Agenda item

The Service Manager, Scrutiny and Democratic Services presented the report and outlined the main requirements of the Council’s Scrutiny Workplan.

Under normal circumstances, the Scrutiny Workplan once finalised and approved by the Committee, would outline the Council’s yearly rolling work programme of in-depth reviews and standing items considered by Panels A and B and the Committee respectively.

However, due to various disruptions to the Council’s scrutiny work over the previous municipal year and the COVID-19 outbreak, four topics from the 2019/2020 Workplan needed to be carried over to the 2020/2021 Workplan, namely:

Bus Provision in Ashfield

Community Protection Service

Climate Emergency

Service Personnel.

Therefore, Members were asked to approve no more than two new additional topics for the 2020/21 Workplan (to add to the 4 ongoing topics) to avoid any unnecessary backlog, and to additionally compile and approve a ‘reserve list’ of topics for commencement as and when space became available later on in the municipal year.     

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centre for Public Scrutiny had recently released a series of online guides designed to support councils with governance and scrutiny during the outbreak and throughout the aftermath. The guides were intended to support councillors and officers on managing some of the challenges associated with the COVID-19 crisis.

Guide No 2 covered the key arguments in favour of continued, robust member-led scrutiny during the COVID-19 crisis and set out an approach to enable Councils to provide scrutiny in a format that would fit within the constrained resources that councils would have at their disposal.

Following receipt of the guidance, the Council felt it would be prudent to establish a time-limited COVID-19 Response and Recovery Scrutiny Panel and Cabinet made a recommendation to Council, to that effect, at its meeting on 30 June 2020.

The Panel was made up of 7 Members who were appointed in accordance with the requirements of political balance.  It was agreed that the Panel would review the Council’s response to the pandemic and take an active role in respect of the Council’s recovery plans.

Members took time to consider new topics for the 2020/21 Workplan and made suggestions for the following:-

1.    Accessibility, equipment and support for disabled children on the Council’s play parks;

2.    Performance of the Council’s Commercial Investment Portfolio and its ongoing management during the COVID-19 outbreak and onwards;

3.    The recent fall in recycling collection figures and methods for improving collection rates and providing education and support for residents;

4.    How to improve the Council’s digital resource provision;

5.    The increase of loneliness and isolation within resident’s homes;

6.    5G technology advances and current issues;

7.    The increase in reports of children suffering from mental health difficulties;

8.    To review the Council’s provision of electrical charging points and support for green transportation.

RESOLVED that

a)    the following items be included on the Scrutiny Workplan for 2020/21:-

·       accessibility, equipment and support for disabled children on the Council’s play parks;

·       the recent fall in recycling collection figures and methods for improving collection rates and providing education and support for residents;

b)    the following items be included on the Scrutiny Workplan reserve list for 2020/21:-

·       performance of the Council’s Commercial Investment Portfolio and its ongoing management during the COVID-19 outbreak and onwards (to be undertaken as part of the Committee’s annual budget review process);

·       how to improve the Council’s digital resource provision (to provide a watching brief as a Member/Officer Working Group already established to deliver this project).