Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 5 November 2007 and 3 December 2007 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

(1)       The Overview, Scrutiny and Localism Manager submitted a report updating the Committee on the current Topic Reviews and invited the Committee to set out its priorities in the work programme for the period Spring 2008 to Autumn 2008.

Topic Review Work Programme

(2)       In relation to the Flood Risk Select Committee and County Council meeting on 13 March 2008, Dr Eddy requested that feedback on the recommendations of both of the Flooding Select Committees should be supplied to Members so that this could inform the debate.

(2)       It was noted that the report from the Select Committee on Carers in Kent had been had been submitted to the Minister for Care Services as part of the review of the Prime Ministers 1999 Carers Strategy.

(3)       Members were reminded that the Accessing Democracy Review had started its work.  In relation to the proposed topic review on vulnerable children, the proposer of the review, had indicated that, as considerable work had been undertaken in the Children, Families and Education Directorate, he was satisfied that a review at this time would not be appropriate and he was happy for this to be withdrawn from the programme.

(4)       The Chairman informed the Committee that their bid for a permanent Graduate Development Placement for Overview and Scrutiny had been unsuccessful.  It was therefore up to the Chairmen of the Policy Overview Committees and other Members to continue to lobby for more resources.

(5)       There were resources available for one review to start shortly and two potential topics had been identified.  These were Provision of Activities for Young People and Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

(6)       The topic of Provision of Activities for Young People had first been put into the work programme in 2006 and was strongly supported by the Communities Policy Overview Committee. Mrs Doherty and Mr Lake spoke in support of this topic review and answered questions from Members on the proposal.  The comments made by Members were noted by officers and would be taken into account when the Terms and Reference and scope of the review were drawn up.

(7)       The proposed review on Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) had been put forward by the Adult Services Directorate. Mr Mills and Mr M Angell were present and gave details of the proposed review and indicated why it was valuable to carry it out at this time.  Mr Mills and Mr Angell answered questions and noted comments from Members in relation to this proposal.  As part of this discussion, Mr Mills offered to meet reasonable costs for a professional adviser to this Select Committee from his budget.

(8)       There was considerable discussion by the Select Committee on which of the two pieces of work should be allocated to the research officer resources that was becoming available shortly. It was acknowledged that both pieces of work were important and would add value to the work of the County Council. 

(9)       It was noted that whichever review was not selected at this point, would be the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

(1)       The Chairman introduced a report which sought the Committee’s views on the options for Building Capacity for Policy Overview Committees.  Some Policy Overview Committees finding it a challenge to effectively deal with the required amount of business in a one day meeting.  Included as an appendix, was a list of agenda items for the Policy Overview Committees over the past year with the indication of what part of the terms of reference they related to.

(2)       Members discussed the issue of Capacity for Overview and Scrutiny and made comments which included the following:-

·                    Dr Eddy mentioned that the report did not cover Health Overview and Scrutiny or Cabinet Scrutiny. It might be helpful to look at the whole Overview and Scrutiny structure as part of the Building Capacity exercise, as looking just at the Capacity for Policy Overview Committees did not deal with all of the issues.

·                    It would appear that some items for example, the Equality Strategy which went to all Policy Overview Committees might be more appropriate for an IMG comprised of Members of each of the Policy Overview Committees which could then feed back to the individual Policy Overview Committees.

·                    Mention was made of the financial monitoring reports and the timing of these in relation to the programme meetings for the Policy Overview Committees which meant that the basic data was often a number of months out of date.  It was noted that the Corporate Policy Overview Committee had already raised this issue and that consideration would be given to the programming of Policy Overview Committees for 2009 to try and address this issue.

·                    It was mentioned that the Annual Performance Assessments for both Adult Social Services and Children, Families and Education did not appear to be going to the Policy Overview Committee.

·                    Mr Smyth highlighted the shortage of research resources for Select Committees and the difficult choice that Member had to make earlier in the meeting. He also made a plea for research resources for Cabinet Scrutiny Committee.  He referred to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee Research Model and he would like to see this replicated across Overview and Scrutiny.

·                    A number of Members spoke in support of the Rapporteur System. One of the advantages of this system was that it gave more Members the opportunity to have a greater degree of involvement. However, one of the issues with this would be the amount of research support that Members may require in order to carry out this role effectively.

·                    It was suggested that Policy Overview Committees should consider using IMG’s when appropriate in same way that Cabinet Scrutiny does.

·                    Although Policy Overview Committees were developing and improving, a view was expressed that they were still too heavy on overview and light on scrutiny.

·                    The Chairman of Communities Policy Overview Committee commended the system of having their Cabinet Member/Managing Director give an oral update for up to 45 minutes at the start of each meeting.  This provided an opportunity for Members of the Committee to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.