Agenda and draft minutes

There were no apologies for absence received.

To Receive Declarations of Interest in any Contract or matter to be discussed at the meeting.

Councillor Surjan declared a personal interest in agenda item 12 ‘Thriving Communities Update’ insofar as her employer had received grant funding from the Thriving Communities programme.

Urgent business, if any, introduced by the Chair.

There were no items of urgent business.

To receive Questions from the Public, in accordance with the Council’s Constitution.

No public questions had been received for consideration.

The Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 21^st January 2021 are attached for approval.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 19^th January 2021 be approved as a correct record.

The minutes of the meetings of the GMCA Corporate Issues and Reform Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 8^th December 2020 and 19^th January 2021 are attached for noting.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the GMCA Corporate Issues and Reform Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings held on 18^th December 2020 and 19^th January 2021 be noted.

The minutes of the meeting of the GMCA Economy, Business Growth and Skills Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 4^th December 2020 are attached for noting.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the GMCA Economy, Business Growth and Skills Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 4^th December 2020 be noted.

The minutes of the meetings of the GMCA Housing, Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 12^th November 2020 and 14^th January 2021 are attached for noting.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the GMCA Housing, Planning and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee meetings held on 12^th November 2020 and 14^th January 2021 be noted.

The Board gave a consideration to the proposed Statement of Licensing Policy that would be submitted to the Council for adoption in due course. 

Members were reminded that the Licensing Act 2003, the primary piece of legislation which regulates the alcohol, entertainment and late-night refreshment industry, requires licensing authorities to prepare and publish a statement of their licensing policy every five years. The Policy must be kept under review and the licensing authority may make such revisions to the Policy as it considers appropriate.   The Policy is underpinned by four licensing objectives, comprising the prevention of crime and disorder; the prevention of public nuisance; public safety; and the protection of children from harm, which must be considered by both operators and regulators.

The submitted proposed revised Policy was presented to the Committee, with principal areas of change or update being highlighted in the text.  These areas particularly addressed –

·         protection of children from harm where advice had been received from the Safeguarding Children Board, for example in updating definitions;

·         Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE) and Child Criminal Exploitation (CEE) where advice had been received from the Safeguarding Children Board and a number of recommendations or encouragements were being made to licence holders and operators of licensed premises;

·         alcohol delivery services which had developed in recent years;

·         boxing, particularly in the consideration of ‘White Collar Boxing’, often undertaken for charity and involving non-boxers;

·         considerations following the inclusion of a Local Authority’s ‘Public Health’ department as a responsible Authority, including the use of public health data in considering licensing applications and reviews; and

·         pavement licences, the application for and issue of which had been encouraged during the Covid pandemic.

The Committee was advised that, since preparation of the draft Policy, the government had announced its intention to legislate to introduce a ‘Protect’ duty in respect of publicly accessible locations.  This legislation would not be introduced prior to approval of the Council’s Policy, but it was proposed to insert the following content to highlight the duty - 

“At the time of issuing this policy statement the Council is aware that a consultation has recently been launched by HM Government in relation to a proposed protect duty.  This duty, through legislation, would compel operators and owners of premises such as entertainment and sports venues, tourist attractions, large retail stores, operators of parks, pedestrianised areas, town squares to give considerations to security implications and assess threats and implement appropriate mitigating measures.  Whilst it is acknowledged that decisions have yet to be taken on this issue it is clear that security is a high priority for the Government and that legislation of some kind is highly likely to follow.  It is for that reason that we would ask operators of licensed premises/venues and open spaces to consider the threats they could face and consider some examples of good practice as outlined in possible conditions to licences in Appendix 1 to this licensing policy statement.”

With regard to the proposed Policy content relating to CSE and CEE, in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

The Board received an update on the development of the Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan (GM CAP), including details of a report and recommendations that had been considered by the Cabinet at a meeting held on 22^nd February 2021.

The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM), and the ten Greater Manchester local authorities (collectively “GM”) had worked together to develop a CAP to tackle NO2 exceedances at the roadside.  A linkage to the developing Minimum Licensing Standards (MLS) for taxi and private hire services was noted.  Key developments with regard to the CAP advised included information that there had been no confirmation or offer of government funding for light goods vehicle (LGVs) or hackney replacement, or for taxi and private hire electric vehicle charge points; and that GM had been awarded £14.7m of funding for the retrofitting of buses operating on registered bus services within Greater Manchester, this work commencing in December 2020.

Air quality is legally monitored, and GM (and other areas) were required by law to address exceedance of the Annual Average standard for NO2 which is set at 40 ug/m3.  As the GM CAP is required to take action to tackle nitrogen dioxide exceedances until compliance with legal limits has been demonstrated over a number of years, modelling indicated that the influence of Covid-19 on air quality was not expected to lead to sufficiently long term reductions in pollution and that legal NO2 limits would not be met without implementing a Clean Air Zone (CAZ).

Consultation responses regarding the GM CAP and MLS were being analysed and reported on by an independent research agency to enable GM authorities to fully consider all of the information and evidence gathered, including the consequences Covid-19 has had on vehicle owners and trades which will be directly affected by the GM CAP and MLS.  TfGM was undertaking preparatory implementation work and contract arrangements required to deliver the CAZ and other GM CAP measures, such work being required to maintain delivery momentum in line with the funding arrangements agreed with regard to, for example, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras, back office systems and service providers.  The final GM CAP was to be brought to decision makers no later than summer 2021, alongside the MLS proposals.

Members sought further detail regarding engagement with taxi drivers over the proposed arrangements.  It was advised that difficulties had been encountered generally in getting responses from drivers and operators across GM to both the CAP and MLS consultations and it was a concern, for example, that electric taxi charging points might be determined on the basis of a very small response rate.  A Member noted that taxi drivers as a group could be vocal and queried whether the response rate might be led by uncertainty over costs.  This was acknowledged, with impacts on business and implications arising from the impacts of Covid being other possible considerations.

Members considered the implications of and for owner drivers who might be delivering parcels, takeaway  ...  view the full minutes text for item 10.

To receive a presentation, including initial feedback from the elected Member briefing sessions on place based working that have been held to date.

The Cabinet Member for HR and Reform led a presentation updating the Board on progress made to date in developing the Council’s Place Based approach to service delivery based in five Areas or ‘Clusters’ in conjunction with partners in the public and voluntary sectors.  The need to develop integration of services was put in a context of budget challenge over coming years that would be exacerbated by the impacts of Covid.  Difficult challenges would be faced taking the approach forward, with Council staffing and budgets not increasing and cuts being most likely.  It was clear that Council would not look the same in five years time.

The Strategic Director introduced the presentation that reflected on progress made to date in developing the approach and defined the features and characteristics of Place Based Integration in Oldham.  It was noted that examples of good practice could be identified across the five identified areas, notably around the health and social care sectors, reflecting accelerated work undertaken as a result of Covid-19.  Notwithstanding, it was recognised that there was still some way to go to join up and deliver across the system, and a number of key activities being led by senior Council Officers were highlighted.  Considering the Place Based approach in responding to the financial challenge, examples of a number of costs and benefits considered in developing a Business Case were presented.

Resources for the five Areas would be targeted by using evidence-based profiles, and headline profiles for each of the five areas were presented.  Operational leadership and the democratic roles within the five Areas was considered.  Early thinking on the composition and the roles and responsibilities of Operational Leadership Teams, which would include representation from across partners and sectors and which were subject to further discussion with partners, was presented.  The roles of elected Members within the Place Based approach was currently under consideration via a number of elected Member briefings, initial feedback from which was provided.

In responding to questions from Members, it was advised that the new structure should enhance responses to issues raised as services were intended to be more connected: this would be through making better use of the people we have, not through employing more staff.  The diversity of need between the five Areas was recognised, as was the possible need for differing partners to be involved between areas.  It was envisaged that there would be a ‘Core Team’, but importantly there would be services unique to the particular Area.  There would in time be a need for a Communications Strategy but there remained some detailed design work to be done.  It was however recognised that some developments would come sooner than others so an incremental approach to communications could be seen.

Issues were raised with regard to the voluntary sector whose importance as an integral part of the system was noted.  It was suggested that there were issues of support and training to consider, as well as the failure of Community Asset Transfer.  Reference  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

The Board was provided with an update on the progress of the Thriving Communities Programme that was funded largely by £2.69m allocated from the Greater Manchester (GM) Transformation Fund in 2018 as part of the GM Health and Social Care Transformation Fund to support devolution.  The aim of the Programme was to accelerate the Thriving Communities element of the Oldham Model and deliver the common objectives of health and social care integration through a three year programme focused on building upon our strengths and supporting groups in the voluntary, community, faith and social enterprise (VCFSE) sector; supporting people earlier in the care pathway; and driving the shift to increasing earlier intervention and prevention.  The next steps for the Programme in the context of the Council’s wider transformation programme was further considered.

Highlight updates were provided in respect of the Social Prescribing Network that bridged the gap between medical care and the community; the five Social Action Fund projects of VCFSE-led projects tackling loneliness and isolation; the ‘Fast Grants’ scheme which had supported a range of activities from sports, arts and crafts and gardening to mental health support groups and singing groups, and which had contributed to the Covid response; the arrangements for the evaluation of the Thriving Communities programme; and inputs into the Covid-19 response.

It was noted that Thriving Communities funding from the GM Transformation Fund is non-recurrent meaning that the Social Prescribing Network, the Social Action Fund projects and funding for Fast Grants was time limited.  The evaluation findings would advise future decision making in respect of activities within the Programme and would be key in making the case for further investment in social prescribing and community activity, the work being undertaken to explore other levers for funding and investment into these areas being advised.  Considerations linked to the wider transformation programme included the sustainability of Thriving Communities where its embedding within wider service transformation as part of the transformation programme was key, ongoing investment into VCSFE capacity to enable alignment with, for example, key priorities such as poverty and community wealth building as well as place-based working, and revised governance arrangements to ensure responsibility for delivery and implementation of both Thriving Communities and Place Based Working was sustainable and joined up.

In response to a query, it was advised that the ‘Wellbeing leisure’ Social Action Fund project offered a range of activities to a wide range of age groups.  The positive response over the past 12 months to on-line provision was noted, the positive impacts for people in terms of tackling isolation and encouraging participation that might not otherwise have happened in usual in-person activities being further noted. 

With regard to the Social Prescribing Network and the monitoring of success, the Board was advised that patient reviews to assess the impact of social prescribing were undertaken at 3 and 6 months.  Linking to Place Based considerations, it was advised that social prescribing was already arranged on the basis of the five Areas and that the further aligning  ...  view the full minutes text for item 12.

The Board is asked to note that there has been no requirement to take any decisions under the provisions of Access to Information Procedure Rules 13 or 14 since the last meeting of the Board.

RESOLVED that it be noted that there had been no requirement for any decision to be taken under the provisions of Access to Information Procedure Rules 13 or 14 since the last meeting of the Board.

The Board gave consideration to the latest Key Decision Document published on 19^th February 2021.

RESOLVED that the Key Decision Document be noted.

The Board gave consideration to the updated Overview and Scrutiny Board Work Programme for 2020/21.  Members’ attention was drawn to the proposed implementation of the revised overview and scrutiny terms of reference, agreed by the Council in June 2020, with effect from the forthcoming Municipal Year.

RESOLVED that the Overview and Scrutiny Board Work Programme 2020/21, as presented, be noted.