To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor T Anderson and Mr D Cunningham.

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.

No declarations of interest were received.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 23 February 2015 as a correct record.

RESOLVED:

That the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 23 February 2015 be confirmed as a correct record.

At the meeting of the Council held on 20 October 2014 (minute 57 refers), the attached Notice of Motion proposed by Councillor Jeff Green and seconded by Councillor Leah Fraser was referred by the Mayor to this Committee for consideration.

In accordance with Standing Order 7 (6), Councillor Green has been invited to attend the meeting in order for him to be given an opportunity to explain the Motion.

RESOLVED:

That at the request of Councillors J Green (Proposer of the Motion) and L Fraser (Seconder of the Motion), as they are unable to attend this meeting, this item of business be deferred to the next meeting of the Committee scheduled for 30 September 2015.

Report of the Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources.

In accordance with Article 6 of the Council’s constitution, the Committee was responsible for determining the Overview and Scrutiny rules and operational protocols.

A report by the Strategic Director of Transformation and Resources set out the refreshed meeting procedure rules for the Policy and Performance Committees’ meetings for Members’ consideration.

The Committee had regard to the Strategic Director’s report and the Meeting Procedure Rules appended to it and raised the following issues:

·  Concerns about the time limits in respect of Call-ins.  When a matter was being scrutinised it was important to hear all that people had to say.  The Chair took this point and agreed to monitor how the timings worked during the new Municipal Year and use her discretion if she considered it to be necessary.

·  The Committee noted that within the Policy and Performance Committee Procedure Rules it was stated that

‘The Chair will consider all proposed witnesses to be relied upon in relation to the call in. The Chair shall confirm his or her agreement to the proposed witnesses, having regard to details provided by the lead signatory as to the nature of the evidence and information each witness will provide.  Should the Chair not agree to a proposed witness being called, he/she will not be invited to attend and address the committee. The Chair may accept written documentary evidence where appropriate.’

The Committee noted that the Chair was able to exercise some discretion and written statements could be submitted in advance of a meeting so long as those who made those submissions were in attendance at the meeting and able to be questioned.

The Committee also noted that only witnesses relevant to the Call-in would be invited to attend a Call-in meeting.

RESOLVED:

That the procedure rules set out in Appendix 1 to the report be approved and the updated rules be circulated to the other Policy and Performance Committees.

Report of the Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources.

A report by the Strategic Director of Transformation and Resources served to review the roles of the Policy and Performance Committees and proposed a number of updates to their remits to reflect organisational re-structuring that had taken place over the last year and to reflect statutory requirements for Overview and Scrutiny.  The Committee was requested to endorse these changes and where necessary refer them to the Council for its approval.

Appended to the Strategic Director’s report were the revised committee remits.  The Committee noted that under this proposal all service activity would be aligned to one of the three Strategic Directorate Policy and Performance Committees.  This freed up this Committee to fulfil its constitutional role to deal with call-ins and consider any Council-wide business or activity that did not clearly align with one of the other committees.

The Committee noted that as well as the statutory duty to undertake overview and scrutiny under the strong leader model, there were three additional areas for which the Council’s scrutiny function had a statutory responsibility to undertake scrutiny as follows:

·  Health Scrutiny

·  Crime & Safety Partnership Scrutiny

·  Flood Risk Scrutiny

It was proposed these statutory scrutiny responsibilities be allocated to the Committee with the best fit, in line with the remits set out in Appendix 1 to the report. 

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the remits as proposed in Appendix 1 to the report be endorsed; and

(2)  the statutory scrutiny responsibilities summarised in the following table be referred to the Council for approval:

Report of the Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources.

A report by the Strategic Director of Transformation and Resources set out the current performance of the Council against the delivery of the Corporate Plan as at Year End 2014/15.  The Committee was requested to consider the details of the report and highlight any issues.

The Strategic Director reported that the Performance of the Corporate Plan was regularly monitored against the targets set at the start of the year.  Red, amber and green (RAG) ratings were assigned depending on the performance level against those targets.  For indicators rated red, the responsible officer was required to complete an exception report and highlight what corrective actions would be put in place.

The Corporate Plan Performance Report (Appendix 1 to the report) set out the final year position against 20 outcome measures from across the Council. 14 (70%) of the measures were rated green, 4 (20%) were rated amber and 2 (10%) were rated red.  For the 2 measures rated red, action plans were provided and included as follows:

·  Performance appraisals completed – (Appendix 2 to the report.)

·  Sickness Absence: The number of working days/shifts lost due to sickness (cumulative) – (Appendix 3 to the report.)

The refreshed Corporate Plan for 2015/16 had been agreed by the Council on 8 December 2014.  This was the final year of a three year planning cycle.  The first quarter performance against this would be reported to the Committee in September.

The Committee noted that work was under way to re-shape the Council’s business planning framework for the next planning cycle from 2016 onwards.  A new Council Plan would be considered by the Council on 13 July 2015 and the performance reporting that underpins it would be developed later in the year. This would involve a significant change to the way performance was reported against a range of agreed priority outcomes.

Members asked a number of questions and issues raised included the following:

·  There was no correlation between sickness absence and performance appraisal. 

·  The Strategic Director held regular meetings with the Trade Unions and a Workforce Engagement Group was well established. 

·  Some staff did not work normal office hours (9am to 5pm) so there had been difficulties in arranging their performance appraisals.

·  Sickness absence was now recorded through the new Selfserve system and it was possible to obtain information and position statements relating to staff illnesses etc.  This was seen as good management rather than an HR matter. 

·  Some staff were supported by Occupational Health, there was wellbeing management and there was a Counselling Service that staff could access themselves. 

·  Staff were also supported in various ways when they returned to work and if necessary reasonable adjustments were made.

·  Members identified that they had a training need as they wanted to better understand the information they were provided with so that they could monitor trends etc. so that they could see if there was any improvements

·  A new suite of performance indicators was required to fit in with the Council’s Corporate Plan. .

·  The Council had seen  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Report of the Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources.

A report by the Strategic Director of Transformation and Resources provided the Committee with the July Policy Briefing papers prepared by the Policy and Performance Team which included an overview of ongoing and recent national legislation, bills presented to Parliament and emerging policies.  This information was provided to assist the Committee with its work programme and scrutiny work and to demonstrate the Council’s approach to its policy framework.

The Strategic Director’s report also outlined the timetable for the preparation and reporting of policy briefing papers.

The July Policy Briefing papers focused predominantly on the policies and legislation that had emerged from the new Conservative Government.  The papers provided a high level summary based on the available information released by Central Government at this time.  The Committee noted that it was expected that the September Briefing Paper would be more detailed following the release of further information from Government and would also consider any implications for Wirral.

The Committee was asked if it wished to identify specific policy areas to focus upon which were in line with the Committee’s work programme.  Detailed briefing papers could be prepared for the subject matters if the Committee requested it.  These would be in addition to the regular policy briefing papers outlined above.

RESOLVED:

That the content of the report be noted.

Report of the Chair of the Policy and Performance Co-ordinating Committee.

A report by the Chair of the Committee reviewed the scrutiny work programme.  This programme was attached to the report at Appendix 1.  The report sets out the activities currently being undertaken by the three other Policy and Performance Committees and considered the work programme of this Committee.  Members were requested to note the contents of the report and consider the proposals for developing the scrutiny work programme in 2015/16 and the work of the Committee.

Councillor M McLaughlin, the Chair informed that the Committee’s main activities last year had been to consider a number of called-in decisions and as a consequence it had not had the time to undertake any task and finish work. She also informed that during this Municipal Year it would be considering the Cumulative Impact Policy and she proposed that a task and finish group be established to scope this piece of work in August 2015. The Chair reminded the Committee that this work had been the idea of Councillor P Hayes and she hoped that he would agree to sit on the task and finish group.

Councillor J Williamson, the Chair of the Policy and Performance - Transformation and Resources Committee informed that her Committee had considered the changes to library opening times.  It had also undertaken extensive work, as there was no longer any funding for crisis loans, on a Local Welfare Assistance Scheme, gathered a lot of information and had produced a positive report which she hoped would be well received.

Councillor J Williamson also informed that her Committee had not yet decided what it would scrutinise in this Municipal Year.

Councillor M Sullivan, the Chair of the Policy and Performance – Regeneration and Environment Committee informed that he had attended an agenda setting meeting for his Committee earlier in the day.  His Committee would be considering whether the Council obtained value for money from Merseytravel.  It would also be looking at the provision of free bus passes for people aged 60 and over.

Councillor M Sullivan also informed that he was looking forward to the year ahead and his Committee aimed to do the best it could for the people of Wirral.

Councillor M McLaughlin, as Chair of the Policy and Performance – Families and Wellbeing Committee informed that her Committee had a big remit even though it no longer had responsibility for anti-social behaviour.

The Committee had established a Health and Care Performance Panel to scrutinise health partners and social care.  There was a lot to be done around monitoring health and the Panel would be busy again this year.

The Committee had a focus on education and had replaced the Attainment Sub-Committee with a Children Sub-Committee.  The Sub-Committee’s first piece of work would be about providing children with the best start in life.

The Committee would continue to receive regular reports to monitor performance on policy initiatives. 

There was an NHS England initiative about delivering the NHS differently with a focus on integrated care and reduced hospital admissions.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.