This report provides the board with the current work programmes of Herefordshire Council’s scrutiny committees.

The chair opened the item by allowing the chairperson of the CYPSC (Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee) to make a request to the SMB (Scrutiny Management Board) to consider undertaking a piece of work in relation to the budget

The chair of the CYPSC stated that the work programme for that committee did not have capacity to build in proper scrutiny of the potential pressures that children’s services were putting on the budget and asked if the SMB had the capacity to take a detailed look at the issue.

The chair of the SMB and the board members agreed that historic and forecast budgetary spending on children’s services was an issue that needed to be examined, in detail, as a matter of urgency. The board agreed to draw up terms of reference for a task and finish group that, pending approval, would look into the subject.

Resolved

That:

a)    That the statutory scrutiny officer would draw up draft terms of reference for a task and finish group to scrutinise the current expenditure and future budget of the children and young people directorate, these terms of reference would be presented for approval at the 21 November 2023 board meeting.

The chair noted that there wasn’t sufficient time to go through the work programmes of each scrutiny committee and proposed that a workshop be held in December, where the board could go through each individual committee work programme in detail and then feed into the Scrutiny Management Board work programme at the end.

Resolved

That:

a)    The board hold a scrutiny committee work programme workshop during December 2023.