Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

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

Consideration was given to a report which detailed the outcome of the waste consultation exercise that had taken place between 28 November 2017 and 26 January 2018 and proposed the introduction of changes to the Council’s waste collection service.

It was reported that views of residents had been sought on the proposed changes to the waste collection and recycling service and a range of activities had been undertaken to promote the consultation as widely as possible. Feedback had been elicited from the Council’s website in the main, as well as feedback received in writing and at drop-in sessions across the borough. Members noted that the majority of respondents to the consultation had indicated that the provision of regular waste collections, sufficient capacity in bins and a system that is easy to use were important factors to consider when making changes to the service.

Members sought clarification as to why consultants had been used to develop the proposals and why the work could not be undertaken by officers. In response, it was confirmed that capacity was an issue and that where a technical piece of work was required, additional expertise needed to be engaged.

Additional information was sought by Members in respect of trialling arrangements that had taken place prior to the preparation of the report. In response, it was explained that there had been a desire to get information in respect of demographics and backgrounds to work through issues and this could be supplied outside of the meeting. the Cabinet Member for Waste, Roads and Community Safety indicated that it had not been trial, but an opportunity to get some assurance that the proposals would work. No formal evaluation had taken place, but the Cabinet Member was assured that the proposal worked.

Members queried what additional work was planned to examine the implication of the proposed changes for flats. It was acknowledged that further work was required to examine access issues with the Housing Service, which would form part of the broader implementation plan, but communal bins and the frequency of meetings were suspected to be part of the solution.

Further lines of enquiry were raised to establish how habits would be changed as concerns were expressed that the full picture of information had not been completed within the report. In response, it was advised that the report set out the policy and direction of the service for the future and was a long term project that would take over a year to implement. Members followed up with a query in respect of allocating additional resources to ensure that the project was implemented well.  It was confirmed that extra resources would be required, especially in respect of engagement and customer service. It was also confirmed that the implementation plan would take account of behavioural change, education and communication.

Referring to the colour of bins, Members queried whether the proposals were consistent with other South Yorkshire authorities. It was confirmed that there was no harmonisation across South Yorkshire and the proposals  ...  view the full minutes text for item 128.

Consideration was given to a report which was due to be determined at the Cabinet and Commissioners’ Decision Making Meeting on 16 April 2018 in respect of the Home to School Transport Policy. The report outlined the outcome of the consultation on the Home to School Transport Policy for Rotherham, including post-16 students and children with Special Educational Needs or Disability (SEND) and provided recommendations for the service provision.

Members sought clarification as to who would provide the independent travel training. It was confirmed that the intention was to have an in-house independent travel training offer. It was confirmed that this was in place already and that some of the special schools in the borough also provided training themselves. It was noted that it could take over a year to train a young person to travel independently.  

In response to a query as to whether the recommendations for personal travel budgets were sufficient given the potential for a higher budget saving, it was explained that people can have access to personal travel budgets at an earlier stage if they wished. It was noted that individual circumstances would be subject to annual review and individual conversations would be needed to evaluate need.

Members advised that the service needed to learn from buddying schemes to ensure that people with learning disabilities were enabled to have the best life that they could have and be independent. In response, it was explained that officers had worked with some people who had been the most vocal in respect of previous issues, but change was required although it was recognised that a more transitional process would be appropriate. Wyatt – Buddying scheme need to learn from. Needs to be a desire that people with ld have the best life that they can have. Need to get them out independently where they can.

Assurances were sought that young people with mobility issues would automatically quality for home to school transport if they were in receipt of Personal Independent Payment because of a mobility issue. Officers gave an undertaking to respond on that point outside of the meeting.

Members expressed the view that the assessment matrix could be open to interpretation and queried who would decide whether a condition was moderate or mild and whether applicants would be required to supply evidence. It was confirmed that assessments were completed by the Corporate Transport Unit with information supplied from officers in Adult Care and Children’s Services. It was confirmed that the matrix model had been adopted by Middlesbrough BC and this was considered the most appropriate model for the borough.

In response to a query as to whether the trial period was long enough, it was explained that the service felt that it was sufficient and it would commence from 1 May 2018.

Members were supportive of the authority delivering training in-house and queried whether any modelling had taken place in respect of the cost to the Council of providing taxi services against what the private sector cost. It  ...  view the full minutes text for item 129.

The Chair reported that there were no items of business requiring urgent consideration by the Board.

The next meeting will take place on Wednesday 25 April 2018 commencing at 5.00p.m. in Rotherham Town Hall.

Resolved:-

That the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board take place on Wednesday 25 April 2018 commencing at 17:00.