Cllr Taylor attending as substitute for Cllr Chapman who has given his apologies.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors  Chapman and Azad. Cllr Taylor attended as a substitute for Cllr Chapman.

None.

Recommendation: That the minutes of the meeting held on 06 March  2018 be APPROVED as a true and accurate record.

The Committee resolved to APPROVE the minutes of the meeting held on 6 March 2018 as a true and accurate record subject to the addition of “Lifestyle” after “Fusion”.

Contact Officer: Stefan Robinson, Scrutiny Officer,

Tel 01865 252191, srobinson@oxford.gov.uk

Cllr Ladbrooke gave an account of the City Executive Board’s consideration of the Living Wage Review Group’s report. He was pleased to note that the Board had accepted the vast majority of the group’s recommendations. There were some concerns in relation to the position of apprentices who were at risk of becoming stuck in a poverty trap and it was agreed that this should be logged as a future piece of work for the Committee to look at in early Autumn. Cllr Ladbrooke had been confirmed as the Council’s Oxford Living Wage Champion for the remainder of his term of office as a Councillor.

The Scrutiny Officer updated the Committee on the latest  significant changes to the Plan. There had been some slippage in the timescale of some forthcoming agenda items, and offered reassurance that sight would not be lost of those items which were important to the Committee in the new year. He reminded members of the Committee that he would welcome suggestions from them for future Work Plan items.

In relation to the Committee’s request to consider a report on the impact of the Westgate Shopping Centre on the local economy the Scrutiny Officer explained that there was a lag in the data available to provide a meaning long term analysis of the developments impact. However, headline data concerning footfall and occupied shop units was positive. The Committee noted that this was similar explanation to that given several months previous.

The Scrutiny Officer also highlighted that slippage in the Executive Board’s decision making in relation to the East Oxford Community Centre Improvement Scheme meant that the Committee’s 3 July 2018 meeting was no longer exclusively reserved for consideration of the Local Plan. The Committee were content to note this change in the Work Plan.

Attached as an appendix to this item were brief extracts from the Communities and Local Government Select Committee report into the effectiveness of local authority overview and scrutiny committees of 2017. The Chair noted that the Committee measured up quite well against the Select Committee’s recommendations for best practice. There were of course some areas which would be worthy of examination, engagement with the public for example.  If the Select Committee’s recommendations were to be implemented, it would require a more radical rethink of how the Committee operates, such as the suggestion that Scrutiny Committees report to full Councils rather than Executive Boards. The Scrutiny Officer said revised government guidance on the operation of scrutiny would be issued later in the year, and the Chair agreed to liaise with the Scrutiny Officer to consider how to take this issue forward.

The Committee noted the report.

The Committee had commissioned an update from the Policy and Partnerships Team Manager on the progress made against the recommendations made by the Committee in March 2017.

Cllr Tidball spoke to the report drawing attention to Appendix 1 and the 60 recommendations of the Oxfordshire Health Inequalities Commission, responsibility for which was shared with partner organisations. The recommendations had originally been presented to the Health and Wellbeing Board in 2016. She encouraged members of the Committee to get in touch if there were matters in relation to those recommendations where they thought more should be done.

She drew attention to two particular matters of concern. First was the absence of a clear pathway for those leaving prison and other institutions. Secondly was the issue of homelessness and rough sleeping in the City and the associated influx of people from neighbouring districts and the parallel need for those Districts to contribute to the associated costs. She also noted the importance of addressing the issue of fuel poverty, support for which had been provided by the City Council in the form of a helpline.

Appendix 3 of the report noted progress with the Committee’s 10 previous recommendations made to the City Executive Board made in March 2017. A great deal of innovative work had been undertaken with the help of £100k from the City Council and £100k matched funding from the Clinical Commissioning Group.  Cllr Tidball said there were important pieces of work which needed some additional dedicated officer resource to accomplish, drilling down into the data more thoroughly and pulling together related areas of work in, for example, housing and adult social care.

The data provided in the report were, in places, quite dense. On the one hand it would be helpful for high level messages to be drawn from them for a wider audience but, also, there a was a need for a more detailed analysis which would, among other things, allow resources to be more closely matched to need. There might be merit in seeking to secure the services of an academic from one of the City’s two universities or a health partner to ensure that no opportunities are lost from linking with any work already underway in this area.

Some data already gleaned from the City’s customer service team had  illustrated that there were ‘hot spots’ of deprivation lying within areas otherwise not considered to be of particular concern. It was suggested that there might be merit in looking at the correlation between air quality indicators and life expectancy.

Cllr Tidball noted with concern the loss of some Early Years provision previously provided by the County Council but was optimistic about the development of community led children’s centres based in the City and supported by the City Council. The loss of provision for older children (via youth clubs etc) was, also, a source of great regret and the potential consequences of that, drawing parallels with a recent increase in youth violence in London, were noted.

While the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 97.

Meetings for 2018 are scheduled as followed:

Standing Panels

Housing Standing Panel: 09 April, 05 July, 11 October, 12 November

Finance Standing Panel: 07 June, 10 September, 06 December

Companies Panel: dates tbc

All meetings start at 6.00 pm

The Chair noted that this was the last meeting of the Committee in the present  municipal year. The Committee had undertaken some very useful work in that time and the thanked all those involved for their contributions to it. 

Meetings for 2018 are scheduled as followed:

Standing Panels

Housing Standing Panel: 09 April, 05 July, 11 October, 12 November

Finance Standing Panel: 07 June, 10 September, 06 December

Companies Panel: dates tbc

All meetings start at 6.00 pm