Council and Democracy

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Committee Room 2, Town Hall, Chesterfield

Contact: Brian Offiler  01246 345229

Items
No. Item

38.

Declarations of Members' and Officers' Interests relating to Items on the Agenda.

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were received.

39.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

No apologies for absence were received.

40.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 73 KB

Minutes of the Meeting of the Community, Customer and Organisational Scrutiny Committee held 27 November, 2018.

Minutes:

The Minutes of the meeting of the Community, Customer and Organisational Scrutiny Committee held on 27 November, 2018 were presented.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Minutes be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

41.

Scrutiny Monitoring pdf icon PDF 76 KB

5.05 pm – Scrutiny Monitoring Action Plan: Friends’ Groups Progress Report and Scrutiny Committee Recommendations Implementation Monitoring Schedule attached.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing and the Principal Green Space Strategy Officer presented the Scrutiny Progress Monitoring Report on the Scrutiny recommendations on Friends Groups, following the previous monitoring report to the Committee on 22 May, 2018 (Minute No. 5, 2018/19).

 

The report outlined the actions taken and/or planned to address each of the scrutiny recommendations. It was noted that an inaugural meeting to relaunch the Friends of Groups network was planned for March, 2019.  The meeting would include distribution of the Friends of Groups information pack documents, consideration of the annual survey and sharing of case studies of successful projects and activities.

 

Councillor Caulfield, Lead Member of the Scrutiny Project Group, welcomed the partnership approach adopted, and the Committee supported the actions taken and proposed.

 

The Chair thanked the Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing, the Principal Green Space Strategy Officer and Councillor Caulfield for their contribution to the meeting.

 

RESOLVED –

 

(1)     That the actions taken in respect of the scrutiny recommendations on Friends Groups be noted and the further proposed actions be supported.

 

(2)     That further progress on the implementation of the recommendations be reported to the Committee in the summer of 2019.

42.

Scrutiny Project Groups Progress Updates pdf icon PDF 2 MB

5.25 pm – Scrutiny Project Group Report on Community Rooms.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Councillor Caulfield, Lead Member of the Scrutiny Project Group on Community Rooms and the Senior Democratic and Scrutiny Officer presented the group’s report.

 

The report outlined the reasons for the review, its aims and links to Council priorities and the approach taken by the group. It summarised the findings of the review in respect of the usage of the rooms, information about their availability, arrangements for booking and accessing them and the income and expenditure generated. The group’s recommendations were detailed in the report, with the aim of supporting the ongoing sustainable use of the rooms.

 

It was noted that additional information relating to expenditure had been received following the drafting of the report, which would require further investigation by the group. It was also suggested that further detail in respect of the Burns Close building be obtained.

 

The Committee supported the findings and recommendations within the group’s report, pending consideration of the further issues by the group.

 

The Chair thanked Councillor Caulfield and the Senior Democratic and Scrutiny Officer for their contribution to the meeting.

 

RESOLVED -

 

(1)     That the Scrutiny Project Group’s report on Community Rooms be supported in principle, pending further consideration of the additional information and issues by the group.

 

(2)     That the final version of the report be presented to the Committee once the group had completed its further investigation and consideration.

43.

Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Governance - Communications and Engagement Strategy Progress Report pdf icon PDF 82 KB

5.45 pm – Progress Report attached.

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Governance and the Assistant Director – Policy and Communications presented a progress report on the delivery of the Communications and Engagement Strategy following its approval by Council in July, 2018.

 

The report outlined progress against the eight objectives of the strategy, including:

 

·        Two high quality editions of the new combined Your Chesterfield and Our Homes publication had been produced during 2018/19, with further editions planned for January 2019 and March 2019;

 

·        Preparation to achieve compliance with the EU Web Accessibility Directive by 2020;

 

·        The launch in January, 2019 to bring together all live and concluded consultation information on a consultations page on the Council’s website;

 

·        An increase in the number of face to face engagement sessions to enable members of the public without internet access to engage, such as changes to the allocations policy, repairs and maintenance, anti-social behaviour, Gypsy and Traveller consultation and the Local Plan;

 

·        All services to be required to produce a ‘you said, we did’ statement to appear on the Council’s website when reporting back on consultation findings;

 

·        The use of infographics, case studies and videos to present information in a more accessible and engaging way;

 

·        Undertaking a social media stakeholder audit to identify relevant stakeholder groups and prioritise how best to engage these groups;

 

·        Improved branding and signage in the town hall;

 

·        Increased use of the core brief and Aspire intranet to enable key messages and information to be shared with staff.

 

Annual action plans would be developed for each of the next four years of the strategy, including active engagement in the ICT transformation programme in order to seek to maximise benefits for engaging with customers.

 

It was confirmed that recruitment was progressing well for the vacant post of Communications and Marketing Manager.

 

Arising from Members’ questions and comments it was explained that arrangements for Members accessing the intranet would need to be considered as part of the ICT transformation programme. Members supported the targeted use of face to face consultations where appropriate and the use of videos internally and externally to present key messages.

 

The Chair thanked the Cabinet Member for Governance and the Assistant Director – Policy and Communications for their contribution to the meeting.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the work outlined in the progress report be noted and that further progress be reported to the Committee in the next Council year, subject to the outcome of the annual scrutiny work programming for 2019/20.

44.

Forward Plan

6.15 pm – Forward Plan of Key Decisions – 1 February – 31 May, 2019 available via link below:  http://chesterfield.moderngov.co.uk/mgListPlanItems.aspx?PlanId=98&RP=134

Minutes:

The Committee considered the Forward Plan for the period 1 February – 31 May, 2019.

 

RESOLVED –

 

That the Forward Plan be noted.

45.

Work Programme for the Community, Customer and Organisational Scrutiny Committee pdf icon PDF 87 KB

6.20 pm – Work programme attached.

Minutes:

The Committee considered the list of items included on its work programme for 2018/19.

 

RESOLVED -

 

That the work programme be approved and updated to include the decisions of the current meeting.