Agenda and minutes

The Chairman reported that the Terms of Reference for this Scrutiny Panel were to be considered by the Performance and Scrutiny Overview Committee on the 12^th June, 2009.  Once the Terms of Reference had been agreed the Work Programme would be submitted to the meeting in July, 2009.

There were no Declarations of Interest to report.

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

Consideration was given to the memberships of the various Council sub-groups for the Municipal Year 2009/10.

Resolved:-  That the following memberships be confirmed:-

Health, Welfare and Safety Panel:-  Councillor Dodson and Councillor Sims as substitute.

Members’ Sustainable Development Group:-  Councillor Austen.

Members’ Training and Development Panel:-  Councillor Austen

Looked After Children Sub-Group:-   Councillors Austen and J. Hamilton.

A presentation will also take place at the meeting.

Consideration was given to a report and presentation by Steve Parry, Neighbourhood Crime and Justice Manager, which provided details on how the Police and Justice Act, 2006 brought in a specific responsibility for Local Authorities to introduce a crime and disorder committee. It was agreed by Cabinet on the 29th April, 2009 that this committee would be the Democratic Renewal Scrutiny Panel.

This would include scrutiny of community safety, anti-social behaviour and to particularly scrutinise the work of the Safer Rotherham Partnership, with specific responsibilities for Councillor Call for Action.

The report provided members of the Democratic Renewal Scrutiny Panel with an insight and overview of the Safer Rotherham Partnership, which was the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership for Rotherham.

The presentation drew specific attention to:-

·             What the Safer Rotherham Partnership was.

·             Governance and Structure.

·             Priority Setting.

·             Key Successes for 2008/09.

·             Challenges.

·             Priorities for 2009/10.

·             Performance.

A discussion and a question and answer session ensued with the following issues being raised and subsequently clarified:-

-              Performance monitoring of the Safer Rotherham Partnership.

-              Role, function and funding allocation of the Commissioning and Funding Group.

-              Allocation, contributions and requests for funding and how these were prioritised.

-              Funding of the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership by statutory bodies.

-              Interventions to reduce the fear of crime, especially amongst BME women.

-              Increase in public confidence.

-              Raising public profile and increasing confidence and the impact on crime reporting figures.

-              Sharing information through Area Assemblies.

-              Reporting of statistical information and the need to keep this in a simple format.

Resolved:-  (1)  That Steve Parry be thanked for his very informative presentation.

(2)  That the contents of the report be noted.

(3)  That a further report be submitted to this Scrutiny Panel on the performance monitoring of the Safer Rotherham Partnership.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Vanessa Bryan, Neighbourhood Partnership Manager, which detailed how Area Assemblies were responsible for delivering the Government’s challenge to empower communities in service delivery and planning and to 'encourage access and participation from local residents in the democratic process'.

Rotherham was already ahead of the game in many aspects, the Government vision was of local authorities working with partners particularly those from Parish Councils and the statutory and voluntary and community sector, to reshape public services around the citizens and communities that use them.

The report and presentation provided a progress report to this Scrutiny Panel on the implementation of the Area Assemblies Devolved Budget process for 2008/09 and 2009/10.

The Area Assemblies Devolved Budget Process had:-

-        Strengthened the Community Leadership role of Elected Members by providing opportunities to work with partners and the community in a very practical way, encouraging groups to apply, supporting them in the process and working with the community to get their views on projects.

-        Funded through partnership working and listening to communities 61 projects in 2008/09 - 169 were submitted for approval 2009/10 .

The presentation drew attention to:-

·             Progress Report on Devolved Budgets.

·             Devolved Budget Timeline.

·             What had been achieved.

·             What had been learnt.

·             Next Steps.

A discussion and a question and answer session ensued and the following issues were raised and subsequently clarified:-

-              Involvement of Elected Members in the Devolved Budget Steering Group.

-              Strengthening of the participatory budgeting process through the Council and for this Scrutiny Panel to take work forward as part of its Work Programme.

-              Governance of the process and exit strategies of those who received funding.

-              Funding allocations and the assignment of Housing Market Renewal Pathfinder monies to specific areas.

-              Involvement of the Cabinet Members in this process and how it could be taken forward.

-              Learning curves for all Area Assemblies.

-              Publicity around devolved budgeting.

-              Stringent controls on funding allocations, particularly to larger organisations.

-              Success of the participatory budgeting process and the need for this to be sustained when LAGBI and HMR funding ceased in 2010 and 2011 respectively.

Resolved:-  (1)  That Vanessa Bryan be thanked for her very informative presentation.

(2)  That the information contained and the progress made to date be noted.

(3)  That this Scrutiny Panel urge the Council to expedite the participatory budgeting process so that it was in place for 2012 and that this Scrutiny Panel take forward as part of its Work Programme a review of the development of devolved budgeting.  Relevant proposals would be presented to the next meeting.

Councillor Hussain MBE, Cabinet Member for Community Development and Engagement, gave a presentation on his portfolio and his area of work.

The presentation drew specific attention to:-

·             Portfolio and Key Work Streams.

·             Key Achievements for 2008/09.

·             Local Democracy Week – 13^th to 17^th October, 2008.

·             Local Involvement Networks (LINK) for Rotherham.

·             Parish Network.

·             Managing EU Migration.

·             Voluntary and Community Sector.

·             Community Cohesion.

·             Equalities and Diversity.

·             Community Engagement.

A discussion and a question and answer session ensued and the following issues were raised and subsequently clarified:-

-              EU migration and why Rotherham was so popular.

-              Levels of advice to members of the public across Rotherham and results of the Advice Review.

-              Promotion of the work undertaken by the voluntary and community sector.

-              Increasing the numbers of Parish Councils achieving Quality Parish Council status.

Resolved:-  (1)  That Councillor Hussain be thanked for his very informative presentation.

(2)  That a report be submitted to this Scrutiny Panel on the outcomes of the Advice Review in due course.

Consideration was given to a report presented by Paul Griffiths, Community Liaison Officer, which provided a summary of spending activity around the Elected Members’ Community Leadership Fund for the financial year 2008-09.

The report also focused on the outcome of a Members’ Seminar on the Community Leadership Fund held during September, 2008.

The Scrutiny Panel noted that there were many examples of the Community Leadership Fund having a hugely positive effect on both groups and individuals within Rotherham’s neighbourhoods.

It was noted that £20,697.77 was carried over from the financial year 2007/08, with the budget for the financial year 2008/09 being £63,000 plus the carry over above totalling £83,697.77.

During the financial year 2008-09 Members committed £53,174.62 representing 64% of the of the total budget allocation with Members choosing to carry forward £30523.15 to the financial year 2009/10 resulting in a current budget of £93,523.15

The increased allocation of £63,000 per annum for the Community Leadership Fund has been secured until the end of the financial year 2009/10.

Members would need to give consideration to the future of the fund, its place in supporting the leadership role of Elected Members and the impact it had on local community activity. It was, therefore, suggested that an options paper be presented to Members in the next three months to establish the future direction of the Fund.

Discussion ensued on the publicity of the fund and whether the use of the larger cheque for photographic promotion was positive or negative and whether some of the unspent allocations could be moved into a general fund and shared out amongst other Councillors to allocate in their areas.

This Scrutiny Panel were very supportive of the Community Leadership Fund and wished for it to continue and welcomed any flexibilities in its management to put all the £63,000 allocations to good use.

Resolved:-  (1)  That the performance against the Community Leadership Fund for 2008-09 be noted.

(2)  That an Options Paper be submitted to this Scrutiny Panel in three months time regarding the future of the Fund with the current level of funding due to end in March, 2010.

Resolved:-  That the minutes of the meeting of the Democratic Renewal Scrutiny Panel held on 9^th April, 2009 be approved as a correct record for signature by the Chairman.

Consideration was given to the minutes of the meeting of the Cabinet Member for Communities and Involvement held on 6^th April, 2009.

Resolved:-  That the contents of the minutes be noted.

Consideration as given to the minutes of the meetings of the Performance and Scrutiny Overview Committee held on 11^th and 25^th April, 2009.

Resolved:-  That the contents of the minutes be noted.

Consideration as given to the minutes of the meetings of the Members’ Training and Development Panel held on 16th April, 2009.

Resolved:-  That the contents of the minutes be noted.