Agenda and minutes

At this point in the meeting, Members are asked to declare any disclosable pecuniary interest or other registerable interest they might have in respect of business on this agenda, if they have not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests.

Members were asked to declare at this point in the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interests or other registrable interests that they might have in the business on the agenda, if they had not already done so in advance on the Register of Interests.

In relation to item 8 (Schedule of Petitions), Cllr Fisher noted that he was the organiser of petition no. 178.  During Item 8, Cllr Baker noted that she was the organiser of petition no. 182.

No further interests were declared.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 31 October 2022 and 7 November 2022.

Resolved: That the minutes of the meetings of the committee held on 31 October and 07 November 2022 be approved and signed as a correct record.

At this point in the meeting members of the public who have registered to speak can do so. Members of the public may speak on agenda items or on matters within the remit of the committee.

Please note that our registration deadlines are set as 2 working days before the meeting, in order to facilitate the management of public participation at our meetings.  The deadline for registering at this meeting is 5:00pm on Thursday, 5 January 2023.

To register to speak please visit www.york.gov.uk/AttendCouncilMeetings to fill in an online registration form.  If you have any questions about the registration form or the meeting, please contact Democratic Services.  Contact details can be found at the foot of this agenda.

Webcasting of Public Meetings

Please note that, subject to available resources, this meeting will be webcast including any registered public speakers who have given their permission. The meeting can be viewed live and on demand at www.york.gov.uk/webcasts.

During coronavirus, we made some changes to how we ran council meetings, including facilitating remote participation by public speakers. See our updates (www.york.gov.uk/COVIDDemocracy) for more information on meetings and decisions.

It was reported that there had been one registration to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.

Flick Williams addressed the Committee via Zoom and spoke with reference to item 9 (Council Motions) and item 10 (Work Plan).  She began by welcoming the newly appointed Access Officer and the development of the Access Forum.  In relation to the Access for All Council Motion, she raised concerns regarding the lack of progress to date on the provision of changing places toilets.  In relation to item 10, she requested that consideration be given to scrutiny of the Christmas Market.  She cited a number of concerns that included incorrectly issued parking tickets to blue badge holders, lack of access through the security barriers, an overwhelmed park and ride bus service and impassable footstreets.

Members will receive the second report of the financial year detailing the overall finance and performance position together with an overview of any emerging issues.

The Chief Finance Officer presented details of the overall finance and performance position for the period covering 1 April 2022 to 30 September 2022 and gave an overview of emerging issues. She noted that spending pressures particularly in social care remain and, whilst not unique to York, it was a serious situation.  She explained that it could be necessary to dip into the council’s general reserves at year end which would put the financial resilience of the council at risk.

The Head of Business Intelligence stated that performance indicators had not changed significantly, he highlighted that the data coming in for quarter 3 showed an improvement to call waiting times.

The officers responded to Members questions covering one-off funding support, the funding of the staff pay award and the impact of winter sickness levels.

With reference to call handling data, the Head of Business Intelligence agreed to include a more detailed breakdown of the call waiting times in future reports and circulate any current data to the Committee.  He also agreed to investigate the possibility of measuring if customers have found a different route to the information they require, through a customer experience/satisfaction survey.   

Resolved:           

                                     i.        that further detail on call answering indicators be included in future reports and circulated to the Committee if available.

                                    ii.        that the report be noted.

Reason:               to achieve a greater understanding of the customer experience and to ensure expenditure is kept within the approved budget.

This report outlines the Council’s approach to budget setting and provides an update on some of the current financial challenges. [To note].

The Chief Finance Officer presented a report which outlined the Council’s approach to budget setting.  She explained that due to time constraints there was to be one combined budget report that would go to the Executive Member for Finance and Major Projects Decision Session. The report would then be presented to the Executive and then Full Council in February 2023 as usual.

Resolved:            that the information in this report be noted.

Reason:               to keep the Committee informed of any financial issues.

This report sets out the current position in relation to available Council funding for research in support of scrutiny review work.  [To note]

The Head of Civic, Democratic and Scrutiny Services outlined the options available to the Committee with respect to Council funding for external consultation/market research in support of scrutiny review work. 

Following a brief debate, during which Council scrutiny resources were discussed, it was unanimously agreed by the Committee that:

Resolved:           

                                     i.        the Committee retained the current budgetary support for external research and consultancy work.

                                    ii.        the Chair would write to the Chief Operating Officer and Leader to regarding the lack of scrutiny officer time.

Reason:               To address the Committee’s constitutional right to comment to Executive on setting the above scrutiny budget.

The Committee will receive a report which provides a snapshot of the full Annual Complaints Report 2021/22 contained in full at Annex 1.

The Information Governance and Feedback Team Manager gave an overview of the full Annual Complaints Report April 2021 to March 2022, She highlighted that the report also included compliments from residents.  She explained that an increase in the number of complaints could be due to national trends and / or an improved complaints procedure.

The officer, together with the Corporate Governance Operational Manager, responded to questions from Members covering the complaints procedure, the assessment of financial recompense, damage to bins during refuse collections, an analysis of complaints between permanent and agency staff, comparison data with other local authorities (LAs) and the real time monitoring of service areas.

Officers were asked to:

·        Clarify the Stage Three Outcomes table, page 91 of the agenda pack

·        Provide further analysis of the upheld decisions, compared with other LAs, p 48 of the agenda pack.

·        Establish the reason for the closure of the Corporate and Other Services complaint dated 21/01/22, page 95 of the agenda pack.

Resolved:

                                     i.        that the above requests are actioned.

                                    ii.        to note the details contained in the annual report

Reason:               To ensure that processes for monitoring complaints remain effective.

This report provides Members with details of new petitions received to date since the last report to the Committee in December 2021.

The Head of Civic, Democratic and Scrutiny Services presented the schedule of petitions received by the Council.  She explained that it was the role of the Committee to review the progress of petitions through the Council and to identify, when necessary, better methods for the handling of petitions.

Following a discussion of the current petitions, Members agreed that all petitions, in the first instance, should go the relevant Executive Member Decision Session in order to avoid delays to actions.

Resolved:

                                                     i.        That, once received, petitions should go to the relevant Executive Member Decision Session.

                                                    ii.        That the schedule of petitions be noted.

Reason:                        To ensure the Committee carries out its constitutional role in relation to petitions.

[18:57 Cllr Rowley left the meeting]

This report provides information on approved Council motions since March 2022.

The Head of Civic, Democratic and Scrutiny Services presented a report on approved Council motions since March 2022.

During the discussion it was agreed that the Chair and Vice-Chair would review the document to decide which motions could be removed from future reporting.  

Members requested that more detail was provided in the ‘Actions taken’ section, where ‘in progress’ or ‘as above’ were used or where boxes had been left empty. They also requested that officer job titles were included in the report for ease of tracking should someone leave their role.

A discussion took place regarding the facilitation of improved Ward Councillor involvement in the S106 process, page 127 of the agenda pack refers.  The Director of Governance and Monitoring Officer confirmed that was possible to draft S106 agreements to be more general and without specifying funding destinations. It was agreed to request a joint overview report from Planning and Communities regarding the S106 process and the role of Community Involvement Officers (CIOs) in that process.

Resolved:

                                     i.        That the Chair and Vice-Chair should review the Council Motions document to decide which motions no longer need to be reported to the Committee.

                                    ii.        That further details, as outlined above, be added to the Council Motions document.

                                  iii.        That an overview report is requested from the Place and Communities Directorates content as outlined above.

                                  iv.        That the contents of Annex A be noted.

Reason:              To ensure that processes for monitoring and implementing approved Council motion resolutions remain sufficiently robust.

To consider the Work Plan.

The process for a resident to register a scrutiny topic request was outlined by the Head of Civic, Democratic and Scrutiny Services.  The Committee requested that the Public Speaker at the meeting complete a Scrutiny Topic Registration Form in order to register their suggested item for scrutiny.

Members noted the corporate scrutiny work plan covering the next meeting of this Committee and the meeting of the other Scrutiny Committees up until 06 March 2023. 

Resolved: 

                                                     i.        That a Scrutiny Topic Registration Form be sent to the Public Speaker.

                                                    ii.        That the work plan be noted.

Reason:                        To ensure that the Committee had a planned programme of work and an overview of the other Scrutiny Committees.