Agenda and minutes

The Chair welcomed all Members and Officers to the meeting and he extended a particular welcome to Councillor Bryan Owen to his first meeting of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee; to Mr Arwyn Williams as the new Head of Learning, and to Mrs Carys Edwards in her new role as Head of Profession (Human Resources and Transformation).

The Chair referred to the success of Mr Gruffydd Wyn Roberts of Amlwch in reaching the final of the TV talent show – Britain’s Got Talent, and he congratulated Mr Roberts on his achievement. The Chair also thanked the town and community of Amlwch and in particular Mr Arwel Hughes for arranging a special outdoor screening of the final. The focus on Amlwch and the positive publicity surrounding the event and Mr Roberts’ success had been excellent for the area.

To receive any declaration of interest by any Member or Officer in respect of any item of business.

No declaration of interest was received.

To present the minutes of the previous meetings of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee held on the following dates –

·         23 April, 2018

·         15 May, 2018

The minutes of the previous meetings of the Corporate Scrutiny Committee held on 23 April and 15 May, 2018 were presented and were confirmed as correct.

To present the report of the Head of Profession – HR and Transformation.

The report of the Head of Profession (Human Resources and Transformation) outlining the position of the Council against its operational objectives for the final quarter of 2017/18 financial year was presented for the Committee’s consideration. The report provided an overview of the Council’s performance in its business as usual activities whilst also setting out specific pointers towards other transformational developments which were completed during this time period.

The Portfolio Member for Corporate Services said that despite it being another challenging year for the public sector, it was encouraging to be able to report that the majority of indicators performed well against their targets, and that this achievement should be recognised when the Council’s Annual Performance Report will be drafted in the autumn. The final quarter’s outcomes have not produced any surprises with certain areas of performance in Children and Families’ Services and the Learning Service proving challenging. Notwithstanding, the former is undergoing a transformational change and will continue to prioritise the areas where performance has fallen short of target – improvement has been seen in 4 of these 5 underperforming indicators especially during the latter half of the financial year following a restructuring exercise and a review of policies and processes. The Learning Service will continue with the implementation of the mitigation measures reported at the end of Quarter 3 and summarised in paragraph 2.2.5 which should continue to improve performance in the forthcoming year.

The Portfolio Member reported that in terms of People Management, the performance of the Council’s sickness rates at the end of 2017/18 narrowly missed the corporate target of 9.75 days sick per FTE at 9.96 days sick per FTE. Although the performance with regard to sickness absence in Quarters 1, 2 and 3 was ahead of target, the higher than normal sickness rates during Quarter 4 impacted on 6 of the 9 Council Services which effectively skewed the end of year performance result and meant that the corporate target was not met. This outcome is replicated nationally.

There have been improvements in Customer Service most notably in relation to the use of Digital Services, with an increasing number of the public now using the App Môn technology and the Council’s website to communicate with the Authority and to report issues. The Council’s social media presence and followers have also increased and it is envisaged that the flow of information distributed and received via social media channels will continue to grow with time. The percentage of FOI requests responded to within timescale performed at 78% at the end of 2017/18 compared to 77% at the end of 2016/17. Although not hitting the corporate target of 80%, the outcome is encouraging in view of the fact that 7,527 requests were dealt with in 2017/18 compared to 5,700 during 2016/17.

The Portfolio Member for Corporate Services concluded by saying that the Council needs to continue the momentum of progress and will do this by services working collectively to continually drive improvement.

In respect of Children and Families’ Services,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

·        To present the report of the Head of Children and Families Services

·        To present the report of the Children’s Services Improvement Panel

4.1       The report of the Head of Children and Families’ Services setting out the progress to date with implementing the Service Improvement Plan was presented for the Committee’s consideration.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Governance and Business Process Transformation) and Statutory Director of Social Services reported that over the period since CIW’s inspection of Children’s Services, the Service has been involved in putting in place a series of important changes which it is considered will better deliver in line with legislation. The main areas of change which are elaborated on in the report relate to the following –

•           Restructuring the service so that the focus is on Early Intervention and prevention and intensive intervention under service managers leading on and holding the resources for each of these service areas. It has substantially increased the level of supervisory resources, management oversight, case direction, and has improved care planning with small Practice Groups led by Practice Leaders who aim to improve the quality of professional practice.

•           Developing a prevention strategy with the objective of de-escalating need at all levels thereby reducing the need for intensive involvement. The Council has invested resources to establish an intensive intervention Resilient Families’ Team to respond proactively to children with high level/edge of care needs and also to work with the allocated social worker to assist with returning children out of care to friends or family closer to home.

•           Improving the systems in place to support intensive intervention by reviewing cases to ensure the right cases are being dealt with at this level and that the Service’s processes are as effective as possible.

•           Improving the quality and consistency of practice. Improved processes and guidance have been developed and additional resources have been committed to improving the Quality Assurance and Improvement function.

The Officer said that the Service recognises that the steps taken are recent in their implementation with most coming to fruition since the inspection report was published in March, 2017 and are dependent on the successful implementation of the Practice Leader role. This will take time to achieve what is expected of it but the benefits of doing so effectively will be seen in good quality practice across all Children and Families’ Services. The focus of the work in the last quarter has been on consolidating recruitment and retention arrangements. Given the national shortage of experienced Social Workers the Service has implemented a contingency plan (funding for which has been approved by the Executive) which is to recruit newly qualified Social Workers (NQSWs) to vacant posts and to engage experienced agency social workers over capacity for a period of one year to provide support for the NQSWs throughout their first year in the Practice Framework. Implementing the 21 actions on the Service Improvement Plan (SIP) is also ongoing. After 12 months of work on the SIP, the service has developed a RAG rating system to measure progress – the table within the report shows that 6 areas have been completed (Green), 10 areas  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To present the report of the Finance Scrutiny Panel.

The report of the Scrutiny Finance Panel providing an update on the work of the Panel was presented for the Committee’s consideration.

Councillor Dafydd Roberts, a member of the Panel reported on the work of the Panel in the period from March to April, 2018 with reference to the following –

•           Detailed consideration has been given to Budget Monitoring for Quarter 3 2017/18 with the Panel’s approach being to scrutinise the Executive’s response to budget monitoring as being more helpful in supporting the Executive to make better decisions.

•           2017/18 financial pressures. The Panel continues to scrutinise the financial pressures in Children’s Services and the Learning Service as a key priority. To this end further information has been commissioned from both Heads of Service for consideration by the Panel at its next meeting on 28 June, 2018.

•           Annual Budget setting process 2019/20. A review of the Panel’s work programme has been a catalyst for agreement on the role of the Panel in the budget setting process for next year as outlined in the report.

•           The Council’s Efficiencies Strategy. The Panel has given detailed consideration to performance against each of the efficiency proposals implemented during 2017/18 in order to form a view on the percentage delivered and to identify barriers and risks and any consequent learning in moving forward.

The Panel has escalated for the Committee’s attention the current budget pressures in Children’s Services and the Learning Service.

The Committee considered the information presented and made the following points –

•           The Committee noted from the Panel’s conclusions that implementation of the 2017/18 efficiencies strategy totalling £1.954k fell short by £399k which related to the 3 projects listed in the report. The Committee sought clarification of the reasons why these savings projects had not been delivered on time.

Councillor Dafydd Roberts confirmed that the Panel had received reports on the matter. The Portfolio Member for Finance and former member of the Panel said that he was confident that the Panel would continue to keep a close eye on the progress of implementing savings plans and efficiencies.

The Assistant Chief Executive (Governance and Business Process Transformation) and Statutory Director of Social Services explained that the Garreglwyd project had taken more time than originally envisaged partly because there was a delay in employing Health staff to support the realisation of the project and partly because of CIW taking a longer than expected period to accept and to approve the implementation model. The facility is now open and receiving an increasing number of individuals and a second wing is also ready. Most of the work to develop the two wings to provide accommodation for individuals with dementia has been funded via the Welsh Government’s Intermediate Care Fund.

•           The Committee referred to the additional unplanned expenditure incurred by the Council as a result of the floods in November, 2017. The Committee sought clarification of the contribution made by Welsh Government towards the costs and whether this was subject to any specific  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To present the Forward Work Programme 2018/19.

The Committee’s Forward Work Programme for 2017/18 to 2018/19 was presented for comment and review.

The Chair highlighted that the two additional meetings of the Committee referred to at the previous meeting have now been confirmed for 5 and 13 July, 2018 and will consider school modernisation proposals for the Llangefni and Seiriol areas respectively. The meeting on 5 July will also consider the Annual Report of the Statutory Director of Social Services.

It was resolved to accept the Work Programme as presented.

NO ADDITIONAL ACTION WAS PROPOSED

To receive an update on the implementation of the Action Plan.

The report of the Head of Service (Highways, Waste and Property) and Head of Learning providing an update on implementing the recommended actions following an Internal Audit review of School transport in September, 2017 was presented for the Committee’s information. The report notes that the Internal Audit follow-up review confirms that significant progress has been made towards improving School transport arrangements and addressing the issues and risks raised in the original audit review report. The Audit and Governance Committee at its meeting held on 24 April, 2018 accepted that good progress had been made and that it was not necessary for it to take further action.

It was resolved to note –

•           The significant progress made in reducing the risks identified in the Internal Audit report of September, 2017.

•           The decision of the Audit and Governance Committee at its meeting held on 24 April, 2018 to note that good progress has been made and that no further steps are required.

NO ADDITIONAL ACTION WAS PROPOSED