Archived decisions

1. 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 save for

exercising any right to speak in accordance with

Paragraph 12 of the Code.

The following personal declarations of interest were made:

Councillor Stephen Reid - Item 5 (I.T Developments and Performance - Progress Report - Works for IDS

2. WORK PROGRAMME

The Chief Executive gave a presentation on the Select Committee Structure, the work of the Policy and Resources Select Committee, its terms of reference and elements of its work programme (Item 2 in the Minute Book). Questions were asked about the risk management of Swine Flu and were assured that the Cabinet was being regularly updated and that plans were in place to ensure service delivery. Members appreciated the meeting being held in the new building and sought assurances that the facilities would be fully exploited once it had been fully occupied. The issue of worker profiles for agency staff was raised and Members were assured that the issue was being considered by the Safe and Healthy People Select Committee.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee's Work Programme be approved

subject to the issues raised at this meeting.

3. MINUTES

The Minutes of the Committee held on 23 January 2009 were confirmed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

4. CHAIRMAN'S COMMUNICATIONS

a. Budget Briefing

The Chairman reported that one of the areas the Select Committees look at on a regular basis was the budget and performance information. The budget proposals were scrutinised at the January Select Committee meetings, as the departmental budgets were agreed by the Executive Members in January. The whole budget is then debated at full Council in February.

As the budget setting process followed an annual cycle of review and preparation each Select Committee had an informal (i.e. not in public) twice a year on budgets and departmental performance information. This was in addition to the formal public meetings and was intended to provide an opportunity for Members to familiarise themselves with the budget setting process and performance of the County Council. The briefings could highlight to members where the budget pressures and performance issues were in the departments the Select Committees scrutinise. Members could then use this information to help identify areas for further scrutiny. These briefings took place in November/December in the lead in to the new years budget proposals, and July when the end of year results are available. All members of the Committee were urged to attend these to enable them to keep up to date with the budget process prior to consideration by Members of the budget in January.

b. Sustainable Communities Act 2007

The Chairman reported Full Council had considered a report regarding the Sustainable Communities Act. A recommendation had been accepted suggesting that this committee be `engaged in supporting the Executive to manage the progression of the County Council's responses to the Act'. He proposed that a report on the Act be presented to the next meeting of the Committee to explore what role it could play in relation to the Act.

c. Audit Commission

The Chairman reported the Audit Commission would shortly be carrying out a review of the County Council's Scrutiny process.

5. IT DEVELOPMENTS AND PERFORMANCE - PROGRESS REPORT

The Head of IT presented a report giving Members an update on the IT developments and performance during the last six months (Item 5 in the Minute Book). IT had been through a period of major technological change and organisational change, and this would continue with the implementation of the Corporate Services Review. However, despite this, IT continued to perform strongly, with a number of notable achievements being summarised in this report. The immediate priorities for IT had been set by the Corporate Services Review, in particular supporting the major work programmes (eg. Workstyle) of the Corporate Improvement Plan and the need to drive corporate efficiencies and to support the Corporate Efficiency Board.

The key points included:

· The Corporate Services Review of IT had been completed, and a number of improvements had been identified and are being actioned;

· Plans were progressing well on the migration of the main central Data Centre - one of the most complicated and risky projects the County Council had undertaken;

· IT and other staff had moved into the refurbished EII Court (formerly Ashburton Court), and the moves had been achieved successfully underpinned by new IT infrastructure;

· A shared service partnership for IT had been signed with all District, Borough and Unitary Councils in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight;

· The Hampshire Public Service Network (HPSN2) contract had been let to ntl:Telewest, with a value of up to £200m over its period, serving all local authorities in Hampshire and being used as a national exemplar;

· A personalised Hantsnet portal had been developed for Members.

The question of Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans for IT was raised and it was agreed that this should be the subject of a report to be presented to the next meeting of the Committee.

RESOLVED:

That:

a. the report be received.

b. a report on Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans for IT be included in the next six monthly IT report to the Committee.

6. CORPORATE RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGY - UPDATE

The Chief Executive presented the annual report on the County Council's Corporate Risk Management Strategy (Item 6 in the Minute Book). The County Council's risk management programme aimed to deliver improvements to the capacity of the Council to handle risk effectively. It also provided a platform that would enable it to demonstrate the contribution risk management made to its handling of risk and achieving of outcomes. A certain amount of risk taking is both inevitable and essential if the County Council is to achieve its objectives. The way that the County Council manages the many risks facing it ultimately contributes towards the implementation of its business plan and the achievement of its priorities. The aim of the County Council's risk management process was; "No surprises". To increase the level of certainty in the County Council's activities by thinking and planning ahead to deal with risks in advance. A key purpose of the County Council's risk management arrangements was to provide assurance to Members that the County Council was effectively managing its key business risks. In order to achieve this it maintains robust risk management arrangements that had adopted best practice from the private and public sector, nationally and internationally. These arrangements were subject to review by the Audit Commission as part of the Use of Resources assessment, and from 2009, as part of the Comprehensive Area Assessment.

Significant improvements had been made in the County Council's risk management arrangements since 2008. However, it was recognised that improved performance was only part of the story. Its risk management activities needed to directly contribute to the delivery of better outcomes. It was clear that the Council's risk management framework "needed to deliver the capacity across the organisation to be more confident with risk so that it could be used to deliver the outcomes wanted - even if this meant taking more managed risk". A revised Risk and Safety Executive Group was, therefore, concentrating on the four key elements of that outcome statement and on those actions that would raise:

· The County Council's Capacity to manage risk

· The County Council's Confidence in handling risk

· Managing the risks to Outcome Delivery

· Supporting considered Risk Taking.

Members asked about what was happening to manage the corporate risk of swine flu and how the public were being reassured that the County Council was managing these risks. It was agreed that the policy on managing swine flu should be circulated to all Members of the Committee.

RESOLVED:

That:

a. the report be received and noted.

b. the policy on managing swine flu should be circulated to all Members of the Committee.

7. REVIEW OF SCRUTINY - IMPLEMENTATION UPDATE

The Chief Executive presented a report updating the Committee on the implementation of the recommendations of the Review of Scrutiny (Item 7 in the Minute Book). The Committee had undertaken a review of existing arrangements to support the scrutiny function in 2007/08. The recommendations resulting from the review were accepted by Cabinet in 2008. Implementation of the recommendations were well underway. Members noted that a revision of the Media Protocol was being drafted to reflect the role of Select Committees and requested that they should be circulated with the revised draft for comments. It was agreed that any comments on the draft media protocol should be sent to the Chairman, who would communicate them to the Leader.

RESOLVED:

That:

a. the report be received and noted.

b. The revised draft media protocol be circulated to the Committee and any comments be sent to the Chairman who would communicate them to the Leader.

8 . HAMPSHIRE SCRUTINY CONFERENCE

The Chief Executive presented a report on the first Hampshire Scrutiny Conference which had been held in April 2009 and representatives from all District council's had attended (Item 8 in the Minute Book).

The Conference included three discussion groups relating to key areas emerging from recent legislation: Scrutiny of Partnerships, Approaches to Joint District/County Scrutiny, and Approaches to Scrutiny of Crime and Disorder. Feedback from these sessions suggest that the following next steps would be helpful:

· Set up an officer e-group across all Hampshire Local Authorities to facilitate information sharing (e.g. of work programmes, good practice, latest policy information etc). This would also provide a forum for discussion as new legislation/regulations emerge

· Create a `who is who' directory of scrutiny leads in Hampshire at Member and officer level, with contact details and information about each Local Authorities scrutiny committee structure. This would be shared with all Hampshire Local Authorities/made available online.

· Consider existing arrangements for joint health networks (such as the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee) and whether these could be adapted to form the basis of a Hampshire scrutiny network.

· Hampshire Local Authorities scrutiny representatives to agree a local approach to Crime and Disorder Scrutiny following the publication of the relevant guidance. If a joint network has been established this forum may be appropriate to discuss how we take this forward in Hampshire.

· Once guidance/regulations were published regarding scrutiny powers in relation to partners and joint scrutiny, Hampshire Local Authorities scrutiny representatives would be invited to consider Hampshire's response to these powers.

It was agreed that it would be beneficial to improve links between the County and Districts and that this could be achieved by involving all Districts in an appropriate scrutiny review and the forthcoming review on flooding was suggested. It was also suggested that future conferences should have a high profile speaker and Dr. Andrew Coulson of INLOGOV, University of Birmingham was suggested as a possible candidate

RESOLVED:

That:

a. The report be received and noted.

b. The next steps suggested following feedback from the discussion groups at the conference be endorsed and progressed.

c. Links between the County Council and District Council's be improved and District Council's be invited to partake in an appropriate forthcoming scrutiny review.

d. Arrangements be made for District Councils to be involved in an appropriate scrutiny review.

9. COUNCILLOR CALL FOR ACTION POLICY INTERIM ARRANGEMENTS - DRAFT PROTOCOL

The Chief Executive presented a report outlining the interim arrangements for the Councillor Call for Action which will enable Members to raise a local government matter with the relevant Select Committee (Item 9 in the Minute Book). This was a wide-ranging piece of legislation that affected many aspects of local authorities' governance, powers and partnership arrangements as well as the new provisions for patient and public involvement in health and social care. The Act picked up key elements of the Strong and Prosperous Communities White Paper which was published in summer 2006. National Guidance had been published setting out best practice in relation to the Councillor Call for Action and matters that would be considered exempt under these arrangements. Local arrangements to support Members wishing to raise a Councillor Call for Action, and the criteria that would guide any Select Committee in responding to such a referral were attached in Appendix One to the Chief Executive's report.

RESOLVED:

That it be a RECOMMENDATION to Cabinet that the interim arrangements to support the Councillor Call for Action be approved.

10. PROPOSALS FOR IN DEPTH SCRUTINY

The Chief Executive presented a report seeking approval for the Environment and Transportation Select Committee to review the partnership working underpinning current flood risk management and flood prevention arrangements in Hampshire, together with performance over the last year (Item 10 in the Minute Book)

RESOLVED:

That the Environment and Transportation Select Committee's proposals to review the partnership working underpinning current flood risk management and flood prevention arrangements in Hampshire, together with performance over the last year be approved and the scope for Districts to contribute to this work be explored.

11. FINANCIAL SCRUTINY - COUNTY COUNCIL OUTTURN 2008/09

The County Treasurer presented a report on the County Council's financial outturn 2008/09 (Item 11 in the Minute Book)

RESOLVED:

That the report be received and noted.

The Scrutiny Officer updates the work programme.

The Head of IT includes a report on Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity plans for IT in the next six monthly IT report to the Committee.

and the Scrutiny Officer includes this in the work programme.

The Scrutiny Officer circulates the policy on managing swine flu to all Members of the Committee.

The Head of Corporate Communications circulates the revised draft media protocol to the Committee and Members send any comments they may have to the Chairman.

The Scrutiny Officer progresses the feedback from the discussion groups at the scrutiny conference and arranges for District Councils to be invited to partake in an appropriate scrutiny review.