MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE SCRUTINY COMMITTEE HELD AT COUNTY HALL, NEWPORT, ISLE OF WIGHT ON THURSDAY, 24 NOVEMBER 2005 COMMENCING AT 6.00 PM

 

Present :

 

Cllrs Garry Price (Chairman), William Burt, Mike Cunningham, Brian Mosdell

 

Co-opted Members Present:

 

Mr Anthony Marvin, Ms Sue Poston

 

Cabinet Members:

 

Cllrs David Pugh, Alan Wells

 

Also Present (Non voting) :

 

Cllrs Dawn Cousins, Geoff Lumley, George Cameron, John Hobart, Anne Bishop

 

 

 


The Chairman welcomed everyone to the first meeting of the restructured Scrutiny Committee and introduced Mr Anthony Marvin and Ms Sue Poston, the newly appointed co-opted members.

 

8.                  MINUTES

 

Members noted that under Minutes 3 and 5, St Mary’s Road Car Park, Cowes and the Schools Organisation Decision to retain the 3 tier school system on the Island, might require further investigation.  It was therefore suggested that these items should be included in future discussions regarding the Committee’s work programme.

 

RESOLVED:

 

                          i.                  THAT St Mary’s Road car park, and further information on school improvements linked to the retention of the three-tier system, be included in future discussions about the Committee’s work programme.

 

                        ii.                  THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 18 July 2005 be confirmed.

 

9.                  DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

 

There were no declarations at this stage.

 

10.             BUDGET UPDDATE

 

The Assistant Chief Executive and Chief Financial Officer provided an update on the budget process. It was anticipated that the Revenue Support Grant would be announced on 5 December 2005, and that provisional figures might also be available for 2007-08 at this time.

 

Members were advised that three budget forecasts had been produced based on whether the Island retained its national share, lost a proportion of its share whilst retaining a safety net, or lost its Area Cost Adjustment (ACA).  Government proposals put forward during July 2005 that suggested that Unitary Authorities would have their own ACA in the future, which would result in a loss of benefit for the Island.  The Council’s final budget figures for 2006-07 might not be finalised until January 2006.

 

Investigations were underway to identify savings in Adult Services, efficiency savings across all other services (except for schools), and Members would also be looking at a range of options to ascertain whether further savings could be identified.  To date approximately £4.5 millions had been identified from a combination of these sources. 

 

Members were concerned about the budget timetable, possible loss of quality in services resulting from budget cuts, as well as the potential loss of the ACA in future.   It was envisaged that further factual information would be available at the meeting scheduled for 22 December 2005.  The 2006-07 financial year would be a transitional phase tailored to the priorities for Aim High and related to all Service Plans and staff Personal Development Plans (PDP’s).  It was envisaged that services, particularly Adult Services, could be delivered in different and better ways in the future, although this would be a challenging task.

 

RESOLVED: 

 

THAT the report be noted.

 

11.             GUIDANCE ON THE CALL-IN PROCESS AND THE SCRUTINY TOOLKIT

 

The Assistant Chief Executive and Monitoring Officer explained that the specific power to Call-in decisions now rested with the Scrutiny Committee.  Appendix 1 of the report provided guidance and the detailed procedures proposed.  Following a brief debate, Members agreed that the new guidance and procedures should be used for a period of 12 months initially.  Following this period, a review of the process would be undertaken, with further reviews being included within the procedures to enable constant improvement of the process. 

 

RESOLVED:

 

i.                      THAT the guidelines and procedures be adopted.

 

ii.                    THAT a review of the process be undertaken after a period of one year.

 

iii.                  THAT further reviews be undertaken annually thereafter to ensure constant improvement of the process.

 

12.             WORK PROGRAMME

 

Members noted that some potential work programme items included in the report were from the previous committee and agreed that although the methodology needed to be agreed, the details of the work programme could be deferred to another meeting to enable a full and detailed discussion.

 

In particular, Members requested further information regarding the scoring and weighting system, which would ensure quality of business for the future.    It was suggested that an exercise could be undertaken during an informal meeting.  All of the proposed enquiry items noted in the report, including a number under consideration of the previous Select Committees, could be discussed and subjected to the scoring system. The resulting priorities would then form the basis of the Committee’s work programme for the next 6 months.

 

The final work programme would be agreed and adopted at a future Scrutiny Committee meeting, where the agreed scoring system could also be explained for the benefit of the public and other Members.

 

RESOLVED:

 

i.                      THAT the framework and methodology for determining the future work programme be agreed.

 

ii.                    THAT an informal meeting be held on 1 December 2005 to enable further discussions of the proposed enquiry items, including all items detailed in Appendix 1 of the report relating to the previous Select Committees.

 

iii.                  THAT the proposed scoring system be subject to further discussion at the informal meeting before being finalised.

 

iv.                  THAT details of the Committee’s future work programme and scoring system be brought to the next meeting of the Scrutiny Committee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CHAIRMAN