Agenda and minutes

Members are asked to declare any interest and the nature of that interest which they may have in any of the items under consideration at this meeting.

There were no declarations of interest.

To confirm the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 6 September 2021.

The minutes of the meeting of the Group held on 6 September 2021 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

To receive any communications from the Chair.

The Chair advised that, owing to there being no business to consider, the 17 January 2022 meeting of the Committee had been cancelled.  

The Chair to advise whether they have agreed to any items of urgent business being admitted to the agenda.

There were no items of urgent business.

Report of the Deputy Democratic Services Manager

Purpose of Report

The remit of the Coordinating Overview and Scrutiny Group includes the responsibility for approving the Work Programmes for the three Scrutiny Committees – Corporate, Place and People. The relevant Overview and Scrutiny Committee shall consider any matter referred to it by the Leader/Cabinet and, having considered the matter, shall report to the Leader/Cabinet with comments and/or proposals. In the case of cross-cutting matters, the Co-ordinating Overview and Scrutiny Group may recommend a particular Overview and Scrutiny Committee considers such matters.

*** Please note, that the appendices to this report will be to follow ***

Recommendations

1.1         To consider, for approval, the three Scrutiny Committee Work Programmes for 2021/2022 as set out at Appendix A, Appendix B and Appendix C to the report.

1.2         To consider any potential cross-cutting review themes as detailed on the three Scrutiny Committee Work Programme for 2021/2022 as set out in Appendix A, Appendix B and Appendix C; and recommends a particular Scrutiny Committee(s) to consider the issue.

The Group received an extensive verbal update from the Chairs of each of the three Overview and Scrutiny Committees, Corporate, People and Place on their respective Committee Work Programmes for 2021-2022.

The Chair of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee explained that the early months of 2022 would be filled mainly by the Draft Budget 2022/2023 scrutiny process. The Chair advised that a Task and Finish Group had been set up to review the council’s expenses policy, however the commencement had been delayed in order to allow for the finalisation of the expenses policy. Further task and finish groups had also been agreed for the future, to look at treasury management, and asset management.

The Chair of Place Overview and Scrutiny Committee provided a verbal update on the Place work programme and advised that the Committee reviewed the North West Relief Road and had received a presentation from the Executive Director – Place and Economy which covered future checks and balances on contracts and projects. A task and finish group had also been set up to review the Council’s tree policy, and further task and finish groups were under consideration.

The Chair of People Overview and Scrutiny Committee stated that lots of work was ongoing to assess the impact of the latest government COVID guidance and compulsory vaccination for care workers on service provision. Additional focus was also directed towards the performance of Northamptonshire Children’s Services and the development of the Integrated Care across Northamptonshire (iCAN) function, and a number of task and finish groups to look at potential issues such as rough sleeping, sports and leisure provision, broadband provision for young people leaving local authority care and adult social care transformation were under consideration.

Following the verbal update on the committee work programmes, the Chairs of each Overview and Scrutiny Committee also reviewed potential cross-cutting scrutiny themes, including highways contracts, major contracts and capital contracts, housing, and economic strategy.

Resolved

(1)  That each of the work programmes for the three Overview and Scrutiny Committees be agreed.