Agenda and minutes

To receive any apologies for absence from Members.

Apologies were received from Cllr L Allison, Cllr J Butt and Cllr D Farr

To receive information on any changes in the membership of the Committee.

Note – When a member of a Committee is unable to attend a meeting of a Committee or Sub-Committee, the relevant Political Group Leader (or their nominated representative) may, by notice to the Monitoring Officer (or their nominated representative) prior to the meeting, appoint a substitute member from within the same Political Group. The contact details on the front of this agenda should be used for notifications. 

Cllr D Borthwick substituted for Cllr D Farr.

Councillors are requested to declare any interests on items included in this agenda. Please refer to the workflow on the preceding page for guidance.

Declarations received will be reported at the meeting.

None

To receive any public questions, statements or petitions submitted in accordance with the Constitution, which is available to view at the following link:

https://democracy.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/ieListMeetings.aspx?CommitteeID=151&Info=1&bcr=1

The deadline for the submission of a public question is 4 clear working days before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a statement is midday the working day before the meeting.

The deadline for the submission of a petition is 10 working days before the meeting.

There were no public issues for this meeting.

To consider the Concessionary Bus Fares Policy report scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 15 December 2021

The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise and comment on the report and if required make recommendations or observations as appropriate.

Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor Mike Greene, Portfolio Holder for Sustainability and Transport

The Cabinet report for this item is included with the agenda for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

Concessionary Bus Fares Policy Report - The Portfolio Holder for Sustainability and Transport presented a 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 Portfolio Holder and officers addressed a number of points raised by the Board including:

What were the bus companies being asked to do to proactively encourage the public and concessionary bus users back into using buses more often. The Portfolio Holder advised that the bus companies were working very well with the Council to get to where they needed to be there were considerable issues with this at present.

The Portfolio Holder was asked whether there had been a permanent shift in how older people were using their bus passes and whether there had been any consideration given to the funding model addressing concessionary bus fare users. The Portfolio Holder advised that there was a chance that there would be a drop in usage but that this would be similar to that experienced with other forms of transport. There had not been any consideration so far into different funding arrangements. It was noted that this was a national scheme, and it was expected that in future passenger numbers would return to their previous levels.

The Chairman summarised that the Board did not have any major issues with the report as it was and thanked the Portfolio Holder for attending and answering the Board’s questions.

To consider the Quarter Two Budget Monitoring (page 43 – 82) and MTFP Update (page 83 – 108) reports scheduled for Cabinet consideration on 15 December.

The O&S Board is asked to scrutinise and comment on the report and if required make recommendations or observations as appropriate.

Cabinet member invited to attend for this item: Councillor Drew Mellor, Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Finance and Transformation.

The Cabinet report for this item is included with the agenda for consideration by the Overview and Scrutiny Board.

Quarter Two Budget Monitoring Report - The Leader of the Council and Portfolio Holder for Finance and Transformation presented a report, a copy of which had been circulated to each member of the Board and a copy of which appears as Appendix 'B' to these minutes in the Minute Book. The Portfolio Holder and officers addressed a number of points raised by the Board including:

A Board member asked about the newly created local satellite special schools, the aim of which was to ensure that children would be able to go to a school closer to home. However, it was noted that these were creating an additional budge pressure in SEND transport. It was noted that the cost increase was due to the significant upturn in the number of EHCPs and until the local places were actually delivered, the additional EHCPs created a significant pressure on SEND travel.

A Councillor questioned the staffing issues within Children’s Services. The Leader was asked whether the Council’s offer was competitive and whether recruiting people from outside the area required the Council to pay more. It was noted that the Director of Children’s Services had explained that the Council’s offer wasn’t an issue in recruitment. It was thought that the Council were paying competitively and recruitment wasn’t an issue. The Leader advised that there was still a difficulty in recruiting across Children’s Services and there were a large number of agency staff. However, this wasn’t an issue particular to BCP. The leadership structure in children’s services had been fully recruited. They were also actively recruiting from overseas and working with university to increase local links.

It was suggested that it was important that Councillors were able to look at the differences in rates paid across the country and that the Council would need to pay a premium in this area due to the cost of living and help the service move away from the over reliance on agency workers.

In response to requests to follow up on this issue the Leader undertook to advise the Director of Children’s Services that this had been a line of enquiry around the budget children’s services. The Chairman undertook to write to the Chairman of Children’s Services O&S Committee to ask them to address the issue. It was noted that the Council was going through a pay review and harmonisation exercise and also that this issue may extend to staff within adult social care. A Board member commented that there may be other reasons why people work for an agency other than money and this should be looked into.

·       A Board member commented on the workforce pressure in social care and asked whether there were plans to expand the budget in this area to address the problem. It was noted that there were plans to recruit, retrain and motivate the workforce there was also work with Tricuro on plans to upscale recruitment, which provided an opportunity to develop a grow your own project. There was a strategy  ...  view the full minutes text for item 136.

To consider and amend the Board’s Forward Plan as appropriate and to consider the published Cabinet Forward Plan.

The Chairman advised the Board that after discussions with the Vice Chair he was proposing that there was just one meeting on 5 January on Climate change which would encompass the Cabinet report and the enquiry session on Climate change. This was agreed in principle. The Chairman had written to all Board members to outline what the Board would be doing. The Chairman emphasised that it was important that everyone could take part and engage in the debate and asked members to look at email sent.

A Board member suggested that it was important to ask the relevant officers to attend as this issue was cross cutting right across the Council.

The Board was advised that the Local Plan Working Group was not likely to meet for some weeks and therefore the enforcement working group would be able to get underway. There were volunteers for the Enforcement working group and it was not envisaged to last too long. It was hoped to have the first meeting prior to Christmas.

A Board member requested that the item on sewage overflows was updated to make clear that it would also include the Christchurch area coastline.

To note the following proposed meeting dates for the 2021/22 municipal year:

·       5 January 2022

·       31 January 2022

·       28 February 2022

·       4 April 2022

And 2022/23 municipal year:

·       16 May 2022

·       13 June 2022

·       18 July 2022

·       22 August 2022

·       19 September 2022

·       17 October 2022

·       14 November 2022

·       5 December 2022

·       9 January 2023

·       6 February 2023

·       6 March 2023

·       3 April 2023

All meetings will be held via video conferencing until further notice.

The future meeting dates were noted.