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Agenda item

Committee Work Programme

Purpose:

For the Committee to formulate a work plan for the remainder of the 2023/24 municipal year.

 

Recommendation:

That the Overview and Scrutiny Committee resolves to:

  1. Agree that when considering the Executive Forward Plan the Committee will agree a priority order of reports for pre-decision scrutiny at the next meeting.
  2. Agree to use the 10 January 2024 meeting as a “Spotlight” session to scrutinise the Draft Budget 2024/25.
  3. Agree to schedule an additional “spotlight” meeting on a date to be agreed by the Director of Governance, in consultation with the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, to scrutinise the Publica Review.
  4. Request that all members of Council send any suggestions for items to be included on the work plan to the Democratic Services Business Manager by Friday 24 November.
  5. Agree that the “long list” of suggested work plan items will be ranked by officers using the TOPIC Scoring Criteria (Annex B) and presented to the Committee on 6 December meeting, in order to inform the Committee’s adoption of a work plan.

 

Invited:

Andrew Brown, Democratic Services Business Manager

 

Minutes:

Andrew Brown the Democratic Services Business Manager introduced the Initial Committee Work Programme.

The Business Manager explained the role of the Committee was to scrutinise the decisions and actions of the Executive and other issues that affect the district that Members wish to prioritise for scrutiny.

The initial work programme included items that were either legacy from past scrutiny work plans, a legislative requirement such as the focus on crime and disorder, and selected Executive decisions. This Committee would meet each month the week before a meeting of the Executive.

Councillor Cooper asked why the Overview and Scrutiny Committee would be looking at Executive reports and, should the Committee be focusing on policy development.

The Business Manager agreed that an important function of the Committee was to contribute to early-stage policy development.

The Committee was asked to consider the following recommendations:

 

Recommendation 1:

Agree that when considering the Executive Forward Plan the Committee will

agree a priority order of reports for pre-decision scrutiny at the next meeting.

 

Councillor Michelle Mead proposed that when considering the Executive Forward Plan the Committee will agree a priority order of reports for pre-decision scrutiny at the next meeting. This was seconded by Councillor Alex Wilson, was put to a vote and was carried.

 

The Committee Resolved to:

  1. Agree that when considering the Executive Forward Plan the Committee will

agree a priority order of reports for pre-decision scrutiny at the next meeting.

 

Recommendation 2:

Agree to use the 10 January 2024 meeting as a “Spotlight” session to scrutinise the Draft Budget 2024/25.

 

The Business Manager clarified that the term “Spotlight” referred to a standalone meeting to scrutinise larger items that needed more time than a normal agenda item.

Councillors discussed the recommended date of 10 January and if it would be possible to use the 6 December scheduled Overview and Scrutiny Committee date.

The Chief Finance Officer explained that the full budget settlement figures would not be known by the time of the December meeting

 

Councillor Julian Cooper proposed to agree to use the 10 January 2024 meeting as a “Spotlight” session to scrutinise the Draft Budget 2024/25.  This was seconded by Councillor Ruth Smith, was put to a vote and was carried.

The Committee Resolved to:

1.    Agree to use the 10 January 2024 meeting as a “Spotlight” session to scrutinise the Draft Budget 2024/25.

 

Recommendation 3:

Agree to schedule an additional “spotlight” meeting on a date to be agreed by the

Director of Governance, in consultation with the Chair of the Overview and

Scrutiny Committee, to scrutinise the Publica Review.

 

The Business Manager explained to the Committee that the Publica Review item warranted a “spotlight” meeting. There was no proposed date as yet and the recommendation was to seek delegation to agree a meeting date.

The Chair stated that as the Publica Review involved other Councils too, he was concerned that this meeting needed to be set soon, so that decisions were not made by the other Councils long before the Committee had sight of the Review themselves.

Councillors discussed items due to come to the February Committee meeting and asked if that meeting could be used.

The Business Manager confirmed that items due in February had already been pushed back and that the Executive controlled the timing of those items.

Councillors were also concerned about the heavy workload for the Committee especially with using two “Spotlight” Committees in succession.

The Business Manager agreed, and explained that another approach in future would be to use task and finish groups, rather than schedule additional meetings (which these items warranted).

Councillor Alex Wilson proposed to agree to schedule an additional “spotlight” meeting on a date to be agreed by the Director of Governance, in consultation with the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, to scrutinise the Publica Review. This was seconded by Councillor Liam Walker, was put to a vote and was carried.

 

The Committee Resolved to:

 

  1. Agree to schedule an additional “spotlight” meeting on a date to be agreed by the Director of Governance, in consultation with the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, to scrutinise the Publica Review

 

Recommendation 4:

Request that all members of Council send any suggestions for items to be

included on the work plan to the Chair and Vice Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Democratic Services Business Manager by Friday 24 November.

 

The Business Manager explained that this was for seeking other suggestions to be added to the Work Programme, which could also include suggestions for task and finish groups or for member briefing sessions.

The Chair asked for a proposer.

Councillor Liam Walker proposed that all members of Council send any suggestions for items to be included on the work plan to the Chair and Vice Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Democratic Services Business Manager by Friday 24 November. This was seconded by Councillor Mark Walker, was put to a vote and was carried.

 

The Committee Resolved to:

 

  1. Request that all members of Council send any suggestions for items to be included on the work plan to the Chair and Vice Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the Democratic Services Business Manager by Friday 24 November.

 

Recommendation 5:

Agree that the “long list” of suggested work plan items will be ranked by officers

using the TOPIC Scoring Criteria (Annex B) and presented to the Committee on

6 December, in order to inform the Committee’s adoption of a work plan.

 

The Business Manager confirmed that assuming they receive a healthy list of suggestions from recommendation 4, the TOPIC scoring criteria, found on Page 63 of the agenda, would be applied.

 

The Chair requested that he wished to agree the priority order with the Vice-Chair, and a nominated Member from each political group from the Committee.

 

Councillor Thomas Ashby proposed agree that the “long list” of suggested work plan items will be ranked by officers using the TOPIC Scoring Criteria (Annex B) and presented to the Committee on 6 December, in order to inform the Committee’s adoption of a work plan. That priority order would be agreed by the Chair, Vice-Chair, and a nominated Member from each political group from the Committee.

This was seconded by Councillor Michele Mead, was put to a vote and was carried.

 

The Committee Resolved to:

Agree that the “long list” of suggested work plan items will be ranked by officers using the TOPIC Scoring Criteria (Annex B) and presented to the Committee on 6 December, in order to inform the Committee’s adoption of a work plan. That priority order would be agreed by the Chair, Vice-Chair, and a nominated Member from each political group from the Committee.

Supporting documents:

 

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