ORGANISATION SCRUTINY
COMMITTEE
RECORD OF MEETING
HELD ON 23RD JULY 2007
Present:
Councillor A C Johnson; Chair
Councillors W T Beard, J A Beech, D H D
Charlesworth, H W Curran, A Moran and
J Lewis
In Attendance:
Apologies:
Councillors R E Dodd, B Evans and K Healey
No other Member made any declaration
of interest in any item of business on the agenda.
12 WHIPPING
DECLARATIONS
In accordance with Paragraph 18 of the
Performance and Overview Procedure Rules, Members were invited to
declare in respect of items where the whip had been applied.
No such declarations were made.
13 RECORDS OF
MEETINGS
AGREED: (a) That the Record of
the Meeting held on 25th May 2007 be approved as
correct; and
(b) That the Record of the Special
Meeting held on 25th June 2007 be approved as
correct.
14 BOARD
BUSINESS
14.1
Meeting 26th July 2007
The Committee was invited to comment on Board
reports which fell within its remit.
Item
7 Further Electoral Review of
Crewe and Nantwich
The Boundary Committee’s final recommendations
in respect of the electoral Review of Crewe and Nantwich had been
published.
The Committee commented that if the Electoral
Commission accepted the recommendations, there would be “all out”
elections in May 2008, a consequence of which would be that some
Ward Councillors would be due for re-election in 2010.
Item
10 Asset Management Plan –
2007/2011
The report recommended a revised Asset
Management Plan which included the outcomes of the asset condition
surveys and also took a “backward look” to show progress in the
management of the Council’s assets.
At some stage, it would be necessary to
consider whether to retain or dispose of certain buildings. The
Executive Director (Treasury and Corporate Support) would be
preparing an Action Plan for consideration by the Scrutiny
Committee in due course.
14.2
Exclusion of Press and Public
RESOLVED: That
the press and public be excluded from the meeting during
consideration of the following item pursuant to Section 100(A)(4)
of the Local Government Act 1972 on the ground that it involved the
likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Paragraph 3
of Part 1 of Schedule 12A (as amended) of the Act.
Item
18
Insurance Cover and Capacity Issues Within the
Revenues
Section
(Paragraph 3)
AGREED: That the Board be
informed that the Committee gave specific support to the addition
of a member of staff onto the establishment.
14.3
Re-admittance of Press and Public
RESOLVED: That the
press and public be re-admitted to the meeting.
14.4 During
discussion of Board reports, Members commented on the difficulty of
giving due consideration to the items in the absence of the
supporting documents. It was noted that whilst these been lodged in
the Members’ Room, copies had only been made available to Board
Members and Scrutiny Committee Chairs. The Committee was
informed that in an effort to reduce the volume of hard copies, the
Board had introduced this system a few months previously. It
was AGREED that the issue be raised with Board
Members, with a view to reviewing these arrangements.
(Note: Councillor J K Hatfield
participated in the discussion of Board reports.)
14.5
Provisional Items (Board’s Forward Plan)
The Committee noted the provisional list of
items for September 2007.
14.6
Responses/Referrals from the Board or Council
At the previous meeting, the Committee had
commented on a Board report (Wulvern Housing – Governance
Review). At its meeting held on 31st May, the
Board took into account the Committee’s comments, together with the
comments from the other two Scrutiny Committees and deferred making
a decision, referring the item to the Organisation Scrutiny
Committee for consideration and recommendation back to the Board at
the earliest opportunity.
The Organisation Scrutiny Committee held a
special meeting on 25th June 2007 (as noted in Record
No. 13 above) and its recommendation to Board as detailed in the
Record of Meeting above was noted.
15
PERFORMANCE MONITORING
15.5 Best
Value Performance Indicators
Lisa Carr was in attendance for this item.
The Committee considered the report of the
Policy and Performance Officer in respect of the performance
indicators which were monitored by the Committee. No specific
comments were made.
15.2
Financial Out-Turn – 2006/2007
The Committee noted the Financial Out-Turn
which had been submitted to full Council on 27th June
2007.
15.3
Financial Monitoring – 1st April 2007 – 30th
June 2007
Harvey Woodward was in attendance for this
item.
The Committee noted the financial monitoring
report for the first quarter. No specific comments were
made.
15.4
Efficiency Plan – 2006-2007
Harvey Woodward was in attendance for this
item.
Members noted the out-turn on efficiency
savings for 2006/2007 compared with expected savings for the same
period.
16 WORK
PROGRAMME
16.1 Emergency
Planning
It was noted that Paul Eeles, Emergency
Planning Officer, and Roger Booth,
District Emergency Planner would make a presentation to the
Committee at its November meeting.
16.2 Election
Process
Ralph Bason was in attendance for this
item.
The Committee considered the report of the
Elections Manager which outlined the process leading up to the
elections held on 3rd May 2007.
The Committee was informed that a review of
polling stations was due to be undertaken, following which a report
would be submitted to the Board in the Autumn. The review
would include consideration of the locations and
accessibility.
A comment was made that members of the
public were often unaware of the elections process; as an
example, many electors believed that they were required to take
their polling cards to the polling station. The Elections
Manager agreed to give consideration to improving the information
provided for members of the public.
16.3 Referral
from Audit Committee – ICT Service Provision
for Members
The newly-established Audit Committee had
asked the Organisation Scrutiny Committee to review the ICT service
provision for Members, taking into account whether Thin Client
Technology (TCT) was proving to be sufficiently effective.
The Audit Committee had expressed the view that the current service
provision was not acceptable, but had not given detailed
reasons.
The following issues were raised during
discussion of this item -
Ø
Information technology had advanced since TCT had been introduced
and it may not be the most appropriate method for Councillors.
Ø
Should TCT be examined in isolation?
Ø
How were problems to be identified?
Ø
What was the intended outcome?
Ø
Was replacement more costly than retaining TCT?
Ø
The risk for Members was that replacement of TCT with PCs could
reduce the level of support from IT staff.
Ø
Councillors now made more extensive use of the technology and it
was timely to review the service.
Ø
There were a number of “expert” Councillors who may be able to
assist in the review.
In response to a question about the
possibility of “piggy-backing” TCT onto Councillors’ own personal
computers (PCs), the Committee was informed that this represented a
security risk. There was a greater potential for viruses on a PC
infecting the whole network.
The Executive Director (Treasury and Corporate
Support) reminded Members of the principal reasons for the
introduction of TCT.
- Reasonably secure.
- Used common office
suites.
- TCT
removed the requirement for Councillors to back-up their work
- IT
staff could remotely support Councillors (shadowing)
- PCs
were approximately £1,000 each at that time and TCT represented
better value for money. The cost of PCs had now reduced to
approximately £400.
The Committee agreed that the following
information would be helpful to the Committee –
- Analysis of the
issues raised with the Help Desk. (The Executive Director
reported that there were misconceptions about the efficiency of the
service. At present, there were no outstanding calls on the
Help Desk.)
- The number
of Members who used TCT
- The cost per
line.
- The number
of lines where problems were experienced.
The Executive Director (Treasury and Corporate
Support) suggested that as part of the review she could develop a
questionnaire to survey Councillors about their needs and their IT
abilities.
AGREED: (a) That ICT Service
Provision for Councillors be reviewed by the
Committee;
(b) That, as a starting point, the
Executive Director (Treasury and Corporate Support) provide an
analysis of issues raised with the Help Desk;
(c) That the Executive Director
(Treasury and Corporate Support) draft Terms of Reference for the
review, to be issued to Members of the Committee;
(d) That a presentation be made at
the September or November meeting, following collation of
appropriate information; and
(e) That, subject to room
availability, the next meeting be held in the Council
Chamber.
16.4
Communications and Press and Media Relations
The Committee had agreed to review
communications as it applied across the authority from a policy and
practice perspective and its links with Members.
AGREED: That at its meeting in
September, the Communications Manager make a presentation to the
Committee outlining her role and that of the Communications
Team.
16.5 Member
Support and Development
The Committee had already agreed that this
topic be reviewed and was now invited to schedule it into its work
programme. The principal reason for the review was that in
recent years abortive costs were accruing to the authority, on a
regular basis, as a result of late cancellations of training
sessions which had been arranged in accordance with the Member
Development Programme.
It was AGREED that at its
meeting in September, the Committee receive a presentation which
addressed the issue of the abortive costs but also covered the
following -
- Did the Member
Development Programme meet Members’ needs, taking into account
personal development and training considered to be mandatory?
- Were the topic
areas appropriate? Did they engage Members?
- Did the method of
delivery engage Members?
- What was the
nature of difficulties experienced in attracting Members to
specific training sessions?
- Timing of training
sessions: Most training sessions were held during the day and
often inconvenient for those Councillors in employment.
Should they be re-scheduled to the evening in an effort
to attract greater attendance?
- What was the value
of Member training? Should it continue or be abandoned?
- Were training
sessions promoted adequately and in a timely manner?
- The nature of
difficulties experienced in attracting Members to specific topic
areas.
16.6
Climate Change Task Group
The Local Economy and Environment Scrutiny
Committee had established a task group on Climate Change and had
requested each of the other two Scrutiny Committees to appoint two
Members to it. The Terms of Reference for the review were
noted.
During discussion, comment was made that
there was a potential conflict of interest for this Committee if
two of its members were appointed to the Task Group. On
balance, it was AGREED that it was more
appropriate for the Local Economy and Environment Scrutiny
Committee to review the topic and the Committee therefore declined
to make any nominations.
17
DATE OF NEXT MEETING
17th September 2007
………………………………………………….Chair