Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Aziz, Chowdhury, Hawes and Sturges-Alex.  Apologies for absence were also received from Councillor Baker, Cabinet Member for Children, Families and Education.

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.

Councillor Fowler declared that she was a trustee of New Leaf Learning, a charity that could receive funding to provide support for children with Special Educational Needs and/or Disabilities (SEND).

To receive notification of requests from members of the public to address the meeting on an item on the public part of the agenda.

There were none.

To receive any communications from the Chair.

The Chair welcomed all those present to the meeting and highlighted the following points:

·         The changes to the Overview and Scrutiny function introduced for 2023/24 had now been operating for a month.  This had been a busy period and it was recognised that new approaches could be challenging for some.

·         He had attended the recent Centre for Governance and Scrutiny annual conference.

·         Training would be key to working effectively.  The Democracy and Standards Committee had agreed a series of Overview and Scrutiny training sessions for councillors, which were likely to start in July.

To consider and provide input in the development of the new Housing Allocation Scheme for West Northamptonshire.

The Housing Services Manager presented an overview of the development of a new Housing Allocation Scheme for West Northamptonshire.  The Committee was advised that West Northamptonshire Council (WNC) needed to adopt a new Scheme by 1 April 2024 to replace those inherited from predecessor authorities.  The draft Scheme proposed to use a choice-based lettings model, as currently used in the former Northampton borough and Daventry district areas, as this represented the most effective approach.  The Committee was invited to consider the proposed qualifying criteria for applications for social rented housing and the proposed approach to assessing and prioritising housing need, involving four bands A-D.  This was a draft Scheme and input from Overview and Scrutiny was important in shaping the final decision.

The Committee considered the development of the Scheme and councillors made the following comments:

·         Concern was raised that people on the housing register who were placed in the lower bands were not likely to get a home.  Under the choice-based lettings scheme used in Northampton it had been possible for people to wait for years.

·         Were people being helped to downsize to release larger homes?

·         Would those with debt or a history of unreasonable behaviour be excluded from applying for social rented housing?  People who irresponsibly damaged a property should be treated robustly.  However, the Scheme should also not exclude people who might most need help.  How would people excluded from applying be able to secure accommodation?

·         The proposed threshold of £60K gross household income and £16K savings could be unfair for a single parent family.   Could the assessment be based on disposable income?

·         Victims of domestic abuse who were homeless would be placed in Band A.  Why should they move whilst the perpetrator remained in the home?  Did WNC have a policy for this?

·         Could future circumstances be taken into account?  For example, where a person was not currently a priority, but their situation was due to change.

·         Applicants with a dependent child living in accommodation that required the child to share facilities with adults should be given a higher priority than Band C.

·         What would be the priority for a family with a boy and a girl moving from a 2 bed to a 3 bed property?

·         Allowances needed to be made in exceptional circumstances, such as when children were subject to a Child Protection Plan.  Flexibility could support better outcomes for children and reduce the risk of them needing to come into local authority care.

·         Was there a process for dealing with hard-to-let properties?

·         Was any mental health training provided for the housing and customer services teams who needed to respond to complex issues?

·         What support would be provided to avoid applicants being put at a disadvantage if they did not speak English well, had no access to the Internet, or were not confident dealing with forms and processes?

·         Could screening be carried out at an earlier stage to ensure that those bidding on properties could afford them?  It was not helpful for applicants to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To consider and agree the matters to be included in the Committee work programme for 2023/24.

The Democratic Services Assistant Manager presented the report, which invited the Committee to consider and confirm its work programme for 2023/24.  The following points were highlighted:

·         The current Committee would be taking on part of the remit of the previous People Overview and Scrutiny Committee and the report set out the former Committee’s work programme for consideration.

·         The report presented a draft work programme arising from discussion at the Committee pre-meeting on 25 May 2023.  It was for the Committee in formal session to decide the work programme.  The work programme was a living document and would be reported to each meeting for discussion and updating as required.

·         The previous People Overview and Scrutiny Committee had begun a scrutiny review of support for children with SEND at the end of 2022/23.  The current Committee needed to confirm whether it wished this work to continue, with some necessary changes to the membership of the task and finish panel and timescale.

The Committee considered the content of its work programme for 2023/24.

The Chair noted that discussion at the pre-meeting had supported continuing the SEND scrutiny review and he invited the Committee to confirm this.

The Chair advised that Councillor Fowler had produced a Scrutiny Review Proposal for work on support for foster carers in West Northamptonshire, reflecting discussion at the pre-meeting, which was presented to the meeting.  If the Committee agreed the topic for provisional inclusion in its work programme a full plan could be prepared for approval at the Committee meeting on 25 September 2023.

Councillors questioned whether scrutiny of fostering should focus only on recruitment and retention of foster carers, given the potential to act as a critical friend on other aspects of service performance.  Councillor Fowler referred to the aim to take a constructive option.  The Executive Director People Services commented that the proposed line of enquiry would be helpful in the context of action to move forward from the recent Ofsted inspection of the Northamptonshire Children’s Trust independent fostering agency.

The Committee considered other potential topics that might be included in the work programme and councillors made the following comments:

·         The provision of free broadband to young people leaving local authority care should be included in the work programme as the issue had originally been raised by a Council motion.

·         The Committee could request a briefing note on the provision of free broadband to young people leaving local authority care to understand the existing position and what scrutiny might achieve.

·         The issue of knife crime was linked to the topics of the early help offer, 0-19 services and school exclusions.

·         The scrutiny review on child and adolescent mental health and the risk of self-harm carried out by the previous People Overview and Scrutiny Committee had been presented to the Cabinet in March 2023 and was due to be reviewed in September 2023.

The Executive Director People Services made the following points during the course of discussion:

·         The early help offer and 0-19 services could logically be considered  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

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

There was no urgent business.