Agenda and minutes

To consider the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board held on 4 November 2020 and to approve them as a true and correct record of the proceedings.

Resolved: - That the Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board, held on 4 November 2020, be approved as a correct record of proceedings.

To receive declarations of interest from Members in respect of items listed on the agenda.

There were no declarations of interest.

To receive questions relating to items of business on the agenda from members of the public or press who are present at the meeting.

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

To consider whether the press and public should be excluded from the meeting during consideration of any part of the agenda.

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services and the Assistant Director – Human Resources and Organisational Development attended the meeting to provide a progress report on the recommendations made by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board on the use of agency staff.

The report noted that the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board review of the use of agency, interim and consultancy staff had reported in February 2018 and had made twelve recommendations that had been subsequently endorsed by Cabinet in July 2019. The report provided a progress report on the three recommendations that had not yet been fully implemented.

In introducing the report, the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services noted that the Workforce Management Board continued to monitor and control agency costs by challenging usage across the Council and assured members that agency staff were only used to enable the continuation of services for specific and time limited periods, with directorates having been tasked to reduce agency usage and to seek alternative solutions for flexible resourcing to maintain service delivery. The Cabinet Member noted that the Council’s spend on agency staff had fallen by 77% since 2016/17 and advised that it was being forecasted that the cost of agency staff for 2020/21 would be similar to that of 2019/20 at around £3.6million.

The Cabinet Member detailed the progress made since the last progress report to the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board in September 2019 on the three recommendations that had not yet been fully implemented.

Recommendation 6

That the transformation plans for ASC are carefully monitored to ensure that agency and consultancy use is delivering value for money and practice improvements.

The new Adult Social Care Pathway had been implemented in October 2019 and agency usage in Adult Social Care continued to be monitored by the Work Force Management Board. It was noted that currently the Directorate had two Social Workers in Supported Discharge Pathways whose engagements were scheduled to end at the end of the calendar year.

Recommendation 9

That further work be undertaken to lessen the requirement for seasonal agency staff. This should include annualising hours or ensuring operatives ‘multi-task’ and are able to share roles and functions.

The review asked that a further report be provided exploring options. It was noted that Regeneration and Environment recruited 22 employees in Grounds Maintenance on seasonal contracts at the beginning of March 2020 and that permanent recruitment to lessen the requirement for agency workers further was due to take place in Spring 2021.

Recommendation 11

That the Work Force Management Board should explore the feasibility with other councils and public sector partners of developing an in-house ‘bank’ system or employment agency to reduce cost and reliance on external agencies.

The new neutral vendor agency contract that had commenced in April 2020 had increased the number of suppliers from across the market.  The supply chains included the neutral vendors internal agency whose placements were not subject to agency commission rates and had typically delivered savings of around 8%.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 261.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health and the Assistant Director – Adult Social Care and Integration attended the meeting to provide a progress report on the new Adult Social Care operating structure and pathways that had been implemented in October 2019.

The report noted that the main objectives of the new structure and pathways had been to ensure a more customer focussed and responsive offer to the residents of Rotherham that resulted in reduced waiting times at the point of contact; a stronger reablement offer that enabled more people to regain independence; increased continuity of council staff involved; a simpler structure for residents and partners to be able to understand and to raise practice standards and overall performance. It was noted that once the restructure had been implemented that a 20-week coaching programme for managers had been completed in order to further develop leadership and management skills.

In introducing the report, the Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health emphasised that the changes that had been implemented had been designed to ensure that services offered were more responsive and put the service user at the centre of everything that the service provided. The Cabinet Member noted the significant impact of the pandemic, that had started just four months after the implementation of the restructure, had had on the provision of adult care services, and that as such it was difficult to fully assess how far the new structure had impacted on how services were delivered.

The Cabinet Member noted that a review of the restructure had taken place in September 2020 in order to identify what had worked well, and what was not working in the way that it had been intended, so as to identify areas for learning and improvement. It was also noted that an internal audit of the restructure and pathways was currently underway and due for completion in Quarter 4 of 2020/21.

The Cabinet Member noted several areas of the new structure and pathways that were working well including:

·       The introduction of broader roles within Localities Teams has allowed staff to receive a more well-rounded experience of social care.

·       “Huddles” have enabled a forum for the teams to keep in touch and share best practice, virtually, noting that this facility had been has been invaluable during the pandemic.

·       The alignment of First Contact / Customer Contact with Reablement had been extremely positive for supporting the use of Reablement and sharing resource across the service effectively.

·       Communication within Access had improved, and it was felt there was good amount collaboration and information sharing across teams.

·       Since COVID-19, the IDT discharge process has been working well.

The Cabinet Member also noted some areas where further development and improvement were required, including:

·       Part-time term working, and certain flexible working arrangements, causing issues with the consistency of staff across teams and consequently impacting on capacity to deliver services.

·       Concerns about the capacity of managers to provide direction and leadership when much of their time was taken  ...  view the full minutes text for item 262.

To consider the Board’s Work Programme.

The Board considered its Work Programme.

Resolved:  - That the Work Programme be approved.

To receive updates from the Chairs of the Select Commission on work undertaken and planned for the future.

The Chairs of the Improving Lives, Improving Places and Health Select Commissions provided an update on the work of the Select Commissions.

The Chair provided a progress report on the work of the sub-groups of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board.

To review and identify items for pre-decision scrutiny from the Forward Plan of Key Decisions.

Members considered the Cabinet Forward Plan for the period 1 December 2020 to 28 February 2021.

Resolved: - That the Forward Plan be noted.

To consider any issues referred for call-in from recent Cabinet meetings.

There were no call in issues.

To determine any item which the Chair is of the opinion should be considered as a matter of urgency.

The Chair advised that there were two urgent items for pre-decision scrutiny to be considered.

Consideration was given to a report that was submitted for pre-decision scrutiny ahead of the Cabinet meeting scheduled for 10 December 2020 in respect of a report on the Covid Winter Grant. The Leader of the Council and the Policy and Equalities Manager attended the meeting to present the report.

The Chair advised that due to the need for the Cabinet to make a decision on the report as soon as possible, that in accordance with the procedures set out in the Council’s Constitution that he, as Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board had given his permission that the decision could be taken using the “Special Urgency” procedures as it was not practicable for 28 days’ notice of the intention to take the decision to be given.

The Chair also advised that due to the urgency of the decision, that in accordance with the procedures set out in the Council’s Constitution surrounding call-in, that he as the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board, in consultation with Councillor Cowles, as Leader of the Opposition had agreed that the decision should be exempt from the Council’s call-in processes.

In introducing the report the Leader thanked the Chair for allowing the two report to be considered under urgency procedures, and thanked the Chair and Councillor Cowles for allowing the decisions taken by Cabinet to be exempt from the call-in process so as to enable the financial support being provided to be made available to those is in need as soon as was possible.

The report stated that as part of a range of interventions to support people impacted by the COVID emergency the Government had announced a £170 million COVID Winter Grant Scheme, administered by the Department for Work and Pensions and that Rotherham MBC had been granted £1,007,395.16 from the scheme.  The report  noted that the COVID Winter Grant had been created to for use during the current financial year in order to provide support to vulnerable households and families during the winter period where alternative sources of assistance may be unavailable.

The report set out the Council’s proposed use of the grant in Rotherham including the provision of vouchers in lieu of free school meals for the Christmas and February half term holidays. It was noted that it was expected that the holiday food vouchers scheme would account for the use of 50% of the grant, leaving the remainder to be used in to provide other targeted support that could to be provided by the scheme. The proposed allocation of the support in Rotherham was:

·       Holiday Programme and Food - £492,395.16

·       Struggling with utility costs / debt - £285,000

·       Christmas food - £30,000

·       Help with school uniforms - £200,000

The report also provided information on the proposed ‘local eligibility framework and approach’ that Council was required to develop in order to enable the distribution of the grant funding in a way that best supported vulnerable families and individuals. The Leader advised that the administration processes that would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 268.

Consideration was given to a report that was submitted for pre-decision scrutiny ahead of the Cabinet meeting scheduled for 10 December 2020 in respect of a report on the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) – Rotherham MBC Discretionary Business Support Scheme. The Leader of the Council, the Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services, the Strategic Director for Finance and Customer Services and the Head of Corporate Finance attended the meeting to present the report.

The Chair advised that due to the need for the Cabinet to make a decision on the report as soon as possible, that in accordance with the procedures set out in the Council’s Constitution that he, as Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board had given his permission that the decision could be taken using the “Special Urgency” procedures as it was not practicable for 28 days’ notice of the intention to take the decision to be given.

The Chair also advised that due to the urgency of the decision, that in accordance with the procedures set out in the Council’s Constitution surrounding call-in, that he as the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board, in consultation with Councillor Cowles, as Leader of the Opposition had agreed that the decision should be exempt from the Council’s call-in processes.

The report stated that the Government had provided a further package of support grants for businesses that had been impacted by the Tier 2 and 3 restrictions, or that had been forced to close as part of the Tier 3 restrictions and national lockdown. The Local Restrictions Support Grants (LRSG’s) that had been established had been administered by local authorities and followed government guidance, had been targeted at businesses registered for business rates, with grant payments being available of up to £3,000 per four-week period.

On 24 October South Yorkshire entered into the Tier 3 (very high risk) level as part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic and rising case numbers in the area. As part of the agreement with the Government to enter Tier 3, the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority (SCRCA) had negotiated a business support package of £30million, known as the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). It was noted that this new grant was a discretionary fund that SCRCA could then use to create a package of support for businesses that had been unable to access the Government’s LRSG’s, either because they had not been registered for business rates or were not defined as being in one of the business sectors that had been designated as being able to access the grants.

The report outlined the progress made on delivering the Governments LRSG’s as well as how the ARG discretionary fund would be used to complement those grants and support wider businesses in Rotherham.  The report also sought approval for the Council’s proposed use of the SCRCA discretionary business support fund, for which Rotherham had been allocated £664,000, and for the proposed eligibility criteria.

In introducing the report, the Leader noted that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 269.

The next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board will be held on Wednesday 16 December 2020  at 11am as a Microsoft Teams meeting.

Resolved: - That the next meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board will be held on Wednesday 16 December 2020  at 11am as a Microsoft Teams meeting.