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City of York Council |
Committee Minutes |
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Meeting |
Corporate Scrutiny Committee |
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Date |
8 September 2025 |
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Present |
Councillors Fenton (Chair), Merrett (Vice-Chair), Ayre, Baxter, K Taylor, Watson, Wells, Widdowson and Moroney (Substitute for Cllr Coles) |
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Apologies
In Attendance
Officers Present |
Councillor Coles
Councillor Douglas, Leader of the Council Councillor Lomas, Executive Member for Finance, Performance, Major Projects, Human Rights, Equality and Inclusion
Sam Blyth, Head of City Strategy and Corporate Programmes Pauline Stuchfield, Director of Housing and Communities Claire Foale, Chief Strategy Officer Patrick Looker, Assistant Director of Finance Guy Close, Democratic Services Manager James Parker, Scrutiny Officer |
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15. Apologies for Absence (5.31 pm)
Apologies were received and noted from Cllr Coles, Cllr Moroney substituted for her.
16. Declarations of Interest (5.31 pm)
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.
None were declared.
17. Minutes (5.32 pm)
The Executive Member, Finance, Performance, Major Projects, Human Rights, Equality and Inclusion confirmed that the response to Ms Williams, referred to at minute 10, Public Participation, had been sent. The Chair agreed to share the response with the committee.
Resolved: That the minutes be approved as a correct record for the meeting held on 7 July 2025.
18. Public Participation (5.34 pm)
It was reported that there had been one registration to speak at the meeting under the Council’s Public Participation Scheme.
Flick Williams, a resident, spoke with reference to Item 5, the 10 year anti-poverty strategy. She drew members attention to the research by Scope, that found the additional cost of being disabled to be around £1000 per month. She stated that Government legislation was eroding protection for disabled people, making them significantly poorer. She raised a number of concerns around a lack of replacement for the Dial a Ride service, the ending of the provision of gluten free foods for coeliacs by the integrated care board and table 21 of the report which she stated was inconsistent with the social model of disability approach.
19. 10-year anti-poverty strategy (5.49 pm)
The Director of Customer and Communities introduced the report on the draft 10 year anti-poverty strategy, requesting feedback from Members as part of the consultation process. She suggested reading the report alongside the report for Item 6, Next steps for securing investment in York, which outlined projects that could provide solutions to some of the issues raised in the anti-poverty strategy. She summarised some of the responses already received from the consultation and noted, in response to points made by the public speaker, that respondents asked for practical, non-judgemental support.
Members asked a range of questions which covered the contribution of the York Access Forum (YAF), the membership of the interest group, the opportunity cost of the strategy, meeting the needs of older and disabled residents, examples of real action, council actions as a housing provider, inclusion of healthy communities. They suggested consideration of the two-child benefit cap, councils’ ability to lobby, KPIs, low pay and best practice from other local authorities in their suggestions for improvement to the strategy.
Officers reported that they had requested feedback from YAF and were looking to engage with all interest groups. Following the consultation, a detailed action plan would be developed. Officers acknowledged the difficulties in visually presenting a strategy for groups that changed over time and assured members that static, ever-present needs could be met over the lifetime of the ten-year strategy.
Resolved: That the report be noted and member feedback be included in the final strategy.
Reason: To ensure that the views of members are taken into account in the development of the strategy.
20. Next steps for securing investment in York (6.25 pm)
Members considered the portfolio of investible propositions, known as the York Prospectus. The Chief Strategy Officer introduced the report and asked members to suggest their preferred priorities, noting that the list of projects did not pre-empt the planning process. The Head of Strategy noted that the prospectus was a list of projects that York wanted to deliver to achieve its vision. The prospectus would be used as a tool to demonstrate to the York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority (YNYCA) and Government ministers the plans for the city.
Members commented on a range of topics, including funding, costs, risk and reward, the station frontage, decarbonisation, the resilience of highways, last mile delivery, the delivery date of Haxby rail station, methods of prioritising projects, and the comparative value of officers working on project outlines that may not come to fruition.
Officers stated that a clear set of priorities would enable the decision makers to make an informed decision and that officers would focus on projects that provided strategic oversight. The YNYCA was the established strategic authority, and the long list came from the previously established pipeline of projects. Transport items were driven by the transport team.
The Executive Member for Finance, Performance, Major Projects, Human Rights, Equality and Inclusion explained that a short list could result in a missed opportunity, and it was important to identify items that, on balance, should not be included so that there was a clear list of priorities.
Resolved: That the report be noted and member views on priorities be taken forward in the development of the prospectus.
Reason: To provide scrutiny oversight and ensure member feedback is considered as part of the development of the prospectus.
21. 2024/25 Finance and Performance Outturn (5.38 pm)
The Assistant Director of Finance presented the Finance and Performance Outturn report, highlighting the small underspend achieved by Corporate Services. The Head of Business Intelligence confirmed that there had been no change to the performance indicators used.
Members asked a number of questions covering the costs relating to the Property portfolio, sickness absence, spending on Adult Social Care, and the average speed of answering calls.
Officers reported that a report on the property portfolio was planned for scrutiny, although they were unsure for which committee. They agreed to check and confirm to members outside of the meeting. Members were advised that People scrutiny committee was best situated to examine adult social care spending. The Head of Business Intelligence agreed to work with colleagues in customer services to put together some information on the detail of the wait times in the customer call journey.
Resolved:
i. That the report be noted.
ii. The committee be provided with more detailed
information relating to the customer call journey.
Reason: To ensure expenditure is kept within the approved budget.
22. A Shared Vision for Scrutiny in York (7.10 pm)
The Chair outlined the process that had been undertaken to produce the shared vision for scrutiny document. The Leader joined the meeting and thanked the Chair and the scrutiny review working group for the collaborative approach taken in contributing to the shared vision. The Chair welcomed James Parker to his new role as Scrutiny Officer.
Resolved: That the Shared Vision ‘live’ document be noted.
Reason: To strengthen the scrutiny function and fulfil the recommendation endorsed by Council in March 2025 in relation to a Shared Vision for scrutiny in York.
23. Work Plan (7.15 pm)
Members considered the work plan for the committee and the overview work plan for the scrutiny committees.
Resolved: That the work plan be noted.
Reason: To ensure oversight of the scrutiny work plan.
Cllr S Fenton, Chair
[The meeting started at 5.31 pm and finished at 7.20 pm].