Archived decisions

COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS, 30 JANUARY 2006

HAMPSHIRE

At an Extraordinary Meeting of Hampshire County Council held at The Castle, Winchester on Monday 30 January 2006.

Chairman:

a Councillor John K. West

Vice Chairman:

p Councillor Mrs. P. A. West

Councillors:

76 APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors: Chegwyn, Dunsdon, House, James, Mrs McNair Scott, Mrs Still, John West, Weeks, Woodhall, Woodward and Wright.

77 DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members were mindful that, where they believed they had a personal or personal prejudicial interest in any matter to be considered at the meeting, they should normally at the time of the debate declare their interest and, having regard to the circumstances described in paragraphs 9, 10, 11 and 12 of the County Council's Code of Conduct, consider whether to leave the meeting whilst the matter was discussed.

78 REVIEW OF DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURE

The Council considered a report of the Chief Executive, Item 3 in the Minute Book, prepared after extensive consultation with members of the County Council and with Chief Officers, concerning revised working arrangements in relation to the exercise of the Council's overview and scrutiny responsibilities and the development and delivery of its services in local communities, and other operational developments to improve still further the Hampshire community's ability to access information about decision making by the County Council, its executive and its committees, and to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the Council's own in-house procedures.

The recommendations sought approval to a marked change in approach to members' involvement in the County Council's scrutiny function and to assisting members to develop their community leadership role. The opportunity would also be taken to review executive decision making procedures and to enhance and increase the information available to members generally as to decision making.

The Leader presented the report and answered members' questions across the wide range of issues involved. In response to questions about pre-scrutiny of executive decisions and work of a cross-cutting nature, the Leader emphasised the need for the Policy Review Committees to develop their own working arrangements, to generate their own work programmes and, in holding the Executive to account, to call members of the Cabinet to appear before them if circumstances so required. Views were also expressed about minority group chairmanship of scrutiny committees and the role of the proposed Scrutiny Co-ordination Panel which would have membership proportionate to the size of the political groups on the County Council. An important role for this panel would be to manage Policy Review Committee work programmes in the context of the resources which the County Council was prepared to allocate to more effective delivery of the scrutiny function.

It was the Leader's intention that implementation of the changes, if agreed, should be Council Tax cost neutral as far as possible whilst enhancing the quality of the Council's decisions and bringing the County Council closer to its many and varied communities. The Leader also indicated his preference that members should, in the context of the aims of the Democratic Review, be able to commit expenditure to projects of local significance, noting that, in his experience, local roads were regularly an important issue brought to members' attention. This issue would require further consideration as did the details of some of the principles advocated in the report. The thrust of the report and the recommendations were supported by the Council, however, on the basis that, where necessary, the detail would be brought before the Council as soon as possible with further consultation with members in the meantime.

The proposed Hampshire Action Teams (HATs) were welcomed in principle although members expressed concerns about their relationship with existing local working arrangements - the Local Strategic Partnerships and the Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnerships were mentioned particularly. The Leader emphasised that the HATs would not become involved with other agencies' responsibilities but would concentrate on effective delivery of the County Council's responsibilities at local level. Their ability to operate flexibly and responsively to local and cross boundary issues and to engage with district and parish councils and the local community effectively was key to their success.

The Council asked to review the effectiveness of the changes after one year's experience and again a year later in order to ensure that lessons learned were taken into account and any changes or fine tuning deemed necessary implemented.

RESOLVED:

1. To streamline the decision making function by:

a) Reducing the resource burden associated with formal decision making by having different processes for different types of decision:

- Key decisions made collectively

-·Key decisions made individually

- Non-key decisions

b) Removing all unnecessary briefing meetings

c) Improving visibility of local member input to decisions by adding Member Statements

2. To create effectively supported and resourced, dynamic, flexible, Hampshire Action Teams (HATs):

a) Rooted in evidence of what local needs and priorities are:

- Using information, statistics and data available from across the organisation

- Using perception evidence from existing and new consultation and community

engagement exercises

b) Focussed on action and impact - not talking shops

c) Adding value in a complex partnership environment:

- Engaging with communities to support democratic renewal

- Supporting effective local partnership actions

- Problem solving to improve local services

- Setting locally flexible Hampshire priorities and strategies

d) Measured and published outcomes and impact

e) Integrated into the overall Hampshire County Council democratic and planning processes.

3. To identify real local flexibility which will enable HATs to undertake:

a) Prioritisation of resources within budgets by local Members for their area

b) Setting of priorities / strategies which are really locally flexible

c) Decision making or recommendation at a local level

4. To pilot the Hampshire Action Team (HATs) approach across the County for two years from implementation, and then review its effectiveness before deciding upon a long term approach

5. To improve the Scrutiny Function by:

a) Ensuring it undertakes a wide range of scrutiny functions including:

- Holding the Executive to account

- Cross-cutting performance monitoring

- Policy review

- External reviews

b) Putting systems in place to proactively seek topics:

- Of concern and interest to the public

- Where there is real potential for impact and improvement

c) Retaining the current Policy Review Committees with:

- Formal meetings reduced to four per year for each Committee

- Informal planning rather than Chairman's Briefings

- Cross-cutting Terms of Reference ensuring coverage of all the work of the organisation and all Executive functions

- Pre-scrutiny by choice

d) Having an overall work programme of task and finish thematic reviews:

- Topics for which will be prioritised by the Scrutiny Co-ordination Panel on the basis of potential impact and timeliness

- Receiving specialist scrutiny support from dedicated officers

e) Having a Scrutiny Co-ordination Panel which will:

- Be politically proportionate based on including Policy Review Committee

(PRC) and Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee Chairmen

- Prioritise suggested topics for the overall work programme and facilitate ratification of outcomes

- Be chaired by an appointed PRC Chairman.

6. To achieve improved efficiency overall by:

a) Reduction in the number of members meetings, pre-meetings and briefings.

b) Managing information items and occasional seminars via pre-programmed monthly briefings (10 a year) wherever possible incorporating information hitherto reported to the various advisory panels; these would be wound up given the alternative opportunity which would be available to all members to be briefed. This issue will require further in-depth consideration but preliminary views from members identify opportunities for efficiencies here.

c) Integrating the business of the County Council's transport advisory panels into

the HATs structure and reviewing other formal site advisory / management panels with a view to incorporating them into the local HATs arena.

d) Delivering long term efficiency savings through:

- Improving the provision of information in:

- More cost effective and easily accessible ways for officers, the public and Members

- More effective and focused report writing

- Fewer formal meetings

- Targeting specialist officer attendance at partnership/local arrangements where it can have the most value

- Regular review of effective use of both staff and Member time as a resource with efficiency adjustments where possible.

The meeting closed at 12.20 p.m.