Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed all attendees to the meeting.

Apologies were received from Councillor Don Alexander, Claire Hiscott and Carole Johnson.  Councillor Bradshaw substituted for Councillor Alexander.

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.

There were no declarations of interest.

The Chair advised that the next OSMB meeting on 1^st April 2019 would consider reports on Bristol Energy, City Leap, the Holding Company and Bristol is Open.  Members of the Growth and Regeneration Scrutiny Commission had been invited to attend the meeting, some of which would be held in exempt session. 

He went on to remind Members that an item from the Council’s External Auditors (BDO) on Senior Executive Remuneration in 17/18 had been added to the Full Council agenda for the meeting on 19^th March 19, with an additional update being planned for the Audit Committee on 26^th March 19.  

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 Tuesday 5th March 19.

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 Friday 8th March 19.

The following public forum was received and a copy placed in the minute book;

Members noted the concerns raised in the statements, including potential delays to the plans to provide the new school and community building, and agreed that they would be referred to the Deputy Mayor for response, with a copy to OSMB so they could see if any additional action needed to be taken.

RESOLVED; That the Deputy Mayor be asked to provide a written reply to the public forum statements, with a copy to OSMB.

The Chair confirmed that Members had recently attended a workshop to provide feedback on the draft Performance Framework and the Council’s Business Plans (see agenda item 7).  The Head of Insight, Performance and Intelligence updated Members on the actions taken following the discussion at the workshop confirming that;

• The ‘key commitments’ set out in the draft framework had been clarified.
• Suggestions from Members regarding the setting of targets would be incorporated into a supplementary document.
• The explanatory comments that accompanied the indicators had been amended in some instances to make them clearer.
• Some indicators had been added or removed following feedback from Members and this would be reflected in the report to Cabinet on 2^nd April 19. 
• The suggestion that Bristol Eating Better Awards should specifically be measured in deprived areas had been incorporated.
• In some instances it wasn’t possible to include the requests from Members, for example measuring the number of journeys taken by sustainable methods of transport, as it would be too difficult to gather the relevant information.

Members went on to consider and comment on the information provided. The key points made were as follows;

• The suggested approach about separating the high level indicators for OSMB (as well as Cabinet and Senior Leadership Board) was welcomed since it ensured that OSMB Members could focus on the overarching picture, leaving detail to the individual Commissions.
• The Council had set a target around reducing the number of service users in residential care, which may appear to be driven by cost rather than the best outcomes for residents. In response, officers confirmed that the Better Lives Programme was driving significant improvements which enabled more people to stay in their homes, which was often their preferred option. 
• It was agreed that officers would ensure that all information was presented as factually as possible, for example where a percentage ‘above target’ was given in dashboards, it should be accompanied by an explicit statement of percentage ‘below target’ rather than this being implicit.
• Clarification was sought regarding why the target for bus passenger journeys for the current year 18/19, was set lower than the actual number in 17/18.  It was agreed that officers would come back with a note of explanation.
• Following a request from Members, it was agreed that the reports on performance would be made readily available to the public, ideally by placing them in a prominent location on the City Council’s website.
• There were concerns about the increase in the average number of days lost to sickness absence within the City Council, thought to be due in part to stress.  This was an area that Scrutiny could review in the future.
• The Communities Scrutiny Commission would be looking at the number of people in temporary or emergency accommodation at their meeting on 15^th April 19, particularly around cost effectiveness. 

Officers were thanked for their work around the performance framework, including the quality of the document and the efforts made to engage with Scrutiny.  It was suggested that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Officers introduced the item, advising that the Business Plan for 19/20 would be updated following the workshop with Members (see agenda item 6).  Details as follows;

• All the feedback obtained from Members at the workshop had been relayed to the relevant Service Managers so they could consider amending their service plans. 

·         New iconography would be added to set out actions from the previous 2018/19 business plan that had been carried over.

·         Additional information would be provided to aid understanding around the priority of objectives, including those that were short and longer term goals.

·         The business plan document would be reformatted to include better use of labelling to make it easier to navigate.

·         An update would be published later in 2019 to set out progress against targets to date and consideration would be given to the best way to incorporate Members into the review process.

Members went on to share their views on the information provided, commenting as follows;

·         It would be helpful if information on the origin of priorities of entries on the business plan could be included so that Members could follow the progress of objectives, particularly those that took time to implement or involved partnership working.

·         The glossary entry on ‘gentrification’ should be amended to ensure it encapsulated all related issues, but it should also acknowledge that gentrification was welcomed in some instances.

·         Officers were thanked for the quality of the report, which was written in a style that was very clear and easy to understand and would help with transparency and holding decision makers to account.  Consideration could be given to producing a version for the public with enhanced graphics or video extracts, although it was acknowledged that the cost needed to be proportionate to the level of interest.

It was agreed that the final version of the Business Plans would be shared with Members.

RESOLVED; That the revised version of the Business Plans for 19/20 be shared with Members.

The Director of Policy, Strategy and Partnerships introduced the item, advising that the Brexit Project Board was continuing to review threats and opportunities arising from the exit from the European Union although the ongoing uncertainty was becoming problematic. A range of measures were ready to implement once the outcome of Brexit was known, but it would be difficult to mitigate in all areas, such as interruption to the supply chain. Many preparatory actions were being taken in the meantime, as covered in the report of OSMB.

Members went on to consider the update and ask for additional details in a number of areas.  The discussion was as follows;

• If the UK was to depart from the EU on 29^th March 19 some disruption was likely, irrespective of the terms, due to the very tight timescale.

• There were some concerns around food supply, particularly around fruit and vegetables as around 50% of the UK’s stock currently came from Europe. Reassurance was given that national advice is not to expect any food shortage, but there may be a temporary limitation of choice.  Precautionary buying is not necessary and should be avoided, as doing this would risk a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’.
• The Council was able to fulfil its statutory duty to run local the European election process in May 2019 if the outcome of Brexit had not been resolved by that point and the UK is required to participate.

RESOLVED; That the update be noted

To note the work programme.

Members noted the following;

• Plans for the High Streets Inquiry Day were being progressed and an update would be provided in due course.
• The Vulnerable People Task Group would be proceeding and Members were working with officers to define the remit.
• The OSM Leads had agreed that due to the complexity of the issues around SEND (education funding for young people with Special Educational Needs or a disability), the matter would be best addressed by reports to the ACE Scrutiny Commission in the first instance.  The suggestion that a Task Group be established would be considered again at a later date. 

RESOLVED; That the updates regarding the Scrutiny Work Programme be noted.