Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Grant, who was carrying out a civic duty on behalf of the Council, and Councillor Dr Moore. The City Mayor also submitted his apologies.

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

Councillor Sood declared an Other Disclosable Interest as she was a Member of the Leicester Council of Faiths.

In accordance with the Council’s Code of Conduct, the interest was not considered so significant that it was likely to prejudice Councillor Sood’s   judgement of the public interest.  She was not, therefore, required to withdraw from the meeting.

The Chair made no announcements.

The minutes of the meeting of the Overview Select Committee held on 14 September 2017 are attached and the Committee will be asked to confirm them as a correct record.

AGREED:

that the minutes of the meeting of the Overview Select Committee held on 14 September be confirmed as a correct record.

The Chair reported on progress on actions previously agreed:

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 14/07/2017/2, 14/07/2017/4, marked ‘petitions process complete’ be removed from the monitoring report.

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

Members of the Committee were given the opportunity to raise questions for Councillor Clair, Deputy City Mayor and Councillor Russell, Deputy City Mayor for Children, Young People and Schools (CYPS)

Mental Health and support for Children

Councillor Cutkelvin said that the Health and Wellbeing Scrutiny Commission and the Children, Young People and Schools Scrutiny Commission would be holding a joint meeting to consider the Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS). She asked the Deputy City Mayor, CYPS, what the Council could do to provide dedicated mental health staff in schools to support children and young people.

The Deputy City Mayor, CYPS, responded that the Council worked across schools to support children, to help them build on their mental resilience and there were also programmes to help teachers, teaching assistants to promote mental health. The Council were very aware of their responsibilities and mental health problems were becoming an increasing problem. The meeting heard that the exam culture, particularly with testing at the end of key stages, did impact on the mental health of children and young people.  

Firework Night and Diwali Celebrations

The Chair said the Bonfire Night event at Abbey Park had always been very successful and he asked the Deputy City Mayor about attendance figures and whether income met expenditure.

The Deputy City Mayor responded that Leicester had one of the biggest firework night celebrations in the East Midlands with increasing numbers of people coming to enjoy the mix of fireworks, fairground rides and entertainment. There was also a big screen so that people could watch from a distance. Over the last two years there had been a record number of attendees with up to 25,000 people present. The budget for the festival was £16k which had remained the same despite the budget pressures.

Councillor Govind congratulated the Deputy City Mayor and the entire team on the recent Diwali night celebrations; stating that that were a big improvement on the previous year. The Deputy City Mayor said that when the Diwali festival started 25 years ago in Leicester, it was attended by a very small number of people but the festival had grown into an event that Leicester could be proud of with attendance reaching approximately 80,000 or 90,000 people. The Deputy City Mayor congratulated all those involved including the Diwali Working Group and the officers who had been responsible for the lighting.

The Committee will receive the report of the Finance Task Group which met on 18 October 2017 to consider the following Finance Reports:

a)    Revenue Monitoring Report Period 4, 2017-2018 (Appendix C)

b)    Capital Monitoring Report Period 4, 2017-2018 (Appendix C1)

Minutes of that meeting will be circulated as soon as they are available.

31 October 2017 – Please note that the Minutes of the Finance Task Group held 18 October are now attached (Appendix C3).

The Chair introduced the Report of the Finance Task Group which had met on 18 October 2017 to consider the Revenue Budget Monitoring and Capital Budget Monitoring Reports for Period 4, 2017/18.  The Chair stated that the Finance Task Group had expressed particular concerns regarding pressures relating to the Adult Social Care budget.

The Director of Finance introduced the Revenue Budget Monitoring Report and stated that there were continued pressures in both the Adult Social Care and the Children’s Services budgets. Those budget pressures were national issues rather than particular to Leicester, but Leicester was a relatively deprived city. The major issue for the Adult Social Care service was the increasing levels of needs of their existing service users, but the department continued to look at new ways of working to make budget savings.  Within Children’s Services, budget pressures particularly arose from the rising number of children in receipt of care.

The Director of Finance then referred to the Capital Budget Monitoring Report and explained that the focus of capital reports had changed from a particular programme’s spend to its delivery. The Director assured Members that they would be informed where it was considered that capital projects would not be delivered to budget.  The Chair commented that the format of the capital budget in the report was now very clear.  Members heard that individual projects were given a RAG (Red, Amber Green) rating and Members asked that the code be included in all future reports where the RAG rating was used.

Councillor Cutkelvin referred to the Extra Care Schemes, which were on hold awaiting the announcement from the Government on the Housing Cap, and the Director explained that guidance had now been issued. While they were still waiting for some details, there was good news for the Council as the Government had realised that over 80% of schemes had stopped due to the uncertainty around the Housing Cap. There were two Extra Care Schemes ready to go, but as they were procured a long time ago, there was a need to check that the procurement was still compliant.  Councillor Cutkelvin commented that this was an important issue and she would welcome a briefing for Members.

A Member said that there had been an over spend in relation to the Haymarket car park lift and questioned where the extra money would come from. The Director responded that she would be giving consideration to this, but underspends could be used towards overspends elsewhere.

In response to a query relating to the Anchor Centre, the Director explained that the Council had very recently taken possession of the new building and they anticipated that it would be ready for use soon. The Deputy City Mayor, CYPS, added that there would be a careful transition programme in view of the vulnerability of many of the service users.

The Director of Finance was asked about the vehicle replacement programme and explained that the fleet included a wide range of vehicles, which had cost a substantial amount  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance submits a report that provides an insight into the progress of Leicester City Council’s commitment to having a workforce that is reflective of the communities it serves. Scrutiny is asked to consider the report and any actions or areas of further work they feel may be helpful in the Council achieving a representative workforce, for inclusion in the action plan.

The Director of Delivery, Communications and Political Governance submitted a report that analysed the profile of the Council’s centrally employed workforce as at 31 March 2017.

Councillor Sood, Assistant City Mayor for Communities and Equalities introduced the report and said that Leicester City Council was committed to having a workforce that was reflective of the community it served.

The Director explained that data on the employee’s protected characteristics came from the employees themselves. Such declarations were not mandatory but staff were encouraged to submit that information.  It was noted that employee’s declaration rates for most of the protected characteristics had decreased over the past year.  The Director commented that this was disappointing, but she and the Equalities Manager would be looking at ways to encourage more staff to complete their declarations.

Members heard that the 51 to 55 age group was the largest age group in the workforce and this potentially presented a risk to the Council where large numbers of staff might approach retirement at the same time. Work was ongoing to recruit and retain more graduates and the focus in particularly was ensuring that the Council retained those graduates once their initial fixed-term placements ended.

The Director added that within the top 5% of earners, there was a high proportion of women.

The data overall demonstrated that Leicester was doing significantly better than comparable local authorities but they were not complacent and would focus on those areas where more work was needed.

The Chair commented that that it was good that Leicester was doing well when compared to those similar local authorities. He asked whether incentives were given to retain staff. Members heard that the Council wanted to retain more graduate employees and more could be done to achieve this aim. Consideration was being given as to how they could best use graduates to increase the Council’s talent pool, so that when they reached the end of their temporary contract, they would then more likely to have the skills and experience to fill those hard to recruit to positions. A Member questioned what those ‘hard to recruit to’ posts were and heard that while more work was needed to define those positions, jobs in Planning and Social Work were two such examples.

In response to a question, Members heard that 18% of the top 5% of earners were from a Black and Ethnic Minority (BME) background, compared to 37% of the workforce overall. Members expressed concern at this. The Chair commented this pattern had continued for too long; the Council aspired to have a workforce that reflected the community it served and this was an area they needed to improve upon. The Chair added that rather than recruiting nationally, there should be a greater emphasis on internal recruitment and he questioned why the right BME candidates were not already employed in the organisation. The Chair said that Councillors had raised their concerns with him and he believed that it was appropriate to challenge the issue. The Council needed  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

Scrutiny Commission Chairs will be invited to update the Committee on the work currently being undertaken by their Commissions.

Members made no comments relating to their Scrutiny Commissions’ work programmes.

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.

There were no comments on the Overview Select Committee Work Programme.

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

The Chair asked Scrutiny Commission Chairs to look at the Plan of Key Decisions so see if there were items that their commission might wish to scrutinise.

The Chair closed the meeting at 6.42 pm.