Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Dafari-Marbini  for whom Councillor Howlett was a substitute.

None.

None.

Recommendation: That the minutes of the meeting held on 17 May 2018 be APPROVED as a true and accurate record.

The Committee resolved to APPROVE the minutes of the meeting held on 17 May 2018 subject to the addition of Councillor Donnelly in the list of those present.   

The Scrutiny Committee operates within a work plan which is agreed at the start of the Council year. The Work Plan is  reviewed at each meeting so that it can be adjusted to reflect the wishes of the Committee and take account of any changes to the latest Forward Plan (which outlines decisions to be taken by the City Executive Board or Council). The Committee is asked to review and note its work plan for the 2018/19 council year.

Separately from regular consideration of the Work Plan, the Scrutiny Committee conducts an annual Work Plan review, which will take place at this meeting and is based on a longlist compiled by  the Scrutiny Officer in response to suggestions by Members and Senior Officers. The Scrutiny Committee is recommended to:

Agree the indicative Scrutiny Committee Work Plan for 2018/19.

Agree to establish the first scrutiny review group to be scoped for agreement by the Committee on 3 July, and identify any further review groups for later establishment in 2018/19.

Agree the chair(s) of any review groups.

Agree the membership of the Finance, Housing and Companies Panels for 2018/19.

Delegate responsibility to each Standing Panel to form its own Work Plan at their first meeting, with reference to the longlist presented to the Scrutiny Committee.

Contact Officer: Stefan Robinson, Scrutiny Officer – srobinson@oxford.gov.uk 01865 252191

Work Plan

The Scrutiny Officer introduced the item. He reminded the Committee that the Work Plan was a ‘live’ document the contents of which was in their gift. A longlist of potential items for the Scrutiny Work Plan was presented to the Committee, based on suggestions gathered from councillors and senior council officers. Each of the suggestions had been scored against a set of criteria to support the Committee in prioritising items.   The Committee were invited to add and remove any items to the longlist, and agree this list as an indicative Work Plan for the year.

The Chair thanked the Scrutiny Officer for a thorough and well thought out report. The scoring mechanism had provided a robust approach for determining the order of the Work Plan and he saw no reason to depart from it. The Committee agreed to the longlist of items as the basis of its Work Plan for the year. The Scrutiny Officer would liaise with Councillor Howlett to in order to schedule the Prevent initiative for a subsequent committee meeting.

The Committee also agreed to delegate the formation of each Standing Panel’s work plan to the respective panels.

Review Groups

It was noted that the intensive nature  of review group work meant that it was not practical to run more than one at a time. Previous practice suggested that 3 to 4 reviews could be conducted in a year, the actual number depending on their complexity. The Scrutiny Officer had had  early conversations with officers to understand the Council’s capacity to manage some of the suggestions for Scrutiny Reviews. Specifically, officers had raised concerns about their current capacity to support review groups into rough sleeping and air quality, given their current workload. The new Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2018-2021 had recently been agreed, and officers were working to implement this Strategy.

Officers working on air quality initiatives had advised that their workload was such that they had no capacity to support a review. This could be reviewed when the Scrutiny Committee considers the Annual Air Quality Status report in September 2018. Officers had however welcomed councillor interest in establishing a tourism management review group.

Homelessness and Rough Sleeping

Cllr Simmons argued for a review group on homelessness/rough sleeping. While acknowledging that officers had resource and duplication concerns about the work already being done in this area, he was concerned that more attention needed to be paid to the need for a pathway for rough sleepers without a local connection. This could be a narrowly focused piece of work.

Cllr Bely-Summers supported the idea of a review group on rough sleeping, a need exemplified in her view by some of the distressing cases   she had witnessed the previous winter.  She drew particular attention to the ‘local connection’ criterion, which she saw as something which should be re-visited.

Cllr Simm suggested that it would be wise, first, to reflect on the efficacy of the new Housing and Homelessness Strategy 2018-2021.

Cllr Henwood said the City’s provision  ...  view the full minutes text for item 16.

The Scrutiny Committee has asked for this item to be included on the agenda for pre-decision scrutiny. The City Executive Board on 13 June will be asked to endorse Fusion Lifestyles 2018/19 Annual Service Plan for the continuous development, management and operation of leisure services in Oxford. This is an opportunity for the Scrutiny Committee to make recommendations to the City Executive Board.

Lead member: Councillor Linda Smith,Deputy Leader and Board Member for Leisure and Housing.

Officer Contact: Ian Brooke, Head of Community Services – Ibrooke@oxford.gov.uk 01865 252191

The Committee Services Officer tabled a revised version of Appendix 3A to the report which contained a number of tracked changes.

The Board Member for Leisure and Housing drew the Committee’s attention to the most significant of those changes. She went on to speak to the substantive report. Oxford remains one of the most physically active cities in the country however the recent performance of Fusion  Lifestyle had been disappointing with a decline in visitor numbers.  This was due, in large part, to the services provided being ‘squeezed’ by competition from, on the one hand, an increasing number of budget gyms and, on the other, luxury providers. In addition, an increasing number of people were taking advantage of opportunities to exercise in different ways in parks, open spaces and community centres. Steps were being taken with Fusion Lifestyle to drive up participation rates, particularly with certain target  groups. Fusion Lifestyle’s Performance was monitored monthly and the Council’s Head of Financial Services kept a close eye on the budget position.

The Board Member for Leisure and Housing was clear that ambitious targets for improvement were necessary. The Committee recognised that the City Executive Board wants to be ambitious in its targets for Fusion, but these must also be realistic and achievable, particularly in the context of the increasingly competitive leisure market. The Committee questioned whether the target, set at a 3% increase in visitor numbers in 2018/19, was realistic.

The Committee expressed particular concern about the following statement in paragraph 19 of the report, “We do not have any investments planned for our leisure centres in 2018/19, so it is highly unlikely that the current trend of reducing visits will change.” Reference in the report was also made in paragraph 20 to Fusion “working hard to tighten up their costs.” Members believed that declining customer satisfaction coupled with a lack of investment was likely to result in a further loss of customers. Accordingly, it was recommended that there should be an action plan to address the matter of  declining visitor numbers. 

There was shared agreement  that the performance was disappointing, but it was nonetheless good for the Council to have Fusion Lifestyle as the Council’s  not for profit provider.

Attention was drawn  to a number of areas of concern including  such things as high turnover of staff; IT difficulties; telephones not being answered; slow response to maintenance issues which, cumulatively,  led to customer dissatisfaction and were difficult to reconcile with  the QUEST accreditation. It was suggested that it would be interesting to see how the shift in patterns of leisure behaviour compared with other parts of the country. It would be useful if   Fusion Lifestyle’s performance, as measured by key indicators, should be a regular part of the Committee’s quarterly monitoring and should include the total staff numbers  which, in addition to turnover levels, it was suggested  had gone down.

The Head of Community Services   agreed that improvement was needed and that the customer experience needed to improve. With regard to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17.

The Scrutiny Committee has asked for this item to be included on the agenda for pre-decision scrutiny. The City Executive Board on 13 June will be asked note progress made on Oxford City Council’s Safeguarding 2017/18 Action Plan. This is an opportunity for the Scrutiny Committee to make recommendations to the City Executive Board.

Lead member: Cllr Marie Tidball, Board Member Supporting Local Communities

Officer Contact: Daniella Granito, Policy and Partnership Team Manager - dgranito@oxford.gov.uk 07483 010758

The Board Member for Supporting Local Communities thanked the Committee for the opportunity to contribute to discussion about this important matter. The report focused on three key elements: the outcome of the 2017 Safeguarding Audit; the Council’s Safeguarding Action Plan; and the Council Policy for safeguarding children, young people and adults with care and support needs.

The City Council acted as the lead agency in relation to safeguarding matters on behalf of the other District Councils. The Board Member sat on the Oxfordshire Safeguarding Children Board  and acted as the link between it and the Districts. The outcome of the audit had been very favourable, with the Council achieving an overall 8 areas of best practice out of a possible 10. The Council had also asked two of its larger providers (Parasol and Aspire) to complete their own audits.

Members of the Committee were grateful for the report and the fact that previous Scrutiny recommendations had been woven into it was noted.

The Safeguarding Co-ordinator explained that her post was new and one which sought   to engage with communities and services in relation to which there may be safeguarding challenges. 

The Board Member said that the next area of focus would be on young carers and child exploitation. She spoke about the introduction of ‘My Concern’ an ‘App’ for recording   concerns about safeguarding matters. The information held there would only be available to those with a proper professional interest. Councillors would be offered briefing on ‘My Concern’ in due course.

The Action Plan provided a snapshot of safeguarding activity which was driven by the policy. The Board Member reminded the Committee that the policy was of universal application throughout the Council and this included relevance for councillors given that they were frequently in receipt of information to do with safeguarding matters.  Safeguarding training for councillors would be soon  available. While many councillors received safeguarding training because of their other roles (e.g. being a school governor), this training would be tailored to their needs as councillors.

The Lead Officer for Human Exploitation said that the County Council had done a great deal of work to raise awareness amongst school pupils  of safeguarding matters, citing the example of “Chelsea’s Choice” (a play that had been  offered to all secondary schools across Oxfordshire, raising awareness amongst pupils in years 8-10 of the risks of Childhood Sexual Exploitation). Members of the Committee were pleased to hear this but thought it would be helpful to hear more about the reach of safeguarding awareness training across the City and that this  should form the basis of a recommendation to the City Executive Board.

The Committee were pleased to note the development of the ‘Get  Heard’ buddy system for older people.

The arrangements for insisting on safeguarding training for  Hackney Cab and Private Hire drivers licenced by the Council  were commended. It was pleasing to note that the good practice in the City was being promoted in other districts. 

The Board Member concluded  by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

The Scrutiny Committee has asked for this item to be included on the agenda for pre-decision scrutiny. The City Executive Board on 13 June will be asked to approve the Modern Slavery Act Transparency Statement 2017-2018. This is an opportunity for the Scrutiny Committee to make recommendations to the Board.

Lead member: Councillor Tom Hayes, Board Member for Safer, Greener, Environment

Officer Contact: Richard Adams,Community Safety Service Manager - radams@oxford.gov.uk 01865 252283

The Board Member for Safer, Greener, Environment, introduced the report which demonstrated that the Council was compliant with the new legal requirement. He said the Council should be proud of its unequivocal stance that it will not tolerate the exploitation of anyone and particularly those who are vulnerable. He noted too the importance of the Council exerting leverage on its supply chains to demonstrate similar behaviour.

The Lead Officer for Human Exploitation said that data were being sought from other parts of the UK for help in identifying an ‘early warning system’ for signs of exploitation.

The Committee noted that the Councils two trading companies would need their own statements  and  that the City Executive Board should be asked whether the companies should be acknowledged  in the final version of the  Council’s statement. 

The Committee resolved to make the following recommendation to the City Executive Board:

“That consideration is given to whether the Council’s Modern Slavery Transparency Statement should be amended to include reference to the Council’s wholly owned companies, highlighting that as separate entities they may also have their own statements.”

This item is for the Committee to note and comment on recent executive responses to Scrutiny recommendations.  Since the last meeting of the Committee the Board has responded to recommendations in relation to the Discretionary Housing Payments (DHP) Policy and Oxford Town Hall. 

The Scrutiny Committee is asked to note a point of clarification concerning the accuracy of the DHP Scrutiny report submitted to the City Executive Board (CEB) on 22 May, concerning how DHP criteria is applied. A full statement of clarification is outlined in CEB’s response to the DHP recommendations.

Contact Officer: Stefan Robinson, Scrutiny Officer, srobinson@oxford.gov.uk 01865 252191

The Committee noted the responses of the City Executive Board to its most recent recommendations and the point of clarification included on the recommendation tracker document. In some cases it was felt that some clarification of the Committee’s original intention may be helpful because the comments from the City Executive Board did not fully address the intention of the recommendations.  The Chair agreed to raise this at the next meeting of the Board.

Meetings for 2018 are scheduled as followed:

Standing Panels

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

Finance Standing Panel: 04 July, 10 September, 06 December

Companies Panel (Provisional dates) 07June, 31 July, 11 September,

29 October, 12 December, 03 January 2019

All meetings start at 6.00 pm

Meetings for 2018 are scheduled as followed:

Standing Panels

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

Finance Standing Panel: 04 July, 10 September, 06 December

Companies Panel (Provisional dates)  31 July, 11 September,

29 October, 12 December, 03 January 2019

All meetings start at 6.00 pm