Agenda and minutes

It was noted that Councillor Cleaver was present as a substitute for Councillor Newcombe.

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

No declarations of interest were made.

The Chair asked Members to think of the victims of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma and the humanitarian crisis in Bangladesh, where many people were victims of severe flooding, with a large proportion of the country underwater. 

Many people in the city had families and friends in affected areas and the collective thoughts of the Committee were with them.

The minutes of the meetings of the Overview Select Committee held on 6 April 2017 and the Special Meeting held 22 June 2017 have been circulated and the Committee is asked to confirm them as correct records.

AGREED:

That the minutes of the ordinary meeting of the Overview Select Committee held on 6 April 2017 and the Special Meeting of the Overview Select Committee held on 22 June 2017 be confirmed as correct records of the respective meetings.

The Chair advised the Committee that all actions from the meeting of the Committee held on 6 April 2017 had been completed. 

With regard to actions agreed at the meeting held on 22 June 2017:-

·           The decision regarding proposals to use the underspend on corporate budgets and housing benefit to make a contribution to the Economic Action Plan had been called-in and would be considered later on the agenda, (minute 3, “Revenue Budget Monitoring Outturn 2016/17”, 22 June 2017 and 21, “Call In – Revenue Budget Monitoring Outturn 2016-17”, 14 September 2017 referred);

·           It was anticipated that details of comparisons between Leicester City Council and other local authorities of over payments of housing benefit would be submitted to the Committee at its next meeting as part of a report on income monitoring, (minute 5, “Income Collection April 2016 – March 2017” 22 June 2017 referred); and

·           The requested briefing on emergency planning was included on the agenda for this meeting, (minute 8, “Questions for the City Mayor – The Fire at Grenfell Tower” 22 June 2017 and minute 23, “Emergency Management and Planning”, 14 September 2017 referred).

The Committee is asked to note the Terms of Reference for the Overview Select Committee as attached in Appendix A.

AGREED:

That the Terms of Reference for the Overview Select Committee be noted.

The Committee is asked to note the membership of the Overview Select Committee for 2017/18 as detailed on the front of the agenda.

AGREED:

That the membership of the Overview Select Committee for 2017/18 be noted.

The Committee is asked to note the dates of meetings for the Overview Select Committee for the remainder of the municipal year.

Thursday 2 November 2017

Thursday 14 December 2017

Thursday 1 February 2018

Thursday 5 April 2018

AGREED:

That the dates of meetings of the Overview Select Committee for the 2017/18 municipal year be noted.

The Monitoring Officer to report on any questions, representations or statements of case received.   

The Monitoring Officer reported that no questions, representations or statements of case had been received.

The Monitoring Officer to report on any petitions received.

The Monitoring Officer reported that no petitions had been received.

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.

AGREED:

That the report be noted and petitions referenced 15/05/2017-1, 23/11/2016, 19/12/2016, 06/01/2017, 10/02/2017, 14/02/2017, 23/03/2017, 15/05/2017 and 15/05/2017-2, marked “petition process complete”, be removed from the monitoring report.

The Monitoring Officer submits a report, whichenables the Overview Select Committee to consider the call-in of the Executive Decision taken by the City Mayor relating to the Revenue Budget Monitoring Outturn 2016-17.

At the request of the Chair, papers relating to the call-in of the Executive Decision taken by the Assistant City Mayor, Children, Young People and Schools relating to Youth Service Remodelling, are also attached for information purposes. This is in recognition of the synergies between the Revenue Outturn call-in and the Youth Service Remodelling call-in. A minute extract from the meeting of the Children, Young People and School’s Scrutiny Commission held 22 August 2017, when the call-in was considered, will follow.

The Monitoring Officer reported that an Executive decision taken by the City Mayor on 10 July 2017 regarding the Revenue Budget Monitoring Outturn 2016/17 had been called in by five Members in accordance with Procedure Rule 12 of Part 4D of the Council’s Constitution, (City Mayor and Executive Procedure Rules).

The Chair reminded Members that, although the called-in decision related to the revenue budget underspend, there were links between this decision and one relating to the remodelling of the Youth Service, which also had been called in.  The called-in decision on the Youth Service had been considered by the Children, Young People and Schools Scrutiny Commission and the minute relating to that discussion had been circulated to members of this Committee as supplementary information.  A copy of that minute is attached at the end of these minutes for information.

Members were reminded that this Committee could only make a decision on what further action to take on the called-in decision relating to the revenue budget and not that relating to the remodelling of the Youth Service.  However, although not taking a decision on what further action to take on it, this Committee could comment on the call-in relating to the Youth Service remodelling, and these comments would be reported to Council when that call in was considered by Council. 

The Committee was further reminded that, at its meeting on 22 June 2017, it had supported the proposal to use the under-spend on corporate budgets, together with the housing benefit underspend, to make a contribution of £7.4million to the Economic Action Plan (EAP).  (Minute 3, “Revenue Budget Monitoring Outturn 2016 / 2017”, referred.)

In accordance with Procedure Rule 7 of Part 4E of the Council’s Constitution, (Scrutiny Procedure Rules), the Chair invited Councillor Kitterick, as proposer of the call-in, to address the Committee for five minutes.

Councillor Kitterick addressed the Committee, noting that no details had been provided of what the £7.4million under discussion would be used for and suggested that it would be useful to receive this information.  He questioned whether spending the £7.4million under the EAP was a higher priority for the Council than Youth Services, but stressed that until a list of projects on which the £7.4million was to be spent was available, it would not be possible to have a full debate on whether other services should take priority over investment through the EAP.

The City Mayor addressed the Committee at the invitation of the Chair, reminding Members that the Council had had to make large financial savings over the last seven years.  Savings made had been put in reserves.  Managing reserves in this way had enabled investment to be made in the economy of the city, such as through investment in high speed broadband, redeveloping the Haymarket Bus Station and supporting the food industry.  However, as reserves reduced, so did the option of investing in this way.

The City Mayor reminded the Committee that a further £43million needed to be saved over the next three years.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Councillor Dr Moore left the meeting at this point.

Members of the Committee will have an opportunity to raise questions for the City Mayor, on issues not covered elsewhere on the agenda.

a)     Visitor Numbers at King Richard III Visitor Centre

Councillor Porter stated that a recent article in the Leicester Mercury identified that 30million people visited Leicester and Leicestershire during the last year, which the City Mayor had attributed to improvements in the city and to the King Richard III Visitor Centre.  He asked the City Mayor why, in view of this, only 100,000 of these visitors had gone to the King Richard III Visitor Centre and, in view of the comparatively low number of visitors, should consideration be given to reducing the admission price?

In reply, the City Mayor suggested that the figures quoted in the newspaper article should be treated with caution.  The Visitor Centre was run by an independent trust, so the Council did not decide matters such as admission prices, but the number of people visiting the Centre was pleasing and those going there did secondary spending in local businesses.

He further noted that there was no doubt that the Visitor Centre was boosting the local economy significantly.  This could be evidenced in a number of ways, such as the unprecedented number of hotels currently being built in the city. 

The City Mayor drew Members’ attention to the Lonely Planet guide, which described the King Richard III Visitor Centre as one of 20 “must see” attractions world-wide.  This was an excellent tribute to the Centre and those who managed it.

b)   St Margaret’s Bus Station

Councillor Cank asked the City Mayor if, in view of the increasing number of visitors coming to Leicester, consideration could be given to updating St Margaret’s Bus Station, as it was becoming run-down.

The City Mayor agreed that the new Haymarket Bus Station showed that the St Margaret’s Bus Station needed refreshing.  There was considerable movement between the two bus stations, so the possibility of providing a more direct and visually appealing pedestrian link between them was being investigated.

c)    Priorities for Children’s Services

Councillor Cutkelvin noted that the recent Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted) inspection of Children’s Services confirmed that they were improving, but that further improvement was required.  She asked the City Mayor to outline the key priorities for taking these services forward.

The City Mayor congratulated all involved in the great improvement in these services, expressing his gratitude to the very skilled and dedicated officers working to achieve this.  He also thanked the Children, Young People and Schools Scrutiny Commission for its support and constructive criticism, noting that it was very rare for services to improve as much as they had done between Ofsted inspections.

On behalf of the Overview Select Committee, the Chair endorsed these comments, welcoming the work and support that had enabled this to be achieved.

d)   Adult Social Care

Questions from Councillor Cleaver on behalf of the Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission:

·           The Adult Social Care Scrutiny Commission had noted the successful work done through the Better Care Fund in terms of improving hospital discharge back to the community for older people.  The Commission  ...  view the full minutes text for item 22.

The Committee will receive a presentation on emergency management and planning, a copy of which is attached at Appendix D.

The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance gave a presentation providing an overview of emergency planning and management, a copy of which had been circulated with the agenda.

The Director drew particular attention to the following points:

·           The definition of a major incident was used nationally;

·           The Local Resilience Forum (LRF) was a multi-agency partnership of various different category responders.  It was not a legal entity and had no powers to direct its members.  However, there was a legal duty for all partners to plan and prepare together;

·           Membership of the Forum included a military representative, who could access specialist equipment and resources;

·           The Local Authority Resilience Partnership (LARP) was comprised of local authorities working together to ensure that best use was made of their combined resources;

·           Financial contributions made by the members of the LRF facilitated the employment of both a Co-ordinator and administrative officer to support the Partnership;

·           Leicester City Council contributed £33,000 per annum to the LRF.  This had remained at the same level for a number of years, in recognition of the importance of this partnership working;

·           In addition to the contribution to the LRF, the City Council funded a full-time resilience officer to support the City Council’s Resilience Manager and a full-time administrative officer.  District authorities provided funding to Leicestershire County Council, which was used towards the costs of employing a number of resilience officers;

·           There currently were approximately 200 emergency centre volunteers and managers;

·           The Council held a list of buildings designated as emergency centres, but different ones were used depending on the location and nature of individual incidents;

·           The recovery phase after incidents could be long.  Good practice was to initiate recovery at the outset of an incident;

·           A database had been compiled that helped to identify some of the most vulnerable people in the community.  A Vulnerable Persons Plan also had been drawn up, which recognised that although they could need some assistance, vulnerable people could still be able to help themselves to some degree in an emergency;

·           Decisions on whether to deploy armed Police in response to security threats was a decision for the Police to take

·           Following major incidents, such as those recently experienced in London, regular contact was made with resilience workers in the areas affected.  This enabled everyone to be aware of the implications of particular threat levels and if there was anything specific to individual local authority areas;

·           Emergency planning and management fell within the City Mayor’s and Deputy City Mayor’s portfolios;

·           Members were welcome to visit the emergency control room located in City Hall; and

·           Both the Forum and the Partnership were becoming increasingly robust, due to the high level of commitment to them across Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland.

AGREED:

1)    That the presentation on emergency planning and management be received and noted;

2)    That the Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance be asked to arrange a visit for interested Councillors to the emergency control room located in City Hall; and

3)    That Councillors  ...  view the full minutes text for item 23.

a)    The Committee will be asked to receive and endorse the following Scoping Document:-

The New Bus Services Act 2017 and the impacts to local bus services provision (Economic Development, Transport and Tourism Scrutiny Commission) (Appendix E);

b)    The Committee will be asked to receive and endorse the following report of a review carried out by a Scrutiny Commission:-

The Role of Arts and Culture in delivering health and wellbeing outcomes (Heritage, Leisure and Sport Scrutiny Commission) (Appendix E1)

a)     The New Bus Services Act 2017 and the impacts to local bus services provision

Councillor Khote, Chair of the Economic Development, Culture and Tourism Scrutiny Commission, presented the scoping document for this review, advising that it was due to be considered at the Commission’s meeting on 12 October 2017.

This legislation would enable the Council to advise bus operators what routes and fares the Council wished to see provided.

AGREED:

That the scoping document “The New Bus Services Act 2017 and the impacts to local bus services provision” be endorsed.

b)   The Role of Arts and Culture in delivering health and wellbeing outcomes

Councillor Unsworth presented the report of the above review, making the following points:

·           This review had been hosted by the Heritage, Culture, Leisure and Sport Scrutiny Commission, with major contributions from members of the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Commission;

·           The review arose from concern that ways needed to be found to support vulnerable people in the community at a time when resources were being eroded;

·           Linking with the arts and culture could help generate feelings of wellbeing through achievement, but also through creating things; and

·           All Scrutiny Commission Chairs were asked to work with the Assistant City Mayors to incorporate the findings of this review in to their work, as it was important to remove the stigma of mental health issues, which it was known could prevent people seeking timely help.

The following points were made in discussion:

o    The report was welcomed, but there was concern that government expenditure on physical health currently was much higher than that on mental health;

o    The Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland Sustainability and Transformation Plan for health services was being developed at present.  Mental health would be considered as part of this;

o    A number of local arts organisations and groups were finding it hard to get funding to support themselves, which could impact on the availability of arts and culture activities for those seeking to use these resources for health and wellbeing reasons;

o    Arts and culture also were important in reducing social isolation.  This needed to be reflected in all services, including those relating specifically to health;

o    All services, whether provided by the Council or other bodies, needed to find ways of working together to ensure that good practice was spread and continued; and

o    Restricted financial resources could make it difficult to find any funding needed to implement the recommendations of the review, but ways should be sought of facilitating and encouraging their implementation.  For example, consideration could be given to whether currently empty buildings could be used to stage exhibitions.

AGREED:

That the report of the review “The Role of Arts and Culture in delivering health and wellbeing outcomes” be endorsed.

A work programme for the Overview Select Committee is attached.  The Committee is asked to consider this and make comments and/or amendments as it considers necessary.

AGREED:

That the work programme for the Overview Select Committee be noted.

Members are invited to consider the Plan of Key Decisions and comment as they see fit.

AGREED:

That the Plan of Key Decisions be noted.

The meeting closed at 8.07 pm