Agenda and draft minutes

To consider the minutes of the previous meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board held on Wednesday 14 May 2025 and to approve them as a true and correct record of the proceedings and to be signed by the Chair.

Resolved: That the Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board held on 14 May 2025 be approved as a true record.

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

No declarations of interest were made.

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

No questions were received.

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

There were no reasons to exclude the press or public.

Report from the Strategic Director of Finance and Customer Services.

Recommendations:

That Cabinet:-

1.    Note the update on the revenue budget financial outturn 2024/25.

2.    Note the Council’s progress on the delivery of the Local Council Tax Support Top Up payment.

At the Chair’s invitation the Assistant Director Financial Services introduced the report, indicating that the report aimed to give members an early indication of the outturn financial position for the fiscal year 2024-2025. This preceded the more detailed July outturn report.

The December monitoring position, reported to Cabinet in February, indicated a £3.1 million overspend. Efforts were made to reduce the overspend to mitigate the call on the Council’s reserves. The final quarter of the financial year saw improvement, reducing the overspend to £0.3 million. 

·       Homelessness Spend: Reduced through re-routing and cost reduction.

·       Home to school Transport: Cost reduction through re-routing.

·       Grant Maximization: Intensive work to maximize available grants.

·       Recruitment Holding: Holding recruitment where possible and reasonable.

·       Income Generation: Improved income generation in regeneration and environment sectors.

The direct pressures amounted to £12.8 million across the main directorates, primarily as a result of demand and market cost pressures in social care, home to school transport, waste management and homelessness. A proportion of that had been mitigated by planned budget contingencies approved in the budget for 24/25 which were held within central services. They were for social care and home to school transport and totalled £6.9 million.

It was noted that significant savings were achieved through Treasury Management due to the Council's borrowing and lending policies. In terms of savings delivery, about £5 million of the £9 million plan had been delivered. This was affected by challenges in delivering CYPS savings that would carry forward into 25/26. This challenge had been alluded to in the budget setting and budget planning process and MTFS process for 25/26 to 27/28.

The report provided an update on the local Council Tax Support scheme. The scheme had been completed for 24/25 and it was underway for 25/26, with the bulk of allocations having been made but the scheme remained open for new Council Tax Support claimants.

The Chair invited members of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board (OSMB) to raise questions and queries on the points raised earlier.

In response to a question from Councillor Blackham the Assistant Director Financial Services explained the outturn position improvement was a reduced overspend. When the budget was set for 25/26 it was indicated that the Council had overspend by £3.1 million in 24/25. That position needed an additional call from the reserves that hadn't been planned for in 24/25 of £3.1 million. That balance had been reduced to £0.3 million. So, the Council was effectively losing more reserves from the outset at the start of 24/25, but only by £0.3 million rather than £3.1 million, so it was an improved position against December's but not against the start of 24/25. The Assistant Director Financial Services responded further that in the position where the 25/26 budget was set, it was indicated that £3.1 million of reserves would be used to balance 24/25.

Councillor A Carter expressed concern about the sustainability of using reserves to cover overspends. He questioned how many more years the Council could continue this practice before  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Report from the Assistant Chief Executive.

Recommendations:

That Cabinet:-

1.    Receive the annual report, noting the social value commitments along with outcomes delivered. 

2.    Approve the use of the new national TOMs (Themes, Outcomes, Measures) as detailed in Appendix 2.

3.    Approve that the key priorities for 2025 include: 

a.    Continuing the work on employee ownership. 

b.    Delivering the partnership social value action plan with Social Value Portal, working towards the delivery of increased social value commitments across Rotherham’s anchor network. 

c.     Delivering further support to local businesses through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund social value project.

d.    Upskilling Council staff through training initiatives and one-to-one support. 

At the Chair’s invitation the Leader, Councillor Read introduced the report and highlighted the following aspects:

·       The Council adopted its social value policy in 2019.

·       The policy aimed to use the procurement process to incentivise certain behaviours from suppliers.

·       The Key Objectives were around:

o   Encouraging suppliers to employ more local people.

o   Promoting the payment of the real living wage.

o   Increasing the proportion of Council spend within the local economy.

• The Council worked with the Social Value Portal, a national organisation that provided a set of measures to quantify social value activities.
• The annual report provided an update on the social value activities and commitments made by suppliers.
• Over the course of the last year there was an increase of about £5 million in social value commitments.
• An additional £4 million worth of social value was delivered.

·       For example, when entering a contract, a supplier might commit to employing 10 people in Rotherham, which was then tracked and reported as delivered social value.

·       In terms of local spend, the Council had spent an additional £28 million in the local economy over the past year, bringing the total to £105 million.

• The proportion of local spend as a percentage of total spend had decreased slightly by 4% but remained broadly in line with previous years.
• Two significant revenue contracts were signed before the social value policy was implemented, these were the Housing Repairs and Maintenance contracts. Efforts were being made to align their activities with the policy.

·       One of those contracts had spent £3.1 million in social value over the past year, which would increase the overall social value by 25%.

·       The Social Value Portal had rationalized its measures, adjusting how some measures worked.

·       The Council had taken the opportunity to refine its measures to better align with its priorities, reducing the number of measures to around 20-21.

·       Two members of staff in the procurement team now worked directly on social value activities.

·       The Council had contracted with Go For Growth to help local companies understand and benefit from public sector procurement. This was funded through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF).

·       The Council continued to work with partners such as the police, hospital, health partners, and the Chamber of Commerce to align procurement activities and maximize local benefits.

·       A new role of an Employee Ownership Officer had been recruited to promote employee ownership models and support businesses considering this option. The officer was in the early stages of their role, with more detailed updates expected in the next annual report.

The Chair invited members of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board (OSMB) to raise questions and queries on the points raised earlier.

Councillor Keenan welcomed the continuation of the real living wage and asked if the council had extended this standard to all its in-scope contracts? The Leader confirmed it was in progress, with a period required for contracts to roll around. The Head of Policy, Performance and Intelligence added that the renewal time for the accreditation was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Report from the Strategic Director of Adult Care, Housing and Public Health.

Recommendation:

That Cabinet note the proposed Employment Solutions targets and milestones for 2025-26.

At the Chair’s invitation the Cabinet Member for Transport, Jobs and the Local Economy introduced the report making the following points:

·       The Employment Solutions Service was created in October 2020, initially funded by the European Social Fund (ESF) programme.

·       Its primary goal was to support residents in accessing training and employment opportunities, improving financial circumstances, and broadening employment prospects.

·       The Inspire programme merged with the ESF, focusing on increasing residents' earnings capacity and opportunities.

• The ESF programme later merged with the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), running until March 2025.

·       In March 2025, the Council decided to allocate £718,000 per year to make the Employment Solutions Service a permanent fixture. This decision was crucial for providing long-term stability and security to the service, which had previously relied on national grants and funding schemes.

·       Since its inception in October 2020, the service had supported over 892 people in gaining employment and nearly 850 people in accessing training opportunities.

·       The report outlined the service's targets and milestones for the upcoming year, including the forecasted support from the Pathways to Work team.

The Chair invited members of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board (OSMB) to raise questions and queries on the points raised earlier.

Councillor Tinsley asked about the geographical spread of service uptake and whether it was more concentrated in Rotherham or evenly spread across the borough. The Employment Solutions Manager confirmed that while delivery tended to be Rotherham-centric, they did work in the wider boroughs, including Rotherham North, Maltby, and Dinnington, with a lot of delivery in community spaces.

Councillor Blackham referred to the additional information provided and asked whether the Employment Solutions Service would be managed separately or alongside the Economic Inactivity Trailblazer. He also inquired about the number of people in the team and the strategic governance group. The Employment Solutions Manager explained that the wider Trailblazer Program commitment was for four hundred job outcomes, with Employment Solutions aiming to deliver 144 job outcomes. They were recruiting twelve new members of staff, with the financial commitment for staffing being around £500,000.

Councillor Yasseen asked about the council's commitment of £718,000 per year and whether it includes existing funded activities or new funding. The Employment Solutions Manager clarified that the £718,000 was for the core team that previously delivered the INSPIRE and ESF programs, and the Pathways to Work Trailblazer was new, standalone funding.

In a follow-up question Councillor Yasseen inquired about the breakdown of outputs and the rationale for not including economically inactive individuals in the Individual Placement Support (IPS) program. The Employment Solutions Manager explained that the economically inactive cohort was targeted under Pathways to Work, and IPS was a niche program for customers in structured recovery from drugs and alcohol addiction, with referrals coming from the Rotherham Drugs and Alcohol Service.

Assurance was sought by Councillor Yasseen about targeted support for specific communities, such as the Roma-Slovakian community. The Employment Solutions Manager explained the programme provided scope to work locally and work was being undertaken with the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

To consider the Board’s Work Programme.

The Governance Manager provided an update on the Grass Cutting and Grounds Maintenance Review Group, mentioning that they met this week and that there would be subsequent recommendations coming out as a result. The Chair noted that there would be no further meetings required for that review group, this was because officers had provided assurance that progress had been made, due to changes in the service and the missing grass cuts were due to bad weather at the start of the cutting season. A further progress report would be provided in twelve months.

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 Select Commissions indicated that no meetings had been held since the last OSMB meeting, therefore there were no updates to be provided.

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

Link to the latest Forward Plan of Key Decisions.

The Board considered the Forward Plan of Key Decisions June to August 2025, with the Governance Manager highlighting the potential topics for consideration at OSMB’s July meeting.

Councillor A Carter noted the Local Offer for Kinship Carers was being considered by the Improving Lives Select Commission but suggested that OSMB may wish to consider the Ethical Procurement Policy as a topic for pre-decision scrutiny.

The Chair noted that the financial reports would be considered and Members of OSMB agreed that the Council Plan 2022-25 and Year Ahead Delivery Plan Progress Update for 2024-25 (to cover the year-end updates) item should also be considered.

The draft agenda for July’s OSMB meeting would consist of the following items as discussed and agreed by the Board:

Resolved: That the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board:

1.    Noted the contents of the Forward Plan, and

2.    Agreed the following items would be considered at the July meeting as part of the Boards pre-decision scrutiny work:

a.    Council Plan 2022-25 and Year Ahead Delivery Plan Progress Update for 2024-25 (to cover the year-end updates)

b.    Financial Outturn for 2024-25

c.     Treasury Management Outturn for 2024-25

d.    May 2025-26 Financial Monitoring Report

e.    Ethical Procurement Policy

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.

There were no urgent items.