Agenda and minutes

The following events were noted :-

(a) Wednesday, 31st October, 2007 at 9.30 a.m. to 11.00 a.m. – a visit to the Asylum Seeker Team

(b) Tuesday, 20th November, 2007 at 2.00 p.m. to 4.00 p.m. in the John Smith Room – a training session in relation to EU Migration.

Resolved:- That Councillor Sangster be this Panel’s representative on the Members Sustainable Development Advisory Group.

There were no Declarations of Interest made.

There were no questions from members of the public or the press.

-        To consider the request for an additional co-optee from the voluntary sector, Mr. Ray Noble, onto this Scrutiny Panel.

Consideration was given to the inclusion of Mr. Ray Noble as an additional co-optee from the voluntary sector on this Scrutiny Panel.

Resolved:-  That Mr. Noble be co-opted onto this Scrutiny Panel for the remainder of the municipal year.

Julie Slatter, Head of Policy and Performance, with the aid of powerpoint, presented the submitted report which detailed the latest Budget Monitoring Report for the Chief Executive’s Directorate for 2007/08. The service was currently forecasting a balanced budget after management actions against a net revenue budget of £8.5 million by the end of March, 2008.

This report covered the period up to the end of August, 2007 and showed that the Directorate was currently forecasting an overspend of £87,000 which after management actions was forecasted to be a balanced budget by the end of the financial year 2007/08.

Management actions were being put in place to address the potential shortfalls of £87,000.  Income from the ALMO was formalised through a Service Level Agreement and was, therefore, expected. The original Savings target in respect of advertising in Rotherham Matters was unlikely to be achieved in 2007/08. However, additional income from other areas within the Directorate, including LAA and NRF funding should offset this shortfall. The additional costs associated with the Rotherham Show were to be recouped from contributions from other Directorates.

Discussion and a question and answer session ensued and the following issues were covered :-

-          cessation of advertising in Rotherham Matters and the links to discussions regarding a partnership newspaper

-          need for an income stream from advertising whether in-house or agency based

-          areas of underspend

-          ongoing negotiations with 2010 Rotherham Ltd. regarding service level agreement (SLA)

-          job implications of SLA with 2010 Rotherham Ltd.

-          impact on other service budgets

-          SIPs and BIPs

-          SLA with Voluntary Action Rotherham (VAR): expecations, dialogue, funding

-          role of, and contributions from, other partners

-          earnings through workshops

Resolved:-  (1) That the latest revenue forecast outturn position for the Chief Executive’s Directorate for 2007/08 be noted.

(2) That a further report be submitted in January, 2008.

AsimMunir, Principal Community Involvement Officer, presented the submitted report seeking endorsement from the Scrutiny Panel for the Draft Partnership CCI  Framework which aimed to deliver improvements in community involvement and consultation activity across the Partners.

The Framework set out the Partner’s vision, aims and objectives for consultation and community involvement.  It also set out a range of actions to ensure that consultation and community involvement under-pinned and was built into Partners policy and service delivery.

This developed the submitted draft that had been the subject of internal and external consultation.

Discussion and a question and answer session ensued and the following issues were covered:-

-          application of framework performance indicators across all partners

-          concerns that not all partners appeared to be involved across the board

-          framework and decision making at local level

-          involvement of area assemblies

-          elected member involvement

-          availability of resources across all partners

-          performance indicators and the Quality of Life survey

-          database of all work going on at directorate level

-          themed area assembly meetings

-          need to make role of elected member more explicit

-          Adult Services : LINKs

-          involvement of partner organisations in the draft

-          involvement of 2010 Rotherham Ltd. in the consultation process

Resolved:- (1) That the contents of the submitted Framework be noted and agreed as far as this Panel is concerned.

(2) That the Framework should capture the necessary actions to deliver CCI across partners.

(3) That the report be referred for consideration to meetings of CMT, Cabinet and the Cabinet Member for Communities and Involvement.

(4) That consideration be given to the role of elected members and the need for elected member representation on the Local Area Agreement Core Group.

(5) That any suggested additions to the draft be notified to Asim Munir as soon as possible.

The Assistant Chief Executive, Human Resources, presented the submitted Quarter 1 report on the performance of Corporate Health Best Value Performance Indicators (BVPI) monitored and reported on by the Chief Executive’s Directorate and the Local Performance Indicators (LPI) owned by the Chief Executive’s Directorate.

The report set out Quarter 1 performance in respect of national and local targets.

Overall there were eight measurements against six national BVPI’s which the Chief Executive’s Directorate was charged with reporting on.  BVPI 11 had three targets to meet.

Attached as an appendix to the report was a summary of performance against BVPI’s.

Of the eight measurements, five were categorised as green stars, one as amber circle (previously blue circle) and two as red triangles (categorisation in accordance with PerformancePlus).

Discussion and a question and answer session ensued and the following issues were covered:-

-        BVPI 11a                       % of top 5% of earners that were women

-        BVPI 11b                       % of top 5% of earners from minority ethnic communities

-        BVPI 11c                       % of top 5% of earners with a disability

-        BVPI 12                         Days/shifts lost to sickness

-        BVPI 14                         Early retirements (excluding ill health)

-        BVPI 15                         Ill Health retirements

-        BVPI 16a                       % of employees with a disability

-        BVPI 17a                       % of BME employees

-        LPI                                  PDR’s completed

-        LPI                                  % response to Reach In survey

Resolved:-  That the performance of the key Corporate Best Value Performance Indicators and Local Performance Indicators be noted.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Zafar Saleem, Community Engagement and Cohesion Manager, which consolidated a number of ongoing work streams relating to the Council’s interaction with the voluntary and community sector (VCS) and proposed a number of key actions, which aimed to support the development of a sustainable VCS in Rotherham.

The report covered:-

-          introduction and policy context

-          base budget review

-          Council vision for the VCS in Rotherham

-          The Local Government White Paper

-          Rotherham Compact

-          commissioning/local area agreements

-          next steps

Discussion and a question and answer session ensued and the following issues were covered:-

-          composition of the VCS

-          readiness of the VCS

-          VCS being fit for purpose

-          funding for VAR and other key infrastructure organisations

-          promotion of social enterprise

-          Sustainable Community Strategy

-          agreeing a Compact champion and impending review of the value of champions

-          Working Neighbourhoods Fund

Resolved:-  (1)  That the action plan to implement the proposals arising from the Base Budget Review be noted.

(2)  That an evaluation report be received in six months on the impact of these proposals.

(3)  That the areas listed as the key issues to be progressed as phase two of this work, and an implementation on this second phase in due course, be noted.

(4) That a progress report be submitted to this Panel in January, 2008.

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the meeting of the Democratic Renewal Scrutiny Panel held on 6^th September, 2007 be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

The Scrutiny Panel noted the minutes of the meeting of the Performance and Scrutiny Overview Committee held on 14^th September, 2007.