Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Smith – Councillor Pressel substituted.

There were no declarations of interest made.

Contact Officer: Pat Jones, Principal Scrutiny Officer, Tel: 01865 252191

Email: phjones@oxford.gov.uk

The Principal Scrutiny Officer introduced the Work Programme and Forward Plan to the Committee and highlighted the following:

·         A verbal update will be made by Tim Sadler on the post-flood operational review;

·         Councillor Darke will update the Committee on the work of the Flooding Panel;

·         Two members of the public have asked to address the Committee on issues of flooding and sewage in Marston and Northway;

·         The Scrutiny Finance Panel has completed its review of the Budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy and the Review report, which will go to the City Executive Board on the 12^th. February is attached for information;

·         The Covered Market Review Report is on this agenda and to allow members to see the complete picture officers have also attached the Officer recommendations to the City Executive Board on the same subject.

Councillor Simmons (Chair of the Scrutiny Finance Panel) gave a short presentation of the Budget Review Report:-

·         The majority of recommendations have been accepted by the Board Member which is good;

·         Of those that have not been accepted there may have been some misinterpretation of what was been recommended.  Councillor Simmons will try to clarify some of these issues in his presentation of the report at the City Executive Board.

The Scrutiny Finance Panel has also made recommendations on the proposed Treasury Management Strategy for 2014/15; these will also be considered by the City Executive Board on the 12^th. February.  Councillor Simmons emphasised the importance of this document because 9of our increasing investment levels and healthy balances.  The Council is generally doing well and Councillor Simmons said that officers were generally moving in the direction the Scrutiny Panel wished to see.  

The Committee moved on to discuss flooding issues and agreed to take the addresses from the members of the public on this first.

Betty Fletcher spoke and raised the following issues:-

·         Concern is for flooding in Northway and Court Place Farm “we have lost the sponge and this is making flooding worse”;

·         Seeing increasing levels of road flooding which is getting worse;

·         There is a lack of involvement of tenants and residents in the area and so the issues are not always understood, supported or delivered to best effect;

·         Would like some form of Area Committee back in this area.

Elaine Bennett spoke on issues and concerns around flooding.

Councillor Darke (Leader Member of the Flooding Panel) updated the Committee on progress so far.

·         Surface and sewage flooding is an issue in the City and the Panel has been set up to provide some impetus for this.  The focus of the work will be on sewage flooding and improvements to the sewage infrastructure managed by Thames Water;

·         £1.6m has been provided in the Capital programme as a large contribution towards a scheme to deal with flooding in the area the 2 speakers were talking about.  We now need to get the County Council and Thames Water in on this.  The speakers asked if matched funding was needed from the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 66.

Contact Officer: Pat Jones, Principal Scrutiny Officer,  01865 252191

email:  phjones@oxford.gov.uk

The Principal Scrutiny Officer highlighted that all recent recommendations had been accepted.  Committee members made no further comment on this.

Contact Officer: Anna Wright (Education Advisor) 07415 099245 email: akwright@oxford.gov.uk

Councillor Kennedy, Board Member for Education, Crime and Community Safety presented the main points of the report to the Committee.  In addition she added that she is a governor at a school that is part of the Leadership programme and she has seen first-hand the benefits of this.

In addition early discussions are showing that KRM is particularly affective with girls and has proved to be a catalyst for discussions in the staff room on improvement strategies.

Councillor Campbell (Scrutiny Lead Member for Educational Attainment) said that these were very important schemes.  His Panel had been set to try to ascertain the value for money of the investments we are making but this is proving to be very difficult.  He asked how we are going to evaluate overall the impact of the KRM programme and within this how we were going to look at comparator schools to check progress. 

Councillor Pressel said that all 3 programmes outlined in the report were good and going well.  She was interested to know how these schemes compared to other schemes particularly the County Scheme and were any schools participating in both the county and City offer.  Specifically is Matthew Arnold involved in the digital exclusion programme?

Councillor Simmons asked when we will see the evaluation of the Leadership Programme and when could this come to the Committee.  He was also interested to know how we will evaluate the digital exclusion programme.

Councillor Sanders asked how we were going to evaluate the effects of KRM when there are so many different improvements and changes going on in schools.

In response to these questions Anna Wright said:

·         Schools cannot take part in the City and County schemes they were required to make a choice;

·         Accepts the difficulty in evaluation.  The only tangible outcome we have is improvements in the key stage results so these will be used.  We will have un-moderated results in July 2014 and moderated results in December 2014;

·         In terms of the targets and their link to national performance Ms Wright confirmed that our targets will not move upwards with national outcomes but will remain as 10% above the national target achieved in 12/13;

·         The digital inclusion project is being evaluated by Oxford University.  They have a lot of research data and this research will be followed through with each family involved;

·         Matthew Arnold is not involved in the Digital Inclusion project because it said it could not afford to buy the lap tops

Ms Wright added that the other challenges were:

·         To ensure KRM is being implemented consistently day to day in participating schools;

·         The high level of turnover of Heads and also the high level (50%) turnover of teachers.  This produced pressures for training.

Councillor Coulter said that we also have an issue with high pupil turnover which he understood to be about 25%.  His view was that some of this is related to our difficult housing situation and caused a disconnect between school and parent.  He highlighted the work  ...  view the full minutes text for item 68.

Contact Officer: Sarah Claridge (Democratic Services Officer), 01865 252402, email; sclaridge@oxford.gov.uk

The Covered Market Scrutiny Panel submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended). This presented the Panel’s conclusions and recommendations on its inquiry into the economic health of the Covered Market to the Committee. It laid out a series of recommendations that it wished to see presented to the City Executive Board. Councillor Jim Campbell, as Lead Member of the Scrutiny Panel, introduced the report and its findings.

In his introduction, Councillor Campbell highlighted the following:-

·         The workshop organised in January 2012 to consider the future of the Covered Market had been a major influence on the Panel’s work;

·         The Panel’s key message is “the need for a clearer understanding of the role of the Covered Market and for greater flexibility and cooperation in fulfilling that role. Doing nothing is not an option.”;

·         The Panel’s work and report is an important starting point on that work;

·         There is a need to focus on the role of the Covered Market within the Council’s Asset Management Strategy which highlights the need for the Market (amongst other assets) to “make the greatest possible financial contribution to the Council”;

·         The Panel was aware that a report into the Covered Market had been produced by The Retail Group who were experts in retailing. The Panel’s report, whilst not produced by “experts”, had been produced by people who have long experience of the Market and on-going contact with the traders. This two-tier approach was valuable.

Councillor Campbell ran through the recommendations that the Panel made in its report, and emphasised that the Panel wished to see them implemented by Council as soon as possible.

General Issues

In discussion with the Committee, the following issues were raised:-

·         A leasing strategy presents a challenge. Many traders see their lease as permanent and lifelong. A dedicated Market manager could play a key role in encouraging traders to see that a more flexible scheme can be in their interest – for example, 3 month leases for traders to try out a new idea;

·         Parking in Market Street was also identified as an issue. There is a need to review the loading/unloading requirements of traders, because some vehicles are parked there for a long time (in some cases most of the day). A better regulated scheme needs to be developed, in conjunction with the traders, and efforts should be made to ensure that the entrances to the Market are visible, accessible and uncluttered;

·         There was concern that changes to rents and rental schemes did not penalise smaller traders. The Panel did not wish to be prescriptive, and it certainly had no desire to penalise smaller units, but it did wish to suggest things to look at;

·         The Market does open on a Sunday but not all traders wish to join in. It would be desirable to have at least one late night opening (to 8pm?) each week;

·         The Committee agreed that inaction was not an option!

·         Some care should be exercised around outdoor trading – it should not adversely affect  ...  view the full minutes text for item 69.

Contact Officer: Jarlath Brine (Organisational Development and Learning Advisor, Equalities and Apprenticeships); 01865 252131, email jbrine@oxford.gov.uk

The Head of HR and Facilities submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended). This presented some headline analysis of BME applicants to the Council at shortlisting and appointment stages. Simon Howick (Head of HR and Facilities) and Jarlath Brine (Organisational Learning and Development Advisor, Equalities and Apprenticeships) attended the meeting and presented the report to the Committee.

The provided the following additional information to the Committee:-

·         Many people struggle to make a good application for employment – this is not limited to BME groups;

·         Applicants have a significant level of qualification; but too many applications fail because they miss the target. The Council needs to consider how it writes and targets its advertisements;

·         The Council receives many “scattergun” applications which are not directly related to the job on offer;

·         Some applicants are capable of making a good application, but perform less well when it comes to practical tests;

·         The Council needs to consider where, when and how it  advertises its jobs. It needs to look beyond what it normally does and seek fresh avenues – for example, placing adverts in the Leys News. Greater creativity in advertising is needed;

·         The Council also needs to think about how is words job descriptions for entry-level jobs;

·         Currently, HR is reviewing how it profiles recruitment for the next apprentice cohort.

Committee Observations

·         There is a huge failing on the part of schools which are not teaching young people how to present themselves well, either through their CV, application form or at interview;

·         There is a need to couch our adverts for vacancies in different terms, even if that means going far from what has become our norm. Then we might attract different people;

·         If we want to see change, we need to put specific measures in place;

·         Could we offer more volunteering/work experience opportunities in order to give people a taste of work here, as well as helping to mentor them and prepare them to make a full application?

·         There is still the perception amongst some BME groups that working at the Council (or the University) is not for them. This perception needs to be changed;

·         There seems to be some apprehension amongst applicants about the type of place the Council is – and we need to explain properly what the Council does and how potential employees can get involved and so help their community;

·         Some places make small payments to staff if they recommend a vacancy to another person, and that person is subsequently recruited to the firm.

Response from Officers:

·         Agreed that schools are, generally, failing to prepare young people to make good applications for employment. However, the Council intends to help people and coach them before they apply;

·         60% of the last apprentice cohort was from the BME community;

·         It would be very useful if the Scrutiny Committee could support the idea of advertising in different ways and in different, non-conventional places;

·         The Council tries to do as much in-house recruitment as possible, but it will consider looking at outside  ...  view the full minutes text for item 70.

Contact Officer: Pat Jones, Principal Scrutiny Officer, Tel 01865 252191, phjones@oxford.gov.uk

The Committee had before it the Performance Monitoring figures for Quarter 3.  Pat Jones, Principal Scrutiny Officer, presented the report to the Committee and provided some background and context.

The following indicators were highlighted:-

CS003 – customers getting through first time – although the target is not being met at present, it is important to remember that there were over 211,000 calls of which some 15,250 were abandoned for various reasons. This still compares favourably with other Councils’ results.

LP106 – increase participation at leisure centres by target groups – a more detailed report will be presented at a future Committee meeting (probably in April).

B1002a – training places – the Committee received further information on this at a previous meeting;

Councillor Simmons asked for further information about the Council’s carbon footprint and the recycling rate. He would like further information about current trends.

Resolved to note the report.

Minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd December 2013 attached.

Resolved to approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting held on 3^rd December 2013.

The following dates have been agreed:-

4^th March 2014

1^st April 2014

Resolved to note the date of future meetings:-

4^th March 2014

1^st April 2014.