Agenda and minutes

Purpose: To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Commission held on 7^th January and 21^st January 2014.

The Minutes of the meetings held on 7 January 2014 and 21 January 2014 were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chairman, subject to the following amendments:

7 January 2014

·        Councillor Andrew Rowles advised that he had been present at the meeting;

·        Page 4, bullet point 2: amend ‘24 months after completion’ to ‘within 24 months of completion’.

21 January 2014

·        Page 6, Item 66, paragraph 1: amend ‘2011/12’ to ‘2013/14’;

·        Page 6, Item 66, paragraph 4: amend ‘and that that this was expected’ to ‘and that this was expected’.

Purpose: To remind Members of the need to record the existence and nature of any Personal, Disclosable Pecuniary or other interests in items on the agenda, in accordance with the Members’ Code of Conduct.

There were no declarations of interest received.

Purpose: To receive an update on actions following the previous Commission meeting.

The Commission received an update on actions from the previous meeting and made the following comments:

2.2: Councillor Virginia von Celsing asked why the Continuing Healthcare update had been postponed until April. Nick Carter responded that he and Dr Cathy Winfield (Chief Officer of North West Reading CCG) would be more able to provide a full and clear update on progress at this time. Had an update been provided at this evening’s meeting, it would not be sufficiently informative;

2.4: Councillor Tony Vickers asked what consideration had been given to the effects of road closures on ‘available routes’, identified as suitable routes for children to use when walking to school, for example when the route was flooded. The Chairman agreed to request a response for the next meeting.

2.5: David Lowe provided information in relation to Freedom of Information requests received by the Council, commenting that five years worth of data had been provided which demonstrated a year on year increase in requests for information. David Lowe clarified that the Freedom of Information Act defined situations in which an exemption could be applied to allow the Council to refuse provision of the requested information. The majority of exemptions were due to requests involving personal information, or requests that would exceed the appropriate cost limit, which allowed 18 work hours to extricate the information.

Following questioning from the Commission, David Lowe provided the following responses:

·        Approximately half of all appeals that had been escalated to the Information Commissioner had been found against the Council;

·        There was legislation in place to allow appeals to continue to tribunal should the requester or public authority be unhappy with the Information Commissioner’s findings;

·        There was no clear reason for the increase in the number of requests for information, however it was considered likely that people were becoming more aware of their right to request information under the Act. In addition it was apparent that news stories would trigger a spate of requests for related information;

·        There had been an increase in employees dealing with Freedom of Information requests from 1 FTE (full time equivalent) to 1.4 FTE. The team also dealt with corporate complaints;

·        Where a request was too large to be accepted, it was the responsibility of the Council to inform the requester of this, and to provide advice for example to suggest that the scope of the request be reduced, or that they might wish to pay for the excess time required (this would approximate to £25 per hour). To date, no one had agreed to pay for the extra time;

·        The number of people who made repeat requests was low. The number of distinct requesters would be confirmed to the Commission;

·        The increase in requests in recent years was common across the public sector and there was no indication that this would stabilise or reduce in coming years;

·        The average cost per information request was not calculated;

·        Ongoing reviews at a national level were aimed at mitigating the effect of the number  ...  view the full minutes text for item 74.

Purpose: To advise the Commission of items to be considered by West Berkshire Council from 12 February to 30 June 2014 and decide whether to review any of the proposed items prior to the meeting indicated in the Plan.

The Commission considered the West Berkshire Forward Plan for the period covering February 2014 to June 2014.

Resolved that the Forward Plan be noted.

Purpose: To receive new items and agree and prioritise the work programme of the Commission for the remainder of 2013/14.

The Commission considered its work programme for the remainder of 2013/14 and into 2014/15.

Councillor Quentin Webb advised the Commission that the recommendations that arose from the review into eligibility criteria had all been accepted by the Executive. The Chairman thanked the members of the Task Group for the work undertaken.

Councillor Webb additionally advised the Commission that the first meeting of the Task Group looking into homelessness amongst young families would be held on 3 March 2014 when the terms of reference would be agreed.

Councillor Jeff Beck informed the Commission that the expected last meeting of the Shaw House Task Group had been cancelled due to flooding and had been rearranged for 7 March 2014.

Councillor Laszlo Zverko enquired about the terms of reference for the review into energy saving and requested that information be provided on contract renewal procedures from the point of providing notice of renewal and the number of contracts for both gas and electricity. Councillor Tony Vickers asked that consideration also be given to methods for generating energy.

[7:05pm: Councillor Emma Webster joined the meeting.]

The Commission considered three new topics for scrutiny:

The governance arrangements in place for Children’s Services

Councillor Gwen Mason asked if it was appropriate to include consideration of the Children and Young People Partnership when it had met only once. Nick Carter suggested that it might be appropriate if Members wished to ask why it had only met once.

The Commission agreed to add this item to the work programme.

Fairer Contributions Policy for non-residential care services

Councillor Mason requested that this item be added to the work programme as issues had been raised via the Disability External Scrutiny board and the West Berkshire Disability Alliance who had commented on the clarity and appropriateness of the policy in relation to Disability Related Expenditure.

The Commission agreed to add this item to the work programme.

The response to the flooding situation in West Berkshire

Councillor Alan Macro requested that an item be added to the work programme to consider the response given by all relevant organisations, including the Council, to the recent flooding in West Berkshire. Councillor Macro highlighted that this had been the third major flooding incident in ten years and he believed it important to continue to learn from these events in order to improve future responses.

The Chairman reminded the Commission of the scrutiny review into the flooding of July 2007, commenting on the success of some of the measures taken as a result of the review.

Councillor Vickers supported the request, and commented that this flooding had been significantly different to previous events and therefore a new review would be likely to uncover new issues and mitigation methods.

The Commission agreed to add this item to the work programme.

The Commission wished to thank all of the services that had assisted in recent weeks, and particular mention was made of the 33 fire authorities from other areas of the country who had contributed.

Resolved that:

·        The  ...  view the full minutes text for item 76.

Purpose: To consider any items called-in by the requisite number of Members following the previous Executive meeting.

No items were called-in following the last Executive meeting.

Purpose: To consider any items proposed for a Councillor Call for Action.

There were no Councillor Calls for Action.

Purpose: To consider any petitions requiring an Officer response.

There were no petitions to be received at the meeting.

Purpose: To examine the impact of the government’s benefits changes

Sean Anderson introduced a report on the impact of welfare reform in West Berkshire. Mel Brain, Adrian Brunskill (Sovereign South + West Regional Housing Manager), Jan Rothwell (West Berkshire Citizens Advice Bureau Chief Executive) and Andrew Bruce (Newbury Foodbank Chair) were also present to provide information to the Commission.

Council Tax Support and Council Tax Collection Performance

Sean Anderson informed the Commission that Council Tax Benefit had been replaced by Council Tax Support in April 2013. Local Authorities had been tasked with creating their own schemes but were required to ensure that pensioners were not affected by any changes. The scheme in West Berkshire required that all households would pay a minimum of 8.5% of their Council Tax, excepting pensioners and people of working age in receipt of disability related benefits. This had resulted in approximately 2,500 people who now paid a contribution towards Council Tax who had previously been in receipt of 100% benefit.

The lead time for implementation of the support scheme had been short, however Sean Anderson believed that it had been delivered with little disruption to the process. At the end of the financial year, further analysis could be conducted to understand the levels of Council Tax collection and default payments, particularly within the group of people who were now required to pay a contribution.

Councillor Vickers asked about the reduction in the number of Council Tax Support claimants between April and December 2013, in particular, how many non-exempt people were no longer claiming the support. Councillor Vickers further asked for greater detail about the increase in those to whom a summons for non payment of Council Tax had been issued, noting that there had been an increase of approximately 20%. Sean Anderson responded that this information would not be available until the end of the financial year, but that it was intended that this information would be determined.

Councillor Dave Goff asked why there had been a reduction in the number of claims for Council Tax Support. Sean Anderson replied that the number of claims did vary from year to year, but that this reduction was considered to be reflective of the uplift in the economy and the resulting employment statistics.

Councillor Goff commented on the apparently contradictory information showing a reduction in claimants against an increase in the number of people defaulting on their payments. Sean Anderson again confirmed that this detail would not be analysed until the end of the financial year but suggested that the reason could be work related.

Councillor Webb asked whether employment rates would be tracked in order to draw future comparisons. Sean Anderson confirmed that they would.

Social Sector Size Criteria

Sean Anderson explained that this scheme reduced the level of housing benefit that would be paid to tenants in social sector housing in order to support only the space that was considered necessary for the number of tenant(s) in a property. The scheme had been referred to nationally as ‘Bedroom Tax’.

Adrian Brunskill explained that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 80.