Agenda and minutes

To note any declarations of interest from the Councillors.  They are asked to indicate the relevant agenda item, the nature of the interest and in particular whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Any declarations of interest made at the meeting which is not on the register of interests should be notified to the Monitoring Officer for inclusion.

To note any announcements from the Chair

The Chair raised 3 points of concern, which had been circulated to members before the meeting.

There is no current Head of Paid Service

There are many Vacancies at Senior Level

There is no detailed Forward Plan

Agreed Chair to submit a robust memo on these points to be raised at the next Cabinet meeting and to be discussed at the next Mayor’s Questions on 1st November.

Noted concern that vacancies were either unfilled or were covered by interims that are not subject to the full selection process or salary controls.

Particular concern in Place directorate, where most directors have left. The 3 key officers for the Arena project have gone. Affecting reporting lines, decision making capability and responsibility. Memo for Cabinet should ask how many members of staff are acting up to cover senior roles and effectively doubling their workloads.

Need clarification on whether plans for restructure initiated by the outgoing Chief Executive are still going ahead.

Up to 30 minutes is allowed for this item

Any member of the public or Councillor may participate in Public Forum.  The detailed arrangements for so doing are set out in the Public Information Sheet at the back of this agenda.  Public Forum items should be emailed to democratic.services@bristol.gov.uk and please note that the following deadlines will apply in relation to this meeting:-

Questions - Written questions must be received 3 clear working days prior to the meeting.  For this meeting, this means that your question(s) must be received in this office at the latest by 5 pm on 14^th September 2017.

Petitions and Statements - Petitions and statements must be received on the working day prior to the meeting.  For this meeting this means that your submission must be received in this office at the latest by 12.00 noon on 19^th September 2017.

Query received on OSMB remit as per its Terms of Reference. Chair confirmed all reports will be brought to OSMB and dealt with unless so important they require a sub-group to investigate.

- Clarity given on the pagination system for reports

- Chair confirmed Task and Finish Groups would report progress to OSMB on a monthly basis and explained how they will engage with the public.

- Noted that Looked After Children / Care Leavers could be a subject for Task and Finish Groups to investigate if deemed appropriate and Councillors with experience in that area would be welcome to contribute.

ACTION: to request that Learning City Partnership Board minutes be published on the Council website

Each chair (or nominated rep) is asked to provide a formal update on the activity of their task and finish group. Chairs will be supported by the Scrutiny team to produce this but updates are to be in written form and published in the OSMB papers. Updates are then presented verbally during the meeting.

The updates are then used to form the content for the monthly OSMB newsletter to all members.

Update on the initial meetings of the Task and Finish Groups.

-          Some groups are heavily over-subscribed, this meaning it is impossible to set a meeting date for which all members can attend. Practicality dictates setting a date and some members will be unable to attend. Proportionality will be retained in some form where possible.

-          Parks – Cllr English – attendance was light, probably due to diary issues as already discussed. There is £1.56m of savings to be made. Ideas to realise these savings are happening at the next meeting. Proposed to have two meetings, one of which was open to interested parties. Confirmed that there was a limited budget to hold events, and they should be held in City Hall.

-          Council Commissioning and Contracts – Cllr Alexander – first meeting was well attended and positive, was about determining remit. Will exclude Adult Social Care, but will cover the Financial Regulations and Contract Procedure rules in the Constitutional Review, Social Value (especially SMEs) and how Members can be involved in Commissioning process at an earlier stage. Suggested that an up to date Contract Register should be included in the work stream, as this would indicate when members can get involved.

-          Demand on Social Services – Cllr Massey – Adults: examination of the 3 Tier model, along with bed blocking, rehab pathways and the role of Public Health. Agreed on the need to get user feedback. Children: looking at family support and social work model, seeing whether early help works properly, new Ofsted framework, child protection and root causes for demand.

-          Council Assets – Cllr English – Have not met since last OSMB, have asked for a position paper and the current policy but this has not been supplied. Also not clear when the Your Neighbourhood consultation findings will be published.

ACTION: request current Council Asset policy / positioning paper.

ACTION: confirm consultation timeline and circulate to OSMB members.

-          CribbsPatchway New Neighbourhood – Cllr Brook – had meeting with officers and Cabinet Member to discuss aims and scope. Working out where we can input. Priority is works on Crow Lane roundabout, envision a long-standing group that will flex in activity depending on the development. Important to involve South Gloucestershire colleagues.

-          Air Quality – Cllr Keen – This is tagged onto a pre-existing work stream for Defra, but officers have hit a problem due to change in national rules, meaning they could miss deadlines. Kerry McCarthy MP is helping. Is a Clean Air Plan rather than Clean Air Zone, so the remit is wider.

-          Children’s Centres – starting end of Sept/early Oct

-          Libraries – Cllr Bolton – meeting about alternative models and how that might work, we will be going through the results of consultation at next meeting. Concern about timeframe and how much influence the group can have. Extended access pilots will not have a chance to report back. Vision needed before decisions. Also concerns about losing buildings and not being able  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

This is specific item for Members of OSMB to review their own work programme of standing items and substantive items (e.g. budget) for 2017-18.

Members expressed concern that recent changes to staff mean they no longer know which officers are responsible for which service areas or work streams. Also concern about officers taking on more than they can handle to cover vacancies. Cabinet members used to give regular update reports to OSMB but now no longer do so.

ACTION: to secure a list of officer / cabinet member responsibilities and circulate to members

ACTION: to request update reports from Cabinet Members for OSMB as was done previously.

ACTION: to add Flood Risk Strategy and Safeguarding Adults and Children reports to November meeting.

Noted that 3 new items are going to Cabinet on 3rd Oct without scrutiny: Adoption West, Occupational Health and Housing and Planning. This will be added to the Chair’s statement for Cabinet on late items. Monitoring Officer explained 28 day notice period for Forward Plans and APR 15/16.

For Members to discuss potential additions to the Scrutiny work programme – please see list of topics.  To specifically address any emerging health issues.

Noted interest in a housing item, and agreed to discuss with Paul Smith what OSMB can help with over the next 6 months.

The next iteration of the Joint Spatial Plan will be presented to WECA 25 September, Full Council on 14 November and there is a Member Brief 16 October. OSMB would welcome update reports on JSP / WECA.

Discussed importance of OSMB as a public forum and opportunity for briefing members under the Mayoral model.

ACTION – Scrutiny Manager and Cllr Bolton to liaise on proposals for public engagement re: JSP and report to November OSMB

A standing item for 10 minutes for OSMB members to feedback on the progress of the trial of the new ways of working.

There was no discussion.

As covered in Chairs Business.

Report Noted.

·       Wednesday 1st November 17

Mayoral Question Time 5pm to 6pm

OSM 6pm to 9pm

·       Thursday 7th December 17

OSM 5pm to 8pm

·       Thursday 11th January 18

Mayoral Question Time 5pm to 6pm

OSM 6pm to 9pm

·       Monday 12th February 18

OSM 5pm to 8pm

·       Thursday 8th March 18

OSM 5pm to 8pm

·       Thursday 12th April 18

Mayoral Question Time 5pm to 6pm

OSM 6pm to 9pm

Meeting dates noted.

ACTION: to check Mayor’s availability for 1 November meeting and reschedule if needed so that he can attend.

ACTION: to request a member of Cabinet (any) to attend OSMB meetings regularly. This happened under previous administration. Useful for Cabinet Members to understand issues.