Apologies for absence were received from Nigel Kennedy.

There were no declarations of interest made.

Contact Officer: Andrew Brown, Scrutiny Officer

Tel 01865 252230, abrown2@oxford.gov.uk

The Head of Law and Governance submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which detailed a list of suggested future items and review topics for the Committee to consider.

The Committee made the following comments on the proposed review topics:

The Scrutiny Officer will circulate the list of high priority topics to all non-executive members who will volunteer onto the panel(s) they are interested in. The panels will then draft their terms of reference for approval from the Scrutiny Committee.

The Housing Panel’s list of topics included a lot of information reports from officers. Cllr Smith will discuss with the Scrutiny Officer the Housing Panel workload after the meeting.

The Committee would like to pre-scrutinise at the October meeting the following reports from the Forward Plan:

·         Cultural Strategy 2015-18

·         Towards Mental Wellbeing and Community Resilience

·         Welfare Reform, European Social Fund Project

·         Oxfutures – Mobilising Local Energy Investment

The Housing Panel will look at the following reports from the Forward Plan:

·         Housing Strategy 2015-18

·         Leaseholder Payment Options for Major Work

Cllr Darke updated the Committee on the progress the Flooding Panel had made. They held a meeting on 9 May with Thames Water, who has taken on board all the panel’s recommendations and plan to publically launch their ‘catchment study’ in October.

It was agreed that the Flooding Panel should continue with updates report to the Scrutiny Committee on a 6 monthly basis.

Cllr Simmons reported that the Council Tax Exemption Panel had not progressed and required officer support to get the information required. The Scrutiny Officer offered his assistance.

For the Chairs of the Housing and Finance Standing Panels to update the Committee on their work

The next Finance Standing Panel is scheduled for 4 September

The next Housing Standing Panel is scheduled for 9 October

Cllr Smith updated the Committee on the progress made with the Oxford Standard Panel, which will set a standard of repairs council tenants can expect.  The report has been written and is awaiting the approval of tenants.

Contact Officer: Andrew Brown, Scrutiny Officer,

Tel 01865 252230; abrown2@oxford.gov.uk

The Head of Law and Governance submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which detailed the results of recommendations since the last meeting and the cumulative results of all scrutiny recommendations.

The Scrutiny  Committee noted the report.

Contact Officer: Ian Brook, Head of Leisure, Parks and Communities

Tel 01865 252705, ibrook@oxford.gov.uk

Nigel Gibson presented the Chair of the Scrutiny Committee a petition from the Save Temple Cowley Pool campaign. The Chair agreed to pass the petition to the Lord Mayor to present to Council on 23 September.

The Head of Leisure, Parks and Communities submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) answering the Committee questions posed at the September meeting.

Nigel Gibson spoke on the report. He was concerned about:

·         the leisure facilities running costs and whether the true costs were being shown in the figures provided.  

·         the monitoring performance statistics and the independence of the surveys used to gauge customer satisfaction.

The Chair asked officers to report to the committee the total expenditure of the leisure contract compared to the total revenue.

Contact Officer: Neil Lawrence, Performance Improvement Manager;

Tel: 01865 252542; email: nlawrence@oxford.gov.uk

The Head of Business Improvement and Technology submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which detailed the performance indicators the Committee had chosen to monitor for the forthcoming year.

DE003 – Number of enforcements carried out as a result of environmental offences

·         Cllr Smith asked whether officers could produce a guidance note for Councillors so they can provide the correct information to residents regarding what is, and what is not an environmental offence.

N195b –Percentage of streets with detritus levels falling below Grade B (YTD)

The committee were interested in knowing:

·         Littering in the city centre - especially the time the business rubbish was collected from Cornmarket and whether it could be shifted so rubbish was not piled up for collection in the early evening.

·         out of the streets checked for detritus levels, whether it was the same streets which continued to be dirty

Cllr Sanders asked that it be minuted that she was very supportive of the work Geoff Corps and the Street Cleaning Team were doing.

BI002b Number of Council apprentices created through Council investment for those living in Oxford

The Head of Human Resources and Facilities confirmed that it was possible to request that people live within the city as a requirement for Council apprenticeships.

A report on the Education Attainment programme will be presented to the Scrutiny Committee at its next meeting.

Minutes from 23 June 2014

Recommendation: That the minutes of the meeting held on 23 June 2014 be APPROVED as a true and accurate record.

The Scrutiny Officer updated the committee on the work programme since the last meeting (refer minute 5) – changes in bold

The Committee resolved to APPROVE the minutes of the meeting held on 23 June 2014 as a true and accurate record.

Contact Officer: Simon Howick, Head of Human Resources and Facilities

Tel 01865 252547 showick@oxford.gov.uk

The Head of Human Resources and Facilities submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which detailed the development of the Business in the Community programme.

The Head of Human Resources and Facilities and Chris Price, Head of Cherwell School presented the report and explained the initiative to develop a mentoring scheme between City Council officers and Year 10 students from Cherwell School.

Thirty three officers have volunteered to be mentors in the scheme which will focus on career development, raising aspirations, citizenship and civics. The mentors come from across the council, and have been matched appropriately with the students.

Cllr Price explained that the Business in the Community programme arose through the Oxfordshire Schools Board, who discovered that local employers felt that many students didn’t have the skills necessary for work. Several businesses across the County are taking part in the initiative and work placements at the different employers can be arranged for pupils should they appear more suitable.

The Committee made the following comments:

·         It is vital to build sustainable links particularly with vulnerable pupils and suggested that pupils should be able to change their mentor if the arrangement is not working for them.

·         High quality careers advice is vital and there should be a strong emphasis on equipping pupils with advice and skills tailored to their needs and the needs of employers before they embark on the world of work.

·         It’s important to set measurable and realisable targets, where possible, in order to monitor outcomes and ensure value for money.

Contact Officer: David Edwards, Executive Director of City Development and Housing

Tel 01865 252394, dedwards@oxford.gov.uk

The Executive Director of City Regeneration and Housing and Cllr Price submitted a report (previously circulated, now appended) which detailed the structure of the Oxfordshire Growth Board, which  would be the body responsible for managing how the City Deal funding is spent.

Cllr Price presented the report. He explained that the creation of the Oxfordshire Growth Board would merge three partnership bodies (the Joint Committee for the City Deal, the Spatial Planning and Infrastructure Partnership and the Local Transport Board) into one.

The Board would be a joint committee under the Local Government Act 1972 and would therefore comply with all meeting requirements of the act (like any other council committee) and would be open to the public. The Committee suggested that this should be made explicitly clear in the Terms of Reference.  The Board would consist of a mixture of full voting and non-voting representatives.

The Board would fall under executive function and no non-executive functions have been transferred. This means that the running of the Board is completely separate from the planning process. The Board will have to apply for planning consent and individual councils will be responsible for determining planning applications associated with the development.

In terms of scrutiny, there will be the opportunity to pre-scrutinise the Board’s proposals in the same manner the Committee scrutinises Council.

The Committee asked that officers include the Oxford Growth Board agendas on the Committee’s agenda and that the Board’s minutes be added to the council’s website.

Meetings are scheduled as followed:

6 October 2014

10 November 2014

8 December 2014

19 January 2015

3 February 2015

All meetings being at 6pm.

The Committee noted that the next meeting would be held on 6 October.