Agenda and minutes

Venue: Meeting Room 3 - Town Hall, Huddersfield. View directions

Contact: Sheila Dykes  Email: sheila.dykes@kirklees.gov.uk

Media

Items
No. Item

24.

Membership of Committee

To receive apologies for absence from those Members who are unable to attend the meeting.

Minutes:

All Members of the Panel were in attendance.

 

The Chair explained that Councillors Hussain and Ramsay had ceased to be members of the Committee as a result of taking places within the Cabinet. Thanks were expressed to both Councillors for their contribution to the work of the Committee.

25.

Minutes of Previous Meeting pdf icon PDF 321 KB

To approve the Minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 1st August 2023.

Minutes:

Resolved –

That the minutes of the meeting of the Committee held on 1st August 2023 be agreed as a correct record.

 

26.

Declaration of Interests pdf icon PDF 20 KB

Members will be asked to say if there are any items on the Agenda in which they have any disclosable pecuniary interests or any other interests, which may prevent them from participating in any discussion of the items or participating in any vote upon the items.

Minutes:

All Members of the Committee were in attendance.

27.

Admission of the Public

Most agenda items take place in public. This only changes where there is a need to consider exempt information, as contained at Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972. You will be informed at this point which items are to be recommended for exclusion and to be resolved by the Committee.

Minutes:

All items were considered in public session.

28.

Deputations/Petitions

The Committee will receive any petitions and/or deputations from members of the public. A deputation is where up to five people can attend the meeting and make a presentation on some particular issue of concern. A member of the public can also submit a petition at the meeting relating to a matter on which the body has powers and responsibilities.

 

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 10, Members of the Public must submit a deputation in writing, at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting and shall subsequently be notified if the deputation shall be heard. A maximum of four deputations shall be heard at any one meeting.

 

Minutes:

No deputations or petitions were received.

29.

Public Question Time

To receive any public questions.

 

In accordance with Council Procedure Rule 11, the period for the asking and answering of public questions shall not exceed 15 minutes.

 

Any questions must be submitted in writing at least three clear working days in advance of the meeting.

 

Please note that in line with pre-election rules, questions relating to the Batley East Ward and By-Election issues will not be heard.

 

Minutes:

No questions were submitted.

30.

Corporate Financial Management - Quarter 1 Report pdf icon PDF 1 MB

The Committee will a report in respect of the Corporate Financial Monitoring Report for Quarter 1, 2023/24 and a verbal update in respect of the Medium Term Financial Statement.

 

Contact: Service Director, Finance/Section 151 Officer.

Minutes:

The Committee received a report in respect of the Corporate Financial Monitoring Report for Quarter 1, 2023/24 and a verbal update in respect of the Medium-Term Financial Statement.

 

Councillor Graham Turner, the Portfolio Holder for Finance and Regeneration, introduced the report…..?. Rachel Spencer-Henshall, the Strategic Director for Corporate Strategy, Commissioning and Public Health and Isabel Brittain, the Interim Service Director, Finance attended the meeting and a presentation was given which highlighted the following:

Headlines from the Quarter 1 report and actions

Overview by Directorate

Service variances

Issues??

Recommendations approved by Cabinet – mitigations

….

The MTFS aimed to establish a framework to ensure delivery against savings

Subject of a debate at Council on 13th september

Ensure activity to resolve immediate issue of anticipated? forecast budget gap in 2024/25. And robust proposals were being …. To ensure a balanced budget by February 2024.

Current view that budget gap could be £ by 2028/29.

 

Questions and comments were invited from Committee Members, with the following issues being covered:

Exploring the potential of spend to save in respect of transport costs

investment to save was a potential and any scheme would look at if initial investmentwould pay didvidend in the long-ter, The Corporate Transformation Team -strategy- if can deliver early on some savings use??

Partnerships with other bodies such as the Woodlands Trust to assist with the projected overspend on tree planting??

The Council did work alongside partners on …more detail could be provided to members further to the meeting.

Access bio-diversity net gain funding

Potential revenue generator?

Cost-benefit analysis in respect of challenges in relation to proposals to reduce care packages for high cost children with disabilities placements.

Agree and approach would be to work within framework so individual response made in each case – reassure move from one size fits all approach

Clarity in respect of the differences between the current figures and the figures considered?submitted to by Council in February. An undertakeing was given to provide this detailed information after the meeting.

Whether the savings forecanst?? Wre achievable and when would the authority be in a position to have more certainty on this. The Service Director gave assurance that she would be undertaking a deep-dive into the …savings and their impact and would have more clarity by the end of the week???

Opportunities to achieve more income; flexibility to address issues. It was important that the issue of capacity was considered within questions relating to recruitment to ensure that the Council would still be able to tae advantage of opportunities. Assurance that the panel responsible for assessing vacancies would take into account the importance of not having a negative impact on income. Capacity would also be considered to try and ensure that resources were utilised in the best possible way.

 It was believed that there should be systematic approach to identifying opportunities for funding; including by/through partners and the community and voluntary sector who would have access to funding that was not available to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 30.

31.

Corporate Performance and Impact Report - End of Year 2022/23 pdf icon PDF 227 KB

The end of year, 2022/23, Corporate Performance and Impact Report will be submitted.

 

Contact:

Andy Simcox – Service Director for Strategy and Innovation

Rachel Spencer-Henshall – Strategic Director of Corporate Strategy, Commissioning and Public Health.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The end of year, 2022/23, Corporate Performance and Impact Report was be submitted.

 

Rachel Spencer-Henshall – Strategic Director of Corporate Strategy,

Commissioning and Public Health and? Andy Simcox – Service Director for Strategy and Innovation outlined the background to the current approach to performance monitoring which focussed upon impact and outcomes

Report on outcomes for the priorities contained within the Council Plan.

Detailed performance management was collated for each service and was presented to the Council’s Executive Team.

The Demand and capacity Indicators were provided to the Members of this Committee on a regular basis.

The new Council plan was expected to be approved in January 2024, and consideration would be given to the revision of performance indicators as part of the process??

Members were invited to identify any issues that they considered would benefit from scrutiny.

 

 

Questions and comments were invited from Committee Members, with the following issues being covered:

It was anticipated that the format of perfomance information would include measurement of outcomes against targets. And consideration was being given to how finanvial data and activity could be integrated.

Further detail on the issues and the context affecting the outcomes would be useful….in assessing performance???

In terms of the provision of ‘real-time’ data, in order to assist Cabinet in decision-making, it was explained that the demand and capacity graphs were shared with cabinet on a monthly basis.

The importance of the transparency of information was recognised and this point would be taken on board.

Queries in respect of the potential of using land in the Council’s ownership for wind…

The retention of the Ward partnership budget allocations; as these were considered to be very beneficial at local level. How keep Councillors involved and residnets engaged

The role of the Council within the care market

Importance and… of the place standard action plans…/community ward- based budgets was recognised but there was significant financial pressure, particularly looking forward to 2024/25 and it was not possible to give a firm decision at this point in time. Although this was being progressed as quickly as possible to inform the budget in February 2024.

The aim was to move towards resilience within communities and using funding to foster and build independence and sustainability. Disciussions wer being undertaken wth partners??

The area of care was being reviewed the aim being to create efficienceies and retain capacity but it was difficult to ….role…at this stage. But this was an area of concern for the administarion.  Take back + opps for on-shore wind generation…

Assurance had been provided from central government in respect of the funding necessary to deal with any problems with concrete structures. Limited numbers had been identified to date in the district. The Asset Management team already had a rigorous review process in place.

 

That the issue of transparency of performance management information be taken into account ????

Noted that further response/information to be provided to members of the Committee in respect of:

Potential use of Council land for off-shore wind generation  ...  view the full minutes text for item 31.

32.

Establishment of Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee pdf icon PDF 224 KB

The report will seek approval from the Committee for the process to be followed for the appointment of Kirklees representatives to a Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JHOSC) with Calderdale and Wakefield Councils in respect of the Older People’s Inpatient Mental Health Services Transformation Programme.

 

Contact:

Yolande Myers – Principal Governance Officer

 

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Approval was sought to the process to be followed in relation to the appointment of Kirklees representatives to a Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee (JHOSC), with Calderdale and Wakefield Councils, in respect of the Older People’s Inpatient Mental Health Services Transformation Programme.

 

It was noted that the draft Terms of Reference contained within the report would be submitted to the JHOSC for approval.

 

Resolved -

That it be agreed that the nominations for Kirklees representation on the Joint Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee, with Calderdale and Wakefield Councils, should be sought from the main political groups (Labour, Conservative, Liberal Democrat, Green) on the basis of 1:1:1:1.

33.

Lead Members' Updates pdf icon PDF 427 KB

The Lead Members for the Children’s Scrutiny Panel and the Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Panel will update the Committee on the work being undertaken by their panels.

 

Contact:

Sheila Dykes – Principal Governance Officer.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Lead Members for the Children’s Scrutiny Panel and the Health and Adult Social Care Scrutiny Panel updated the Committee on the work being undertaken by their Panels.

 

34.

Work Programme 2023/24 pdf icon PDF 585 KB

The latest version of the Committee’s Work Programme for 2023/24 will be considered.

 

Contact:

Sheila Dykes – Principal Governance Officer

Minutes:

The latest version of the Committee’s Work Programme for 2023/24 was submitted for consideration.