None.

None.

Recommendation: That the minutes of the meeting held on 03 November 2020 be APPROVED as a true and accurate record.

The Committee resolved to APPROVE the minutes of the meeting held on  03 November 2020 as a true and accurate record.

The Scrutiny Committee operates within a work plan which is agreed at the start of the Council year the latest version of which is attached.  The work plan is driven to a very large extent by the Cabinet Forward Plan.  A summary of the latest version of the Forward Plan is attached.

The Committee is asked to agree the work plan having taken account of any updates and after discussion.

The Scrutiny Officer updated the Committee with the present position in relation to the Work Plan. While there were no changes to the plan before the Committee he noted that that it had been intended to bring the Cabinet response to the  recommendations of the Climate Emergency Review Group to this meeting. This had not been possible but it would be brought to the Committee as soon as possible and probably for the next meeting.

Cabinet, at its meeting on 09 December, will consider a report on the  Draft Strategic Vision for Oxfordshire. The Committee is asked to consider the report and agree any recommendations thereon.

Councillor Susan Brown, Leader of the Council and Caroline Green, Assistant Chief Executive, have been invited to attend for this item.

Councillor Susan Brown, Leader of the Council, introduced the report. As the Oxfordshire Growth Board had developed, so its members  had sought to identify common themes and the  ways in which they could work together. From the City Council’s perspective, the importance of inclusivity and the need for sustainable growth were key. The document before the Committee already included elements which reflected the Council’s input but this was not to say that further improvements could not be made. It was important to emphasise that as a vision document, it was not a strategy, an action plan or, indeed, a formal planning document.  

Caroline Green, Assistant Chief Executive, said that the document didn’t seek to set out a specific vision for Oxford or places within the City and that the final version would  have no statutory basis. It was, rather, a statement of collective ambition and common interests. A great deal of effort had been made to ensure that the document, as far as possible,  reflected the diversity of places and, therefore, the different strategies and actions that might be needed to respond to those variations. In discussion to date there had been a range of  views about the desirability of producing a more detailed document as opposed to one which remained at a more general level. All members of the Growth Board had been invited to contribute further to the next iteration of the document and the views of the Committee would contribute to that further response.

Cllr Simmons, as member, also, of the Growth Board’s Scrutiny Panel, drew the meeting’s attention to the views of the Panel to the document. These related to timescales within the document not necessarily aligning with existing policies and plans of Councils and partner organisations; asking Council Leaders to ensure clear visibility of the strategic vision with elected members; encouraging wider networks and the public to engage (and for young people in particular to be targeted as part of this); the need for terminology within it to  be clearly defined. The Committee agreed to support these views and the Leader said she would be pleased to take these views, among others,  back to the Board, so as to reinforce those of the Panel.

The Committee thought that, despite the improvements which had been made, still greater emphasis was needed on the issues of inequality and diversity, notwithstanding  recognition that the experience of other Districts in the County was very different from that in the City.

While there was  support  for the document’s aspirations there were some concerns that that it needed to be more “anchored in reality”, so while, for example, it hinted at significant housing growth it also spoke about seeking to “enhance the natural environment” which was seen as a contradiction. The aspiration that Oxfordshire should be carbon neutral by 2040 or earlier was seen as unrealistic, taking account, among other things, of the Council’s new Local Plan. However the point that this was not a planning document was noted.

The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 57.

Cabinet, at its meeting on 09 December, will consider a report on the Annual Monitoring Report and Infrastructure Funding Statement 2019/20.  The Committee is asked to consider the report and agree any recommendations thereon.

Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning & Housing Delivery, Rachel Nixon, Senior Planner and Lan Nguyen, Data Analyst and Reporting Officer have been invited to attend for this item.

Councillor Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning & Housing Delivery, introduced the report. This was an annual report showing progress against a number of targets relating to the planning function. It was worthy of note that for the first time in several years it had been possible to report that the Council was ahead of its target for house building. This was a retrospective report and with a new Local Plan now in place, this would be the last report in relation to targets flowing from the previous Local Plan.

Where the report referred to  the “..Council involved in  bringing forward 26% of all major housing schemes anticipated over the next 5 years”  it was clarified that a  “scheme” meant the development of a number of house (rather than individual houses). The percentage as a proportion of houses was likely to be well in excess of 26%.

With a new Local Plan  (and the need to measure performance against it)  future reports would be in a revised format. There would be a focus on those indicators within the Council’s control and or considered to be particularly important of which housing delivery was a critical one.

 At the time of the inspection of the new plan the inspector had made it clear that while the current pandemic might have an impact on deliverability of policies in the short term, it shouldn’t change those policies in the long term. The Plan was a legally binding document and couldn’t  be deviated from without going through a local plan making process.

It was nonetheless suggested that some means should be found of being able justify deviation from the Local Plan as a result of the consequences of the pandemic. 

The challenge of meeting housing targets was fuelled to some extent by a skills shortage and a short term supply shortage. A bigger issue was the challenge of bringing sites forward but this was now being addressed with owners/promoters of sited  identified in the Local Plan as suitable for development being contacted more proactively than before.

The report made brief mention of “2 bedrooms at the Former Gent’s Public Conveniences St Giles (19/00084/FUL)”. Rachel Nixon, Senior Planner advised that this change of use for short term accommodation had been approved in April 2019, further details were available on the Council’s planning portal.

Oxford University was below its target for the number of students accommodated outside its own premises whereas Oxford Brookes University had exceeded its target, albeit by less than the previous year. As part of the negotiation for new Local Plan the targets for both had been re-calibrated, the former target decreased and the latter increased. Oxford Brookes revised plans for new accommodation on the Headington Hill site would    be coming forward and, if agreed, would take it close to or within the compliance threshold for its target.

The Committee had no recommendations in relation to this report.

Cabinet, at its meeting on 09 December, will consider a report on the Workplace Equalities and Action Plan. The Committee is asked to consider the report and agree any recommendations thereon.

Councillor Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Customer Focussed Services and  Helen Bishop, Head of  Business Improvement  have been invited to attend for this item.

Councillor Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Customer Focussed Services, introduced the report. The report fulfilled a statutory requirement and the data within it were up until March 2020. The data only related to Council activity and did not include those for Oxford Direct Services (ODS). It was important as an employer that the Council should set a good example of practice in the matters covered by the report. It was important to note that the Council was now developing an improved Equality, Diversion & Inclusion Strategy, which extended well beyond just workplace equality matters.  As a result of the pandemic, communication with the many and varied communities within the  City had been improved and this was, in turn informing the development of that strategy. The three year workforce plan of 2018-21  had two main areas of focus, to increase the level of BAME representation in the workforce overall and to ensure that there were more women in positions of senior management.

Alongside the requirement to publish details about the gender pay gap, the Council had decided to publish details of the ethnicity pay gap, on a voluntary basis. In 2021 the Council would also publish details of the disability pay gap, also on a voluntary basis.

In relation to BAME representation, the growth of the previous year had been consolidated at about 13% at March 2020. A significant issue in relation to BAME employees was retention, with more or less equal numbers of arrivals and departures. Enquiries of the 15 most recent leavers indicated that two thirds of them had left for reasons of promotion or geography, all of which demonstrated the importance of nurturing and developing BAME employees. The number of BAME applicants was increasing year on year and it seemed likely that the Council’s activity with communities during the pandemic would increase that number still further. About 7% (c. 60 -70 employees) of staff choose not to declare their ethnicity when asked and a good number of those may be from BAME communities.

In relation to women in senior positions within the organisation the position remained more or less static with no obvious likelihood of reaching the 50% level in the foreseeable future.

The gender pay gap data is necessarily driven by the predominance of women in lower grades. The gap is unlikely to be narrowed until there are more women in more senior positions. On more positive note however, the pay gap is about 5% better than the national equivalent.

The ethnicity pay gap is, once again, driven by the distribution of employees across different roles in the Council and unlikely to be narrowed unless there is an increase in the number of BAME employees in senior positions.

More work would be done on the interrelationship of the different data sets in the following year.

The Committee noted the importance of taking account of those with a disability caused by emotional and mental illness. It was therefore important that employees were made to feel comfortable about declaring what  ...  view the full minutes text for item 59.

Budget Review Group Scope

The Committee is asked to agree the Budget Review Group Scope, a draft of which is attached.

Report to Cabinet on the Oxford’s Waterways

Further to the Committee’s consideration of a report on Oxford’s Waterways  at its last meeting it is asked to agree a report to Cabinet resulting from that meeting, a draft of which is attached.

Budget Review Group Scope

The Committee agreed the scope of the Review Group subject  to the addition of a reference to the need to take account of the consequences of a deal with the EC if one is reached.

Report to Cabinet on Oxford’s Waterways

The Committee agreed that the report before it should be put to the Cabinet subject to a minor amendment.

Cllr Aziz will feedback on the most recent meeting of the Housing & Homelessness Panel.

Cllr Aziz gave feedback from the latest meeting of the Housing & Homelessnesss Panel.

At its meeting on 03 November Cabinet considered the recommendations from the Committee and its Panels’ in relation to:

·       Impact of Covid-19 on the Private Rented Sector

·       Housing Performance Q1

·       Scrutiny-commissioned Rough Sleeping report

·       Performance Monitoring 2020/21 Q1

·       Integrated Performance Report 2020/21 Q1

The Committee is asked to note Cabinet’s responses to those recommendations which are attached.

The Committee noted the Cabinet’s responses to its recommendations on those matters listed on the agenda.

Meetings are scheduled as followed:

Scrutiny Committee

·       12 January, 02 February, 02 March, 08 April

Standing Panels

·       Finance & Performance: 03 December

·       Companies Scrutiny:  14 December

·       Housing & Homelessness Panel: 01 February

All meetings start at 6.00 pm.

Meetings are scheduled as followed:

Scrutiny Committee

·         12 January, 02 February, 02 March, 08 April

Standing Panels

·         Finance & Performance: 03 December

·         Companies Scrutiny:  14 December

·         Housing & Homelessness Panel: 01 February

All meetings start at 6.00 pm.