Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room One, County Offices, Newland, Lincoln LN1 1YL

Contact: Emily Wilcox  Democratic Services Officer

Items
No. Item

24.

Apologies for Absence/Replacement Members

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor C E H Marfleet, Councillor Mrs  K Cook, Councillor E W Strengiel and Patricia Barnett (Parent Governor Representative).

 

It was reported that, under the Local Government (Committee and Political Groups) Regulations 1990, Councillor Mrs A M Newton had been appointed as replacement member for Councillor Mrs K Cook, for this meeting only.

 

25.

Declarations of Interest

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

26.

Minutes of the meeting held on 27 June 2019 pdf icon PDF 206 KB

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

          That minutes of the meeting held on 27 June 2019 be approved as a            correct record and signed by the Chairman. 

27.

Announcements by the Chairman, Executive Councillor for Resources and Communications and Chief Officers

Minutes:

The Chairman announced that he had attended the meeting of the Executive on the 9 July 2019 to present the Board's comments on the Review of Financial Performance 2018/19 and the Performance against the Council Business Plan – Quarter 4. The Chairman had also presented the Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee comments on Extra Care Housing and the Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee comments on the Commissioning Arrangements for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service.

 

The Chairman informed the Board that the East Midlands Councils Scrutiny Conference would take place on the 4 October 2019, and encouraged members and officers to attend.

 

28.

Consideration of Call-Ins

Minutes:

None were received.

29.

Consideration of Councillor Calls for Action

Minutes:

None were received.

30.

Performance Reporting against the Council Business Plan 2019/20 Quarter 1 pdf icon PDF 100 KB

(To receive a report from Jasmine Sodhi, Performance and Equalities Manager, which invites the Board to consider a report on the 2019/20 Council Business Plan Quarter 1 performance which will be presented to the Executive on 03 September 2019. The views of the Board will be reported to the Executive as part of its consideration of this item)

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report by the Performance and Equalities Manager, which invited the Board to consider a report on the 2019/20 Council Business Plan Quarter 1 performance which would be presented to the Executive on the 3 September 2019.

 

Members were reminded that the agreed changes to reporting against the Council Business Plan to scrutiny committees had now come into effect, and the Board would now scrutinise all performance indicators in the Council Business Plan that were not meeting the target or showed a downward trend; and recommend to the relevant scrutiny committees to look at any areas of serious concern.

 

The Performance and Equalities Manager provided a summary of the performance of the 14 commissioning strategies reported in Quarter 1.

 

Members were advised of the proposed changes to reporting performance against the Council Business Plan, and that following consultation with the Executive Councillors the changes had been made to the infographics.

 

Members were invited to ask questions, in which the following points were noted:

 

Proposed Changes to reporting performance against the Council Business Plan 2019/2020 and Data expected in Quarter 1 but not available

 

In relation to the proposed changes to performance reporting outlined in section 3 of the report, clarity was provided regarding why some of the targets had been amended:

 

·         Reported incidents of domestic abuse (Measure 7) – it was confirmed that the service area aimed to reduce the number of incidents by 2%. Now that the final outturn had been reported, the target had been amended to reflect the 2% reduction.

·         Adults who receive a direct payment (Measure 63) – it was confirmed that the previous target of 40% was not realistic and was therefore being replaced by a more realistic and attainable target of 33.5%.

·         Sickness Absence (Measure 92) – Councillor Barry Young, Executive Councillor for Community Safety and People Management, confirmed that the target of 7.5 days per FTE had not yet been agreed and consideration was currently being given to having different targets for different areas.

 

In relation to the data expected in Quarter 1 but not available, as outlined in section 4 of the report, it was clarified that the data for 'Reduce Carbon Emissions' (Measure 74) and 'Lincolnshire CO2 reductions' (Measure 75) would always be reported in Quarter 2 rather than Quarter 1 each year due to the timing and availability of the data. However, the data for 'Adults aged 16-64 with a mental health problem living independently' (Measure 117) should be reported in Quarter 1 next year.

 

Appendix A – Summary of those measures where services have highlighted success in Quarter 1

 

·         16-17 year old Looked After Children participating in learning (Measure 45) – in response to a query about what happened to those not in learning and how many went on to tertiary education, it was confirmed that eight Looked After Children had received the grades necessary to go onto tertiary education this year. With regards to those 16-17 year old Looked After Children not in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

31.

Performance of the Corporate Support Services Contract pdf icon PDF 741 KB

(To receive a report from Sophie Reeve, Assistant Director – Commercial, and John Wickens, Interim Assistant Director - IMT , which provides an update of Serco's performance against contractual Key Performance Indicators specified in the Corporate Support Services Contract between April and June 2019, and provides an update on the progress made against key IMT-related transformation and transactional projects being undertaken by Serco and other third party suppliers)

 

 

 

 

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report by the Serco Contract Manager, which provided an update of Serco's performance against contractual Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) specified in the Corporate Support Services Contract between April and July 2019. 

 

The Serco Contract Manager also highlighted the KPI's which had been granted mitigation during the reporting period.

 

Members were informed that the KPI performance across all service areas had remained strong, with no KPI failures within the reporting period.

 

Members were invited to ask questions on the Performance of the Corporate Support Services Contract, in which the following points were noted:

 

·       ACF_KPI_03 ('% of new, and change of circumstance, financial assessments for non-residential care completed within 15 Business Days of referral from the Council') has been in long-term mitigation. The Target Service Level for this KPI is 75%, and the achieved percentages from April – June ranged from 58.53% – 70.71%.

·       Officers confirmed that work was actively underway with Serco to improve the performance of financial assessments, which would tie in with the Council's current review of the financial assessment policy.

·       The consequence of not completing timely financial assessments for non-residential care could mean that an individual may begin receiving care with limited knowledge of what financial contribution they would eventually need to make.

·       The Head of Operations (Serco) clarified that financial assessments for residential care had a much higher performance rate for completion within the required timeframe compared to non-residential assessments.

 

Members were referred to Appendix A of the report, which set out the top 20 priority IMT projects for review by the Board.

 

The Interim Assistant Director - IMT provided the Board with a summary of each of the projects and how they were progressing. It was noted that the majority of projects were on track to complete by their set deadlines.

 

Officers were pleased to report that there had been good progress made since March 2019, which could be demonstrated through the number of completed projects.

 

Members were invited to ask questions, in which the following points were noted:

 

·       It was clarified that all technical and property work at the new South Park Fire and Rescue centre had now been completed. However, a drainage issue in the car park had meant that the Police could not occupy the building and therefore the move had been delayed by around three weeks.

·       Members were informed that the Windows 10 Corporate Refresh Phase 2 was progressing well, with over two thirds of employees already having received new devices. The project was on track to complete within the set deadline.

·       It was noted that the Executive Director – Commercial had been updating Members via email on the progress of the Council's new Corporate Website. Members would be invited to a viewing of the updated website following the Council meeting on the 13 September 2019.

·       The implementation of corporate capability to take card payments had now been completed. It was noted the project had been delayed as a result of business and commercial reasons rather than  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

32.

Proposed Terms of Reference for Review of Overview and Scrutiny pdf icon PDF 338 KB

(To receive a report from Nigel West, Head of Democratic Services and Statutory Scrutiny Officer, which invites the Board to approve a scrutiny review into the Statutory Guidance on Overview and Scrutiny in Local and Combined Authorities and its implications for Lincolnshire county Council)

 

 

Minutes:

Consideration was given to a report by the Head of Democratic Services and Statutory Scrutiny Officer, which invited the Board to approve a scrutiny review into the Statutory Guidance on Overview and Scrutiny in Local and Combined Authorities, and its implications for Lincolnshire County Council.

 

Members were reminded that Statutory Guidance on Overview and Scrutiny in Local and Combined Authorities had been issued by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in May 2019.

 

Given the publication of the statutory guidance, it was considered appropriate to undertake a review of overview and scrutiny and it was proposed to assign this review to Scrutiny Panel B.

 

The Board was invited to approve the terms of reference and completion dates for the review of overview and scrutiny by Scrutiny Panel B, as set out in Appendix A to the report.

 

It was proposed that the terms of reference be amended to reflect an Executive Councillor being included as a 'non-voting added member' rather than an 'advisor'.

 

Members supported the review of Overview and Scrutiny by Scrutiny Panel B and the proposed terms of reference.

 

RESOVLED:

 

1.    That the review of Scrutiny Panel B of the Statutory Guidance on Overview and Scrutiny in Local and Combined Authorities, as well as the Council's existing overview and scrutiny arrangements which were introduced in May 2017, be approved;

2.    That the review be titled 'Review of Overview and Scrutiny';

3.    That the terms of reference, lines of enquiry, exclusions and completion date of the review, as set out in Appendix A to the report, be approved, subject to the amendment of the Executive Councillor as an 'advisor' to a 'non-voting added member';

4.    That an Executive Councillor be nominated as a non-voting added member to the Scrutiny Panel B for this review;

5.    That an interim report from Scrutiny Panel B be received at the meeting of the Board scheduled for 19 December 2019.

 

33.

Scrutiny Committee Work Programmes pdf icon PDF 380 KB

(To receive a report which sets out the work programmes of the Adults and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee and the Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire; in accordance with the Board's agreed programme)

 

Minutes:

Members were informed that at their meeting held on the 4 July 2019, the Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee had discussed the concerns raised by the Board that the indicator defined as 'enquiries where the source of risk is a service provider' was a national indicator and should not be replaced by the new indicator: concerns that lead to a safeguarding enquiry.

 

The Scrutiny Committee accepted the rationale that the new indicator defined as 'concerns that lead to a safeguarding enquiry' provided a better standalone measure of the level and consistency of understanding of safeguarding responsibilities and processes across the system. The Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee concluded with a recommendation that only this indicator should continue to be presented in the Council Business Plan and provided this advice to the Executive.

 

The Chairman of the Health Scrutiny Committee for Lincolnshire outlined the recent work undertaken by the committee, which included the following:

 

·       The Committee was seeking further details on the plans for Pilgrim Hospital following the announcement of an allocation of capital funding for the hospital.

·       On 10 July 2019, the Committee had considered the consultation on the proposed closure of the Skellingthorpe Branch Surgery. The Chairman had sent a letter on behalf of the Committee which stressed the importance of discussions taking place between the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and Skellingthorpe Parish Council on the possibility of providing some form of volunteer driver scheme and/or minibus scheme, which would help residents from Skellingthorpe without transport to get to appointments in Saxilby.   The outcome of the decision would be reported to the Committee at its meeting on the 18 September 2019.

·       The Committee was next due to consider non-emergency patient transport in December 2019.  The Committee had previously recorded a vote of no confidence in Thames Ambulance Service Ltd, the existing provider, and has urged Lincolnshire West CCG, the lead commissioner, to terminate the contract at the most appropriate opportunity. 

 

Members were invited to ask questions, in which the following points were noted:

 

·       It was clarified that the Committee was pushing for a transport service to be implemented should the Skellingthorpe Branch Service be closed, but this would ultimately need to be organised by the CCG in conjunction with the Parish Council.

·       The Committee was closely monitoring the issue of non-emergency patient transport and the Committee felt that there was no consistency in the service. It was felt that the level of risk would not increase through the move to a new provider.

·       In relation to the issue of non-emergency patient transport, officers had been engaged in early discussions with the CCG in which it had been suggested that spreading the risk through a number of providers would be a more strategic approach, along with looking at ways in which the CCG could move forward to provide greater efficiencies and a better service.

 

RESOLVED:

 

          That the Board was satisfied with the future work programmes of the             Adults and Community Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

34.

Overview and Scrutiny Management Board Work Programme pdf icon PDF 245 KB

(To receive a report which enables the Board to consider and comment on the content of its work programme for the coming year, to ensure that scrutiny activity is focussed where it can be of greatest benefit)

 

Minutes:

The Head of Democratic Services and Statutory Scrutiny Officer presented the Board's prospective work programme.

 

Members were advised that the reports on Revenue and Capital Budget monitoring report 2019/20 that were scheduled for September 2019 and January 2020 would now be reported as two separate reports on revenue and capital.

 

It was noted that a report on the council's Financial Strategy would also be reported to the meeting of the Board scheduled for 30 January 2019.

 

RESOLVED:

 

          That the work programme be agreed.

 

 

 
 
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