Agenda and minutes

          The Committee noted that Mrs S V Hohler had replaced Mr P W A Lake and Mr Ridings had replaced Mr J B O Fullarton on the Committee.

          RESOLVED that the Minutes of the meeting held on 14 February 2008 are correctly recorded and that they be signed by the Chairman.

(1)          The Committee noted that the Alcohol Misuse Select Committee recommendations which had been considered by the County Council at its meeting on 3 April 2008 were already being taken forward by a Working Group established by Mr Gibbens, Cabinet Member for Public Health.  Linkages had been made with the Working Group taking forward the recommendations for the Personal, Social, Health, Education (PSHE) Select Committee.

(2)          An action plan would be prepared for submission to the Corporate Policy Overview Committee in September/November and the Select Committee would be reconvened in April 2009 to receive a report on the progress with its recommendations a year after it was considered by Cabinet.

(3)          The Committee noted that a conference on Alcohol Misuse was being organised to take place at the University of Greenwich, Kings Hill, West Malling on 10 July 2008.  This conference would provide a further opportunity to launch the Select Committee report.

(4)          The process for this Select Committee had used a number of innovative practices which might be appropriate for other Select Committees.  These included:-

(a)          A facilitated discussion with young people from the Marlowe Academy in Ramsgate to enable the Select Committee to understand the experiences of this group of young people regarding the use and misuse of alcohol; and

(b)          in the final preparation of the report the Select Committee ensured that all the partner organisations who had contributed to the report (and for some would have responsibility for implementing the recommendations) were involved in their preparation before being agreed. 

(5)          At its previous meeting the Committee had agreed that the Work Programme for Autumn 2007 to Spring 2008 should be:-

          (a)     Accessing Democracy;

          (b)     Autistic Spectrum Disorder;

          (c)     Access to Healthcare (a Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee Topic Review).

(6)          The Committee concluded that as soon as resources became available the next Select Committee after those set out above would be “Provision of Activities for Young People”.

(7)          The Committee noted that an additional Policy Overview Research Officer post had been added to the Overview and Scrutiny team to support the Select Committee Topic Reviews.  It was hoped that an officer would be in post by July/August.  This would enable a review to be started early in the autumn.

(8)          The Committee noted the progress with the Accessing Democracy Select Committee which was due to finish its evidence gathering phase by the end of June 2008.  This Select Committee was using a number of methods in addition to the established hearing session mechanism.  These included insight gathering exercises, forums, meetings, conducting interviews as rapporteurs and reporting back.

(9)          Preparatory work for the Select Committee on Autistic Spectrum Disorder was well advanced and an inaugural meeting of the Select Committee would take place in June.

(10)     The Committee noted that the dedicated resource to the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee would, when time permits, undertake a Topic Review on Access to Healthcare.  The Committee noted that the pressure on the Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

(1)          The Overview, Scrutiny and Localism Manager reported that he was preparing a draft paper for the Policy Overview Committees Timetable for 2009 and that further work had been undertaken in preparing a discussion paper by the Director of Finance on improving the Budget timetable to give greater opportunity and time to Policy Overview Committees and Cabinet Scrutiny Committee to scrutinise, investigate, challenge and comment upon Cabinet’s Budget and Medium Term Planning process.

(2)          There were also issues for the programming of the Policy Overview Committees to ensure that when the Committees are receiving financial monitoring information it is as up to date as possible for the Policy Overview Committees following consultation by the Cabinet.

(3)          There was also the issue of competing pressures on the Policy Overview Committees timetable for consideration such as Towards 2010 and maybe the replacement for the Annual Plan and the new Comprehensive Area Assessment.

(4)          To take this work forward in advance of the Committee’s next meeting the Overview, Scrutiny and Localism Manager sought the Committee’s agreement to share this information with the Chairman, Vice Chairman and Liberal Democrat Spokesman of the Committee and invite comments from all Committee Members and then to report back to the Committee the action taken.

(5)          Dr Eddy requested that the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee’s involvement in these processes should also be considered.