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Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: The public link to the MS Teams Virtual Meeting is: https://tinyurl.com/yb4x7aq6

Contact: Kalvaran Sandhu, tel: 0116 454 6344, email:  kalvaran.sandhu@leicester.gov.uk  Elaine Baker, tel: 0116 454 6355, email:  elaine.baker@leicester.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

73.

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Minutes:

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Vi Dempster and Mandip Rai.

74.

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

Members are asked to declare any interests they may have in the business to be discussed.

Minutes:

Councillor Joshi declared that His wife worked for the reablement team.

 

Councillor Porter declared that his partner worked in a school in the city.

 

Councillor Thalukdar declared that his sister lived Council housing.

75.

CHAIR'S ANNOUNCEMENTS

Minutes:

The Chair held a moments silence in memory of the late Councillor Jean Khote.

 

The Chair requested that all Members, Officers and Members of the Executive present kindly introduce themselves.

 

The Chair advised the Committee that the meeting was a virtual meeting as permitted by section 78 of the Coronavirus Act 2020 and outlined the procedures for the meeting.

 

The Chair informed Members that Officers were working on arranging dates for Scrutiny Commissions to take place and requested Members to work with Officers in arranging these dates.

 

76.

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING pdf icon PDF 3 MB

The minutes of the meeting of the Overview Select Committee held on 12 February 2020 are attached and Members are asked to confirm them as a correct record.

Minutes:

Agreed:

That the minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday 12 February 2020 be confirmed as a correct record.

77.

QUESTIONS, REPRESENTATIONS AND STATEMENTS OF CASE

The Monitoring Officer to report on the receipt of any questions, representations and statements of case submitted in accordance with the Council’s procedures.

Minutes:

The Chair confirmed that none had been received.

78.

PETITIONS

The Monitoring Officer to report on any petitions received.

 

Minutes:

The  Chair Confirmed that no petitions had been received.

79.

TRACKING OF PETITIONS - MONITORING REPORT pdf icon PDF 108 KB

The Monitoring Officer submits a report that updates Members on the monitoring of outstanding petitions. The Committee is asked to note the current outstanding petitions and agree to remove those petitions marked ‘Petitions Process Complete’ from the report.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Agreed:

            That the tracking report be noted.

80.

QUESTIONS FROM SCRUTINY COMMISSION MEMBERS REGARDING THE IMPACT OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC pdf icon PDF 21 KB

Attached are questions received from Scrutiny Commission members in relation to the Council’s response to the Coronavirus situation and the financial implications of this.  As these questions relate to matters covered in the reports following this item, responses to the questions will be provided during consideration of the reports.

Minutes:

The Chair noted that Members of Scrutiny Commissions had raised questions regarding the Coronavirus, the impact of the pandemic, the Councils response to the pandemic and the financial implications on the Council.

 

The Chair explained that responses to the questions would be provided during the consideration of the reports.

 

81.

LEICESTER CITY COUNCIL'S CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE pdf icon PDF 372 KB

The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance submits a report summarising the Council’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic locally within the city, the way in which services have responded, impacts and implications for the Council’s employees, and how the Council has supported residents to date during the crisis. 

 

The Committee is recommended to:

 

a)     consider the Council’s local response to the Coronavirus pandemic and comment as appropriate, including those areas seen as good practice and any aspects where lessons can be learnt, or things can be improved going forward; and

 

b)     note the ongoing work relating to ‘recovery’ and the intention to provide further updates to scrutiny as this work progresses.

Minutes:

The City Mayor introduced the report providing an overview of the City Council’s response to the Coronavirus pandemic. The City Mayor noted that these were unprecedented times and even if the situation had been anticipated, it wouldn’t have been something that the Council could have been fully prepared for.

 

The City Mayor commented that he had been impressed by the response from Officers both individually and as teams during such times and did not believe that Officers had got very much wrong. Officers had been very intelligent, sympathetic, careful and quick with their response to the pandemic.

 

The Director of Delivery Communications and Political Governance outlined the report and invited Officers to give insight into their key areas.

 

The Director of Social Care and Education explained aspects relevant to his section of work. It was noted that some information included in the report had changed since the publication of the report.

 

The Director of Housing explained the Council’s response in terms of housing and homelessness as set out in the report.

 

The Director of Public Health outlined aspects regarding the public health response which had been heavily involved in the response to this pandemic as well as keeping existing services running.

 

The Director of Delivery Communications and Political Governance presented details relating to Neighbourhood Services on behalf of the Director of Neighbourhood Services. Emphasis was made on key areas of Neighbourhood Services that had worked hard in maintaining and providing its services to the most vulnerable.

 

The Head of Human Resources (HR) gave an outline of key workforce issues faced during the response.

 

The Director of Finance outlined details of the Shielding Programme, Food Support provisions and Business Support being made available.

 

The Head of the City Mayors Team explained how volunteers from the voluntary and community sector (VCS) had been engaged in the response to the pandemic.

 

In relation to Communications, this had been a critical part of the response and the Communications Team had worked very hard to keep everyone informed and were seen as a trusted source for information and guidance.

 

It was noted that the Recovery phase would be the subject of future discussions, although some recovery work was underway.

 

Members of the Commission were then invited to raise questions which included the following responses:

 

  • Within the first seven weeks there were 8 reported suicides across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland (LLR). These figures were higher than usual, although since that time the numbers had decreased. In this scenario, it was noted that these individuals had some form of contact with health services or were known to services.

 

  • Practitioners that were conducting risk assessments were doing them robustly and questions were being asked if frequent contact was being made with those who were vulnerable.

 

  • The Health and Well Being offer was being promoted to staff to try and reduce the impact on staff health, both mental and physical, in the long run. Officers were ensuring that the support was in place from the present time rather than  ...  view the full minutes text for item 81.

82.

IMPACT OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC ON THE 2020/21 BUDGET pdf icon PDF 124 KB

The Director of Finance submits a report summarising the initial financial impacts of the Coronavirus pandemic on the Council’s revenue budget.  The Committee is recommended to note the report and make comments to the Director of Finance and City Mayor as wished and to support the City Mayor’s stance that the Council expects Government to meet the full costs incurred.

Minutes:

The Director of Finance introduced the report outlining the financial impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the 2020/21 budget.

 

The City Mayor commented that there were large amounts of uncertainty during this time and although the Government had provided some support, the Council were still uncertain of the level of additional service required during the current situation.

 

Members were invited to ask questions which included the following comments in response:

 

  • In terms of the Council’s position on allocating funding the Constitution allowed the Director of Finance to increase the Council’s spending above the approved budget during an emergency. The Director of Finance advised she would bring forward a proposal to increase the Council’s approved budget funded by the government grant to the Overview Select Committee in due course.

 

  • Regarding the Council’s position on borrowing additional money, that was relatively cheap to do, however it was not the ideal step to take and other councils that had borrowed money recently were in difficult positions and risked bankruptcy. Borrowing money would only be considered for capital investment if there were no other alternatives.

 

  • In the event of a potential second peak of Covid-19 and the impact of that if the Council were to go into another lockdown with loss of income then the Government would have to provide significant funding to support local authorities as it had done now.

 

  • In relation to the current Capital Programme and developments such as Jewry Wall Museum, the City Mayor informed Members that there would have to be a review on the Capital Programme, but it was not anticipated that would be a fundamental review. Time frames would require adjusting to complete projects and carry out the activities set out in the manifesto on which Members were elected.

 

  • The Leicestershire County Council Pension Fund Administrators were preparing the annual accounts and the pension fund would in time be evaluated to determine what impact the pandemic would have on the Council’s pension fund. Up to this financial year there had been an improvement in the performance of the fund to the benefit of the city so it was anticipated that the Council may have lost some of that benefit if the pension fund was valued down, although there were no significant impacts anticipated.  

 

  • In relation to further measures for small businesses, contact had been made through various means with hard to reach businesses and their owners. It was noted that the Government had not indicated an end date to the business support grant, and it was hoped that Ward Councillors could use their networks to help make contact as lockdown began to ease.

 

  • The service was working alongside the Leicester and Leicestershire Enterprise Partnership to predict what kind of economic impact there could be on the city if the two major universities moved lectures online. Although some universities had announced online learning it was suggested that it would be impractical for De Montfort University (DMU) to do this, as it offered many practical courses to the students.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 82.

83.

QUESTIONS FOR THE CITY MAYOR

The City Mayor will answer questions raised by members of the Overview Select Committee on issues not covered elsewhere on the agenda.

Minutes:

Members of the Committee were invited to put their questions to the City Mayor.

 

Councillor Porter took the opportunity to congratulate the Council and Council Officers for their handling of the pandemic.

 

Councillor Porter enquired about the scientific advice that the Government had issued and sought assurance that Members and citizens of Leicester were getting advice from qualified experts in the field.

 

The City Mayor thanked Councillor Porter for his constructive engagement over this period and assured him that the Council would be taking its independent advice from Officers who had demonstrated their high level of expertise.

84.

ANY OTHER URGENT BUSINESS

Minutes:

There being no items of urgent business, the meeting closed at 5:52 pm