There were no declarations of interest made.

There were no announcements.

Minutes from 7 November 2022.

Recommendation: That the minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2022 be APPROVED as a true and accurate record.

The Committee resolved to approve the minutes of the meeting held on 7 November 2022 as a true and accurate record.

The work plan is driven to a very large extent by the Cabinet Forward Plan, a summary of which is attached. The Scrutiny Committee agrees its priorities for items coming on to the Forward Plan, which then forms part of its own work plan.

Recommendation: That the Committee confirms its agreement to the current priorities and the work plan, both of which are attached.

The Committee noted the Forward Plan.

The Committee reviewed the Work Plan and confirmed its agreement to consider the following reports at future meetings.

·       January Cabinet reports

o   Flexible Working/Hybrid Working Policy

o   Disciplinary Policy

The Cabinet will, at its meeting on 14 December 2022, consider a report on the Thriving Communities Strategy 2023/2027. Cllr Chewe Munkonge, Cabinet Member for Leisure and Parks, Cllr Shaista Aziz, Cabinet Member for Inclusive Communities and Culture, Cllr Louise Upton, Cabinet Member for Health and Transport, and Ian Brooke, Head of Community Services, have been invited to present the report and to answer questions.

The Committee is asked to consider the report and to agree any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet.

Cllr Shaista Aziz, Cabinet Member for Inclusive Communities and Culture and Cllr Chewe Munkonge, Cabinet Member for Leisure and Parks introduced the report which asked Cabinet to recommend Council adopt the Thriving Communities Strategy 2023-2027 as part of the Budget and Policy Framework.  Cllr Aziz highlighted the importance of ensuring the voices of communities are front and centre to the Council’s work and the language of the report was more accessible than previous reports.  She advised that Westminster City Council had recently removed the term ‘BAME’ which she welcomed as a step forward to move away from terminology that classified communities.

Cllr Arshad arrived at the meeting.

Cllr Munkonge drew the Committee’s attention to the strategy which had brought together four outdated strategies that had overlapping outcomes.  He had attended one of the positively received workshops as part of the 10-week Thriving Communities City Conversation which had reached hundreds of partners, community groups and residents.

Ian Brooke, Head of Community Services and Lucy Cherry, Leisure and Performance Manager attended the meeting to speak to the item and answer Councillors questions.

During discussions, the Committee noted the following:

·       Conversations with communities remain ongoing, and Councillors are invited to input into these via their Wards and Parish Councils.

·       Data and insight from partner agencies for health profiling, allowing greater understanding of community needs, have been explored in commencing work in communities.

·       The strategy was purposely ambitious, and as focused on creating a shared purpose working closely with those communities.  It was emphasised that previous reports had been reported as ‘talking at’ people and communities and the report sought to work alongside communities and organisations and work with their expertise.

Cllr Corais arrived at the meeting.

·       Leisure centre contracts expire in 2024, providing an opportunity to review these facilities and how they meet changing community needs, and would explore further opportunities with partners, such as Oxfordshire County Council public health and the NHS.

·       Where work is carried out with partners, it would beneficial to highlight these specifically, and link these to actions highlighted to explicitly answer questions within the report, and adapt the language to make it more accessible to those with English not as a first language.

·       Work with other Councils had been ongoing on use of facilities and green spaces to ensure learning and adaption of good practice.

·       Key programmes with partners in communities included specific work with Leisure For All match funded grants with Fusion encouraging access to leisure facilities ensuring greater inclusivity and accessibility in communities, and also covid support funding with schools which supported those youngsters most impacted by Covid to support with mental health.

·       Community spaces, available through the community grants programme, targeted inequality and identified gaps in provision, ensuring support across the city in tackling inequality.

·       Work would continue to improve the booking access system in leisure centres that supports the needs of all communities.

·       Due to the ongoing resource challenges caused by Covid and rising energy prices, swimming pools had experienced a decline in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 62.

The Cabinet will, at its meeting on 14 December 2022, consider a report on Grant Allocations to Community & Voluntary Organisations for 2023/24. Cllr Shaista Aziz, Cabinet Member for Inclusive Communities and Culture, and Ian Brooke, Head of Community Services, have been invited to present the report and to answer questions.

The Committee is asked to consider the report and to agree any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet.

Cllr Shaista Aziz, Cabinet Member for Inclusive Communities and Culture, introduced the report which sought approval of the criteria and weighting for assessing the 2023/24 grant allocations, providing an interim update to Cabinet showing examples of the impact of the Community Impact Funds grants to date.  She highlighted that this was the first report since the Cabinet agreement to merge all the existing community grant funds into one, the Oxford Community Impact Fund, created to ensure a wider range of people, communities and organisation can access the limited pool of resource.

Ian Brooke, Head of Community Services, Lucy Cherry, Leisure and Performance Manager and Paula Redway, Culture and Community Development Manager, attended the meeting to speak to the item and answer Councillors questions.

During discussions, the Committee noted the following:

·       There was a rigorous multi-staged process to approve or reject grant allocation requests, which reviewed assessment scores and other factors before any decisions were made.

·       Monitoring of the delivery would be through engagement with beneficiaries, with focus on the big ideas learning network.

·       Sessions with individuals and organisations took place guiding them through the process of application, and over 90% of applications had been received from those attending.

·       Clear feedback was provided to non-successful applicants via grant advice sessions, to ensure that constructive relationships were continually built upon.

·       A briefing summary would be provided for future reports on organisations in receipt of grant funding.

·       Due to the limited amount of funds available, other funding sources are explored with the applicants throughout the application process, and the Council was aware of the challenging financial climate and lack of funding available to all organisations, regardless of size and experience.

The Committee resolved to make the following recommendation to Cabinet:

1.    That the Council includes a very brief summary of the nature and purpose of individual organisations in receipt of Community Impact Fund grants at Appendix 1 of the report.

The Cabinet will, at its meeting on 14 December 2022, consider a report on the Authority Monitoring Report and Infrastructure Funding Statement for 2021/22. Cllr Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery, Christian Cameron, Data Analyst, and Lan Nguyen, Senior Data Analyst, have been invited to present the report and to answer questions.

The Committee is asked to consider the report and to agree any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet.

Cllr Alex Hollingsworth, Cabinet Member for Planning and Housing Delivery introduced the report which sought Cabinet approval of the Authority Monitoring Report and Infrastructure Funding Statement for publication.  He advised that the report was an annual report which summarised a series of performance indicators based on policies set out in the Oxford Local Plan.  The Infrastructure Funding Statement is a factual statement and a statutory requirement summarising the amount of developer contributions (CIL and Section 106) obtained, allocated and spent by the authority in the previous financial year (April 2021 – March 2022).

Rachel Nixon, Principal Planner, Lan Nguyen, Senior Data Analyst and Christian Cameron, Data Analyst attended the meeting to speak to the item and answer the Committee’s questions.

Cllr Arshad left the meeting.

During discussions, the Committee noted the following:

·       Key IFS Headlines were included within the report, further information on which projects the developer contributions received, allocated and spent for were included within Appendix 2.

·       Whilst there was a lack of community-led housing projects currently in the City, there were sites identified, however uptake would be dependent on the applicant.

·       Data was corrected due to changes in Government policies and improvements to data collection/analysis methods, which is clearly shown in the report.

·       The projected future amount of windfall sites versus major strategic sites was provided within the report and demonstrated that there were approximately 10% of windfall sites and 10% of smaller sites already committed, concluding approximately 80% for the major strategic sites, however a site by site summary could be included for future reports.

The Committee resolved to make the following recommendation to Cabinet:

1.    That the Council reports in subsequent Annual Monitoring Reports on the amount of housing delivered as a result of site allocation policies and the degree to which those policies have been realised.

The Cabinet will, at its meeting on 14 December 2022, consider a report on the Workplace Equalities Update and Action Plan. Cllr Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services, and Helen Bishop, Head of Business Improvement, have been invited to present the report and to answer questions.

The Committee is asked to consider the report and to agree any recommendations it wishes to make to Cabinet.

Cllr Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services introduced the report which sought Cabinet approval for the publication of the annual Workforce Equality Report 2022, the Gender Pay Gap Report, the Ethnicity Pay Gap Report and the Disability Pay Gap Report, and shared progress on the current progress of the Workforce Equalities Report and Action Plan.  He advised that the report was a snapshot of figures taken at 31 March 2022, and highlighted the increase made in many areas, however drew the Committee’s attention to the increased pay gap in ethnicity, which has clearly shown the issue of low number of ethnicity in senior positions within the Council.

Helen Bishop, Head of Business Improvement, and Gail Malkin, Head of People, attended the meeting to speak to the item and to answer the Committee’s questions.

Cllr Diggins left the meeting.

During discussions, the Committee noted the following:

·       The Council was working to increase awareness of self-reporting across the workforce to ensure regular communication and best practice.  Whole workforce engagement surveys had taken place to help build a better picture of behaviours within the workplace.

·       The low number of staff who identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual had increased, however it was noted that lower numbers could be caused by staff not wishing to state their sexual identify, which nationally stands at only 2%.  This makes it difficult for assessment purposes, however other methods of monitoring could be considered and further details included at the application stage of recruitment.

·       A question was raised about plans to address equality issues for trans and non-binary staff.  Data for this group was not currently collected, however this would be reviewed.  It was noted that smaller numbers of staff would present difficulties for reporting as lower numbers could be easily identifiable.

·       A Recruitment Consultant and EDI specialist had been appointed in the People Team to help target recruitment of under-represented groups.

·       Whilst there is not a Disability Pay Gap target, the Committee would be interested to compare this to previous years, and would welcome a target included for future reports in line with other pay gap targets.

The Committee resolved to make the following recommendations to Cabinet:

1.    That the Council set out explicitly its target in relation to the Disability Pay Gap.

2.    That the Council provides an opportunity in its application forms and monitoring for people to provide their gender identity, including if they identify as trans or non-binary.

3.    That the Council reports on work surrounding its trans and non-binary policies.

4.    That the Council assesses whether it would be beneficial to monitor and report on work being undertaken around the LGBT pay gap.

At its meeting on 16 November 2022, the Cabinet considered the following reports from the Scrutiny Committee and made responses to the recommendations:

·       Procurement Strategy 2022-2025

·       Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.1

·       West End and Osney Mead SPD

Since the Scrutiny Committee’s previous meeting, no standing panels have met.

The Housing and Homelessness Panel will, at its meeting on 30 November 2022, consider a report on Co-option of Tenant Ambassador(s).  The recommendations of the Panel will be reported at the Committee meeting.

The Committee is asked to note the Cabinet’s responses to its recommendations.

The Committee noted the following Cabinet responses to its recommendations:

·       Procurement Strategy 2022-2025

·       Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Wave 2.1

·       West End and Osney Mead SPD

The Committee noted that since the Scrutiny Committee’s previous meeting, no standing panels have met as the Housing and Homelessness Panel did not meet on 30 November 2022.  This meant that they were not able to approve the recommendation to adopt three tenant ambassadors to the Committee.  Therefore, the Committee were asked to approve this recommendation, and were resolved to appoint Anthony Church, Gillian Taylor and Jerry Assongu as Co-Optees to the Housing and Homelessness Panel.

Scrutiny Committee

·       16 January 2023

·       01 February 2023

·       06 March 2023

·       04 April 2023

Standing Panels

Housing & Homelessness: 30 November 2022; 02 March 2023; 24 April 2023

Finance & Performance: 07 December 2022; 23 January 2023; 28 March 2023

Climate & Environment Panel: introductory meeting to be held on 11 January 2023. Other dates to be agreed in consultation with Chair and Panel.

Companies Scrutiny Panel will meet on the same dates as the SJVG:

08 December 2022; 01 March 2023; 27 April 2023.

All meetings start at 6.00 pm.

The dates of future meetings were noted.