Agenda and minutes

To receive any declarations of interest from any councillor on any item on this agenda.

None.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 7 January 2019.

It was agreed that the minutes of the meeting of the committee held on 7 January 2019 be confirmed as a correct record.

The Head of Service for Cumbria and Lancashire (Peter Mulcahy) and Sector Manager (David Rigby), from North West Ambulance Service (NWAS), will attend for this item. Mr Mulcahy and Mr Rigby will make a presentation about NWAS’ performance and the priorities that have been identified for 2019/20. A briefing note has been submitted.

Members of the committee will have an opportunity to comment and ask questions.

The Head of Service for Cumbria and Lancashire, Peter Mulcahy, made a presentation which covered North West Ambulance Service’s strategy, objectives, performance and priorities. He responded to comments made and questions posed by members of the committee. The presentation slides are appended to these minutes.

In response to questions from councillors, Mr Mulcahy made the following additional comments:

o   A frequent-caller team arranged multi-agency meetings to agree plans to help frequent callers access health services more effectively.

o   Reports on ‘long waits’ were dealt with every day in order to ensure that NWAS was accountable. In Cumbria and Lancashire this typically included about three or four C1 (the most urgent) calls per day.

o   There was a growing group of Community First Responders using the Good SAM App.  They were a community of ‘Good Samaritans’, happy to assist if they were the closest person to an emergency.

o   Community defibrillators had made a very positive impact; early defibrillation had been shown to deal with early cardiac arrest very effectively.

The Chairman thanked Mr Mulcahy for his valuable and informative presentation to the committee. 

The Service Director Performance and Innovation has submitted a

report, the 3rd Quarter Performance Statement 2018/19, October –

December 2018. (The report on the previous quarter, July – September 2018 has also been re-published, for the committee’s information).

The Service Director Performance and Innovation, Marianne Hesketh, submitted a report, the 3^rd Quarter Performance Statement 2018/19, October – December 2018. Members considered this report alongside the report for the previous quarter.

Concern was expressed about several measures, specifically:

(i)            Number of affordable dwellings planning permission is granted for

(ii)          Number of businesses supported

(iii)         Town centre vacancy rates

It was agreed

(i)            that reports be requested in respect of each of these three measures, with a view to exploring whether scrutiny task group reviews should be undertaken, and

(ii)          that the report be noted.

To consider the training and development requirements of members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and of councillors newly elected, for the 2019/20 municipal year.

The committee discussed a number of training and development ideas, prompted by the feedback provided at the previous meeting by Councillor Emma Ellison following her attendance at the Centre for Public Scrutiny’s Annual Conference in December.

It was suggested that there was benefit in reminding councillors about the fundamental principles of effective scrutiny, this being of relevance to councillors newly elected in May 2019 and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee, as appointed at the Annual Meeting in May 2019. It was important that the committee was clear about what should be scrutinised and how that process should be carried out.

Agreeing a challenging O&S Work Programme for the coming year was essential. The Corporate Management Team should be invited to make suggestions for topics to be investigated, which would be considered by the committee for inclusion in the Programme.

It was agreed that specific training on scrutiny should be provided to new councillors (this was already included in the new councillors’ Induction Programme for 2019) and also for the committee to be appointed at the Annual Meeting.

It was further agreed that the Corporate Management Team should be invited to make suggestions for topics to be included in the O&S Work Programme 2019/20.

Peter Foulsham, Scrutiny Officer, will give a verbal update on the delivery of the 2018/19 Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme and the draft Programme for 2019/20.

The Chairman indicated that, following on from the previous item, consideration needed to be given to identifying topics for inclusion in the O&S Work Programme 2019/20, an early draft of which had been published with the agenda.

A proposal was made that the committee should play a greater role in scrutinising the budget, as had been the case some years ago, and in reviewing the Council’s Constitution. The committee was aware of a review of the Constitution that was currently being undertaken and agreed that they should ask to see the final report and recommendations when they had been completed. They acknowledged that it was Full Council’s responsibility to amend the Constitution.

It was also suggested that the committee should make its recommendations to the Full Council and not to the Cabinet in order that a wider discussion might take place about proposals. This was consistent with one of the recommendations that was expected to be included in the forthcoming Revised Scrutiny Guidance following the Select Committee review in 2018. There was broad support for this proposal, which would be explored in more detail once the new committee had been appointed in May 2019.

A number of other topics were mentioned as possibilities for inclusion in the Work Programme.

It was agreed that the committee consider the following for inclusion in the Work Programme, subject to comments from officers:

·         Budget

·         Affordable housing

·         Number of businesses supports

·         Town centre vacancy rates

·         Health and wellbeing

·         The council’s responsibilities in the provision of social care