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Venue: Large Ireland Room, New County Offices, Aylesbury. View directions
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10.00
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1.
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Apologies for Absence / Changes in Membership
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Minutes:
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Apologies were received\nfrom Mike Appleyard, Patricia Birchley and Michael\nEdmonds.
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2.
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Declarations of Interest
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To declare any personal\nand prejudicial interests
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Minutes:
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3.
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Minutes PDF 105 KB
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of\nthe meetings held on 13th, 14th,\n15th and 21st January 2009 to be confirmed as\na correct record.
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Additional documents:
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Minutes:
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The minutes of the\nmeetings held on 13th, 14th, 15th\nand 21st January 2009 were confirmed as a correct\nrecord.
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10.10
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4.
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Key Decisions/Forward Plan PDF 20 KB
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Members will receive the Leaders/Deputy\nLeader’s and Cabinet Member for Resources Key Decisions and\nForward Plans for information and discussion.
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Minutes:
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10.15
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5.
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Evaluation of Local Area Agreement (LAA) Partnerships Review PDF 59 KB
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A joint scrutiny task and finish group\ncompromising two members from each council across Buckinghamshire\nwas set up to review the effectiveness of the LAA in its early\nphase. Members are\ninvited to evaluate the progress that has been made against the\nrecommendations accepted at Cabinet on 23rd June\n2008.
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Contributor: Jackie Fisk
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Background Papers: Evaluation of the LAA Partnerships\nReview
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Minutes:
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The Chairman welcomed\nJackie Fisk, Policy Officer for the Local Area Agreement (LAA) to\nthe meeting. Margaret\nAston explained that she had chaired a joint Overview and Scrutiny\ntask and finish group to review the effectiveness of the LAA in its\nearly phase. The group\ncomprised of two members from Buckinghamshire County Council (BCC)\nand two members from each of the four district\ncouncils. One of the\nmain issues identified by the group was a lack of member engagement\nwith the LAA. Mrs Aston\nasked Jackie Fisk if she could update members on any improvement in\nthis area and how the performance of the LAA was\nprogressing.
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Jackie Fisk gave members\nan update on the LAA and the following points were\nnoted:
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\n- As the task group\nwas coming to the end of their review, considerable changes were on\nthe horizon for the LAA. New governance arrangements with\nthe Bucks Strategic Partnership (BSP) were introduced and a new\nversion of the LAA was signed in April 2008. A new performance framework with\ndifferent indictors had also been introduced by\ngovernment.
\n- The Government\nOffice for the South East recently submitted to central government\nthe first six monthly return on the\nBucks LAA. Bucks was found to be one of\neight authorities out of 17 in the South East, who were making good\nprogress.
\n- Government\nhighlighted areas of good practice in Bucks such as the LAA Pooled\nFund (sourced from partner contributions from the Local Public\nService Agreement reward grant), the work on Equalities Impact\nAssessment and the fact that delivery plans were in place for the\nLAA, which were regularly updated.
\n- With regard to the\nperformance indicators, only 14 indicators had data available at\nthe six month mark. Of\nthese 14, most were on track to fulfil their targets. The areas of most concern were\naffordable housing and acquisitive crime. The performance for affordable\nhousing had understandably been affected by the economic\ndownturn. The BSP were\ndiscussing how best to address the acquisitive crime\ntarget.
\n- The\nrecommendations from the task group had been incorporated into an\naction plan aimed at all LAA partners. This action plan had been signed\noff by the BSP Implementation Group (BSPIG), whose membership\nconsisted of officers from all the key LAA partners.
\n- With regard to\nstrengthening the role of members, Jackie Fisk acknowledged that\nongoing work was needed. The BSP were undertaking a\nCommunicating Performance project and as part of this they were\nlooking at improving the BSP website and launching an e-magazine in\nSpring 2009, to highlight the key\noutcomes of the LAA. \nThrough this project, it was hoped that a shared message could be\nportrayed regarding performance.
\n- Of the five\nthematic partnerships, the Children’s Trust, Healthy\nCommunities Partnership and the Bucks Economic and Learning\nPartnership have member representation. The Safer and Stronger Bucks\nPartnership has county member representation, but not district\nlevel representation. \nAdult Commissioners does not currently have member representation.\nBoth are currently considering this issue. More information was\nrequested in relation to the membership of the thematic\npartnerships.
\n- A member commented\nthat members were not very aware of the work of the Local Strategic\nPartnerships (LSPs) or the BSP. Even if members were sitting on an\nLSP or the BSP, feedback to other members was\nnon-existent. Jackie\nFisk agreed that it was quite difficult to make links between the\nvarious groups but she hoped that the e-magazine would lead to more\neffective communication with members.
\n- A member asked if\nBucks would receive additional funding if the LAA targets were\ndelivered. Jackie Fisk\nreported that the new LAA had a £2.8million performance\nreward grant attached, which was a much lower figure than the\nreward grant which could be gained through the Local Public Service\nAgreements. However it was still an incentive and the BSP wanted to\nachieve this grant.
\n- In response to a\nquestion regarding affordable housing, Jackie Fisk advised members\nthat Bucks had resisted the inclusion of a housing completions\ntarget in the LAA, unlike most other areas in the South\nEast. The indicator\naround affordable housing and homelessness and others such as\naccess to transport would be affected by the economic\ndownturn. The targets\nmight be revised at the refresh of the LAA. Continual renegotiation of the\ntargets was not advocated but the economic downturn has had a major\nimpact. Whilst the LAA\nshould be stretching the targets needed to be realistic. Additional\ninformation was requested in relation to the affordable housing\nindicator.
\n- The Chairman asked\nif it would be possible to have some information on the effects of\nthe economic downturn on the LAA. Jackie Fisk advised that the BSP\nhad recently received a report on this and an economic summit was\nbeing organised by the Bucks Economic and Learning Partnership.\n
\n- A member expressed\nconcern about the fact that some PIs were not currently measured. Jackie Fisk reiterated that all\nindicators were being performance managed – this included\nlooking at data, milestones in activities needed to achieve the\ntargets and risk. Whilst only 14 of the 26 national performance\nindicators (PIs) had been performance data available, to date, all\nhad delivery plans in place and performance monitoring of activity\nmilestones was taking place. Some PIs relied on annual figures\nor the results of the recent place survey, which would be published\nin February 2009.
\n- A member commented\nthat he was not sure of the memberships of the different thematic\npartnerships and how the whole governance structure for the LAA\nfitted together. As the\nnew LAA was now almost a year into its three year cycle, this sort\nof basic information should be common knowledge. Whilst he was sure that lots of\nwork was being done on delivering the LAA, as a member he was not\nconfident that he had been adequately informed and he questioned\nwhether the e-magazine would be enough to educate\nmembers. Jackie Fisk\nnoted that the memberships of the thematic partnerships and clearer\ninformation on the governance structure would be made available\nthrough the BSP website and also through the\ne-magazine.
\n- Another member\nsuggested that whilst some members wanted more knowledge on the\nLAA, others would not want to be inundated with a huge amount of\ninformation so this was a difficult balance to strike. Jackie Fisk advised that quarterly\nLAA reports were publicly accessible but these were a table of\nfigures that would not mean much to a member of the public or\nperhaps members, without an accompanying narrative. As part of the communications\nproject, the BSP wanted to highlight pieces of work that had\ncontributed to different LAA outcomes, which would be more\nmeaningful to members.
\n- A member who had\nbeen a representative on the Children’s Trust commented that\nsome representatives were not senior enough in their own\norganisation to be able to make decisions. This meant that they had to go\nback and consult before the Trust could move forward
\n- The issue of\nscrutiny of the performance of the LAA was discussed. It was suggested that as the joint\ntask group had worked well, a joint approach to scrutiny should be\nconsidered going forward. If this was not possible then the\nChairman proposed that the LAA should be on the Committee’s\nagenda at six monthly intervals in order to monitor progress\nagainst targets.
\n- Jackie Fisk\nreminded members that the LAA was a delivery vehicle, not a\nstrategy in itself. BCC\nand other partners had signed up together through the Sustainable\nCommunity Strategy, which is the over-arching a longer term\nplan. The LAA had\ncertainly drawn partners together but it could not do\neverything. It was\nperhaps limited to some extent by the national indicator set.\n The Community Strategy\nwas now being reviewed and the countywide and district level\nstrategies would be brought together as a ‘family’ of\ncommunity strategies all working under a similar framework and to\nthe same timescale. \nMichael Chard advised members that the draft Community Strategy\nwould be presented to Committee in March or April.
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The Chairman thanked\nJackie Fisk for attending the meeting.
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10.55
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6.
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Work Programme PDF 23 KB
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Members will have the opportunity to discuss\nfuture work programme topics for the Committee.
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Contributor: Chairman
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Background Papers: Future Work\nProgramme
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Minutes:
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The Committee considered\nproposed items for the future work programme. Members noted that\nthere were only three more committee meetings scheduled prior to\nthe elections in June 2009, therefore any projects would have to be\ncompleted and signed off at the 10th May\nmeeting.
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A member suggested that\nthe Committee should investigate the strategy behind the\nTransformation project. Another member asked if the Committee could\nreceive further information from Bill Chapple on the proposed\nrestructure of Cabinet and the Overview and Scrutiny\nCommittee’s.
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The Chairman asked\nmembers to contact Michael Chard if they had any additional\nideas.
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11.15
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7.
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2009/10-2011/12 Medium Term Plan Report PDF 44 KB
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The Chairman will update Members on Cabinet\nresponse to the MTP report. This will be followed by a discussion\nof how the Committee wish to respond to Full Council. There will\nalso be an opportunity to discuss learning points from the 2009/10\nexamination in public.
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Contributor: Chairman
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Background Papers:
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\n- Report into the MTP\nProcess and Budget Proposals for 2009/10 -2011/12
\n- Lessons Learnt from\nthe Examination in Public of the MTP/Budget 2009/10
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Additional documents:
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Minutes:
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The Chairman advised\nmembers that the Committee’s report on the Budget and Medium\nTerm Planning (MTP) process had been accepted by Cabinet in its\nentirety. The final\nbudget figures were still under review and would be presented to\nCouncil on 19 February 2009.
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Members discussed the\nlessons learnt from the examination of the budget in\npublic. Michael\nChard’s paper was found to be very comprehensive in\nidentifying the issues and the Chairman commented that in general\nthe meetings had gone well, but questioning could have been more\nfocussed.
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It was noted that Steve\nAdams had substituted for Mrs Dewar, Cabinet Member for Community\nServices during the budget meetings and at Cabinet when the\nCommittee’s report was presented.
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With regards to the\ntiming of the budget meetings, a member commented that in reality\nmembers had to do the best they could with the figures available at\na given time.
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The Committee thanked\nMichael Chard for his work on the budget report and also Kelly\nSutherland, Katharine Woods, Alex Care and Rebecca Smith for\nassisting with the preparatory work. It was agreed that Michael Chard\nwould circulate the Cabinet’s response to members again and\nmembers were invited to feedback any comments which would help the\nChairman in preparing his report to Council.
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8.
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Exclusion of the Press and Public
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\nTo resolve to exclude the press and public as the following\nitems are exempt by virtue of Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12a\nof the Local Government Act 1972 because they contain information\nrelating to the financial or business affairs of any particular\nperson (including the authority holding that\ninformation)
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Minutes:
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RESOLVED
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That the press and public be excluded for the\nfollowing item which is exempt by virtue of Paragraph 5 of Part 1\nof Schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972 because it\ncontains information in respect of which a claim to legal\nprofessional privilege could be maintained in legal\nproceedings
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11.40
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9.
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Shared Support Services - Cabinet Response
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Members will have the opportunity to discuss\nthe response from Cabinet to the Shared Support Services report\nthat was presented to Cabinet on 26th January 2009.
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Contributor: Whole Committee
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Minutes:
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Members discussed the\nCabinet’s response to the Committee’s report on the\nShared Services project. The Chairman commented that he felt the\nCommittee had added value to the process and members noted that\ntheir recommendation that the final draft of the Inter-Authority\nAgreement, Joint Committee Constitution and Memorandum of\nUnderstanding should come back to the Committee, prior to\nagreement, had been accepted.
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10.
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Exempt minutes of the meeting held on 21st January 2009
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To confirm the exempt\nminutes of the meeting held on 21st January\n2009.
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Minutes:
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The exempt minutes of\nthe meeting held on 21st January 2009 were confirmed as\na correct record.
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12.00
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Date and Time of Next Meeting
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Tuesday 3rd\nMarch 2009 at 10am in Mezzanine Room 3
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Minutes:
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Tuesday 3rd\nMarch 2009 at 10am in Mezzanine Room 3
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