Agenda and minutes

No declarations of interest were received.

No apologies for absence were received.

Minutes of the Meeting of the Community, Customer and Organisational Scrutiny Committee held on 30 January, 2020.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Community, Customer and Organisational Scrutiny Committee held on 30 January, 2020 were presented.

RESOLVED –

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

Presentation to be given at the meeting.

Ade McCormick, Executive Director, delivered a presentation on the work of the Council’s Resources task and finish group which was producing risk assessments and guidance at corporate, service and individual (where required) levels and developing plans for returning staff safely into the workplace and opening facilities and venues to the public. The group included Human Resources officers and trades union and safety representatives.

The presentation provided details of arrangements to ensure Council buildings were Covid-19 secure, including maintenance of social distancing, and a phased approach was being adopted to reopening of buildings and services.

Arising from Members’ questions and discussion, the following points were raised:

·      The risk assessments were being undertaken to take account of service specific issues, including particular risks arising in areas and services open to the public and of risks for vulnerable categories (although this was not related solely to age);

·      The working arrangements for the town hall and other buildings were based on maintaining a social distance of 2m as far as possible;

·      The importance of enabling staff to return to work and to deliver services in a safe manner;

·      The positive way in which staff had worked together, including trades union and safety representatives.

Christine Durrant, Executive Director, delivered a presentation on the work in respect of community support and recovery, including:

·      Safeguarding - support for vulnerable adults and children, including domestic abuse victims and those requiring mental health support – being addressed through multi-agency working at Derby and Derbyshire Board level;

·      Support for individuals ‘shielding’ and other vulnerable people – coordinating the work of local volunteers through Derbyshire Voluntary Action with the Derbyshire Community Support Hub to deliver shopping and medicines and check on people’s welfare;

·      The national ‘Everyone In’ priority to house rough sleepers;

·      The national proposals for the early release of prisoners.

The presentation identified some of the challenges of widening inequalities resulting from the impact of Covid-19, such as higher death rates from Covid-19, anticipated increases in unemployment, increased number of people claiming Universal Credit, the negative impact of school closures and cancelled exams, uncertainty for young people entering an unstable labour market and increased risk of food poverty, homelessness, poor mental health and loneliness.

A Chesterfield Covid-19 Strategic Health and Wellbeing Board had been established, to include the Place Alliance, the Health and Wellbeing Partnership, the Children’s Locality Partnership and the Community Safety Partnership, to build on the cooperative working and delivery of services that had emerged through the pandemic. This would work to seek to harness the massive groundswell of volunteering and community activity and to respond to the Derby and Derbyshire Local Outbreak Management Plan, which was being prepared in parallel with the Test, Trace and Isolate system.

Arising from Members’ questions and discussion, the following points were raised:

·      The extent to which lessons could be learned for future actions in respect of dealing with homelessness, accommodating released prisoners, the provision of personal protective equipment (PPE) and engagement with the care home sector;

·      The extent of current and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 42.

The latest version of the Forward Plan of Key Decisions is available via the link below:

Forward Plan

The Committee considered the Forward Plan for the period 1 August – 30 November, 2020.

It was noted that the Plan included items on the Community Infrastructure Levy Expenditure (scheduled for the Cabinet meeting on 14 July) and the Review of the Code of Corporate Governance and the Annual Governance Statement (scheduled for the Cabinet meeting on 14 July and the Standards & Audit Committee meeting on 22 July) and that representations on those reports could be submitted to the relevant portfolio holders and officers before those meetings.

RESOLVED –

That the Forward Plan be noted.

Scrutiny Committee Recommendations – Implementation Monitoring Schedule attached

The Committee considered the Scrutiny recommendations implementation monitoring schedule.

It was noted that monitoring of the implementation of some recommendations had been delayed by the Covid-19 pandemic, but that this would be resumed and rescheduled.

RESOLVED –

That the Scrutiny monitoring schedule be noted.

The Committee noted that the meeting of the Overview and Performance Scrutiny Forum on 25 June, 2020 had confirmed an interim work programme, including the following items for the next scheduled meeting of the Community, Customer and Organisational Scrutiny Committee on 24 September, 2020:

·      Visitor Economy Action Plan – including ‘Heart of Chesterfield’, Market Reconfiguration, Tourism;

·      Crime and Disorder items;

·      Progress Report on Implementation of Universal Credit.

It was noted that further work was scheduled to finalise the scrutiny work programme for the whole of 2020/21, prior to submission to the scrutiny committees in September, 2020.

It was suggested that Members propose specific issues for further consideration once the presentations from the current meeting had been distributed in order to enable the Chair to consider arrangements for an additional meeting if required.

RESOLVED -

1)   That the Chair consider issues and arrangements for an additional meeting of the Committee, taking account of any specific issues proposed by Members of the Committee.

2)   That the items from the interim work programme for the Committee’s next scheduled meeting on 24 September, 2020 be approved.