Issue - meetings

(1)       Mr King presented an interim paper which took account of the comments made at the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee and the Policy Overview Committees (POC’s).  Members’ comments were invited prior to a final report being produced for the County Council meeting on 15 October 2009.  The comments made included the following:-

• The need for a mechanism to share information across POC’s whilst avoiding duplication was mentioned.
• There was support for using Rapporteurs to gather information and report back to the Committee, but it was important that there were clear guidelines around this role.  The possibility of Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee piloting this scheme, as they had a willing volunteer was raised.  It was envisaged that Rapporteurs would carry out the majority of their work themselves, with little or no support from officers. 
• The Information Point was commended as a good source of research support for Members.
• Strengthening the role of the Co-ordinating Committee was discussed including its role in formulating and sharing work programmes for POC’s. 
• The importance of the Forward Plan to the POC’s ability to have an input at an early stage into policies that were being formulated was mentioned. In order to do this effectively the period of the Forward Plan needed to be longer than the current 4 months, it was suggested that the Forward Plan need to at least cover a 6 month period.  It was acknowledged that the items put on more that 4 months in advance would only be provisional.  The Forward plan also needed to be comprehensive and easy to use.

RESOLVED that the comments made by the Committee on the interim paper be noted.