Venue: Multi-Location Meeting - Gloucester Room, Guildhall / MS Teams. View directions
Contact: Scrutiny Officer 01792 636292
No. | Item |
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Disclosures of Personal and Prejudicial Interests Minutes: There were no disclosures of
Personal and Prejudicial Interests. |
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Prohibition of Whipped Votes and Declaration of Party Whips Minutes: None |
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To receive the minutes of the previous meeting(s) and agree as an accurate record. Minutes: Minutes of previous meeting were
agreed. |
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Public Questions Scrutiny scrutiny@swansea.gov.uk up until noon on the working day prior to the meeting. Written questions take precedence. Public may attend and ask questions in person if time allows. Questions must relate to items on the open part of the agenda and will be dealt with in a 10 minute period. Minutes: There were no public questions
received. |
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Mid Term Budget Statement 2022/23 (Verbal) Invited to attend: Ben Smith – Director of
Finance / S.151 Officer Cllr Rob Stewart - Cabinet Member for
Economy, Finance and Strategy Minutes: Ben Smith the Director of Finance and Section 151 Officer
attended to give an overview of the Mid Term Budget Statement 2022/23. He
talked through the following: ·
Wales Fiscal Analysis issued their assessment of
the Barnett consequentials which indicates an estimated £600m being available
but it is likely a large percentage of this will go towards reducing business
rates for businesses. ·
The £600m will be spread over two years, but
predominantly delivered in 2023/24. ·
The next biggest areas of spend for the Barnett
consequentials, after business rates, are the health service, schools and
social care. ·
There is no obligation on Welsh Government to
follow the allocations implied by Barnett consequentials. The budget on 13
December and local government settlement on 14th December will firm
up all allocations . ·
There is a potentially better outlook in the
short term but the longer term is still both difficult to predict but likely to
remain very challenging. ·
With NHS boards operating at a deficit, and not
having reserves unlike local government, it is likely that a substantial share
of this money will go to health. Any money that does go into social care would
have the knock on effect of helping relieving pressure on the health boards and
the ambulance service. ·
Spend from cash backed reserves in current year
(2022-23) is likely to be around £40m which breaks down into broadly £20m of
Economic Recovery Fund, £10m to cover the unfunded pay awards and potentially
about £10m from ring fenced school reserves to cover their pay award. ·
There is planned to be a draw from Economic
Recovery Fund of up to £15m for spend on central energy costs to avoid
individual services or individual schools making staffing related decisions
driven solely by energy price spikes. This is in line with indicative earlier
announcements by Leader and S151 Officer at Council. ·
Councillors will need to consider balancing the
need to raise council tax to maintain and protect services with affordability
and cost of living issues for residents and taxpayers. There would be clear
trade-offs in the choices to come final to Council in March to set a lawfully
balanced budget. |
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Quarter 1 2022/23 Performance Monitoring Report PDF 165 KB Invited
to attend: Richard Rowlands – Strategic
Delivery & Performance Manager Cllr David Hopkins – Cabinet Member for Corporate
Services & Performance Additional documents:
Minutes: Richard Rowlands Corporate
Performance Manager presented the report. It was noted that:
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Invited to attend: Cllr Cyril Anderson – Cabinet Member Community Services Chris Howell – Head of Waste Management and Parks Matthew Perkins – Group Leader, Waste Additional documents: Minutes: Cllr Cyril Anderson, Cabinet Member Community Services and Matthew Perkins,
Group Leader for Waste attended to present this briefing. It was noted
that:
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Invited
to attend: Cllr Elliott King - Cabinet
Member Culture and Equalities Lee Wenham – Head of
Communications and Marketing Rhian Millar – Consultation
Coordinator Additional documents: Minutes: Cllr Elliot King, Cabinet Member Culture and
Equalities and Rhian Millar, Consultation Coordinator attended to discuss this
report. The following was noted: ·
Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) have been in
force since 2010, with Swansea Council implementing them since 2012. ·
Last year the process was internally reviewed
where EIAs were changed to a more integrated assessment approach (IIAs) which
brings the different duties into one place to ensure that the Council are
assessing the impact properly across the board in one single coherent process. ·
Officers recognize there are areas that the
Audit Wales report highlighted for improvement but there are similar issues
across other authorities particularly with resources. ·
Reporting and monitoring outcomes lies with the
officer responsible for report/policy. ·
Currently all public reports are subject to an
IIA screening even those just for information however this is being reviewed internally. ·
The IIA process would benefit from clearer
public sector wide guidance. ·
The Customer Engagement Strategy is currently
going through public consultation. Performance Indicators for this strategy
will then be discussed with a view not to focus on numbers but monitoring
impact and reflection of all protected characteristics. |
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Additional documents:
Minutes: No comments were made on the
attached letters to Cabinet Members. |
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Minutes: No comments were
made on the Work Plan. |
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