Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 9 October 2018 be confirmed.

Please note that, in accordance with the Members' Code of Conduct, when declaring interests members must disclose the existence and nature of the interest, and whether it is a disclosable pecuniary interest (DPI) or personal and/or pecuniary.

No declarations of interest were received.

Kate Ellis, Director of Major Developments gave a  verbal update on Protecting Vulnerable People and made the following key points:

·         The internal Safeguarding Board had evolved significantly over the past few years on a piecemeal basis.

·         At the Safeguarding Board meeting in June Officers discussed how the Council could respond to the agenda in a more corporate, joined up and efficient way.

·         Following agreement from CMT and Councillor R Kirk, Safeguarding Member Advocate, the board had been renamed to Protecting Vulnerable People Board and it now covered:

o   Safeguarding

o   Prevent

o   Domestic Violence/ Abuse

o   Modern Day Slavery

o   Hate Crime

o   Suicide Risk

·         The aim was to provide a more holistic approach, to provide a better service to customers and to prevent duplication across the Authority.

·         The Protecting Vulnerable People Boards work would include:

o   A review of the Terms of Reference

o   A review of Policies eg The County Safeguarding Policy

o   Producing a new training programme to incorporate all aspects of Protecting Vulnerable People

o   A promotional approach eg monthly promos

·         The Council wanted to equip its staff with the skills and tools to provide a quality meaningful service to customers and residents.

·         An all member briefing would be held.

Members asked the following questions and received relevant responses:

Question –  How many members of staff had been trained on Suicide prevention?

Response – The figures could be circulated after the meeting.

Question – What was being done to assist staff with Mental Health issues?

Response – HR had launched a programme where staff could make a telephone call and speak to someone confidentially and independently to work about any issues. There was also the Wellbeing agenda and the Global challenge.

RESOLVED that the update be noted.

Martin Walmsley, Head of Shared Revenues and Benefits

a.    presented the proposed scheme for Local Council Tax Support for the financial year 2019/20 as part of the formal consultation period.

b.    gave the background to the scheme as detailed at paragraph 2 of the report and advised that the Council must consider whether to revise or replace its Council Tax Support Scheme each financial year.

c.    advised that the caseload had decreased from 8,853 in April 2018 to 8,744 at 31 July 2018 therefore the cost of the scheme for 2018/19 was lower than the predicted cost outlined in the Taxbase calculation which was undertaken in December 2017.

d.    referred to paragraph 4.3 of the report and explained the reasons for the decreased caseload and advised that it was forecast to decrease further.

e.    advised that officers had modelled a 1% caseload decrease as shown at appendix 1 of the report. 

f.     detailed the options that had been modelled at Appendix 1 of the report and advised that it gave an indication of the potential savings to the Council and the major preceptors

g.    advised that on 29 October 2018 the Executive made the decision to consult on all of the scenarios modelled as detailed in paragraph 5.3 of the report.

h.    advised that further information on the ongoing consultation would be circulated to the committee following the meeting.

i.      asked for committee’s consideration and comments on the options as part of the formal consultation process.

Question: Asked for clarification on the collection rate of 98.75%.

Response: It was the collection rate over the course of time and not within the financial year.

Question:  Referred to option 3 and asked what period of time the minimum entitlement covered.

Response: The minimum entitlement was per week.

The committee supported the following options:

·         Option 1 – No change to the current scheme

·         Option 5 – Universal Credit Changes

·         Option 6 – Council Tax empty homes premium

·         Option 7 – Care leavers Council Tax Exemption

RESOLVED that the above comments be submitted as part of the formal consultation process on the proposed Council Tax Support Scheme for 2019/20.

Becky Scott, Legal and Democratic Services Manager

a.    presented a proposal of a review of corporate documents to the committee for consideration.

b.    advised that there were many policies and strategies of the council which had been approved by Executive/ Full Council and explained that the Chair of Policy Scrutiny and the Leader of the Council had requested that the Committee undertake a role to monitor and review them.

c.    advised that a spreadsheet was being developed showing all corporate documents and would be brought to a future meeting of Policy Scrutiny for consideration and any documents that needed to be formally reviewed would be scheduled on the agenda for the relevant committee.

RESOLVED that the process for the review and monitoring of corporate documents be supported.

Claire Turner, Democratic Services Officer presented the Scrutiny Annual Report and asked for Members’ questions and comments.

Members noted the report and recommended that it be forwarded to Full Council for approval.

RESOLVED that the report be noted and forwarded to Full Council for approval.

The Democratic Services Officer:

a.    presented the report ‘Policy Scrutiny Work Programme 2018-19 and Executive Work Programme Update’.

b.    presented the Executive Work Programme November 2018 – October 2019.

c.    requested councillors to submit what items they wished to scrutinise from the Executive Work Programme and policies of interest.

d.    invited members questions and comments.

Members made no further comments or suggestions regarding the Policy Scrutiny work programme.

RESOLVED that:

1.    the work Policy Scrutiny work programme be noted.

2.    the Executive work programme be noted.

The Chair of Policy Scrutiny Committee updated members of the business that had been discussed at the Health Scrutiny meeting held on 17 October 2018, these were:

·         Winter Planning

·         Lincolnshire Sustainability and Transformation Partnership – Mental Health

·         Annual Report of Lincolnshire West Clinical Commissioning Group

·         Integrated Care Providers Contract Arrangements – Consultation

RESOLVED that the report be noted.