Issue - meetings

The Board is asked to review and scrutinise the decision of the Cabinet taken on 9 March 2022 in relation to the Homelessness Health Hub, following the receipt of a valid call-in request from the pre-requisite number of councillors.

In accordance with the Constitution, the Board must determine whether or not to offer any advice in relation to the decision. If advice is offered, Cabinet will be required to reconsider the decision and consider any advice offered.

The Chairman introduced the item and associated report, a copy of which had been circulated to each member of the Board and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'A' to these minutes in the Minute Book. The Chairman explained that the Board was required to consider the reasons submitted in the request for call-in, review and scrutinise the decision of the Cabinet against these reasons, and determine whether to offer any advice to Cabinet.

The Chairman advised that appendices 2-4 of the report had been circulated to Board members as exempt due to their inherited status but that following discussions with Officers and the Deputy Monitoring Officer it had been determined that these documents did not need to remain exempt apart from some minor redactions to the minutes from the previous Board meeting. For transparency all these documents were republished as accessible to the public and the Chairman read out the recommendations from the O&S Board to Cabinet. The Deputy Monitoring Officer briefly outlined the issues concerning the consideration of the call-in

The Chairman asked the Vice-Chair as one of the parties to the call-in request to introduce the report and explain the reasons for the call in which were outline in the report. The Leader of the Council was then asked to provide his response to the call-in.

The Leader advised that they had been actively working with partners to determine the most appropriate option and the recommendations from the Overview and Scrutiny Board were taken into account. The Leader outlined the response to the reasons for the call-in as follows:

1.    Advice was sought and was included within the paper which was presented to the O&S Board and Cabinet.

2.    The decision did represent value for money, the £800k envelope would provide the Council with a permanent asset which communities would benefit from. The decision was proportionate to the issues affecting our communities.

3.    The debate of Overview and Scrutiny was listened to and a new recommendation was formulated through an amendment at Cabinet.

4.    The Cabinet conducted as much of the debate as possible in public and ensured that as much information as possible was published with the agenda.

The leader also noted that the decision was to delegate the final decision to proceed dependent upon information received from partners.

It was clarified by the lead member for Homelessness that the facility would be not just those experiencing street homelessness but also for those who may be falling into the trap of homelessness. 

In the ensuing discussion a number of points were raised and responded to including:

·     The mechanism for moving the project forward if the £800k cap was reached. Partner agencies would be asked for their delivery proposals within this budget framework. Having a partner deliver it would open up other opportunities for grants and access to other options such as pro bono work from companies. The Council would only proceed with partner organisations if confident they would deliver within the budget framework.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 179