Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors B Adams, A Bridges, R L Foulkes, and A G Hagues.  An apology for absence was also received from Added Member Mr S C Rudman.

It was noted that the Chief Executive, having received notice under Regulation 13 of the Local Government (Committees and Political Groups) Regulations 1990, had appointed Councillors C R Oxby and N H Pepper as replacement members on the Committee in place of Councillors A G Hagues and B Adams respectively, for this meeting only.

There were no declarations of interest at this point in the meeting.

During consideration of the minutes of the Committee held on 26 February 2015, an update was provided regarding the request for a defibrillator to be installed in County Offices.  Councillor Mrs Talbot informed the Committee that she had made enquiries in relation to this, and had been advised that there was no legal requirement at the moment to have one in the building.  It would need to be a corporate decision to install one, as well as providing funding for the maintenance of the equipment and training to enable individuals to operate it.  It was confirmed that this had been an officer response and the Executive had not yet been consulted on this matter.  It was agreed that this issue could be raised with the appropriate member of the Executive. 

A discussion also took place regarding the sounding of the terrorist threat alarm which was tested on the first Monday of each month.  However, concerns were expressed by members that they had not heard this alarm tested before.  It was suggested whether it would be useful for the alarm to be sounded during Council.  Concerns were raised regarding those officers who do not have access to the alarms, for example people who were deaf, as there were no flashing lights, and they had to rely on someone else informing them that an alarm was sounding.

In relation to the bids mentioned (minute 54 refers) it was noted that the Health Scrutiny Officer would forward the details to the Committee after the meeting.

Councillor Mrs Talbot advised that she had followed up on the suggestion of the NHS contributing to the funding of the winter highways maintenance and reported that whilst health colleagues were sympathetic to the issue, it would not be possible to provide additional funding to the winter maintenance budget.

It was noted that during the bad winter a few years ago, a lot of people slipped or fell on the footpaths.  The suggestion of the NHS contributing to winter maintenance to treat footways was an issue of prevention, and it was commented that the NHS was already spending a lot of money on prevention work, and this would fit in to the primary purpose of prevention rather than treatment.  Councillor Mrs Talbot advised that she was happy to pursue this matter further and would raise it when she met with health colleagues.

Councillor Mrs Talbot also advised that she was following up the concerns raised at the last meeting regarding the efficiency of Pharmacy Services in Hospitals.

RESOLVED

That the minutes of the meeting held on 26 February 2015 be approved and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

(To consider any Call-Ins, should any be received)

No Call-Ins had been received.

(To consider any proposals for Scrutiny Reviews, should any be received)

There had been no proposals for scrutiny reviews.

Members were advised that Programme Manager, Steve Brookes would be attending the meeting on 18 June to provide an update on the Lincolnshire Broadband Programme.  It was suggested that Steve Brookes' contact details could be provided to the Committee so members could contact him with specific issues in advance of the meeting.  A short discussion took place regarding the roll-out of the Programme and it was agreed that the Committee would consider what further scrutiny activity was required after the 18 June meeting.

(To receive a report by David Hair (Team Leader – Scrutiny and Member Support), which enables the Committee to consider a draft of the Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report for 2014-15)

The Committee received a report which provided them with the opportunity to consider the draft Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report for 2014-15.  It was reported that the Chairman of each of the scrutiny committees had been consulted in the preparation of this document, and the comments of the Committee were required prior to the report being approved by Full Council on 15 May 2015.

Members were provided with the opportunity to discuss the report, and some of the points highlighted included the following:

·         It was suggested whether in future more could be included in the report about what the targets were for scrutiny;

·         Discussions in relation to what the annual report should contain in future was an issue which could be considered by the Scrutiny Review Group.  It was suggested that the review group could bring their comments on this to a future meeting;

·         It was suggested that as the report was going to be mainly web based, then it should be possible to improve the layout and include some additional pictures;

·         It was suggested that the opening remarks regarding the external scrutiny review should be strengthened;

·         There was a need to make the paragraph stronger which related to the Audit Committee report and the acknowledgement from the Community and Public Safety Scrutiny Committee that there were lessons to be learned;

·         In relation to the Highways and Transport section, it was suggested that reference should be made to the Lincoln Eastern Bypass and Brayford Wharf Bridge as they were both key projects which were being monitored by the Committee; and

·         It was thought that that the introductory section – 'What is Scrutiny?' needed some further work as it did not explain what scrutiny was for people outside of a local authority.  It was suggested that some sort of definition or mission statement would be helpful.

RESOLVED

1.    That the comments made in relation to the Draft Overview and Scrutiny Annual report for 2014-15 be noted;

2.    That the Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report 2014-15, as amended in accordance with the comments made, be submitted to the meeting of the County Council on 15 May 2015 for final approval.

(To consider a report by David Hair (Team Leader – Scrutiny and Member Support), which invites the Committee to consider the content of its own work programme and the work programmes of the Council's other scrutiny committees)

Consideration was given to a report by David Hair, Team Leader (Scrutiny and Member Support), which provided the Committee with an opportunity to consider its work programme and the work programmes of the Scrutiny Committees.  Copies of the individual work programmes were appended to the report and the following updates were received:

i)          Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee

It was recognised that David Forbes was due to attend a future meeting in order to update the Committee on work underway to identify the impact of budget cuts on other public sector organisations.  The timing of this update would be confirmed at the next meeting.

It was reported that a report would be going to all Committees in May and June which followed on from the Corporate Parenting Strategy which was agreed by Council in December 2014, in relation to the nomination of a champion for Looked After Children and care leavers for each committee.  The role of the champion would be to ensure that the Committee considered the impact on Looked After Children and care leavers of any policy or strategy.  Full training would be provided to the nominated member.  It was queried how this would affect the Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire as it had seven district representatives as well as county council representatives.  It was suggested that there could be two champions – one representing the county councillors and one representing the district councils.  It was agreed that this would be discussed further at the agenda planning meeting.

It was reported that a Local Government Association (LGA) report on sector led improvement had been published and highlighted the report carried out in Rotherham in relation to child sexual exploitation (CSE).  This report found that there had been a lack of effective scrutiny.  This Committee needed to consider how it could pro-actively look at things which may not be on the 'radar' of the Executive.  It was suggested that this report should be added to the work programme for the May meeting.

ii)         Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire

The Chairman highlighted the following items:

20 May 2015

It was noted that the item on Burton Road GP Surgery would now be taken at the July meeting.  This followed the announcement on 11 March 2015 by NHS England that Burton Road GP Surgery would continue to be open for at least a further five years, with services now provided at the surgery by Universal Health.  By delaying this item until July, it would be possible to get a picture of how the new contract was running.

However, it was noted that an item from the Care Quality Commission on the Inspection of GP Practices was now planned, and this would outline the general trends from the inspections that had taken place since the new inspection arrangements for GPs began last year.

17 June 2015

The potential of broadening the Neighbourhood Teams in Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group Area item to include neighbourhood teams in other  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.