To enable Fusion Lifestyles to maintain the contract during the period that leisure facilities are required to remain closed.

To agree a package of support to Fusion Lifestyles to maintain the contract during the period that leisure facilities are required to remain closed in line with that contract,  and Government advice which defines the current situation as a “Change in Law” under that contract and to settle existing payments outstanding between the parties.

To revert back to the Council’s normal constitutional arrangements undoing the constitutional changes adopted using emergency powers on 31 March 2020.

The business continuity version of the Constitution is no longer in force and the Council is again operating under the Constitution as agreed by Council on 27 January 2020.

For clarity the business continuity provisions adopted on 31 March 2020 that are no longer in force as a result of this decision are:

a. Authorise the Chief Executive to cancel and to call meetings of Council without consultation (Parts 11.5 and 11.6).

b. Authorise the Head of Law and Governance to cancel and to call meetings of non-executive committees and sub- committees without consultation, including cancelling meetings where there would be sufficient business for a meeting to take place (Parts 13.4 & 14.6).

c. Clarify the arrangements for single Cabinet Member decision making, should the Leader choose to delegate any executive decisions currently reserved to Cabinet to individual Cabinet Members.

d. Authorise the Head of Planning Services to determine planning applications normally reserved to area planning committees (Part 5.3) in accordance with a protocol (Appendix 2), until such a time as meetings can be convened.

f. Authorise the Head of Regulatory Services and Community Safety to determine all licensing applications (Parts 5.6 and 5.7) with the exception of any applications that require a hearing and cannot be delegated in law, until such a time as meetings can be convened.

Note: the decision was taken to lift the suspension of call in procedures (change “e” in the original decision) on 1 May 2020.

The Council has a services contract with its wholly owned Local Authority Trading Company.

During the disruption due to the Corona Virus some works have had to be stopped and others commissioned.

A efficient and effective means of paying ODSL was sought during this period.

To pay Oxford Direct Services Limited (ODSL) on an at cost basis for the period of the disruption.

ODSL to mitigate costs through furloughing staff, reducing agency and vacancy control.

ODSL to rebate to Oxford City Council furlough income and savings from fuel and materials

To update remote meeting protocol.

To adopt the Protocol for Remote Meetings.

To delegate authority to the Head of Law and Governance to revise the Protocol for Remote Meetings as may be necessary as practices evolve to ensure the effective operation of remote meetings.

This protocol has been developed by an officer project group overseen by a cross-party member reference group to provide clarity about how the Council will operate remote meetings under the Local Authorities and Police and Crime Panels (Coronavirus) (Flexibility of Local Authority Police and Crime Panel Meetings) (England and Wales) Regulations 2020 No.392 (‘the Regulations’). The Regulations came into force on 4 April 2020 and remain valid until 7 May 2021. The Regulations apply notwithstanding any other legislation or pre-existing procedure rules of the Council governing meetings. This means that, wherever there is a conflict, the Protocol for Remote Meetings takes precedence in relation to the governance of any remote meeting

To reverse the decision taken on 3 April 2020 with respect to the suspension of Call-in arrangements for Area Committees, Planning Review Committee, executive and ward member spend / CIL. 

Specifically to make the following changes to the Constitution:

Part 17

What decisions can be called in?

17.1

Delete: No decisions can be called in

Re-instate:The following decisions can be called in:

·         resolutions by the Cabinet

·         key decisions taken by officers

·         ward member spend (Part 4.6)

·         planning decision taken by area planning committees

·         decisions on planning applications that were going to be taken by the Head of Planning Services

and parts 17.2 – 17.9 inclusive

The previous decision to suspend the Call-in arrangements was taken at the outset of the COVID-19 lockdown in order to reduce demand on the officer resource base within the Council. The assessment after 1 month is that the re-instatement of Call-in arrangements will not have a detrimental impact on resilience of the Council services and will promote open debate and transparent decision making.

The decision was made to furlough Oxford City Council staff who, because of the effects of Covid-19, were unable to fulfil their usual roles and could not, immediately, be redeployed to other Council work. This decision immediately impacts 20 staff for an initial period of three weeks and may impact further staff members in due course.

The decision was informed by the Government’s jobs protection scheme. This enables people to be laid off, on a temporary basis, because of the exceptional circumstances caused by Covid-19 and who are not among those being  redeployed into areas where the Council is seeing increased activity such as Revenues and Benefits, the Contact Centre, and the new Locality Resource Hubs.

Furloughing is designed to protect jobs by avoiding the need for redundancy through Government support of £80% of an employee’s salary up to £2,500 a month. The Council intends to make up the difference, so providing full income to those affected. 

The decision follows careful consideration of the Council’s  need to continue delivering essential services, redeployment to service the new areas of demand, and a prudent approach to resilience of the organisation.