To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors W Smith and A Sykes.

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 30 September 2015 as a correct record (attached). 

Councillor P Gilchrist referred the Committee to Minute No. 13 – Notice of Motion – 44 Councillors and the third of bottom paragraph on page 3.  He informed that the last sentence in this paragraph needed to be corrected for what he had actually pointed out was

  ‘that the average electors per Councillor in Knowsley consisted of approximately 2,524 people whereas the figure for Wirral was 3670.’

RESOLVED:

That subject to the amendment being made as set out above the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 30 September 2015 be confirmed as a correct record.

The Committee had regard to the Wirral Plan Scrutiny Report and its appendices as follows:

Appendix 1 – Wirral Plan Scrutiny Report November 2015

Appendix 2 – People Workshop Slides

Appendix 3 – Business Workshop Slides

Appendix 4 – Environment Workshop Slides

The report set out the Scrutiny Response to the Wirral Plan Delivery Plan that had been published in October 2015 as a five year Plan based on twenty key pledges.  This followed a series of Wirral Plan workshop sessions for non-executive Members at the beginning of November.  The Committee was requested to have regard to the report and agree any recommendations for the Cabinet’s consideration.

The Chair thanked Members for their attendance at the workshop sessions and remarked on the very good turnout that there had been.  She asked if they had any comments on how the process could be improved in future years.  Members noted that the Policy and Performance Committees would use the twenty pledges to inform their Work Programmes in the coming years.

One Member informed the Committee that she had attended all three workshop sessions and had found them very interesting, informative and well run. She agreed that this approach had been a useful exercise.

Another Member informed the Committee that she had attended two of the workshop sessions.  She had found them particularly useful and was pleased that the Committees were not going to work in isolation.

A Member was of the view that the workshops had been well chaired and queried what the process was to move this piece of scrutiny work forward.

The Chair reported that over the next weeks and months the Committees would ascertain how the pledges were being delivered and she would be happy to hold similar workshop sessions in future years.

The Team Leader - Performance and Scrutiny informed that the report had been cascaded to those Officers drafting relevant supporting strategies so that all the points made could be taken into consideration.

The Chair informed that the report would be considered by the Cabinet in the current format and then how the pledges translated into action would be monitored over a period of time.

The Team Leader – Performance and Scrutiny circulated three amendments to the report in respect of pages 20, 23 and 26 and the Chair asked the Committee if it was happy for report to go forward into the consultation process once these amendments had been made.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the Wirral Plan Scrutiny Report be amended as detailed in the paper circulated at the meeting and be presented to the Cabinet for consideration; and

(2)  Members, Officers and Partners be thanked for their attendance at the workshop sessions and for their input into the scrutiny process in respect of the Wirral Plan.

A report by the Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources set out the timetable for the scrutiny of the 2016/17 budget proposals.  The Committee was requested to consider the approach to scrutinising the proposals to ensure there was consistency across all of the Policy and Performance Committees.

The Committee noted that the lead-in time and arrangements for consultation were key drivers for the scrutiny approach to be adopted.  The lead-in time set out the time constraints for scrutiny which usually ran concurrent with the timetable for consultation.  The timetable for budget setting process for 2016/17 was set out in detail in the report.

Members noted that there were three options that could be considered as follows:

·  Time is allocated at the above meetings to review budget proposals (this will be dependent on the size of the existing agendas for the January/February round of meetings).

·  Additional committee meetings are scheduled in January as dedicated budget scrutiny sessions.

·  A series of workshops are scheduled in January for each of the committees with a report being taken to the Co-ordinating Committee on 16 February 2016 and referred to the Cabinet meeting on 23 February 2016.

The Chair proposed that the workshop approach be adopted and the feedback from the other three Policy and Performance Committees be presented to this Committee.  She also proposed that each Committee Chair would work with Group Spokespersons to ensure the workshops went ahead in the timescale laid down.

A Member enquired about the arrangements for public consultation on the 2016/17 budget proposals and what form it would take.  The Chair informed that she would ask the Strategic Director – Transformation and Resources to respond to all Members of the Committee with the answer on this.

A Member enquired if delivery plans would be available for the workshop sessions and the Chair informed that she was not ruling that possibility out.

RESOLVED: That

(1)  the workshop approach be adopted and the feedback from the other three Policy and Performance Committees be presented to this Committee at its meeting on 16 February 2016 and to the Cabinet at its meeting on 22 February 2016; and

(2)  each Policy and Performance Committee Chair be requested to work with Group Spokespersons to ensure the workshop sessions go ahead in the timescale laid down.