Agenda item

To consider and endorse the outline schedule of scrutiny work for the 2025-2026 municipal year.

The Chair introduced the Work Programme item and updated Members on the recent site visit to the new Waterfront café development at Rother Valley Country Park, which the Chair and Councillors Thorp and Taylor had attended. The Chair commented that Members had been very impressed by the development and were excited by what it offered to residents of the borough.

The Chair confirmed that discussions with officers on-site had led to some scrutiny questions being asked and Members had explored with officers, challenges that had been experienced with procurement and HR processes in the run up to the centre opening. The Chair had raised some of these issues at the April Overview & Scrutiny Management Board meeting and was looking into the procurement issue further.

Councillor Thorp echoed that the Waterfront Centre was an impressive addition to Rother Valley Country Park. Councillor Thorp mentioned a particular procurement difficulty shared by staff regarding the sourcing of supplies of fresh chicken. Councillor Thorp also stressed the importance of ensuring adequate staffing levels at the Waterfront café, as a recent experience at Thrybergh Country Park café had demonstrated that there were not enough staff at that location, to manage demand.

Councillor McKiernan mentioned that the Waterfront Café would have a Head Chef on-site and that Members had been told that if this worked out well, it was hoped that the Head Chef could work across other catering sites across the borough, such as Thrybergh.

The Governance Advisor drew Members’ attention to the following other Work Programme updates:-

·       Neighbourhood Leadership Workshop 27 April 2026

The Governance Advisor reminded Members that a workshop on the draft Neighbourhood Leadership Strategy was due to take place on Monday 27 April 2026 and asked Members to confirm attendance.

·       End of the Municipal Year 2025-26

The Governance Advisor thanked Members for their support and input for the 2025-26 municipal year.

·       Next IPSC Meeting Tuesday 23^rd June 2026 at 1.30pm

The next IPSC meeting in June would be the first meeting of the new municipal year and the Governance Advisor confirmed that Members would receive the Work Programme for 2026-27 at that point for discussion and consideration.

The Governance Advisor further advised Members that for the upcoming municipal year, pre-meetings would be introduced to enable IPSC Members to discuss potential questions and key lines of enquiry prior to the formal meetings. This had been requested by Councillor Steele (as overarching Scrutiny lead) and the Monitoring Officer to ensure consistency of practice across the different Scrutiny commissions. These meetings would take place via Teams and were likely to occur around 5pm on the Thursday evening before each Tuesday meeting. Invites would be sent out for these pre-meetings in due course.

The Governance Advisor explained to Members that the calendar invites for IPSC meetings would also be increased from 2 hours to 3 hours. It was hoped that the majority of meetings would be completed within 2 hours, but where there was a busy agenda, it was important to ensure that this amount of time was set aside by Members. This would hopefully avoid too many Members having to leave before the end of the meeting, which would risk the quoracy of the meeting.

Resolved:- 

1)    That the update on the Work Programme be received and noted; and

2)    That the Governance Advisor be authorised to make any required changes to the work programme in consultation with the Chair/Vice Chair and reporting any such changes back at the next meeting for endorsement.