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Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber - Guildhall, Swansea. View directions

Contact: Democratic Services - Tel (01792) 636923 

Items
No. Item

41.

Disclosures of Personal & Prejudicial Interest.

Minutes:

In accordance with the Code of Conduct adopted by the City and County of Swansea, no interests were declared.

42.

Prohibition of Whipped Votes and Declaration of Party Whips.

Minutes:

In accordance with the Local Government (Wales) Measure 2011, no declarations of Whipped Votes or Party Whips were declared.

43.

Minutes. pdf icon PDF 248 KB

To approve and sign the Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record.  

 

Minutes:

Resolved that the Minutes of the Scrutiny Programme Committee held on the 12 August 2019 be approved and signed as a correct record.

44.

Public Question Time.

Questions must relate to matters on the open part of the Agenda of the meeting and will be dealt with in a 10 minute period.

 

Minutes:

There were no public questions.

45.

Cabinet Member Question Session: Cabinet Member for Homes & Energy (Councillor Andrea Lewis). pdf icon PDF 156 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Homes & Energy presented a report on the key headlines of her portfolio and highlighted the following: -

 

·                Empty Properties – this target had been exceeded by 3.3% with 100 properties being brought back into use in 2018/19

·                Homelessness Prevention – 75.4% of families had been prevented from homelessness in 2018/19, which exceeded the target of 67% and had increased from 68.8% in 2017/18

·                Voids – The number of voids had reduced with 196 voids in 2018/19 compared to 241 in 2013/14

 

Questions and discussions with the Cabinet Member focussed on the following: -

 

Electric / Green Vehicles

·                Difficulties of supplying electric vehicles charging points for staff (question from member of the public)

·                The Council had recently been awarded £89,000 funding from Welsh Government from the Local Transport Fund for the provision of publically accessible, electric vehicle charging points in a number of Council-owned parking interchanges across Swansea.

·                New car parks would have electric charging points

·                Agile working was reducing the need for travelling and reducing the carbon footprint

·                Use of Prior Information Notices to determine best strategic places to locate charging pillars

·                Potential charges for parking as well as electric used

·                Possibility of on street charging points

·                Development and use of hydrogen vehicles and hydrogen fuel points

·                Free charging points had been supplied in other areas, e.g. Milton Keynes, however significant funding had been received for that purpose and they had not been funded from budgets 

·                Increased drain on electric vehicles in winter, when using the air conditioning / heating and motorway driving

·                Possible revenue streams from charging points

Green Energy

·                Progress, location and funding of a Solar Farm – It is a project with guaranteed return, but is in its very early stages

·                Progress / development of the refit programme of energy efficiency measures in homes

·                Progress on homes as power stations City Deal project

Homelessness / Housing First Project

·                Referral system to Housing First Project – intention to support the most entrenched rough sleepers in the City

·                Start date for Housing First Project – in its early stages

·                Contributions, engagement and involvement from third parties e.g. Health Board, Crisis Skylight South Wales

·                Evaluation of the Housing First Project over the three years with a final analysis at the end of the three years to decide how to take forward

Empty Properties

·                Identifying empty properties and encouraging take up of Welsh Government funded Landlord Loans to bring them back into use

Rental Properties / Tenancies 

·                Renting Homes Act – standardisation of contracts and resource implication of issuing new contracts to all tenants

·                Tenancy enforcement – rent arrears, anti-social behaviour

·                Development of a noise monitoring App.

Housing Adaptions and Renewals

·                Disabled Facility Grants – offering within statutory timescales

 

Resolved that the Chair of the Scrutiny Programme Committee write to the Cabinet Member reflecting the discussions and sharing the views of the Committee.

46.

Pre-decision Scrutiny: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System Upgrade. pdf icon PDF 234 KB

a)       Role of the Committee

b)       Consideration of Cabinet Report and Questions

c)       Committee’s View for Cabinet

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Business Transformation & Performance, the Chief Digital & Transformation Officer, and the Digital Services Manager were present for the Committee’s consideration of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) System Upgrade.

 

The Cabinet Member highlighted the following: -

·                Digital Strategy

·                The risks of Oracle version R.12.1

·                Options or upgrade, move to Oracle Cloud or move to other systems

·                The Infosys evaluation and due diligence work had deduced that only Oracle Cloud could meet all requirements

·                Due Diligence Exercise

·                Resources required

·                Service Transformation Opportunities

·                Savings and Efficiency Opportunities

·                Governance

·                Financial Implications

 

The Committee asked questions of the Cabinet Member who, together with the Chief Digital & Transformation Officer and the Digital Services Manager, responded accordingly. Questions and discussions focused on the following:-

 

·                How the project would be funded

·                Accuracy of the Financial Implications outlined in Appendix A of the report

·                Confidence in the new system and benefits

·                Effective monitoring of the potential savings

·                Re-charging model

·                Section 151 Officer assurance on funding

·                Cloud storage would be based in the UK

·                Impact on disaster recovery – greater resilience

·                Savings generated from processing time, paperless processing and potential for staff reductions / re-allocations

·                Introductions of Cloud technology and enhancements for paperless processes, which had previously not been delivered / provided

·                Adaptability of system and integration with new technologies such as Artificial Intelligence

·                Engagement / Consultation on the re-charge model across all Council services

 

Resolved that: -

1)    The Chair of the Scrutiny Programme Committee writes to the Cabinet Member outlining the views of the Committee which will be presented to Cabinet ahead of its decision on this matter;

2)    The Committee be provided with updated Financial Implications set out at Appendix 1 of the report; and

3)    The Committee be provided with sight of the assurance from the Section 151 Officer referred to during the discussion.

47.

Scrutiny Performance Panel Progress Report: Adult Services (Councillor Peter Black, Convener) pdf icon PDF 233 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Peter Black, Convener, presented a report on ‘Adult Services Scrutiny Performance Panel Update’. He specifically highlighted issues around the Council’s contract with RNIB as well as the meeting held on the 24 September 2019 on Supported Living for Mental Health and Learning Disability which has been supported by the Panel engaging directly with Carers / Service Users recently through focus groups arranged by the Scrutiny Team, which has provided Panel Members with another perspective on the quality of services and performance.

 

48.

Membership of Scrutiny Panels and Working Groups. pdf icon PDF 229 KB

Minutes:

The Chair presented a report on ‘Membership of Scrutiny Panels and Working Groups’. She noted that further to the written report provided, Councillor Lesley Walton was to be removed from the Natural Environment Performance Panel.

 

Resolved that Councillor Lesley Walton be removed from the Natural Environment Performance Panel.

49.

Scrutiny Work Programme 2019/20. pdf icon PDF 259 KB

Discussion on:

a)       Committee Work Plan.

b)       Opportunities for Pre-Decision Scrutiny.

c)       Progress with Scrutiny Panels and Working Groups.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair presented the Scrutiny Work Programme for 2019/20.

 

She noted that the Cabinet Member Question Session for the next Scrutiny Programme Committee would be with the Cabinet Member for Education Improvement, Learning & Skills and invited discussion on the key topics of focus for that session. The Committee identified a number of areas that they wished to explore with the Cabinet Member: -

 

·                Attendance – recording attendance across the City

·                Efforts to tackle problem of vehicles / air pollution outside schools

·                School Governors – idea of allocation of specific environmental responsibility with governing bodies and encouragement of pupils around environmental opportunities and responsibilities.

·                Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET)

·                Skills and Talent project for the City Deal

 

Resolved that the Scrutiny Work Programme be noted

50.

Scrutiny Letters. pdf icon PDF 233 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chair presented a report on ‘Scrutiny Letters’ for information.

 

Resolved that the scrutiny letters log be noted.

51.

Audit Committee Work Plan (For Information). pdf icon PDF 169 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Audit Committee Work Plan was noted. The Chair was due to attend Audit Committee on 8 October 2019, however indicated that this would need to be re-arranged.

52.

Date and Time of Upcoming Panel / Working Group Meetings. pdf icon PDF 180 KB

Minutes:

The dates and times of the upcoming Panel / Working Group meetings were noted.

Letter to Cabinet Member pdf icon PDF 160 KB

Cabinet Member Response pdf icon PDF 397 KB

Letter to Cabinet Member - Q & A Session pdf icon PDF 264 KB