Agenda and minutes

The Committee is asked to appoint a Vice-Chair for the 2022/23 Municipal Year.

RESOLVED - That Councillor Shuttleworth be appointed as Vice-Chair of the Performance Scrutiny Committee for the 2022/23 Municipal Year.

To receive any apologies for absence.

There were no apologies for absence received.

To receive Declarations of Interest in any contract or matter to be discussed at the meeting.

Councillor M. Bashforth declared a personal interest at agenda item 13 (Miocare Group – Annual Update on Financial Performance) by virtue of her spouse, Councillor S. Bashforth being Chair of the Miocare Board during the study period covered in the Committee’s report.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 24^th March 2022 are attached for approval.

RESOLVED – That the Minutes of the meeting of the Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee held 24^th March 2022 be approved, as a correct record.

Urgent business, if any, introduced by the Chair.

There were no items of urgent business received.

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

There were no public questions for the Committee to consider.

An update report on the implementation of the Borough’s Housing Strategy.

The Committee scrutinised a report of the Head of Housing that provided Members with an update regarding the implementation of the Housing Strategy.

The report set out the current policy context and ambitions for housing delivery in the Borough as part of the Creating a Better Place regeneration programme. It considered the merits of a range of development options which the Council could progress to ensure delivery of housing on land under its control and updated on current housing activity and recent achievements in the borough.  Progress towards developing brownfield land were highlighted therein.  The report also considered and made recommendations regarding affordable housing, low and zero carbon housing and Modern Methods of Construction.

The report established three possible options (a land sale, delivery via Building Lease and procuring a Strategic Development Partner) that were available to the Council and it outlined the advantages and disadvantages of each, before making site specific recommendations for delivery.

The Oldham Housing Strategy, published in 2019, underpinned the Housing Delivery Action Plan and guided how the Council would take decisions and action in respect of housing delivery over the coming years. The Council acknowledged that the ambitions set out in the strategy to deliver more new homes would require a different approach to supporting viability in the most appropriate way on a site-by-site basis. In particular, if the Council are to be successful in redeveloping more of the borough’s brownfield land, it would need to adopt different strategies to improving viability. This could include considering our approach to planning obligations, packaging sites, providing greater clarity, and exploring alternative sources of ‘gap funding’.

The Housing Strategy also noted that through housing insights evidence base and the Local Plan Review, the Council will provide a steer on the requirements for major development sites that come forward to support their comprehensive sustainable development and integration into the surrounding neighbourhoods. This includes homes built to high quality design and at a density that are appropriate to the location and nature of the site; and developing an ‘Oldham Code’ for low/zero-carbon homes.

There had been a new focus on economic recovery, aligned with ensuring that Oldham met its housing need continued to be of paramount importance.  This had created the opportunity to review additional brownfield sites in the town centre and across the borough to help bring forward these opportunities for housing development within the Greater Manchester's Plan for Homes, Jobs, and the Environment (formerly the Greater Manchester Spatial Framework (GMSF) and now known as Places for Everyone), and Oldham’s Local Plan. 

The aim was to provide a diverse housing offer that meets the needs of different sections of the population at different times in their lives. Our proposals go beyond numbers alone with a focus on the significant contribution that a quality housing offer makes to quality of life. For example, helping an older person to meet their need for a smaller more manageable home which, with the right adaptions, can protect and enhance independence.

Oldham’s current  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

For the period 1^st January to 31^st March 2022.

The Committee scrutinised a report which presented a review of the Council performance for the month of March 2022 and for the 2021/22 financial year. The Committee was invited to examine areas of under-performance and where appropriate recommend appropriate remedial action. The Committee was also asked to note areas of good performance.

The Corporate Performance Report monitored delivery against the Council’s Covid-19 Recovery Strategy. In this regard it was noted that 89.2% of actions within the Recovery Strategy were either on track or had already been successfully completed. There were 68% of updated targeted measures performance that were on or above target at the end of the fourth quarter of 2021/22. In addition, the report noted that 66% of updated target measures had achieved their stated goals.

The Committee was advised that throughout 2021/22 Covid-19 had continued to impact on the Council’s performance in a range of areas either through staffing capacity (because of Covid-19 sickness) or external factors that affected performance that arose because Covid-19 controls were in place. The Council has, and continues, to monitor recovery closely; through working with services to support recovery planning and to reflect key areas to prioritise delivery in the new corporate plane. The submitted report provided breakdowns by ‘Recovery Areas’ and further details on ‘exceptions’.

The report highlighted the following actions/measures that were coded red (unlikely to achieve a positive outcome in the specified timescale), for which portfolio holders and lead officers were requested to be accountable.

a.    Promoting health and wellbeing and supporting the most vulnerable

b.    Working with communities to improve health and wellbeing

c.    Enabling area

In considering these ‘red coded’ areas of work, the Committee sought assurances from Officers that remedial action was in place to attempt to rectify the various problems that had been highlighted in the report.

A member referred to action M918 (Percentage of calls answered) and expressed concern at the relatively large numbers of unanswered calls that were being reported.

Members of the Committee also expressed concern at the rising levels of staff sickness across the authority. The authority was currently losing, on average, 11.36 per employee to sickness an increase from 7.75 days that was reported at the corresponding point of 2021.although the levels of long-term sickness absence (absences longer than 20 working days in duration) had reduced to 60.5%, compared to 83.9% in 2021. The divisions in the authority with the highest sickness levels were Adult Social Care, Economy and Children’s Social Care. In this regard the Committee requested that a report be submitted to a future meeting of the Committee analysing the absence trends in the authority and outlining any remedial action that was being taken to address these issues. The Committee also requested that future reports include breakdowns of staff turnover.

A Member also requested that a report be submitted to a future meeting regarding analysing the contract management process for a selected operational area of the Council.

RESOLVED:

1.    That the report be noted

2.    That  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

The Committee considered a report that presented the outturn Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme for the 2021/22 Municipal Year.

Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 4.1 requires each Overview and Scrutiny Committee to prepare and maintain a Committee Work Programme. Overview and Scrutiny Procedure Rule 4.2 further required that the Chairs of Overview and Scrutiny Committees should collectively arrange for an Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report to be submitted to the Council for consideration.  It was therefore intended to submit the Annual Report to the meeting of the Council that was scheduled to be held on 13^th July 2022.

In the interim, the outturn Work Programme for the Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee in 2021/22, was attached for information.  The outturn Work Programme detailed the considerations given by the Committee during the 2021/22 Municipal Year and it’s submission to this meeting brought a formal conclusion to the 2021/22 Work Programme, complementing the Overview and Scrutiny Annual Report submission to Council.

RESOLVED:
that the report be noted.

The Committee received a report detailing the Committee’s Work Programme for 2022/23.

RESOLVED:

That the Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee’s Work Programme 2022/23 be noted.

The Committee considered the latest Key Decision Document, which set out the Authority’s Key Decisions scheduled to be made from 20^th May 2022.

RESOLVED:

That the Key Decision Document be noted.

That, in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they contain exempt information under paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, and it would not, on balance, be in the public interest to disclose the reports.

RESOLVED:

That, in accordance with Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item of business on the grounds that it contains exempt information under paragraphs 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, and it would not, on balance, be in the public interest to disclose the report.

The Committee received a report that provided an update on the financial performance of the MioCare Group CIC during the financial year 2021/22, giving an overview of their business strategy and providing an update on the budget for 2022/23.

The report provided an update on the financial health of the MioCare Group. A Scrutiny Committee had previously received an update in this regard in March 2021. Members of the Committee were advised that the 2021/22 performance had been delivered in line with budget. The report provided the Committee’s members with the strategic context for the current and future operating environment and the considerations for the 2022/23 budget.

The Committee were informed that the overall trading performance across the Miocare Group had been positive in the face of a very challenging operational climate, particularly because of COVID-19. The end of year consolidated Group position showed a surplus. In addition, resources were placed in reserves to assist with financial resilience and provide much needed investment to build an infrastructure capable of transforming the MioCare Group to deliver on current and future objectives.

The Committee was reassured that the MioCare Group Board and Senior Leadership Team continued to work together with Oldham Council to monitor the finances of the Group carefully and make such decisions were are necessary to try to ensure the future success of the Group.

RESOLVED:

That the report be noted.