To record any apologies for absence received.

The Chair welcomed everybody to the meeting and asked if there were any apologies. The Committee Services Officer informed the meeting that there were a number of deputies present for Committee Members who were absent. (See the list above).

Members are reminded of their responsibility to declare any disclosable pecuniary or non-pecuniary 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.

Members were asked to consider whether they had any disclosable pecuniary interests and/or any other relevant interest in connection with any item(s) on this agenda and, if so, to declare them and state the nature of the interest.

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

No such declarations were made.

The Chair asked the Head of Legal and Member Services to give advice on the matter of signatories to the call-in notice sitting on the Committee.

The Head of Legal and Member Services informed the Committee that although being a signatory to a call-in notice did not preclude a Member from sitting on the Committee hearing the call-in they would need to be mindful of pre-determination and bias. Simply supporting a call-in did not necessarily amount to a member accepting the reasons had been made out and proven. A call-in notice was essentially confirmation that there was a prima facie case to review how the Executive decision in question had been reached; and did not amount to the settled view of the member(s) supporting the call-in.

Councillor Mitchell informed the Committee that he was deputising on the Committee for Councillor Gilchrist and was there with a clear and open mind.

A report by the Director of Public Health is attached.

In accordance with the procedure previously agreed by the Committee, the Chair referred to the decision of the Cabinet relating to the Financial Monitoring Report 2014/15 Month 2 in respect of part 5 of the resolution (Cabinet Minute 27 (7/7/14) refers).

The decision had been called-in by Councillors S Kelly, C Carubia, P Gilchrist, P Williams, C Blakeley, D Mitchell and P Hayes on the following grounds:

“To disagree with paragraph (5) of minute 27 (Cabinet 7th July 2014) - changes to Public Health grant funded projects identified in Annex 4 of Appendix A listed as “Health Outcomes Fund - Efficiencies and Stopping” Having regard to Cabinet’s decision of 10th October 2013, which noted that progress and spend would be monitored by The Public Health Department on a regular basis, no information on the impact on the previously agreed outcomes for each project that it is proposed to curtail or stop was placed before Cabinet on the 7th July prior to making the decision. Particular areas of concern -

(a)  Forest Schools - The Forest Schools project has had 727 children from 14 schools attending so far with plans for 6 schools to take part from September. This decision will mean a reduction of participation of 50% of early years children able to take part and a reduction in children able to attend from schools from 30 to 15 per class. This results in schools being treated differently part way through the programme

(b)  Healthy Homes - Fewer homes will be able to benefit from grant assistance in bringing houses up to acceptable healthy standards. The decision will mean, based on the average cost of cosyhomes grants processed to date of £2,564 a reduction in help for 21 households Cabinet should not therefore approve the changes to the projects identified in Annex 4 of Appendix A until Families and Wellbeing Policy and Performance Committee has had an opportunity to scrutinise in full the impact on the agreed outcomes for each project affected.

Monitoring information by the Public Health Department should be made available to the Families and Wellbeing Policy and Performance Committee to enable them to properly advise Cabinet, in due course, of the impact of the proposed reductions to enable a fully informed decision to be taken about each project.

With regards to the funding for the Forest Schools and Healthy Homes projects Cabinet is urged to reconsider its decisions and restore the original level of grant funding so that the projects can build on the levels of participation and uptake as originally envisaged.”

The Committee was invited to consider the decision that had been made and determine, in the light of evidence to be presented, the most appropriate course of action. The Committee had no power to overturn a Cabinet decision, or to substitute its own decision in place of the original. The options open to the Committee in this case were:

·  to take no further action, in which case the original decision shall take immediate effect and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 24.