Agenda and minutes

Venue: Council Chamber, Civic Centre, Oldham, West Street, Oldham, OL1 1NL. View directions

Contact: Constitutional Services 

Items
No. Item

1.

Appointment of Vice Chair

The Committee is asked to appoint a Vice-Chair for the 2021/22 Municipal Year.

Minutes:

RESOLVED – That Councillor Malik be appointed Shadow Vice-Chair of the Committee for the municipal year 2021-2022.

 

It was noted that the appointment would require formal approval in due course.

 

2.

Apologies For Absence

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence received.

 

3.

Declarations of Interest

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

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest received.

 

4.

Urgent Business

Urgent business, if any, introduced by the Chair

Minutes:

There were no items of urgent business received.

 

5.

Public Question Time

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

Minutes:

There were no public questions received.

 

6.

Minutes - Overview and Scrutiny Board pdf icon PDF 263 KB

The Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on 9thMarch 2021 are attached for approval.

Minutes:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Board held on Tuesday, 9th March 2021 be noted.

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7.

Minutes - Overview and Scrutiny Performance and Value for Money Select Committee pdf icon PDF 274 KB

The Minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Performance and Value for Money Select Committee held on 11th March 2021 are attached for approval.

Minutes:

That the minutes of the meeting of the Overview and Scrutiny Performance and Value for Money Select Committee held on Thursday, 11th March 2021 be noted.

 

8.

Council Performance Report March 2021 pdf icon PDF 3 MB

Minutes:

The Select Committee gave consideration to a report which presented a review of the Council performance as at December 2020.

 

The presentation of performance commenced with the provision of an ‘Oldham Profile in Numbers’ comprising basic data in respect of population, housing, education, crime, income and benefits, household information, health, and community in the Borough.  Performance against each of the three corporate objectives of an Inclusive Economy, Thriving Communities and Co-operative Services was then reported.  It was noted that 20 measures had achieved their target, two were within tolerance and ten were currently outside tolerance. A number of measures had been temporarily suspended and these were detailed at appendix VI to the submitted report.  An overview was also given to employment and budgetary issues.

 

It was noted that performance continued to be affected by Covid, with ongoing restrictions impacting on the achievement of a number of performance measures.  While this was expected, reporting against the measures had continued in order to demonstrate the impact and challenges the pandemic had presented locally.  A Covid Recovery Strategy had been developed to outline the priorities to support recovery and which would include revised performance measures. Performance measures and their associated risks were considered in detail at Appendices I, II, III and IV of the report as submitted. 

 

Members asked for and received clarification on the following:

·         With regard to measure M655 (percentage of children seen in the previous six months by an NHS dentist) and a query as to whether there was any means of picking up data regarding those choosing to use a private dentist, this issue would be referred to Public Health for response. It was acknowledged that performance of this measure had declined as dentists were not seeing patients during much of the pandemic.

·         It was commented that the report did not seem to reflect any urgency or action plan to address the above, or other, issue.  The Committee was advised that the M655 measure was a national measure the Council was obliged to keep, but under the Council’s refreshed approach to performance monitoring it was hoped that new target setting/action planning for 2021/22 would be seen for this and other issues.  The impact of the new approach would be seen in the 2021/22 first quarter report to be submitted to the Committee in September 2021.

·         With regard to the performance measures before the Committee, it was queried whether those rated ‘red’ were similarly rated prior to Covid, or whether the adverse rating was due to Covid.  It was acknowledged that impacts of Covid could be seen in several measures, such as young people in education, employment or training (EET) where programmes and opportunities had been impacted and Health Visitor Reviews undertaken due to issues of face-to-face contact; Council Tax collection etc.  Other issues where performance had struggled previously, such as Council Tax collection, adoption, and adults with learning disabilities in employment, had further struggled due to Covid-related issues.

·         In further considering performance generally, the Committee was advised that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

9.

Corporate Performance Reporting Process 2021/22

Committee to receive a presentation on future performance reporting.

Minutes:

The Select Committee gave consideration to a report which presented the Council Performance Reporting Process for 2021/22.

 

The presentation informed Members that Oldham’s current Corporate Plan expired in December 2020 and whilst work to refresh that Plan had been due to be completed by summer 2020, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic this had no longer been viable.  It had therefore been agreed by Cabinet that a Covid-19 Recovery Strategy would be developed to act as an interim Corporate Plan until at least September 2022.

 

Members asked for and received clarification on the following:

·         It was queried whether there would be a measure for supporting local jobs, such as the proportion of spend with local businesses.  The Committee was informed that the performance measures were in the process of being signed off and a reply would be forwarded to the Member concerned.

·         Further to a reference to the Corporate Plan, it was advised that this had become time expired during the pandemic.  While work had started on a review prior to the pandemic, it had been acknowledged that the Council would be a much different place post-pandemic and a more timely approach had been adopted.  The Covid Recovery Plan would serve as a Corporate Plan for the time being to guide the Council’s recovery from pandemic.

 

RESOLVED that the report be noted.

 

10.

Key Decision Document pdf icon PDF 22 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Board gave consideration to the latest Key Decision Document that had been published on 21st May 2021.

 

RESOLVED – That the Key Decision Document be noted.

 

11.

Performance Overview and Scrutiny Committee Work Programme pdf icon PDF 139 KB

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee received a report inviting consideration of the Committee’s Work programme for 2021/22 as at June 2021.

 

Further to the submitted report, the Committee was advised that the Chair of Policy Overview and Scrutiny Committee had proposed that the three Scrutiny Chairs meet representatives of the Youth Council to discuss how scrutiny could help/support the Youth Council; that updates on several issues linked to the Housing Strategy were being sought; and that a consideration was being given to scheduling of issues currently listed for the

August meeting.

 

RESOLVED – That the Performance Overview and Scrutiny Work Programme 2021/22 be noted.