Venue: Multi-Location Meeting - Gloucester Room, Guildhall / MS Teams. View directions
Contact: Democratic Services - Tel (01792) 636923
No. | Item |
---|---|
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. |
|
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. |
|
To approve and sign the
Minutes of the previous meeting(s) as a correct record. Additional documents: Minutes: Resolved that the
Minutes of the Scrutiny Programme Committees held on 15 March 2022 and 24 May
2022 be approved and signed correct records. The Chair referred to the Minutes of the Scrutiny Programme Committee held on 15 March, 2022. In relation to the Annual Complaints Report, there was one query which was raised that the Head of Digital & Customer Services undertook to respond to: Whether the Council is seeing a rise in the proportion of complaints being made coming via legal firms, acting on behalf of residents, given the proliferation of companies advertising ‘no win, no fee’. He reported that Sarah Lackenby has responded that there has not been a rise in complaints made by legal firms and numbers continue to be very low. To give further context, should a complainant explicitly state in writing that they intend taking legal action then the complaint would effectively be suspended until the legal action has been dealt with. Once the legal proceedings have concluded the complainant can resubmit the complaint within six months. |
|
Public Question Time. Questions must be submitted in
writing to Democratic Services democracy@swansea.gov.uk no later than noon on the
working day prior to the meeting. Questions must relate to items on the agenda.
Questions will be dealt with in a 10 minute period. Minutes: There were no public questions. |
|
Role of the Scrutiny Programme Committee. PDF 362 KB Additional documents: Minutes: The Scrutiny Team Leader presented the report on the ‘Role
of the Scrutiny Programme Committee’. The report also invited the Committee to
renew the appointment of Committee co-optees. He stated that the Committee
is responsible for managing all scrutiny activity, through a single work plan. Work is either
carried out by the Committee or delegated elsewhere. So, the Committee itself
will have a plan of work, but it will establish Panels and Working Groups to
examine specific topics or issues to enable the engagement of all non-executive
councillors in the scrutiny process, regardless of committee membership, and
participation in topics which match their areas of interest. The membership of
Panels / Working Groups, as well as the appointment of a lead Councillor (known
as Convener) was a matter for the Committee to determine. The role of a Convener was also explained in
the report. The Committee would
monitor agreed activities and outcomes to ensure that the work programme is
being delivered effectively, and in accordance with the Committee’s wishes. The Terms of
Reference of the Committee were included in the papers for information. In relation to
Membership, the Committee noted that there is a place for up to 4 Education
Statutory Co-optees. 2 Parent Governor reps and 2 faith representatives. Beth
Allender is the new primary parent governor rep, and Dr. Elizabeth Lee, the new
secondary parent governor rep, and both were welcomed by the Committee. Seats
for the 2 faith representatives were currently vacant. These co-optees have
voting rights in relation to any education matters discussed by the Committee,
and will also be entitled to sit on any Panels / Working Groups related to
Education. He stated that
previously the Committee has also found it beneficial to co-opt (in a
non-voting capacity) those councillors appointed as Performance Panel conveners
not already on the Committee. As the Committee with responsibility for Scrutiny
of the multi-agency Public Services Board, it has also involved representatives
from partner agencies in assisting with that scrutiny. In conclusion, he
highlighted the importance of teamwork to the Committee’s success. The report detailed some practical
considerations that could help to achieve this, and some examples around
effective working. As its meets, whether long-serving or new, he recommended
that Members should reflect on the way they work together as a group, plan
work, and plan for meetings; and evaluate how well they have gone and consider
any room for improvement to be more effective in the way the Committee works. Resolved that: - 1)
The co-option of Scrutiny Performance Panels
conveners to the Committee be renewed. 2)
The co-option of partnership organisations to enable
representatives to participate in the Committee’s scrutiny of the Public
Services Board be renewed. |
|
Scrutiny Work Programme 2022/23. PDF 390 KB Additional documents:
Minutes: The Chair stated that following consultation with Members the report contained the emerging
draft programme for the year ahead. The draft work programme
takes into account last years’ programme, work already committed and feedback
from the recent Work Planning Conference which included input on Council
priorities and strategic challenges, and public issues. He highlighted the
key considerations for the Committee to think about before agreeing the
programme, and took Members through the detail. Firstly, he
presented the Committee’s own draft work plan which included specific issues of
concern for focussed discussion at Committee meetings. He mentioned that the
Committee would also coordinate any pre-decision scrutiny activity. There was
some discussion around Committee activity on Crime & Disorder / Safer
Swansea Partnership scrutiny. The desire of the Committee to do more than the
single Committee session on the work and performance of the Safer Swansea
Community Safety Partnership (SSP) was noted. The Chair stated that the inquiry
into Anti-Social Behaviour would touch on the work of the SSP, and that the
Partnership also reports to the Public Services Board (PSB), and therefore
relevant for any PSB Scrutiny Session, for example the Strong Communities PSB
well-being objective encompasses the work / contribution of the SSP to
achieving this objective and is covered in the PSB Annual Report, which would
be discussed at October’s Committee meeting. He emphasised that any additional
Committee session should have a clear and specific purpose / focus, for
example, any aspect the Committee wants to drill down into. Looking back at the February 2022 session
(letter included in the Committee agenda), he pointed out that Committee
members were keen to engage with the development of new SSP Strategy and pick
up progress in relation to improvements following the Mayhill riot. The Chair
also reminded the Committee that scrutiny was about the partnership, and that
there were other arrangements for specifically holding the Police to account. He referred to the
proposal to set up an Inquiry Panel to
look at Anti-Social Behaviour. Whilst there were some ideas about the
work the Panel could examine, the Panel itself would develop terms of reference
and identify the key question for the Inquiry following an initial briefing
session on the topic. He stated that
Performance Panels make up the majority of scrutiny activity, as these
represented ongoing monitoring and challenge of key services, holding cabinet
members to account, with ongoing conversation to share their views and
recommendations. It was proposed that
the previously established Performance Panels continue but with a renaming of
the Natural Environment Panel to ‘Climate Change & Nature’, reflecting
recent change in corporate priorities. In order to provide continuity for this first year of the new Council
term, it was proposed that the Councillors previously acting as conveners, who
wish to continue, be re-appointed in that role, namely: ·
Councillor
Chris Holley as Service Improvement & Finance convener ·
Councillor
Lyndon Jones as Education convener ·
Councillor
Sue Jones as Adult Services convener; and ·
Councillor
Paxton Hood-Williams as Child & Family Services convener With regard to the
Development & Regeneration and Climate Change & Nature Panels,
expressions of interest were invited, initially from Councillors that have been
previously involved in this work. Based on feedback the Committee was asked to
agree: · Councillor Chris Holley as Development &
Regeneration convener; and · Councillor Hannah
Lawson as Climate Change & Nature convener He reported that
for a more light-touch approach, a
small number of Working Group topics have been identified with a focus on the
Road Safety, Co-production, Swansea as a Healthy City, and Customer Contact. Members also noted the arrangements for regional scrutiny, as referred to
in para. 4.7 of the report. He reiterated that
the work programme will be subject to requests for scrutiny throughout the
year. Furthermore, the work
programme would be kept under constant review by the Committee, with changes
made as necessary. The Committee would always retain the flexibility to adapt
and re-prioritise the work of scrutiny, to ensure the continued relevance of
the programme. He referred to the next Committee meeting scheduled for 16 August. He stated that the Cabinet Member for
Equalities & Culture, Cllr Elliott King, will attend to report on, and take
questions on, his responsibilities relating to the Archives Service and
developments around the new Community Hub, which will house the Service. The
Committee will need to consider questions for that session. Resolved that: 1)
the Scrutiny Work Programme for 2022/23 (shown in appendix 3), including Inquiry
topics, Performance Panel and Working Group topic priorities be agreed. 2)
the appointment of the Performance Panel Convenors (shown in 4.5) be
agreed. 3)
the proposed Committee work plan (shown in appendix 4) be agreed. |
|
a) Workforce Working Group – Letter to / from Cabinet Member. b) Bus Services Working Group – Letter to / from Cabinet Member. c) Committee Letter to Joint Chairs of Safer Swansea Community Safety Partnership. Additional documents:
Minutes: The Chair referred to the following letters: 1)
Workforce Working Group – Letter to / from
Cabinet Member. 2)
Bus Services Working Group – Letter to / from
Cabinet Member. 3)
Committee Letter to Joint Chairs of Safer
Swansea Community Safety Partnership. |