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.

(Director of Governance). To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

There were no substitute Members for the meeting.

Decisions required:

To confirm the minutes of the meetings of the Committee held on 10^th  November 2014.

RESOLVED:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 10 November 2014 be signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

(Director of Governance). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 11 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

There were no declarations of interest made pursuant to the Member’s Code of Conduct.

In 2012/13 this Committee had requested an annual presentation from the Youth Council giving an update on the developing Youth Council programme.

Members of the Youth Council will attend the meeting to outline:

(i) achievements from the last year;

(ii) the plans for the Youth Council for the coming year; and

(iii) new youth engagement and volunteer initiatives for 2015-16.

The Committee received a presentation from six members of the Youth Council, Doncho Atanassov, Matthew Tinker, Olivia Storey, Joseph Pascoe, Jaymey McIvor and Leonora Troshupa. They were joined by thirteen other Youth Council members.

They were there to give an overview of what the Epping Forest Youth Council has been up to over the past year. This was their first year in office of the two they were elected for.

The Committee noted that:

·         There had been 45 candidates standing for just 21 seats, all aged between 13 and 17;

·         2488 votes were cast;

·         Their aim was to ensure that all their peers and their schools became involved in their work and to continue to be a link between school Councils, the wider youth of the district and the District Council.

By far their highest profile event last year was the Youth conference held in the Council officers on 14 October 2014. 90 pupils from years 7, 8, 9 and 10 representing ten secondary schools from the District attended. They were consulted about issues affecting the lives of local young people; gathering their views on possible solutions and gather ideas on how to improve the local community. They were also keen to promote local democracy.

Three main concerns were highlighted. They were alcohol misuse, bullying and stress. Other issues raised were around skills and jobs and the need for more volunteering opportunities, the misuse of drugs particularly ‘legal highs’.

They asked the Council Members to consider how they could help them lobby for these issues to be addressed. Their findings were shared with the Local Strategic Partnership and the Epping Forest Youth Strategy Group.

The Youth Council launched a campaign called ‘#URNotAlone’ during national Bullying Awareness week in November; highlighting services and support groups for victims of bullying and their parents and also gave presentations to all year 9 pupils in the district. To complement this presentation they designed a USB memory stick wrist band that promoted the #URNotAlone Bullying Awareness campaign. It included a link to the EFYC web page which had the fact sheet promoting phone numbers and support groups. The project was deemed a great success by pupils, parents and teaching staff and the Youth Council were really proud of this piece of work.

Social Media was also an important part of their work as it promoted their work and raised the profile of young people in the district. They had 458 followers on Twitter and 185 ‘likes’ on Facebook. Recently they had over 7200 views on Twitter and 42 new followers and by last week this had doubled.

They had been asked to contribute to 10 consultations this year and were pleased to have representations on the Epping Forest Youth Strategy Group.

Youth volunteering was a big theme for them and as young volunteers they were passionate about encouraging other young people to volunteer. The Council’s Youth Volunteer Programme was now being taken up by all secondary schools in the district. They had tried out one  ...  view the full minutes text for item 47.

(Director of Governance) To consider the attached report.

The Director of Neighbourhoods, Derek Macnab introduced the report on the Cabinet key Objectives, quarter 2 progress. The key objectives were designed to provide a clear statement of the Council’s overall intentions for each year and were supported by a range of actions and deliverables designed to achieve specific outcomes.

This report presented six months progress from 1 April to 30 September 2014 against the key objectives for 2014/15.

It was noted that at the end of the second quarter of the year:

(a)          44 (81.5%) of the individual deliverables or actions supporting the key objectives had either been completed or achieved, or are anticipated to be completed/achieved in accordance with in-year targets;

(b)          4 (7.5%) may not be completed or achieved by year-end; and

(c)          6 (11%) are currently on-hold as a result of external factors.

Councillor Angold-Stephens queried the fourth objective, to promote cultural change, items (a) and (b) (i). The target date said end of December and said that it was on target. Should it say it’s behind target? Mr Macnab replied that this was reporting progress only up to the end of September. But he would take it back and have a look at it.

Councillor Angold-Stephens also queried 4 (c) (i) where it mentions a poster campaign for November. Had this begun as yet? Mr Macnab said that the Chief Executive would be launching that campaign at the next Staff Briefing. He agreed that there had been some slippage on this.

Councillor Wixley noted that 4(f) (i) spoke about breaking down silo working. It would be difficult to change attitudes; but was there some sort of induction course that explained the working of the Council. Mr Macnab said that they did have corporate induction process. Also with the recent restructure there were fewer directorates now. They were pursuing a number of actions on a number of fronts, but cultural change took time.

Councillor Surtees wanted to known if the Local Development Scheme preferred options were still on schedule for May 2015. Mr Macnab replied that the LDS as published had a target date of mid-May but there was likely to be some slippage.

RESOLVED:

That the progress in relation to the Key Objectives for 2014/15 for the second quarter of the year be noted.

(a)          To consider the updated work programme

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

Decision Required:

Item 8 of the Work Programme has the County Mental Health Services coming to give a presentation to the February meeting. Members are asked to consider what they would like their presentation to be about and what they would like to be discussed with them.

(b)          New Work

The Cabinet at their meeting on 15 December 2014 requested that the North Essex Parking Partnership (NEPP) be invited to a meeting of the O&S Committee.

Decision Required:

This Committee is asked to consider how they would like to deal with this request. Would they like the NEPP to attend an O&S Committee or would they prefer a Scrutiny Panel to take this on board (this topic would naturally fall into the purview of the Safer Cleaner Greener Scrutiny Panel).

(c)          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 programme 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.

Overview and Scrutiny Committee

The Committee noted their work programme to date.

(a)          They noted that they were to receive a presentation from the Mental Health Services and were asked if there was anything that they specifically wanted to be discussed.

Councillor Sartin said that the Youth Council had spoken about mental health issues for young people would this be an appropriate topic.

Councillor Wixley noted that at the last meeting to consider this topic a member of the public attended to ask some questions on local services and he would support having that same person attend the next meeting as well. Councillor Angold-Stephens said that he would support that suggestion. He had raised a number of issues at the time and had not got an adequate reply.

This suggestion was agreed by the Committee.

Councillor Murray asked for a more general approach to be taken and that we ask them to share a public spot analysis with us, where we could see any weaknesses, any opportunities and threats. He accepted that it would be a public analysis. Could we ask them to do this?

Councillor Surtees wanted to ask about how they integrated services with other bodies, especially people who present particular difficulties such as dual diagnosis and maybe criminality and care needs.

Councillor Whitbread noting that the Youth Council were interested in mental health, issues thought that we should ask them to attend this meeting.

(b)          The Committee noted that the Cabinet at their meeting on 15 December 2014 had asked that the North Essex Parking Partnership (NEPP) be invited to a meeting of the O&S Committee. The Committee considered how they would like to handle this request.

Councillor Sartin said that this committee would be the best suited to ask NEPP to attend as it was also webcast. Councillor Wixley supported this.

Councillor Whitbread said that NEPP were keen to come before this committee and answer questions and this was the best Committee to get full attendance.

Scrutiny Panels

Housing Scrutiny Panel

The Chairman of the Housing Scrutiny Panel noted that they had a busy October meeting and noted that their item 7, review of the housing allocations scheme and tenancy policy, was now out for consultation. Important items coming up at their next meeting were the briefing on the proposed Council rent increase, the proposed housing service improvements and service enhancements and especially the possible operation of operating a “Sinking Fund” for new leaseholders in new or existing flat blocks where there are no existing leaseholders. Councillor Angold-Stephens suggested that this might be suitable for a Task and Finish Panel or a Working Group to be set up to consider. Councillor Murray replied that they had agreed the parameters that the report would cover; they would now see what the report had to say and may well take up his suggestion.

Constitution and Member Services Scrutiny Panel

The Chairman of the Panel, Councillor Sartin noted that they had started work on the Constitution  ...  view the full minutes text for item 49.

To review the Cabinet Forward Plan (Key Decision List) on a meeting by meeting basis.

The Committee noted the Cabinet’s Forward Plan for December 2014. They had no specific items that they wanted to consider.