Agenda and draft minutes

To enable members of the public to ask questions, express views or present petitions, IF NOTICE HAS BEEN GIVEN, (by telephone, in writing or by email) BY NO LATER THAN 12 NOON OF THE WORKING DAY PRECEDING THE MEETING. As per Procedural Rule 14.4 at any one meeting no person may submit more than 3 questions and no more than 1 such question may be asked on behalf of one organisation.

There was no public participation.

19 October 2023

It was moved by Councillor Nick Wilton, seconded by Councillor Gareth Gee and

RESOLVED (unanimously)

That the minutes of the meeting of the Scrutiny Committee held on 19 October 2023 be approved as a correct record.

Voting

05 For

00 Against

01 Abstentions

The Chair declared the motion CARRIED.

Members are required to declare the existence and nature of any interests they may have in subsequent agenda items in accordance with the District Council’s Code of Conduct. Those interests are matters that relate to money or that which can be valued in money, affecting the Member, their partner, extended family and close friends. Interests that become apparent at a later stage in the proceedings may be declared at the time.

There were no declarations of interest.

This report summarises the outturn performance against the District Council’s Corporate Plan targets and Key Performance Indicators for Quarter 1 (April 2023 to June 2023) and Quarter 2 (July 2023 to September 2023). The report highlights where services have performed strongly and where improvements can be made.

The Policy Manager introduced a report which summarised the outturn performance against the District Council’s Corporate Plan targets and Key Performance Indicators for Quarter 1 and Quarter 2. The report highlighted where services had performed strongly and where improvements could be made.

The Current Corporate Plan 2020-24 set out the Council’s priorities and areas for improvement, these priority areas were detailed in the report. The plan identified a number of priority targets relating to the specific activities to be undertaken during the relevant financial year. These targets were assigned annually to specific teams and service areas for action, they set out how the Council would meet its annual corporate plan targets. The 25 Corporate Plan actions for 2023/24 were agreed by Council in 2022. Progress during Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2023/24 was set out in Appendix 1.

In addition, there were 12 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that measured the District Council’s general organisation health. They covered service areas such as determining planning applications in good time, paying bills on time, collecting Council Tax efficiently and paying benefits claims promptly. Appendix 2 provided detail on the progress against the KPIs for Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2023/24.

Table 1 summarised the Corporate Plan actions and KPI results for Quarter 1 and Quarter 2 of 2023/24. It was noted that 66% of the Corporate Plan actions were fully achieved alongside 87% of the Key Performance Indicator targets.

It was moved by Councillor Nick Wilton, seconded by Councillor Peter Dobbs and

RESOLVED (unanimously)

1.    That the outturn performance against Q1 and Q2 Corporate Plan targets for 2023/24 be noted.

2.    That the outturn performance against Q1 and Q2 Key Performance Indicators for 2023/24 be noted.

3.    That quarterly reports continue to be presented to Members of the Scrutiny Committee to highlight progress, demonstrate good performance, and address areas for improvement.

4.    That a working group be established to further investigate, and determine any required alterations to, the current Key Performance Indicators, and that Group Leaders be contacted to ask for nominations to this working group.

The Chair declared the motion CARRIED.

Councillor Edwards-Walker left the meeting at 18:43pm.

Members are asked to consider the draft scoping assessment for a scrutiny exercise regarding the current workforce challenges being faced by the Council. It is recommended that Members agree to undertake the proposed piece of work and discuss the possible Membership of a task and finish group, in addition to the timescales involved.

Given this piece of work is currently in its formative stages, it is also recommended that the Committee agree an arrangement of delegated authority to the Chair of the Scrutiny Committee to make any required alterations to the scope of the exercise, in consultation with the Head of Paid Service.

The Director of Corporate and Customer Services introduced a scoping assessment for a scrutiny exercise to investigate proposals for the future workforce of the Council. The scoping assessment outlined a piece of work designed to address the acute workforce challenges being faced by the Organisation, specifically relating to difficulties in the recruitment and retention of staff in key service areas of the Authority.

A report had previously been presented to Council, and subsequently to this Committee, which discussed in detail the issues relating to organisational resilience, resources and priorities. That report outlined several potential options for consideration which aimed to deliver a package of measures to aid the recruitment and retention of staff, to ensure that the Council would be adequately resourced to deliver its core services and priorities.

Following consideration of that report, it had become apparent that further Member involvement would be beneficial in determining solutions to both the acute and long-term workforce challenges being face by the Organisation. It was therefore proposed that a group of Members be established to further investigate these challenges and produce recommendations to be considered by a future meeting.

It was moved by Councillor David Hughes, seconded by Councillor Gareth Gee and

RESOLVED (unanimously)

That a task and finish group be established to undertake the proposed piece of work relating to the recruitment and retention challenges being faced by the Authority, and that a report be produced detailing their recommendations, to be presented to future meeting of this Committee.

The Chair declared the motion CARRIED.

Members are asked to consider the draft scoping assessment for a scrutiny exercise regarding the experiences of flooding within the Derbyshire Dales. As Members have already agreed to undertake this piece of work, it is recommended that the membership of a task and finish group and the timescales involved are discussed.

The Director of Corporate and Customer Services presented Members with a revised terms of reference relating to a Scrutiny review discussed at its previous meeting. The Chair noted that the spirit of those amendments were to ensure Members were commencing the review in an independently minded fashion without prejudging outcomes.   

This review would focus on exploring the inputs of those organisations with responsibilities for flood and water management such as the Lead Local Flood Authority, its relationship with the Local Planning Authority and the experiences of flooding incidents by residents and businesses though engaging with the public. 

The outputs of this review should affect change in the way that those organisations support the Local Planning Authority throughout the development management process and its Members to transact their responsibilities. 

It was noted that North East Derbyshire District Council were interested in contributing to the review given an ongoing issue in the Clay Cross area.

It was moved by Councillor Nick Wilton, seconded by Councillor Gareth Gee

RESOLVED (unanimously)

To adopt the revised terms of reference as tabled at the meeting. 

The Chair declared the motion CARRIED.

It was then moved by Councillor David Hughes, seconded by Councillor Roger Shelley and

RESOLVED (unanimously)

That a task and finish group be established to undertake the proposed piece of work relating to the experiences of flooding within the district, and that a report be produced detailing their recommendations, to be presented to future meeting of this Committee. The task group should be populated with Members who are not on the Planning Committee.

The Chair declared the motion CARRIED.

To receive and approve the updated Scrutiny Committee Work Programme for 2023/24.

The Director of Corporate and Customer Services introduced the updated Scrutiny Work Programme for 2023/24.

It was recommended that the Waste Collection Contract be removed from the work programme, as work was taking place outside the Scrutiny Committee via which it was planned that a working group of Members would investigate this issue.

It was also proposed that the development of a new set of Key Performance Indicators would be added to the Scrutiny work programme for the next municipal year.

The Committee were informed of an additional proposed topic to be investigated, this proposed exercise sought to determine any indirect discrimination within the policies and practices of the Council. It was noted that this would be added to the work programme.