Agenda and draft minutes

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Contact: Wyn Richards, Scrutiny Manager and Head of Democratic Services  Email: wyn.richards@powys.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies

To receive apologies for absence.

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from County Councillor P Pritchard, Portfolio Holders R. Powell (on other Council business) J. Evans and H. Hulme and from D. Reynolds (Head of Digital Services) and E. Palmer (Head of Transformation and Communication).

 

2.

Disclosures of Interest

To receive any disclosures of interests by Members relating to items to be considered at the meeting.

Minutes:

There were no disclosures of interest by Members relating to items to be considered at the meeting

3.

Declaration of Party Whips

To receive disclosures of prohibited party whips which a Member has been given in relation to the meeting in accordance with Section 78(3) of the Local Government Measure 2011.

 

(NB: Members are reminded that under Section 78 Members having been given a prohibited party whip cannot vote on a matter before the Committee.)

Minutes:

The Committee did not receive any disclosures of prohibited party whips which a Member has been given in relation to the meeting in accordance with Section 78(3) of the Local Government Measure 2011.

4.

Support for Shielding Individuals during the Covid-19 Pandemic pdf icon PDF 690 KB

To receive and consider the report of the Portfolio Holder for Corporate Governance and Engagement.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Documents Considered:

·                 Report of the Portfolio Holder for Digital Services.

 

Issues Discussed:

·                 March to August 2020 the Council provided information to Welsh Government on those individuals who required food parcels, provided a welfare call back facility and set up in conjunction with PAVO befriending services and support for those needing assistance to obtain food, medicines etc. 23,000 calls were undertaken in all. 120 community based groups were established with PAVO providing formal support to those groups.

·                 Moving forwards the Council will maintain the shielded persons list. In the event of a lockdown the Council will take a lead role in offering support in relation to food, medicines and prescriptions and well being including the reintroduction of welfare calls.

·                 Support for vulnerable residents will be provided by the community support and response group.

 

·                 Questions:

What resource is available to bring back the support being proposed for a longer or shorter period.

As the decision regarding lockdown has only today been announced, discussions are required with senior management regarding resourcing. With welfare calls it would be necessary to identify a group of around 10 staff initially to make this operational.

The Council was in addition, recommencing more frequent meetings of its Gold and Silver commands with officers asked to consider what resources could be made available during the circuit break recently announced. Redeployment of staff will be considered as previously.

Welfare Calls – is there guidance to Councillors on how to deal with these calls. If not could guidance be provided to assist Members in making these calls.

No guidance was provided to members previously as to when welfare calls should be undertaken. When the referral is passed on to councillors, the time when the Council made contact with the resident can be made known to Councillors to assist them in deciding when to ring their constituent.

How will the Council be publicising that the support for food, medicines, etc are operational. Is the Council checking that all the support groups are operational in preparation for the lockdown period.

Discussions will take place with partners such as PAVO and communications will be put in place before the lockdown commences which will include information publicised on social media.

Is there anything the volunteer groups can do to assist the Council.

It is probably better if this information about support is co-ordinated through CSERT.

Builth Wells has a good community support system in place which was duplicated by PAVO in the first lockdown. Welfare support was also being co-ordinated through the community support. The Council needs to work together with the support that is already in place.

Lessons have been learned during the first lockdown and PAVO and CSERT know what support is available locally.

Members were also asked that if there are specific issues in localities that they are made known to the Council.

 

Outcomes:

·                 Noted.

 

5.

Performance and Risk Reports pdf icon PDF 456 KB

Attached is a pre-forma to assist Members in scrutinising performance and risk reports.

 

There will be a presentation for Members on accessing Power BI graphs at the beginning of this item.

5.1

Performance Reports pdf icon PDF 1 MB

To receive and consider the Performance Reports for those Service areas within the remit of the Committee.

 

Link to the Performance Report:

 

https://sway.office.com/XivRETVhVAJB7hDA

 

Minutes:

Documents Considered:

·                 Performance Report Quarter 2, 2020-21

 

Issues Discussed:

·                 This is part of the new arrangements to allow scrutiny to comment on performance reports.

·                 Report provides a summary of achievements during the pandemic as well as meeting the objectives of the Corporate Improvement Plan and Public Accountability Measures.

·                 Key elements in response to the pandemic outlined for the committee e.g. homelessness, track and trace, shielding calls, grants to businesses, order and collect library service, business survey. The Council's response to the flooding in August 2020 was detailed in the report.

·                 The Corporate Improvement Plan includes the Council's Strategic Equality Objectives. Nearly 45% of data has not been able to be collected either as it is annual information or due to the disruption due to the pandemic. 34% of the Corporate Improvement Plan measures and 24% of the Public Accountability Measures have met their target which is a slight reduction on quarter 2 of 2019-20 which shows that despite the pandemic the Council's performance is similar to the previous year in spite of the additional requirements caused by the pandemic.

 

·                 Questions:

Complaints and Compliments – complaints have increased in the current quarter (60 to 90). What work has been undertaken to understand the cause of this increase.

Details of the specific analysis of the types of complaints can be made available and how the Council is responding to any patterns in the data. There is no pattern to the complaints. In addition, the position for quarter 2, 2020-21 is better than for quarter 2, 2019-20.

Homelessness – the Committee was previously advised that all homeless people who wanted accommodation had been provided with accommodation. What is the current position and what is the current plan during the firebreak.

Good news that residual waste has gone down and recycling increased. Is there any indication as to why this is the case.

Homelessness – in terms of those who could be accommodated, they were accommodated. There were a few who did not accept the offer of accommodation made. The regular homelessness update was made available to Members during the meeting.

·       Live homelessness cases (beginning of October) – 320

·       Numbers of homeless households in temporary accommodation – 110 (excluding bed and breakfast)

·       Number of households in bed and breakfast – 15

·       Numbers of new properties identified to boost accommodation – 82.

·       Number of known rough sleepers - 5

 

Waste and Recycling – there was less access to the HWRCs (Household Waste Recycling Centres) during the lockdown which may have contributed to an increase in recycling but there could be a number of other factors as well. The Director of Economy and Environment suggested asking the waste team their view as to why there had been an increase in recycling.

Track and Trace – it is widely recognised that only 92% of the Covid tests are accurate with 8% being inaccurate. What is being done to retest individuals who show no symptoms.

When there is mass testing there is an issue of false-positives. The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.1

5.2

Risk Report pdf icon PDF 15 KB

To receive and consider the Strategic Risk Register.

Minutes:

Documents Considered:

·                 Strategic Risk Register

 

Issues Discussed:

·                 12 risks on the strategic risk register, 9 of which fall under the remit of the Committee.

 

·                 Questions:

Powys is not investing in developing young people into jobs within the Council as young people are leaving the county.

There are a range of actions which the Council is undertaking to encourage young people to come and work for the Council e.g. apprenticeships. The Council has been unable to meet its target for apprenticeships due to the pandemic and not recruiting new staff. However, the Council has interviewed and has a pool of 28 young people ready to take up apprenticeship roles with the council. The Council is also working with the Health Board around the workforce futures programme and support through training those who can work in the health and care sector.

 

Outcomes:

Action

Action By / Completion Date

That the full version of the risk register be included on the agenda for the next meeting

WR

 

6.

Scrutiny Work Programme

 

The next meetings of the Committee will be held as follows:

 

02-11-20

14.00 – 16.00

 

07-12-20

10.00 – 12.00

Options for Improving Broadband Structure - Head of Digital Services

 

18-01-21

 

Performance Q3 + Risk

(Provisional – Confidential Report – Housing)

28-01-21

 

Budget

01-03-21

 

Digital Strategy 2021-25

12-04-21

 

 

03-06-21

 

Performance Q4 + Risk

12-07-21

 

Performance Q1 + Risk

06-09-21

 

 

18-10-21

 

Performance Q2 + Risk

29-11-21

 

 

 

Potential items for consideration:

·       Regulatory Services

·       Recycling rates – what advantage is being taken of the increases in recycling rates and how can we maintain recycling rates.

·       Economic Impact Study / Town Centre Focus Group

·       County Farms

 

Update Information arising from previous meeting:

·       Car Parking Charges review – second meeting held 13th October, 2020.

 

Minutes:

 

The Committee noted that the next meetings would be held as follows:

 

02-11-20

14.00 – 16.00

07-12-20

10.00 – 12.00

Options for Improving Broadband Structure - Head of Digital Services

 

18-01-21

 

Performance Q3 + Risk

(Provisional – Confidential Report – Housing)

28-01-21

 

Budget

01-03-21

 

Digital Strategy 2021-25

12-04-21

 

 

03-06-21

 

Performance Q4 + Risk

12-07-21

 

Performance Q1? + Risk

06-09-21

 

 

18-10-21

 

Performance Q2? + Risk

29-11-21

 

 

 

Potential items for consideration:

·       Regulatory Services

·       Recycling rates – what advantage is being taken of the increases in recycling rates and how can we maintain recycling rates.

·       Economic Impact Study / Town Centre Focus Group

·       County Farms

 

Update Information arising from previous meeting:

·       Car Parking Charges review – second meeting held 13th October, 2020.

 

The Committee noted that Freedom Leisure would be attending the meeting on 2nd November to present their annual report. The risk register would also be added to the agenda for that meeting.

 

The Lead Member provided the Committee with an update on the Car Parking Charges review group. The issue of potential conflicts of interest for Members of the Working Group in developing the policy was raised which was clarified by the Scrutiny Manager.

 

The Chair thanked Ness Young , Corporate Director – Transformation for her work during her term of office with the Council and wished her well for the future.