The Climate & Environment Panel met on 27 June, Scrutiny Committee will meet on 4 July, and the Housing & Homelessness Panel will meet on 5 July 2023.  The following reports are expected and will be published as a supplement, together with any other recommendations from those meetings:

·         Draft Carbon Reduction and Sustainable Retrofit Guidance for Historic Buildings Technical Advice Note

·         Biodiversity Update

·         Safeguarding Report 2022/23 and Safeguarding Policy 2023-26

·         Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership Charter / Pledge

·         Citizen Experience Strategy

·         Future Resettlement Commitments for New Refugee Families

The Climate and Environment Panel had met on 27 June, Scrutiny Committee had met on 4 July, and the Housing & Homelessness Panel had met on 5 July.  Councillor Pegg, Chair of Scrutiny, presented the reports and recommendations from those meetings relating to:

(i)            Draft Carbon Reduction and Sustainable Retrofit Guidance for Historic Buildings Technical Advice Note;

(ii)           Biodiversity Update;

(iii)         Safeguarding Report 2022/23 and Safeguarding Policy 2023-26;

(iv)         Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership Charter / Pledge;

(v)          Citizen Experience Strategy;

(vi)         Future Resettlement Commitments for New Refugee Families; and

(vii)        Tenant Satisfaction Survey. 

Cabinet Member responses had been provided and were included in a separate published supplement.

In relation to the Draft Carbon Reduction and Sustainable Retrofit Guidance for Historic Buildings Technical Advice Note, there had been 7 recommendations of which 5 had been accepted.  Councillor Louise Upton, Cabinet Member for Planning and Healthier Communities, clarified that the work outlined in the remaining two recommendations (4 and 5) was expected to be undertaken in due course as part of other workstreams by the Planning Policy team; however a commitment to a definitive timescale could not be provided at the current time.

All of the recommendations relating to the Biodiversity Update had been accepted.  Councillor Brown, Leader, reported that the suggestion to add a dedicated biodiversity workstream to the Zero Carbon Oxfordshire Partnership’s (ZCOP) existing workstreams had been made.  However, ZCOP had considered that it would result in duplication of work being undertaken elsewhere.  Instead, a meeting of biodiversity leads across the major institutions which formed ZCOP would be convened, to ascertain if there were ways to encourage or improve collaborative working.

A detailed discussion had taken place at the Scrutiny Committee on the Safeguarding Report 2022/23 and Safeguarding Policy 2023-26.  This had covered: ensuring that the Safeguarding Policy was aligned with other Council policies; adult exploitation; Domestic Abuse Housing Alliance accreditation; and how the Council worked with the voluntary sector and community groups to ensure that they had adequate safeguarding policies in place.  In response to the latter point Councillor Shaista Aziz, Cabinet Member for Safer Communities, highlighted that the Council was not responsible for outside organisations’ safeguarding policies.  However, it was able to share its own policy in order to try to promote alignment.

Discussion at scrutiny on the Oxfordshire Inclusive Economy Partnership Charter / Pledge had included the rationale behind the pledges chosen.  The recommendations had largely related to communication, and encouraging the Council to be as ambitious as possible in the pledges it was planning to meet.  Councillor Susan Brown, Leader and Cabinet Member for Inclusive Economy and Partnerships, responded that the recommendations were accepted.  However, with regard to the Council’s ambitions, the partnership’s emphasis was on participants signing up to acknowledge work which was already being done - and adding new pledges which could realistically be progressed during the year - rather than seeking to meet all the pledges at once.  It was important that the pledges which the Council signed up to could be delivered.  It was expected that further pledges would be added on an ongoing basis.

Discussion at scrutiny of the Citizen Experience Strategy had included language (and in particular use of the word ‘citizen’) and the wider context of the strategy.  Two recommendations had been made, which were both accepted.  In relation to the use of language, Councillor Nigel Chapman, Cabinet Member for Citizen Focused Services and Council Companies clarified that the word ‘citizen’ was intended to denote those who lived, worked or visited Oxford - not to exclude any group - and emphasised that inclusivity was a pillar of the strategy.

All of the recommendations relating to Future Resettlement Commitments for New Refugee Families and the Tenant Satisfaction Survey had been accepted.