Agenda and minutes

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 12 January 2021 be confirmed.

No declarations of interest were received.

The Chair of Policy Scrutiny Committee advised that the link to the Lincolnshire County Councils Health Scrutiny Committee agenda and from the meeting held on 16^th March 2021 had been circulated to Members. He invited members to ask questions.

No questions or comments were received.

RESOLVED that the update be noted.

The Democratic Services Officer:

a.    presented the report draft Policy Scrutiny Work Programme 2021-22 and Executive Work Programme Update.

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

c.    invited members questions and comments.

Member requested that any items that affected public particularly in relation to budget cuts be brought to committee for consideration.

The Chair advised that members of the committee could request any item that they wished to scrutinise and it would be considered for the work programme.

Members further asked if any review of current policies would be coming to committee to be scrutinised.

Becky Scott, Solicitor advised that a Corporate Policy Review was currently being undertaken by the Policy Team. This piece of work would be brought to the first committee of next year for consideration and from there policy reviews would be scheduled into the work programme throughout the year.

RESOLVED that:

1.    the work Policy Scrutiny work programme be noted.

2.    the Executive work programme be noted.

You are asked to resolve that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of the following item(s) because it is likely that if members of the press or public were present, there would be disclosure of ‘exempt information’

RESOLVED that the press and public be excluded from the meeting during consideration of the following item(s) of business because it is likely that if members of the public were present there would be a disclosure to them of ‘exempt information’ as defined by Section 100I and Schedule 12A to the Local Government Act 1972.

Kieron Manning, Assistant Director – Planning

a.    presented a report on the reduction of resource within Development Management as part of the Towards Financial Sustainability programme (TOFS 7) for comment prior to consideration by Executive.

b.    gave the background to the report as detailed at paragraph 3 and advised on the current financial challenges to the Council.

c.    referred to paragraph 4 of the report and summarised the existing service and the current staffing structure.

d.    outlined the options that had been considered at paragraph 5 and explained the preferred option and proposed structure which related to the Technical Team

e.    advised that the proposal was a reduction of 2 x Full Term Equivalent posts and additional responsibilities be added to one post within the team.

f.     further advised that the full management of change process was undertaken and 2 members of the team had requested voluntary redundancy.

g.    noted that a staff consultation had taken place and addressed the concerns that had been raised in relation to resilience within the team.

h.    reported on the potential savings to the Council as detailed at paragraph 8 of the report.

i.      invited members questions and comments

Question: It had been agreed that staff would not be disadvantaged due to being furloughed. Could reassurance be provided that those that had been furloughed would not be negatively impacted as a result of budget cuts.

Response: A process had been followed and no one had been disadvantaged due to being furloughed.

Question:  Were the furloughed members of staff terms and conditions protected?

Response: Yes, the terms and conditions did not change during furlough and their pension was unaffected.

Question: Was there a process undertaken for deleting vacant posts?

Response: Yes a business case was put together to consider workloads and efficiency. This was then presented to Corporate Management Team and signed off by the Portfolio Holder if it was agreed that it was appropriate to delete the post.

RESOLVED that the preferred option of reducing two posts within the Development Team, including the recommended voluntary redundancies within the team be supported and referred to Executive for consideration.