Chichester District Council
Agenda and minutes

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Virtual

Contact: Carley Lavender  Email:  democraticservices@chichester.gov.uk

Link: To listen to the live broadcast recording please follow the link which will direct you to the live broadcasting webpage

Items
No. Item

20.

Chair's Announcements

Any apologies for absence will be noted at this point.

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed members and guests to the meeting and thanked Cllr Moss for his chairmanship and hard work he had completed during his time as chair of the committee.

 

There were no apologies.

 

21.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 389 KB

To approve the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 15 June 2021.

 

To receive an update on progress against recommendations made to the Cabinet and the Council.

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on 15 June 2021 were approved as a correct record.

 

The recommendations made to Cabinet from the previous meetings of the committee were read out with Cabinet’s decision on each included.

 

There were no matters arising.

 

22.

Urgent Items

The Chair will announce any urgent items that due to special circumstances are to be dealt with under the agenda item below relating to Late Items.

Minutes:

There were no urgent items.

 

23.

Declarations of Interests

Members and officers are reminded to make any declarations of disclosable pecuniary, personal and/or prejudicial interests they may have in respect of matters on the agenda for this meeting.

Minutes:

Cllr Lishman declared a personal interest ahead of any discussion involving Southern Gateway as an employee of Stagecoach and Cllr Sharp declared a personal interest as a member of West Sussex County Council.

 

24.

Public Question Time

The procedurefor submittingpublic questions in writingbyno later thannoon 2 workingdays before the meetingis availablehereorfromthe Democratic Services Officer (whose contactdetailsappear on thefrontpage of thisagenda).

Minutes:

There were no questions from members of the public.

 

25.

GP provision in Chichester pdf icon PDF 516 KB

The Committee will receive a verbal report followed by the opportunity to ask questions.

Minutes:

The Chair welcomed and thanked Simon Clavell-Bate, Head of Estates from West Sussex Clinical Commissioning Group (NHS) for attending today’s meeting. She then expressed her dissatisfaction that Dr Mtharu was unable to attend today’s meeting given the advance notice that had been given for this meeting. The Vice-Chair was then invited to address the Committee before Mr Clavell-Bate provided members with a presentation where he highlighted the current situation, the difference between a commissioner (CCG) and a provider (GP), Estate Overview, ICS Primary Care Strategy and West Sussex summary and Strategic Planning. The chair requested that questions that had been submitted by members in advance of the meeting were answered prior to any further questions being taken.

 

The Chair then took further questions from the committee were the following points were raised;

 

  • Concern was raised regarding the issues that members had, had reported to them by their constituents, in the difficulty they were having attempting to obtain an appointment with their GP surgery. This was a topic that the Committee had strong opinions on, stating that face to face access with a GP was important to many residents and that currently the service that residents were faced with, was poor, from long wait times when calling to make an appointment to being given a telephone triage call back where instances had been reported that the call was either disconnected before being able to be answered by the patient or the call was not made.
  • Issues raised with the lack of parking availability at Langley House and Cathedral car parks 
  • Discussions were had regarding the Southern Gateway Project, confirmation was sought as to where in the process the CCG were with the project and how far away, they were from completion of the project. It was confirmed that the project was still in the preparations stages which was expected to move on in approximately 6 months’ time. The project is planned for completion in 2025, it was stressed that this was wholly dependent on what happens with the pandemic over the next few months.
  • It was queried what was planned in terms of communication regarding residents being encouraged to contact their GP should they need to. It was commented that many residents did not what to burden the NHS/GP’s during the height of the pandemic, however, this had been detrimental to some and should a resident need to see a GP, it is important they feel they can. It was confirmed that Government were taking a top down approach, local GP’s would be completing local campaigns to reinvigorate making contact with your doctor. It was stated that there was no one single approach to resolving this concern. It would require multiple approaches at all levels. 
  • A question on how GP’s in the Witterings and Selsey areas prepare for seasonal resident number increases, particularly over the summer months when a large number of tourists are staying for holidays. An answer to this was unable to be given as this would be something  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

26.

Cabinet member for Finance, Corporate Services and Revenues and Benefits

The Committee will receive a short verbal report from Cllr Wilding followed by the opportunity to ask questions.

Minutes:

The Chair invited Cllr Wilding to present his verbal report to members.

 

Where he explained that this Portfolio includes the following divisions:

 

·         Business Support (ICT (Information and Communications Technology), HR, Corporate Improvement and Facilities, Elections and Land Charges)– Joe Mildred

·         Legal and Democratic Services (including Procurement) – Nick Bennett

·         Finance, Internal Audit and Treasury – Helen Belenger

·         Revenues, Benefits and Customer Services – Kerry Standing

 

These fall under the management of John Ward, Director of Corporate Services and Louise Rudziak, Director of Housing and Communities.

This report, as well as addressing the normal activities of the Portfolio, includes additional activities undertaken due to the COVID activities.

 

Business Support

 

Business Support played a key role in the Council adapting to COVID.

 

·         At the start of the Pandemic, most of the Council’s office-based staff started working from home.  This created a range of challenges in terms of ICT, HR and staff wellbeing. Over the last 18 months many staff were re-deployed away from their normal roles into areas where extra support was needed in our response to COVID.  A significant number of our staff have not been able to undertake their roles from home and we have had to ensure that they were able to work in a safe way, whether that was in the Depot, in the offices or out in the community. Despite the challenges, the council has continued to deliver all of its services throughout the pandemic.

·         There is currently coordination of a gradual return to work in the office with the expectation that there is likely to be a blend of home and office working.

·         It is clear that the council’s finances have and will continue to be affected by COVID, but it is still not clear to what extent. In response to this, we have developed the Future Services Framework which has created a three-year programme of efficiency savings that will aim to reduce the council’s spending budget by in excess of £1.5m per annum (details of which are being covered later on the today’s agenda). Alongside this, a service prioritisation exercise is taking place so that we have a plan in place for whatever the future financial position might be.

·         The organisational response to COVID has been overseen by the Organisational Recovery Group which with attendance from the Portfolio Holder and two members of OSC.

·         Moving on to other areas, in May this year, the Elections Team successfully delivered a major election that included elections for the delayed 2020 Police & Crime Commissioner, West Sussex County Council and several Neighbourhood Plan and Parish by-elections. Running these was more challenging than normal due to the Covid related restrictions and social distancing requirements at the polling stations and the count.

·         The ICT Department have completed the Disaster Recovery server room which is based at the Depot at Westhampnett. This is already allowing us to create real time back-ups of our systems and is now in the final stages of testing to enable us to get all of our ICT  ...  view the full minutes text for item 26.

27.

Corporate Plan Review Task and Finish Group pdf icon PDF 130 KB

The Committee is requested to agree the Terms of Reference and nominate membership of the Group including a Chair.

Minutes:

The Chair invited Mr Buckley to present the Corporate Plan Review Task and Finish Group Terms of Reference. He explained that members were required to agree the membership along with nominating a Chairman.

 

The Chair then invited members to agree the membership by nominating themselves or others. Cllrs Moss Palmer and Purnell agreed to make up the membership with Cllr Palmer taking the role of Chair.

 

RESOLVED

 

The Overview and Scrutiny Committee agreed that the membership for the Corporate Plan Review Task and Finish Group as 1) Cllr Moss, 2) Cllr Palmer and 3) Cllr Purnell with the Chairman being Cllr Palmer.

 

28.

Late Items

Consideration of any late items as follows:

 

a)    Items added to the agenda papers and made available for public inspection.

b)    Items which the Chair has agreed should be taken as matters of urgency by reason of special circumstances reported at the meeting.

Minutes:

Cllr Apel read the part II resolution in relation to agenda item 11. This was proposed by Cllr Purnell and seconded by Cllr Bangert. The Committee;

 

RESOLVED

 

That with regard to agenda item 18 the public including the press should be excluded from the meeting on the grounds of exemption in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 namely Paragraph 3 (Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)) and because, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption of that information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

 

A 10-minute adjournment was had until 4:15pm.

 

29.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

The Committee is asked to consider in respect of agenda item 11 whether the public, including the press, should be excluded from the meeting on the grounds of exemption under Part 3 (Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information))of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972, as indicated against the item and because, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption of that information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information. The reports dealt with under this part of the agenda are attached for members of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee and senior officers only (salmon paper).

Minutes:

Cllr Apel read the part II resolution in relation to agenda item 11. This was proposed by Cllr Purnell and seconded by Cllr Bangert. The Committee then voted to move into part II.

 

RESOLVED

 

That with regard to agenda item 18 the public including the press should be excluded from the meeting on the grounds of exemption in Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 namely Paragraph 3 (Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information)) and because, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption of that information outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.

 

30.

Corporate Efficiencies Programme - Monitoring Report

The Committee will receive a monitoring report for comment and noting.

Minutes:

Mr Buckley introduced the item.

 

Members then asked a number of questions and these were answered by Mr Buckley, Mr Ward and Mrs Shepherd.

 

The Committee unanimously approved the recommendations.

 

RESOLVED

 

The Committee agrees the recommendations as stated in section 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 and 3.4 of the report.

 

 

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