Agenda and minutes
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Contact: Amanda Scarce
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Apologies for Absence and Names Substitutes Minutes: Apologies for absence were received on behalf of Councillors C. Allen-Jones and M. Glass.
Councillor K. J. May requested that in future she be notified of any apologies from Members of the Board in the Conservative Group so that substitutes could be organised accordingly. |
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Declarations of Interest and Whipping Arrangements To invite Councillors to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Other Disclosable Interests they may have in items on the agenda, and to confirm the nature of those interests. Minutes: In respect of Minute No. 24/15, Councillor J. M. L. A. Griffiths declared an other discloseable interest as a member of the Bromsgrove Arts Centre Trust and Councillors K. J. May and R. D. Smith declared an other discloseable interest in their capacity as members of the Bromsgrove Arts Development Trust.
There were no declarations of any whipping arrangements. |
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Minutes: The Minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on Monday 22nd June 2015 were submitted.
Referring to discussions at the previous meeting of the Board the Chairman thanked Councillor J. M. L. A. Griffiths for having subsequently agreed to act as the Council’s representative on the Joint Increasing Physical Activity in Worcestershire Task Group.
RESOLVED that the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 22nd June 2015 be approved as a correct record. |
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Minutes: Officers explained that all but one of the actions requested at the previous meeting of the Board had been resolved. The outstanding item, requesting changes to the Quarterly Monitoring of Write Offs report, would be implemented when the Board next received the report. |
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Quarterly Recommendation Tracker Minutes: The Board considered the Quarterly Recommendation Tracker, containing updates on the action that had been taken to implement scrutiny recommendations.
There had been a number of developments with regard to the recommendations that had been made by the Joint Worcestershire Regulatory Services (WRS) Scrutiny Task Group. The decision making body for WRS, the Worcestershire Shared Services Joint Committee, had recently considered a report on the subject of the future governance of the partnership. This report had contained a number of proposals which reflected many of the actions that had been proposed by the Task Group. The Worcestershire Shared Services Joint Committee had concluded that the existing partnership should be dissolved, to be replaced by a partnership involving the six district Councils whilst the County Council would be delivering a reduced trading standards function. The final proposals were in the process of being considered by partners. In light of these developments the Board agreed that the recommendations arising from the joint scrutiny review could be removed from the Quarterly Recommendation Tracker.
The Board noted that a significant number of updates had been received from both representatives of the Artrix and from relevant Officers in respect of the Artrix Outreach Provision Task Group. It was therefore agreed that these recommendations be removed from the tracking report. |
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Cabinet Work Programme 1st August to 30th November 2015 Minutes: The Board considered the content of the Cabinet Leader’s Work Programme for the period 1st August 2015 to 30th November 2015. During consideration of the report a number of key issues were discussed in detail:
a) High Street Refurbishment – Phase 2 Consideration of Options
Members noted that the Licensing Committee had, in recent months, approved a new street trading policy. However, Members had received little information to indicate that the requirements of this policy had been enacted, particularly in Bromsgrove town centre. Whilst the High Street Refurbishment report would focus on a separate matter it was agreed that Officers should be asked to check how the street trading policy was being implemented on the High Street.
The Chairman commented that the subject of the High Street Refurbishment had been discussed during the Overview and Scrutiny training session in June 2015 and there had been interest in scrutinising the subject further. Some Members suggested that the item should only be considered if there was evidence to suggest that problems had arisen, whilst others commented that, as an item listed on the Council’s Corporate Risk Register, this would be an ideal subject for the Board to scrutinise. There was a short debate about the contribution the Overview and Scrutiny Board could make through pre-scrutinising this item and the suggestion was made that the Board receive a briefing paper at its next meeting for consideration and in order to feed in to the decision making process.
b) New Homes Bonus
The Board discussed the New Homes Bonus (NHB) report, scheduled for the consideration of Cabinet on 2nd September. Members noted that there had been significant public interest in the NHB, with a petition regarding the distribution of the NHB funding having been submitted to Council in 2014. Following this petition the Council had agreed that £87,000 should be made available to community bids. The deadline for these bids had passed and a summary of the applications that had been received had been loaded onto the Council’s website. The report to Cabinet would contain recommendations from the NHB Grants Panel about which applicants should be awarded funding.
As the £87,000 for the NHB had only been agreed for 2015/16 there would be a need to discuss future use of the fund as part of the budget setting process. The Overview and Scrutiny Board would have an opportunity to contribute to these discussions through budget scrutiny.
c) Modifications to the Bromsgrove District Local Plan
The Bromsgrove District Local Plan was an item that the Board agreed would be of interest to Members. Unfortunately, no date was listed for the consideration of this item by Cabinet. However, a number of briefings for all Members were due to take place in forthcoming weeks, which would provide a useful opportunity to learn about the Local Plan.
d) Fees and Charges
Members suggested that the Overview and Scrutiny Board could make a useful contribution through pre-scrutiny of the Council’s proposed fees and charges for 2016/17. However, due to ... view the full minutes text for item 25/15 |
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Overview and Scrutiny Board Work Programme Additional documents: Minutes: The Board considered the content of the Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme. During consideration of this item a number of issues were considered.
a) Worcestershire Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (HOSC)
Councillor B. T. Cooper, the Council’s representative on Worcestershire HOSC, explained that the latest meeting of the Committee had taken place on 15th July. During this meeting 2 key items were considered:
i) Primary Care Commissioning and GP Access
In 2015 there was due to be a change to the commissioning responsibilities for primary care services and for basic general practice, with some services being devolved from NHS England to local Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs).
Patient satisfaction surveys had been undertaken in recent months which appeared to indicate that the CCGs in Worcestershire were performing slightly better than general for CCGs at a national level. In total 87 per cent of patients in practices that formed part of the Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG had reported that they had been able to get an appointment to see a medical practitioner when needed compared to 85 per cent of patients nationally.
Issues had been reported during the Committee meeting concerning the experiences of patients living on the borders of Worcestershire. This included:
· Patients with a GP in Alvechurch had discovered that their practices were part of a satellite group of practices for the South Birmingham CCG. These patients were finding that access to services within Worcestershire were partly restricted as a consequence. · Anecdotal reports had been received that elderly residents from Alvechurch had been sent to hospitals outside Worcestershire rather than the Princess of Wales Community Hospital due to the funding implications of being a patient served by a GP Practice that was not part of a Worcestershire CCG. · Councillor J. M. L. A. Griffiths reported that as a patient in a GP Practice that did not form part of a Worcestershire GP Practice she had been informed she was not eligible for a free flu vaccination in Worcestershire. · Delays had occurred in terms of discharging patients from the Alexandra Hospital who lived in Hagley and who were patients with a GP Practice that was not part of a Worcestershire CCG. · Patients discharged from hospital had found that they had limited access to post-operative care in cases where their GP practice was not part of a Worcestershire CCG.
This problem had been raised during a recent CALC meeting and the Chair of the Redditch and Bromsgrove CCG had been invited to attend a future meeting in order to discuss potential solutions. Members were also advised that Councillor J. M. L. A. Griffiths was due to attend a meeting alongside Parish Council members and representatives of Worcestershire Healthwatch, to discuss this matter further.
Members were advised that the CCGs had been made aware of these issues though had not yet identified a solution to the problem. In part it was suggested that this problem, in terms of a “postcode lottery” for residents living in border areas, was not a new phenomenon ... view the full minutes text for item 26/15 |
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