To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from: Councillor Bruce Baker, Councillor Bob Matthews, Councillor John Stone and Councillor Peter Stoddart (Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Services).

To receive details of members nominated to attend the meeting in place of a member of the board.

Councillor Clare Davies was the named substitute for Councillor Bob Matthews.

To receive declarations of interests in respect of Schedule 1, Schedule 2 or Other Interests from members of the board in respect of items on the agenda.

No declarations of interest were made.

To receive the minutes of the meeting held on 25 July 2023.

The minutes of the previous meeting were received.

Resolved:

That the minutes of the meeting held on 25 July 2023 be confirmed as a correct record and be signed by the Chairperson.

To receive any written questions from members of the public.

Questions received and responses given are attached as Appendix 1 to the minutes.

To receive any written questions from members of the council.

No questions had been received from councillors.

To provide an overview of the work undertaken to engage staff in the development of a new Workforce Strategy for the period April 2024 to March 2027 and seek views from Scrutiny Management Board on the emerging themes of the strategy.

The chair informed the board that the item had been deferred until the next board meeting on 21 November 2023, so that the cabinet member (Councillor Peter Stoddart) could be present to discuss the strategy.

An update on income and charging focusing on identifying opportunities to improve the Council’s service cost recovery position.

CORRECTION: Please note that the title of this item was changed on 31/10/23 from ‘Service Cost Recovery Update’ to ‘Income and Charging’.

The Corporate Director for Economy and Environment introduced the item and provided the board with an update on income and charging, focusing on work that had been carried out in identifying opportunities to improve the Council’s service cost recovery position. The director stated that any questions that couldn’t be answered during the meeting could be taken away and responded to during the board meeting of 21 November.

Principle points arising from the update were:

·         The areas of opportunity examined included: moving services to a full cost recovery position, upscaling services, uplifting services and establishing new services.

·         Herefordshire had lower fees and charges than its comparators across 4 out of 7 categories assessed, there was potential to identify and implement changes within those categories.

·         There was no ‘fees and charges book’ or combined list of all Council fees and charges, but work had commenced to review this and put together a centralised record/source.

·         The initial review of “Service Cost Recovery” had shaped future priorities and work.

·         The review of fees and charges was on-going

The Scrutiny management board debated the update, principal points related to:

·         It was noted that scrutiny had looked at fees and charges back in 2011 and produced a set of recommendations for cabinet. The Corporate Director for Economy and Environment explained that these had largely been implemented in subsequent years, although the absence of a ‘service charges book’ may have made implementing some of the recommendations more complicated than was necessary.

·         The board acknowledged that this was an ongoing programme of work, but felt that additional detail around timelines and priorities (including identifying quick and big wins) of proposals and how they linked in with the 2024/25 budget and the policy framework would be helpful.

·         The board discussed the need for clearer examples to illustrate how income generated related to the services it supported, and cited car parking as a potentially good example for demonstrating this.

·         The board was keen to receive more information about the development of existing/known consultancy offerings that predated the recent involvement of PricewaterhouseCoopers.

·         The board discussed how fees could be used to drive and encourage positive behaviour - planning was given as an example - where a greater emphasis could be placed on seeking ‘permission rather than forgiveness’ in relation to retrospective planning applications.

·         The board enquired about the cost of the consultancy work carried out by PricewaterhouseCoopers and how/if the most recent work linked back with earlier consultancy work carried out by the firm.

The board voted unanimously in favour of the following recommendations to be considered in relation to the service cost recovery position, with a view to feedback being provided by the Corporate Director for Economy and Environment at the board meeting of 21 November 2023.

Resolved:

That:

a)    assurance be given on how income and charging items that are going to be built into the 2024/25 budget will relate to the policy framework, and

b)    detailed information on ‘quick wins’ ‘and ‘big wins’ be provided, and

c)    details  ...  view the full minutes text for item 18.

This report provides the board with an overview of community engagement within a public sector context, including setting out the statutory duties of a local authority to consult and to clarify the difference between engagement and consultation.

CORRECTION: Please note, Appendix 1 was updated and republished on 31/10/23 to reflect that the Budget Consultation Engagement table contains data from 2023/24 and not 2024/25 as was originally published.

The Head of Strategic Finance (deputy S151) introduced the item and gave an overview of the report on the 2024-25 Proposed Budget Consultation Approach.

It was explained that appendix 1 provided a timeline and details of proposed community-based budget consultation and engagement activity for 2024/25 and appendix 2 provided an overview of community engagement within a public sector context, including setting out the statutory duties of a local authority to consult and to clarify the difference between engagement and consultation. The paper set out the proposed approach for the budget consultation 2024/25. The paper also included information on the role of scrutiny in the consultation process and different types of engagement activity and when they should be used.

The Head of Strategic Finance (deputy S151) introduced Sarah Fishbourne and Maxine Bassett of Impact Consultancy & Research, who were present in person.

It was explained that the proposed budget consultation approach would include the delivery of:

· Seven locality-based pop-up consultation events mid-October to early December in Hereford High Town and one in each of the other market towns. Using a range of interactive methods to gauge public opinion on the key issues relating to the 24/25 budget. The final approach and focus of consultation would be developed in conjunction with the Director of Resources & Assurance.

· Two consultation sessions with specific hard-to-reach groups, e.g. young people, families in hardship.

· An online consultation session with businesses via the Economic Development Teams quarterly business briefings.

· A consultation session with the Community Partnership (22 November).

· A consultation session with Parish & Town Councils.

· An online feedback session sharing the results of the consultation. The output from the consultation would be a report and a PowerPoint presentation summarising the consultation findings.

The chair thanked the Head of Strategic Finance (deputy S151) and the attendees from Impact Consultancy and Research for the report and update, and then opened the item up to the board for lines of enquiry and questions.

The scrutiny management board debated the report raising principal points relating to:

·       The need to review lead times and marketing to enable greater engagement of parish councils and other seldom-heard, hard-to-reach groups, and those with protected characteristics.

·       The consideration of the viability of targeted sample groups and enabling people to self-select for future surveys as a way of building up a pool of consultees. 

·       The importance of structuring engagement with high-level themes early on, with more detailed engagement to follow later in the year.

·       Learning lessons from the previous successful consultation exercises such as the medium term financial strategy consultation of 2015.

·       Investigating the increased use of meaningful graphical representations/videos to swiftly and easily communicate complex budgetary information at a glance.

At the end of the debate, the board voted unanimously in favour of the following recommendations to be considered in relation to the proposed budget consultation approach, with a view to feedback being provided by the Head of Strategic Finance (deputy S151) at an appropriate future board meeting:

Resolved:

That:

a)    The scrutiny management board be provided with  ...  view the full minutes text for item 19.

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.  

To consider the work programme for the board.

The chair noted that there wasn’t sufficient time to go through the work programme of the Scrutiny Management Board 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.

Tuesday 21 November 2023 2.00pm

Tuesday 21 November 2023 2pm