tillett, Mr T FitzPatrick, Mrs P Grove-Jones, Mr G Jones, Mr P
W High, Mrs A Moore, Ms B Palmer, Mr R Shepherd, Mrs A Sweeney, Mr
G Williams
Democratic Services Officer (AA)
70 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE
Mr J Perry-Warnes.
71 SUBSTITUTES
Mr R Shepherd for Mr J Perry-Warnes.
72 PUBLIC QUESTIONS
None received.
73 MINUTES
The minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 25
September 2012 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.
Performance Management – Delivery of Annual Action Plan Quarter 1
The Chairman asked for a response to be followed up in respect of whether a meeting
concerning offshore renewable energy sector had taken place with Warwick Energy yet.
Overview and Scrutiny Committee
23 October 2012
North Norfolk Housing Strategy 2012-15 (Making Best Use of the Existing Housing
Stock)
Mr P Terrington asked for a response to be followed up in respect of how the properties
which were subject to NNDR could be separated from those liable for Council Tax.
74 ITEMS OF URGENT BUSINESS
None received.
75 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST
None received.
76 PETITIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC
None received.
77 CONSIDERATION OF ANY MATTER REFERRED TO THE COMMITTEE BY A
MEMBER
None received.
78 RESPONSES OF THE COUNCIL OR THE CABINET TO THE COMMITTEE’S
REPORTS OR RECOMMENDATIONS
The Democratic Services Team Leader said that Full Council had accepted this
Committee’s recommendations at its September meeting and had noted its interest in
looking forward to a policy on bringing empty homes back into occupation.
79 THE FORWARD PLAN AND MANAGEMENT OF COUNCIL BUSINESS
Noted.
80 SCRUTINY TASK AND FINISH GROUP – SCRUTINY COMMITTEE WORK
PROGRAMME AND RELATED ISSUES
a) Mr P Moore, Chairman of the Task and Finish Group, said it had achieved good
cross-party working. The main objectives had been a simplification of the system,
easily understandable reports in plain English and enough time for reports to feed
into the system.
b) Mr G Williams said the issues discussed included style of approach, how to improve
the way in which this Committee operated, how to engage all Members, how to
improve working with the Cabinet. It had clearly been about process not politics and
about getting this Committee to do what it already does better. The Group had
extended its remit to include related matters ie how the Committee brought outside
people in – witness protocol sounded too formal, and how did the Committee gather
and understand issues. The Committee currently met approximately 12 times per
year with a few additional meetings – this was not enough time to be able to do it all.
How do we make the Committee valuable to the Council? The Group had discussed
possible approaches of dealing with important issues. The current report template
had been altered, but needed further alteration. A quick update slot would make
better use of time. Briefing notes could be useful. A two-meeting cycle would make
a significant difference to decision-making. The new report template should help
achieve a better consistency of reports. Meetings off-site may be useful in some
situations. The proposals in the report should create more efficiency and help the
Overview and Scrutiny Committee
23 October 2012
allocation of resources. Overall, the report gave a range of process-based
improvements which had the potential to make Overview and Scrutiny more
effective but it needed buy-in from Cabinet, Corporate Leadership Team and Officer
teams in the Council to complete the template. It was about more good use of the
meetings scheduled each year. The process should be reviewed after one year. It
may require constitutional change.
c) The Chief Executive welcomed schedules and templates in helping to focus and
progress reports.
RECOMMENDED to:1. Agree use of the work template outlined in Fig 1. for all new areas of work to be
considered by Scrutiny Committee.
2. Support the sequencing of meetings as outlined in Fig 1.
3. Recommend the updated report format in Appendix A.
4. Adopt the updated Witness protocol outlined in Appendix B
5. Hold meetings off site where appropriate in 2013/14 as a pilot scheme.
6. Consider more use of Task and Finish Groups to deliver the work programme of the
Committee
7. Request the Corporate leadership Team and the Democratic Services Team to
manage the implementation of these recommendations including any necessary
training to assist with new or revised procedures.
8. Propose that any financial implications of these revisions be considered as part of the
2013/14 budget round
9. That the annual review of the Scrutiny Committee should include an assessment of
these issues to ensure progress is being achieved.
10.That these recommendations be considered by the Corporate leadership Team and
Full Council as appropriate.
11.To forward the recommendations to the Constitution Working Party so that they
might consider if the Constitution should be reviewed to accommodate any agreed
changes from these proposals.
81 FINAL REPORT OF THE JOINT PUBLIC TRANSPORT TIME AND TASK PANEL
a) The Scrutiny Officer had prepared a colour-coded grid indicating which
recommendations were not applicable to North Norfolk, which would be impractical
and which were joint actions with Broadland and/or Norfolk County Council.
b) The Chairman said that the joint scrutiny project had been an interesting exercise but
that the only thing to come out of it relevant to North Norfolk was community
transport.
c) Ms V R Gay asked for thanks to Broadland District Council to be formally recorded.
There wasn’t much that she disagreed with in the recommendations but had
Overview and Scrutiny Committee
23 October 2012
concerns that they didn’t reflect the discussions held in the meetings, including the
discussions of rail travel and considerable work done on community transport.
d) Mr P W Moore said that the recommendations did not reflect discussion of the
importance of taxi services to North Norfolk.
e) The Coast and Community Partnerships Manager said that funding for community
transport groups had been secured for this year. Next year’s funding was conditional
on the findings of the joint review. Feedback was needed if these groups were to plan
ahead.
f) Mr E Seward suggested that employers should make a contribution to community
transport suppliers to enable their employees to get to work.
g) The Chief Executive said that there was £30k in the current budget for community
transport. This was on hold pending the outcome of the joint scrutiny. A task and
finish group should be formed to work with officers on this. Part of the work would be
to consider resources and priority implications. The Leader would be asked to
endorse the joint letter, subject to some amendments as follows: Page 47,
recommendation 4 to be “To continue to support community transport groups”.
RESOLVED
a) To form a Task and Finish Group comprising the same Members who were on the
Joint Time and Task Panel – Mr T FitzPatrick, Ms V R Gay, Mrs B A McGoun and Mr
R Reynolds. Support would be provided by the Coast and Community Partnership
Manager’s team.
b) To request that the Leader endorses the letter to Norfolk County Council attached at
Appendix C to the report including amendments made at the meeting.
The meeting was adjourned at 11.05am and reconvened at 11.25am.
82 NORTH NORFOLK HOUSING STRATEGY 2012-2015 (SUPPORTING VULNERABLE
PEOPLE TO LIVE INDEPENDENTLY WITHIN THE COMMUNITY)
a) In response to a question from Mrs P Grove-Jones, the Housing Services Manager
acknowledged that there was a wide range of support and agencies available for
vulnerable people. NNDC had a key role in the commissioning of these services.
b) Referring to concerns regarding finance from Norfolk County Council, Mrs P GroveJones asked if the Council might be in a position of being unable to fund support. The
Housing Services Manager said this was one of the reasons for the strategy.
c) In response to a question from Mr N Smith about people slipping through the net, the
Housing Services Manager said that it was important to raise the profile of available
services and for Members to flag them up to those constituents who needed them.
d) In response to a question from Mr P W Moore, the Housing Services Manager said
that she was not aware of any lobbying of central government regarding funds.
However Norfolk County Council was talking to service providers to see how they
would manage the cuts.
e) Mrs P Grove-Jones expressed concern that cuts in staff dealing with mental health
issues would add to the pressure on support services.
f) Mr G Jones advocated the Personal Budget scheme.
g) RESOLVED
to support the recommendation to Full Council.
Overview and Scrutiny Committee
23 October 2012
83 HEALTH STRATEGY PROGRESS UPDATE
Developments since the briefing paper was written:
a) The possibility of renting office space to NHS professionals was being explored.
b) The Personal Budget scheme was being looked at within the Workout Programme
and leisure projects.
c) The Health Trainer Service contract to rent office space had been extended to March
2013.
d) The Warm and Well funding had come to an end but work was being done with town
and parish councils to set up a heater loan scheme for vulnerable residents.
e) A bid had been made for funding for Warm and Well 2. It would be known next week
if it had been successful.
f) Mrs A Fitch-Tillett was now NNDC’s representative on the Health and Wellbeing
Board. She commended the Wellbeing Service and proposed that the Reports
Template should include consideration of Health and Wellbeing issues. Ms V R Gay
proposed this and it was seconded by Mr P W Moore. Health and Wellbeing issues
were taken into account when bids for Big Society grants were considered.
g) The Chairman had attended a meeting for town and parish councillors concerning the
Ambulance Service:
• The Ambulance Service received 800,000 calls per annum of which 80% are 999
calls and only 50% actually need an ambulance. This suggested that people
didn’t know how to access out-of-hours medical help.
• There were still problems at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital because
ambulances had to wait outside for significant periods of time until patients could
be transferred to A & E.
• There seemed to be a lack of clarity regarding funding of the service.
• An ambulance might be based in a North Norfolk town but, once it arrived in
Norwich, could be called elsewhere.
h) In response to a Member’s question, the Health Improvement Officer said that people
had to meet certain criteria to be referred to activity schemes. These could be mental
as well as physical health issues.
i) In response to a question from Mr N Smith regarding duplication of services
provided, the Health Improvement Officer said that this was one of the reasons why
the review was taking place.
j) NNDC had recommended to the Health and Wellbeing Board that Physical Activity
should be a category on its own.
k) At the November meeting of the Norfolk Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee
there would be a report on mental health provision. Mrs A Claussen-Reynolds would
report this to Overview and Scrutiny.
l) The reason why so many referrals to the Health Trainer Service had come from
Fakenham was because the local surgery had received additional funding to run a
weight management programme. The Health Improvement Officer would ask for a
breakdown of the figures. She would also ask why there had been no referrals from
Wells. Heritage House had been instrumental in distributing Warm Packs to
vulnerable clients.
m) Concern was expressed that there were no facilities for stroke or cardio-vascular
emergencies at Cromer and North Walsham. Mrs A Fitch-Tillett advised that first
responders were fully qualified and equipped to deal with these emergencies. The
Chairman said that the problem was that there was often a delay between the arrival
of the first responder and the ambulance.
n) Obesity and poor eating habits were often denoted by income and background. Such
people needed to be encouraged to use the leisure centres. Work needed to be done
Overview and Scrutiny Committee
23 October 2012
regarding the cost of using these facilities, which could be a problem for people on
low incomes.
o) There were defibrillators in shops etc throughout the District. The Health
Improvement Officer would find out where they were located and report to Members.
p) There was no Member representative on the North Norfolk Health Improvement
Forum.
q) RESOLVED to include Health and Wellbeing on the report template and welcome the
fact that the North Norfolk Clinical Commissioning Group is aware of the priority this
Council places on Health and Wellbeing.
84 REVIEW OF OUTSIDE BODIES
a) Mrs A Claussen-Reynolds expressed concern that, apart from NHOSC, none of the
Outside Bodies were reported to Council.
b) The Skills Partnership was an arm of the North Norfolk Business Forum which was
represented by Mr T FitzPatrick and Mr N Smith. However the Skills Forum brought
together employers, schools etc throughout the District and was very important to
North Norfolk which was an area low in skills. It was important that there should be a
Member representative. Ms V R Gay currently attended informally.
c) RESOLVED to recommend to Full Council (December):
• To note that Norfolk Tourism was not a Council appointment and that NNDC is
represented by the Portfolio Holder.
• To continue to be represented on the Norfolk Skills Partnership.
• To remove the North Norfolk Community Transport Partnership, the Norfolk
Playing Fields Association and the Norfolk Rural Community Council from the
official list of Outside Bodies.
85 OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY UPDATE
The Democratic Services Team Leader presented the report.
86 MRS M HOWARD, DEMOCRATIC SERVICES TEAM LEADER
This was the last meeting which the Democratic Services Team Leader would attend
before her retirement. The Chairman thanked her for all the work which she had done
at the Council over the years. Mr P Moore thanked her for working right up until her
retirement.
The meeting concluded at 12.40pm.
____________________
Chairman
Overview and Scrutiny Committee
23 October 2012