Agenda and minutes

1.         This meeting is to be webcast. Members are reminded of the need to activate their microphones before speaking.

2.         The Chairman will read the following announcement:

“This meeting will be webcast live to the Internet and will be archived for later viewing. Copies of recordings may be made available on request.

By entering the chamber’s lower seating area you consenting to becoming part of the webcast.

If you wish to avoid being filmed you should move to the public gallery or speak to the webcasting officer”

The Chairman reminded everyone present that the meeting would be broadcast live to the Internet, and that the Council had adopted a protocol for the webcasting of its meetings.

In the absence of the Chairman the Vice-Chairman, Councillor Angold-Stephens took the Chairmanship of the Committee. The Committee then appointed Councillor Rolf to act as the Vice-Chairman for the duration of the meeting.

It was noted that Councillor A Watts was substituting for Councillor G Chambers and that Councillor J Knapman was substituting for Councillor J Philip.

Decisions required:

To confirm the minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 28 January 2014.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 28 January 2014 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

Councillor S Murray declared a non pecuniary interest in the following item of the agenda, by virtue of being a member of the Methodist Church. He advised that he would remain in the meeting for the duration of the item:

·         Item 7 – Corporate Plan Key Objectives 2013/14

To receive a presentation from officers from the local Mental Health Services of the West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group on local mental health issues.

The Committee welcomed Melanie Crass, the interim Head of Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Commissioning for North Essex and Dr Kamal Bishai, the Vice Chairman of the West Essex Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). Also in attendance was Andrew Smith a governor of the North Essex Partnership of the NHS Foundation Trust who sat in as an observer. Ms Crass and Dr Bishai were there to talk about local mental health services and the Joint Health and Social Care North Essex Mental Health Strategy 2013-17. Ms Crass noted that she was on secondment at present supporting the three Clinical Commissioning Groups and Essex County Council. She was there to talk about the joint Mental Health and Social Care Strategy, a four year strategy that had been developed over the last six moths (see attached presentation). A lot of consultation on this had been undertaken since June 2013. Their vision was that they wanted people to have good mental health and people with mental health problems to recover as well as having a better quality of life. It was noted that they wished to achieve this vision developing and supporting community well-being and encouraging people to maintain healthy lifestyles and keep themselves and their families mentally well.  They would improve access and the gateways into services and would ensure a smooth transition between services, including children to adult services, and have a more integrated approach to the mental and physical health services.  They would develop a broader primary and community based models of care for people across the spectrum of mental health conditions.

The Committee noted that currently 1 in 6 people would experience mental health problems at any one time in their lives. A predicted increase in demand of 2.7% was expected by 2020, also a predicted increase in dementia as a consequence of the increase in elderly persons in North Essex. It was noted that there was a strong relationship between physical health and mental health and that there was an inequity of provision across the three North Essex CCGs. This went back to the days of the Mental Health Partnership Trusts and to the reorganisations and it was also linked to the CCG budgets as they received different amounts. It was also noted that that there was insufficient housing for people with mental health conditions leading to delayed discharges.

Ms Crass noted that North Essex was made up of three CCGs, Mid, West and North East Essex. They spend £110million per annum and Social Care invests just over £12.5 million p.a. They have striven to deliver a comprehensive ‘Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ (IAPT) and its early intervention programme. They have a ‘Recovery College’ in Mid Essex and community development services. They did a fair amount of joint commissioning with Social Care under a Section 256 agreement with the Essex County. Also, Essex County Council had commissioned a Community Dementia Service investing about £1million. The three CCGs worked closely with individual placements outside of the local provider.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 73.

(Deputy Chief Executive) To consider the attached report.

The Deputy Chief Executive, Derek Macnab introduced the  report on the corporate Key Strategic planning document, setting out its priorities over the four year period from 2011/12 to 2014/15, with strategic themes reflecting those of the Community Strategy for the district.

A range of key objectives for 2013/14 was adopted by the Cabinet in March 2013. Progress in relation to deliverables and actions designed to support the achievement of the key objectives is reviewed by the Cabinet and the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on a quarterly and outturn basis.

This report presented the nine-month (1 April to 31 December 2013) progress against the key objectives for 2013/14. The key objectives for 2013/14 were adopted by the Cabinet at its meeting on 11 March 2013.

At the end of the third quarter of the year, 40 (74%) of the individual deliverables or actions supporting the key objectives had either been completed or achieved, or were anticipated to be completed/achieved by a revised target date or at year-end. Some 8 (15%) deliverables or actions may not be completed or achieved by year-end and a further 6 (11%) were currently on-hold as a result of external circumstances.

The Committee then went through key objectives as set out in the report.

The development of a social networking strategy and increased use of social media – Councillor Angold-Stephens noted that there were ongoing financial issues for quarter 3. He was told that the Council’s social media had been monitored over Christmas and responses made when necessary, it was important to monitor the social media so as to make sure that the correct information had been given to the public and that any rumours or disinformation be corrected especially during out of hours periods. This would involve the payment of the officers who monitored the social media strands over evenings and weekends. A report on this had been made to the Management Board.

Development of the Council’s Leisure Strategy – Councillor Knapman wanted to know the reason why we were behind schedule on this. He was told that they were late to start with and the Portfolio Holder Advisory Group were seeking finance through the budget process to take forward the necessary building condition survey.

Compliance with duty to co-operate – Councillor Angold-Stephens noted that Harlow had not been so helpful in this duty. Councillor Whitbread commented that they had met with Harlow recently  on a couple of occasions and they were becoming more co-operative.

Setting of a consistently low district council tax – Councillor Angold-Stephens asked if we were on course to achieve this aspiration. It was noted that this had referred to 2013/14 year and was also an aspiration for the future, but it had to go through the budget process each year.

Deliver Regeneration Action Plan for council land at The Broadway, Loughton – Councillor Wixley asked if there were any developments on the Church site in Mannock Drive to be developed for affordable housing. Councillor Angold-Stephens  noted that this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

(Office of the Chief Executive) To consider the attached report.

The Senior Democratic Services Officer, Simon Hill, took the Committee through a report looking at the arrangements of the Scrutiny Standing Panels in the light of the directorate restructuring and the outcome of the OS review.

The Panel structure had not been considered as part of the review and had been discussed at officer level since the council’s directorate restructure. The report brought forward several options, such as keeping the present 5 Panel structure and appointing new lead officers to each; moving to a commissioning model based upon a work programme; or moving to a 4 panel structure aligned around the new directorates. The report had gone through the Council’s Management Board and had gained their support.

Attention had been drawn with the proposed Governance Scrutiny Panel (aligning with the Governance Directorate) and the need to avoid duplication of responsibility with the Audit and Governance Committee and the Standards Committee. However it was noted that the Audit and Governance Committee would have to be reviewed as the government had introduced a new Local Audit Act. It was suggested that when drawing up the terms of reference for this Panel it should be done in consultation with the Chairmen of the Audit and Governance and the Standards Committee.

The O&S Review had envisaged a more structured way of devising the work programmes to include requests from the public as well as Councillors. It was also noted that there was no Cabinet Review item on this agenda as it was agreed that the Cabinet’s Forward Plan be used to monitor their work and pick up on any future points that the Committee may wish to scrutinise.

Councillor Knapman noted that the proposed panel workloads seemed to be considerable and that the various service areas had very little in common. He was also concerned about councillors that did not have a role and would like to have something to do. The proposals in this report did not hold water for him as he could not see how this brought about greater member involvement.

Councillor Waller commented that at first sight it looked like a neat structure but there were a few problems such as the word ‘Cabinet’ hardly appeared in the report and the most important role of scrutiny was to hold Cabinet to account and he did not feel that this had been addressed.  Another problem was that the workload of the Panels would vary considerably; such as the Neighbourhood and Communities Panels would have more work than the Governance and Resources Panels. It would also be difficult to get councillors sit on these Panels as we would need members with appropriate skills sets to slot them into the Panels. He also noted that there was no mention of Country Care in the Neighbourhood section. Also, Community Safety was a big job to scrutinise; Portfolio Holders would have to cross the directorates and make it more untidy. He thought that this needed more consideration maybe by setting up a Task and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 75.

(a)             To consider the updated work programme

The current Overview and Scrutiny work programme is attached for information.

(b)          Reserve Programme

A reserve list of scrutiny topics is required to ensure that the work flow of OSC is continuous.

OSC will ‘pull out’ items from the list and  allocate them accordingly  once space becomes available in the work plan following  the completion of  existing reviews.

Members can put forward any further suggestions for inclusion in the reserve list  either during the meeting or at a later date.

Existing review items will be dealt with first, then time will be allocated to the items contained in the reserve work plan.

The Committee reviewed the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme

Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Committee considered their work programme noting that it was now nearly complete. They noted that item 11, Mental Health Services, should be invited to attend next year to update the committee on any progress made in the delivery of services.

The Committee agreed that item 6, to review the strategic direction of Epping Forest College, that was to be considered at the April meeting, be postponed into the new year to enable the new principal to bed down in the job. In its stead item 14, Whipps Cross Hospital be lined up for the April meeting.

Housing Scrutiny Panel

Noted that they had not met since the last meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Constitution and Member Services Scrutiny Panel 

It was noted that their next meeting would be held on 18 March.

Safer Cleaner Greener Scrutiny Panel

Councillor Knapman asked that the Safer Cleaner Greener Scrutiny Panel be asked to look at the switching off of street lighting at night. This was agreed by the Committee.

Planning Services Scrutiny Panel

Noted that they had not met since the last meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Finance and Performance Management Scrutiny Panel

Noted that they were due to meet again on 11 March.