Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Councillors Cottam, Cussons and Raper.

The minutes of the meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny held on the 16 December 2010 were presented.

            Resolved

            That the minutes of the meeting of the Overview & Scrutiny Committee            held on the 16 December 2010 be approved and signed by the             Chairman as a correct record.

To receive notice of any urgent business which the Chairman considers should be dealt with at the meeting as a matter of urgency by virtue of Section 100B(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

The Chairman declared that there were no items to be considered as a matter of urgency by virtue of Section 100(4)(b) of the Local Government Act 1972.

Members to indicate whether they will be declaring any interests under the Code of Conduct.

Members making a declaration of interest at a meeting of a Committee or Council are required to disclose the existence and nature of that interest.  This requirement is not discharged by merely declaring a personal interest without further explanation.

Councillor Mrs Wilford declared a personal interest in Item 11 ‘Safer Ryedale Progress with Delivering the Community Safety Plan’ as she worked at Malton School, and her husband managed youth work on behalf of North Yorkshire County Council in Ryedale.

The Corporate Director (s151) submitted a report (previously circulated) in order to consider the Treasury Management and Annual Investment Strategies, the Minimum Revenue Provision Policy and set the Prudential Indicators for 2011/12.

The Local Government Act 2003 (the Act) and supporting regulations required the Council to ‘have regard to’ the CIPFA Prudential Code and the CIPFA Treasury Code of Practice to set Prudential and Treasury Indicators for the next three years to ensure that the Council’s capital investment plans were sustainable.

The Prudential Code regulated the manner in which capital spending plans were to be considered and approved, and in conjunction with, the development of an integrated Treasury Management Strategy.  It required the Council to set a number of Prudential Indicators, and these were to be considered when determining the Council’s Treasury Management Strategy.

The Treasury Management Strategy Statement detailed the expected activities of the Treasury function in the forthcoming year 2011/12.  Its production and submission to the Council was a requirement of the Code.

The Annual Investment Strategy set out the Council’s policies for the prudent management of its investments including the security and liquidity of those investments.  It detailed the Specified and Non Specified Investment Instructions to be used by the Council in 2011/12.  Approval was also sought for the specified use of credit ratings and the maximum periods for which funds may be prudently committed in each asset category. 

The report set out in detail the suggested Treasury Management Strategy for 2011/12, which had been based upon advice from the Council’s treasury advisors, Sector Treasury Services Limited (Sector) and covered:

·        Treasury Limited for 2011/12 to 2013/14

·        Current Portfolio Position

·        Borrowing Requirement

·        Prudential & Treasury Indicators for 2011/12 to 2013/14

·        Prospects for Interest Rates

·        Borrowing Strategy – Borrowing rates

·        Borrowing Strategy – External v Internal Borrowing

·        Policy on Borrowing in advance of Need

·        Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) Policy

In addition the report detailed the Annual Investment Strategy and covered:

·        Investment Policy

·        Creditworthiness Policy

·        Country Limits

·        Investment Strategy to be followed In-house

·        External Cash Fund management

·        End of Year Investment Report

·        Policy on use of External Service Providers

·        Scheme of delegation

·        Role of the Section 151 Officer

            Resolved

a.    That the report be received

b.    That the Treasury Management & Investment Strategies be noted, prior to consideration by Council.

c.       That the Prudential Indicators be noted, prior to consideration by Council.

The Corporate Director (s151) submitted a report (previously circulated) in which Members were informed on progress with the actions identified in the 2009-10 Annual Governance Statement (AGS) Action Plan.

The purpose of the AGS was to provide a continuous review of the effectiveness of the organisation’s internal control and risk management systems so as to give assurance of their effectiveness.  This allowed remedial action to take place at the earliest opportunity, thereby improving the internal control framework.

The action plan appended to the report set out the current position with comments on the actions proposed in the plan.  It was noted that the AGS for 2010/11 would be reported to the Committee in June and would complete the reviews of this action plan as they would be incorporated into the action plan for the 2010/11AGS.

            Resolved

            That the progress with identified actions in the 2009/10 AGS Action    Plan be noted.

The Corporate Director (s151) submitted a report (previously circulated) in order to present the Internal Audit Report covering the period to 31 January 2011 from the North Yorkshire Audit Partnership.

The report summarised the work done by the Internal Audit during this period, and highlighted issues that the audits had identified and provided a summary of them.  It also outlined any issues emerging from the audits of the principal financial systems of the Council, together with any significant comments from other audits completed during the year to date.

The Audit Partnership provided the Council in its report with a clear statement of assurance reflecting its opinion of the Internal Control Framework.  This was based upon the audits completed complemented by its existing knowledge and understanding of the control framework.

            Resolved

            That the report be noted.

The Head of Transformation submitted a copy of the Corporate Risk Register at the half year printed from the covalent system.

The Corporate Risk Register was developed and managed by the Council’s Senior Management Team.  All service areas were, therefore, involved in its development through the service delivery planning cycle.  Details were set out under the following headings:

·        Significant Partnerships

·        Capital Programme

·        Staff Management

·        External Funding

·        Affordable Housing

·        Procurement

·        Health and Safety

·        Business Continuity Planning

·        Governance Arrangements

·        Major Incident Risk Flooding

·        Council Assets

·        Customer Expectations

·        Fraud and Corruption

·        Data quality

·        Delivering Efficiencies

            Resolved

            That the report be received, and the actions taken in monitoring and    mitigating the risks within the Corporate Risk Register be noted.

The Head of Transformation submitted a copy of the Service Risk Register for the Transformation Team printed from the covalent system as at 2 February 2009.

The Head of Transformation highlighted the areas of significant risk, and gave details of the procedures in place to mitigate those risks.

            Resolved

            That the report be received.

It is RECOMMENDED that the public be excluded during any consideration of Annex C to Agenda item 11 Safer Ryedale Progress with the Community Safety Plan since it is likely that if they were present during its consideration there would be disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 1 of Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972 (as amended) paragraph 7: ”Information relating to any action taken or to be taken in connection with the prevention, investigation or prosecution of crime.” and since it is considered that, in all the circumstances of the case, the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information, in that such disclosure would prejudice any action taken or be taken in connection with the prevention, investigation or prosecution of crime.

NOTE:  The report itself does not contain exempt information and is therefore available to the public.  THE EXEMPT INFORMATION IS CONTAINED ONLY IN CONFIDENTIAL ANNEX C TO THE REPORT WHICH HAS BEEN CIRCULATED ONLY TO THOSE MEMBERS AND OFFICERS ENTITLED TO RECEIVE IT.

Resolved

            That under Section 100(A) (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 the   public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of Annex C to agenda item 11 as there would be a likely disclosure of exempt             information as defined in Paragraph 7 “Information relating to any         action taken or to be taken in connection with the prevention,       investigation or prosecution of crime”.

The Head of Economy & Housing submitted a report (previously circulated) in order to inform Members of the progress towards delivery of the 2010/11 Safer Ryedale Action Plan, present the document “Safer Ryedale & North Yorkshire Police Annual Assessment December 2010 – Joint Strategic Intelligence Assessment and to present the first draft of Safer Ryedale’s Action Plan 2011-12 for comment.

Members were informed that the Safer Ryedale Delivery Team met approximately 6 times per year to review progress towards delivery of the Safer Ryedale Partnership Plan, and the Performance Monitoring Report was updated quarterly, identifying progress with each of the four priorities.

The Performance Monitoring Report for quarter 3 was appended to the report, and detailed progress under each of the four priorities

·        Domestic Violence

·        Safer Roads

·        Community Priorities

·        Alcohol Harm Reduction

The Ryedale JSIA was published in December 2010; it was the first truly joint assessment of Strategic Intelligence by North Yorkshire Police and their Community Safety Partners, and Safer Ryedale’s priorities for 2011-12 were based on data published in the Ryedale JSIA 2010 and other locally identified priorities.

Safer Ryedale’s Action Plan 2011-12

A Task and Finish Group of the Safer Ryedale Delivery team had met in January 2011, and agreed the following four ‘Priorities for Action’ for 2011-12

·        Domestic Abuse

·        Safer Roads

·        Community Priorities to include Anti-Social Behaviour, Stop Theft, Theft from Unattended Vehicles and Violence

·        Alcohol Harm Reduction

The Action Plan was appended to the report, it outlined the aims and objectives for each priority and gave an indication of the baselines and targets agreed by the working group, the actions were still being developed.

The action plan was currently being reviewed by each of the four priority task groups, to determine what actions they would deliver in 2011-12.  When the process was complete and the Safer Ryedale Delivery Team and Ryedale Strategic Partnership had approved the completed document, it would be brought back to this Committee.

The Safer Ryedale partnership is anticipating a substantial reduction in its grant funding in 2011/12, estimated to be 50%, which would have a significant effect upon it’s ability to deliver project work to meet the identified actions.

Councillor Wilford recommended that consultation activities with young people could be carried through secondary schools in Ryedale.

Report from North Yorkshire Police

Inspector Hutchinson from North Yorkshire Police presented a report (previously circulated) to summarise the restructure of North Yorkshire Police Force (Ryedale).

            Resolved

            That the reports were noted.

The Head of Transformation submitted a report (previously circulated) in order to present the progress achieved to date with the scrutiny reviews currently being undertaken.

Members had previously commissioned two scrutiny reviews and the terms of reference had previously been agreed by this committee for each of these, and were appended to the report.

Post Office Review

Following a very productive meeting with a local sub postmaster, which had provided a greater understanding of the business, contact had been made with a Post Office Programmes Stakeholder Manager, with a view to meeting the Task Group to discuss:

·        Sustaining a rural network

·        The future of Ryedale’s Outreach Services

·        The ‘local model’ and current pilot studies

·        Local Government Services at post offices and the benefits of these in more remote branches.

·        Customer satisfaction with services they now receive after the closure programme and their current patterns of use.

Questionnaires were being developed for approval at the next Task group meeting which would be used to engage with general post office customers and customers of outreach services.

Actions still to be taken included:

·        Meeting with a provider of the mobile services in an area of Ryedale

·        Meeting with a representative of the Post Office network

·        Finding out more about the potential for the proposed model of the “Post Office Local”

·        Discuss links to future changes to one stop shops and the access to services programme with NYCC and partners.

·        Study use of payment cards.

Health Weight Review

Following the presentation by Greg McGrath, Health Improvement Manager for NHS North Yorkshire & York, the Healthy Weight Task Group had reviewed his recommendations and supporting evidence from the study undertaken by the Centre for Public Scrutiny.  One of the key finding was, for a review to be successful; it needed to focus on a specific area.

The situation was improving in Ryedale in relation to childhood obesity, as a result of a concerted effort from partners across the public sector. 

The Task Group had reviewed the issue of obesity in adults; statistically levels of adult obesity in Ryedale were the second highest in North Yorkshire.  Discussions around participation in sport and physical activity in Ryedale, led the group to question whether the crucial age of deciding whether to be involved in an activity or not happened after leaving school between 16-25.  The task group had concluded that this would be a beneficial are to focus on.

Activities following the meeting included:

·        Investigate whether any research had been undertaken nationally around lapsed participation in sport and physical activity at this age.  What were the key findings and recommendations?

·        If no research had been undertaken, the task group felt it would be beneficial to undertake the research in Ryedale.

·        Depending on the outcomes of the research, the Group could investigate practical ways the Council could help improve adult participation across all age groups.

The next Post Office Scrutiny Review Task Group will be held on the 28 February 2011 at 6.30pm, followed by the Healthy Weight Scrutiny Review  ...  view the full minutes text for item 71.

Commissioning Board held on 27 January 2011

Policy and Resources held on 3 February 2011

Lists of Decisions from the following Committees were submitted:

Commissioning Board held on the 27January 2011.

Policy & Resources held on the 3 February 2011.

            Resolved

            That the lists of decisions of the Commissioning Board held on the 27             January 2011 and the Policy & Resources Committee held on the 3       February 2011 be received.

There were no urgent items.

The meeting closed at 7.40pm.