The Panel is asked to agree the notes of the meeting held on 18 July 2024 as a true and accurate record.

The Panel agreed the notes of the meeting held on 18 July 2024 as a true and accurate record.

The Chair provided an update on matters arising as follows:

·       Minute 4a – the Scrutiny Officer had contacted the Executive Director (Communities and People) and the Head of Financial Services to schedule in Scrutiny consideration of the ‘options’ report on the Strategic Review Across Community Services and to seek confirmation of the timetable for the remainder of the review, but had not received any response.

·       Minute 4b - the Scrutiny Officer had contacted the Executive Director (Communities and People) and the Head of Financial Services to schedule in Scrutiny consideration of the ‘options’ report on the Strategic Review of Services Provided by Oxford Direct Services and to seek confirmation of the timetable for the remainder of the review, but had not received any response.

·       Minute 6 – the Scrutiny Officer had contacted the Executive Director (Development) and the Head of Financial Services requesting the simulation of what the capital and revenue impacts would have been if the optimism bias assumption applied to the MTFP had been 50%, instead of 40%, to see if a higher optimism bias assumption at the programme level was more realistic and could be assumed within future budgets, but had not received a response.

·       Minute 6 – the Scrutiny Officer had contacted the Executive Director (Development), the Head of Financial Services and the Managing Director (OX Place) requesting the briefing note comparing initial expectations of Council and OX Place schemes over the last three years to their actual delivery timescales; attributing any slippage to a specific reason(s); and highlighting what the capital and revenue impact of that slippage was, but this had not yet been shared.

·       Minute 7 – the Scrutiny Officer had contacted the Head of Financial Services requesting clarification on what the £350k savings in Elections would have been spent on; and clarification on what the budget B0159 ‘Redbridge Masterplan’ (page 41 of the agenda pack) was due to be spent on; the timescales associated with that project; and the reasons why only £4,562 of a budget of £102,675 in 2023/24 had been spent, but had not received a response.

·       Minute 8 – the Scrutiny Officer had contacted the Head of Financial Services to check whether the data for KPI BV008: ‘percentage of invoices paid on time for OCC’ was now available; and whether the target for KPI CS005: ‘time to process new benefits claims’ was too low, given the ‘new normal’ in relation to demand for Temporary Accommodation, but had not received a response.

·       Minute 9 – the Scrutiny Officer had contacted the Head of Financial Services seeking to schedule ‘Issues faced by the Local Government Sector and how Oxford City Council compares’ into the Panel’s Work Plan for 2024/25, but had not received a response.

The Chair expressed his disappointment that the above matters had not yet received responses; and reiterated his expectation that they would be responded to without further delay – and before the end of September 2024.