Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 3 - Wallasey Town Hall. View directions

Contact: Shirley Hudspeth 

Items
No. Item

1.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor T Anderson and from Mr M Harrison.

 

2.

Code of Conduct - Declarations of Interest Relevant Authorities (Disclosable Pecuniary Interests) Regulations 2012, Including Party Whip Declarations

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any disclosable pecuniary or and / or any other relevant interest which they have in any item of business on the agenda no later than when the item is reached.

 

Members are reminded that they should also declare whether they are subject to a party whip in connection with any item(s) to be considered at this meeting and, if so, to declare it and state the nature of the whipping arrangement.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 86 KB

To confirm the Minutes of the last meeting of the Committee held on 23 March 2016 as a correct record. (Attached)

Minutes:

RESOLVED:

 

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 23 March 2016 be confirmed as a correct record.

4.

Review of Scrutiny Arrangements pdf icon PDF 133 KB

Report of the Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Team Leader – Performance and Scrutiny introduced his report which informed that the Cabinet at its meeting held on 6 June 2016 had considered a report setting out proposed new arrangements for the Council’s Overview and Scrutiny function.  The proposals sought to amend the Council’s overview and scrutiny arrangements in order to better align them with and support and challenge the effective delivery of the Wirral Plan. The Cabinet had been informed that this would ensure that the scrutiny function added value in support of better outcomes for Wirral residents. The Cabinet Report and its five appendices were appended to the report. 

 

The Cabinet had noted that the proposed changes would involve replacing the four Policy and Performance Committees with three Overview and Scrutiny Committees based around the Wirral Plan themes of People, Business and Environment.  If implemented it would mean that this Committee would no longer exist.

 

The Committee was informed that the subsequent resolution of the Cabinet supported the proposals referring the report for consideration to this Committee in advance of it being referred to the Council for approval.  Subject to approval, consideration would need to be given to how existing items in the scrutiny work programme would be transferred and a proposal for this was included as Appendix 1 to the Cabinet report.  The changes would also require a number of amendments to the Council’s Constitution and the required revisions were included in Appendix 2 – 5 of the Cabinet report.

 

The proposals approved by the Cabinet were as follows:

 

  ‘RESOLVED: That

 

(1)  the proposed changes to the Council’s scrutiny arrangements set out in the report and its appendices be approved;

 

(2)  the proposed changes detailed in the report and its appendices be referred for consideration to the Policy and Performance Co-ordinating Committee for consideration at its meeting scheduled for 15 June 2016; and

 

(3)  the proposed changes to the Council’s scrutiny arrangements detailed in the report (including Appendices) and the views of the Co-ordinating Committee as confirmed at its meeting on 15 June be referred to an extraordinary meeting of Council to be held on 27 June 2016 for consideration and approval.’

 

 

 

 

 

Councillor M McLaughlin informed the Committee that she intended to take questions and comments on whether it was considered the right approach to match the proposed new Overview and Scrutiny Committees to the themes of the Wirral Plan.  Members proceeded to provide their opinions on and debate what was being proposed to improve the Council’s scrutiny function.  Points put forward included the following:

 

·  This was a positive step as scrutiny would be more focussed around the Wirral Plan.  Pre-scrutiny was welcomed but the arrangements for it must be right.  It was considered that the direction the Council was going in with scrutiny would work if there was cross party co-operation.

·  How the Council’s performance would be monitored was queried.  A new performance management framework had been developed around the Wirral Plan and its twenty Pledges and these reports would come through scrutiny.  Training  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.