Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Commission held on 15^th September 2015.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 15^th September 2015 were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chairman.

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.

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

There were 6 actions followed up from previous Commission meetings. David Lowe advised that the West Berkshire Parking Task Group was due to hold one last meeting to conclude its work before a report would be issued to the Commission for consideration.

Members were advised that a response to item 2.4 had been received and the total remaining fund was £220,000. Councillor Alan Macro expressed that he felt the value of the Reserve Fund was very low and was subsequently concerned that the Council was not suitably prepared to respond to unforeseen risks.

Resolved that the update report be noted.

Purpose: To advise the Commission of items to be considered by West Berkshire Council 16 December 2015 to 31 March 2016 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 16 December 2015 to 31 March 2016.

Councillor Mike Johnson asked whether further consideration had been made to move the Commission into a format of Pre-Scrutiny and, if this was going to be the case, how the existing schedule of meetings would provide very limited time to conduct Scrutiny effectively. Andy Day advised that, since the previous Leader had stepped down from his role, it was necessary to revisit this proposal with the new Leader and review proposed alternations to the Executive cycle which had been designed to facilitate the introduction of Pre-Scrutiny. David Lowe added that the purpose of this item would be to highlight opportunities for Pre-Scurrility and that a revised timetable should allow the opportunity for this to take place ahead of the next Executive meeting.

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 2015/16.

The Commission considered its work programme for 2015/16.

David Lowe highlighted Appendix B to Members of the Commission. He stated that the proposed topic sought to provide an oversight of the Council’s progress against the delivery of its adopted strategy. The appendix detailed specific subjects for discussion which in turn could provide the basis for ongoing monitoring thereafter. Members accepted the recommendation to accept the item onto the Work Programme.

David Lowe then asked Members to consider Appendix C – a proposal to establish a Task Group to identify the most effective method in which the Commission might scrutinise the activities of Children’s and Families Services. This suggestion followed the feedback from a recent OFSTED inspection during which it was noted that the role of scrutiny could be reviewed so that it contributed towards the work of the service. David Lowe stated that the group would meet to consider methods and report back to the Commission to recommend areas of work going forward. Members accepted the recommendation to accept the item onto the Work Programme.

Resolved that:

·         Proposed topic of scrutiny – Children’s and Families would be added to the Work Programme;

·         Proposed topic of Scrutiny – Delivery of the Council Strategy would be added to the Work Programme;

·         The work programme be noted.

Purpose: To consider any items on which an Urgent Decision is required to be taken by the Executive, in exception to the requirements of  The Local Authorities (Executive Arrangements) (Meetings and Access to Information) (England) Regulations 2012.

There were no Urgent Items to consider.

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.

Purpose: To monitor the progress of recommendations associated with the earlier review of the response to severe weather experienced during the winter of 2013/14.

Carolyn Richardson (Civil Contingency Manager) introduced the report to Members of the Commission. She advised that the action plan had been in place for 18 months and that during this time there had been a lot of positive work undertaken.

Members were reminded that the a debrief took place following the severe weather in 2013/14 and that, through this process, the Commission created the action plan for ongoing review. The report explained that the action plan contained 60 items in total and that, to date, 34 of those had been concluded. Carolyn Richardson explained that the remaining items were under regular review and that, in summary:

·         3 of the remaining items would form business as usual and the action plan would be amended to reflect this;

·         12 of the remaining  items would be completed by March 2016;

·         3 items related to Business Continuity updates and that, due to unforeseen resourcing issues, progress had been hindered.  The issue had recently been resolved so Members could be assured that work would recommence;

·         3 items related to actions reliant on external agencies entailed difficulty influencing progress. However, every effort would be made to ensure progress was continuously monitored and obstacles addressed;

·         3 items referred to the work of the Highways and Transport team and it was likely that these would form business as usual.

Councillor Rick Jones noticed that a lot of resource was used to administer the Repair and Renewal Grant and asked what the take-up had been like across West Berkshire. Carolyn Richardson advised that the scheme was promoted through various avenues and on multiple occasions – direct to homes which had flooded and to the wider community. Up-take varied due to a variety of reasons and, although the scheme concluded in June 2015, agencies continued to promote the measures available to protect homes at risk of flooding.

Councillor Alan Macro was concerned to hear about the delay with Business Continuity items. Carolyn Richardson assured him that work was underway to address these actions now that an Officer was back in post.

Councillor Macro asked whether the Communications Strategy was on track – noticing that the update suggested that work would commence in July 2015. Carolyn Richardson advised that the item had progressed well. It was intended that a Thames Valley Local Resilience Forum Communications Strategy would be created and a West Berkshire Communications Strategy would be developed to compliment this and provide local context. In addition, a lot of work had take place to develop an Information Sharing Protocol to assist agencies with sharing vital information regarding vulnerable people during emergencies. This was notably an area of concern highlighted by the debrief and a solution was under development.

Councillor Macro asked whether any work had taken place to understand the management of weirs along the River Kennet. Stuart Clark (Principal Engineer) advised that a bid had been submitted to the Environment Agency (EA) to conduct a study of the area but this was rejected because the EA had a statutory  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

Purpose: To monitor the progress of the recommendations made on the Council’s Housing Allocation Policy.

Cathy Dodson (Housing Strategy Team Leader) introduced the report to Members of the Commission. Members heard that the current Allocation Policy was adopted in October 2013. In December 2014 the Executive approved amendments to the policy in light of the new Statutory Guidance. Cathy Dodson informed that the report sought to update Members on the implementation of those amendments.

The key changes agreed by the Executive were as follows:

·         Qualification Criteria – amendment made to the local connection qualifying criteria to residency or meaningful paid employment of at least 16 hours a week for 2 consecutive years - other aspects of local connection criteria remained the same.

·         Social Tenants and Labour Mobility – amendment made to allow for exceptions to local connection qualifying criteria to be applied to certain social tenants who need to move in order to sustain or take up employment.

·         Foster Carers – inclusion in the policy to award an additional bedroom for approved foster carers.

·         Homeless Households – new wording inserted to allow deferral of a CHR application when a household is placed into temporary accommodation following acceptance of a full homelessness duty to allow the Housing Service to identify support needs.

To be able to fully implement these changes some modifications were required to the Housing Register data base. To ensure the amendments were implemented with minimal impact on both housing staff and service users, the software provider was requested to build a semi automated assessment. Cathy Dodson explained that the service user would be required to answer three questions about their local connection as opposed to completing a whole new application form. The application was then automatically determined as Qualifying or Non Qualifying.

These changes were implemented on 1^st October 2015 at which point there were 2973 live applicants on the Housing Register. Due to the system changes all applicants would be required to answer the three questions before they could access their Home Choice account.

Applicants received advanced warning of these changes through a notice on the Home Choice website followed by a letter or email. Applicants were clearly advised that if they failed to answer the three questions by 23^rd October 2015 then they would be removed from the Housing Register. Cathy Dodson stressed that multiple attempts were made to contact people during this time to make sure they were aware of the impending changes (through letter, text or phone call).

Members heard that minimal numbers of people failed to re-register their interest and that every effort had been made to capture anyone who had previously been listed on the Housing Register.

Councillor Hilary Cole stated that a considerable amount of effort had taken place by the team to contact account holders and this was reflected in the numbers. Councillor Cole congratulated the team for their hard work.

Councillor Jones was impressed by the methodology used by the team – it seemed very thorough. He asked whether the team understood the reasons for those not re-registering their account. Cathy Dodson  ...  view the full minutes text for item 40.

Purpose: To provide the Commission with an update on the progress of recommendations resulting from scrutiny reviews.

David Lowe introduced the Recommendation report to Members of the Commission. The report outlined the recommendations presented by the Commission to the Executive and the progress against those which had been accepted.

Councillor Johnson requested that the report included the target dates in order to contextualise the suggested status. David Lowe confirmed that this would be included in future reports. He explained that, in reference to The Utilisation of Shaw House, there had been a degree of delay due to a vacant post. Members hears that the post had been filled and that actions were progressing.

Councillor Jones highlighted that there were a few updates outstanding from the Domestic Abuse update. Andy Day advised that this item had also been impacted by a vacancy but he would ensure that updates were provided now that the new Officer was in place.

Resolved that:

·         The report would include target dates as agreed from the Service Area in order to determine rate of progress;

·         Updates would be obtained for items outstanding in relation to the Domestic Abuse actions;

·         the report be noted.