To receive apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillors PA Andrews, WLS Bowen, KG Grumbley and RI Matthews.

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in respect of items on this agenda.

GUIDANCE ON DECLARING PERSONAL AND PREJUDICIAL INTERESTS AT MEETINGS

The Council’s Members’ Code of Conduct requires Councillors to declare against an Agenda item(s) the nature of an interest and whether the interest is personal or prejudicial.  Councillors have to decide first whether or not they have a personal interest in the matter under discussion.  They will then have to decide whether that personal interest is also prejudicial.

A personal interest is an interest that affects the Councillor more than most other people in the area.  People in the area include those who live, work or have property in the area of the Council.  Councillors will also have a personal interest if their partner, relative or a close friend, or an organisation that they or the member works for, is affected more than other people in the area.  If they do have a personal interest, they must declare it but can stay and take part and vote in the meeting. 

Whether an interest is prejudicial is a matter of judgement for each Councillor.  What Councillors have to do is ask themselves whether a member of the public – if he or she knew all the facts – would think that the Councillor’s interest was so important that their decision would be affected by it.  If a Councillor has a prejudicial interest then they must declare what that interest is and leave the meeting room.

There were no declarations of interest.

To approve and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 19th November, 2007.

Attention was drawn to a spelling mistake and punctuation error on page 3 of the Minutes, as printed in the agenda papers.  A corrected page was provided for signature.

RESOLVED: That the Minutes of the meeting held on 19th November, 2007, as corrected at page 3, be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To consider suggestions from members of the public on issues the Committee could scrutinise in the future.

A member of the public expressed the wish to add to the written question he had submitted on the report on the May 2007 elections. 

He informed the Committee that it was Herefordshire Association of Local Councils’ view that election costs should in future be met in full by Herefordshire Council and asked that the Committee consider this point.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services noted that the legal requirement was that local government bodies should meet the cost of their own elections.  The Council currently met 50% of the costs of elections to Town and Parish Councils.

To consider the Council’s performance for the first eight months of 2007-08 against the Annual Operating Plan 2007-08 and national performance indicators used externally to measure the performance of the Council; partnership performance for the first six months in delivering the Local Public Service Agreement, Local Area Agreement and Herefordshire Community Strategy; and performance against revenue and capital budgets and corporate risks, and remedial action to address areas of under-performance. 

The Committee considered the Council’s performance for the first eight months of 2007-08 against the Annual Operating Plan 2007-08 and national performance indicators used externally to measure the performance of the Council; partnership performance for the first six months in delivering the Local Public Service Agreement, Local Area Agreement and Herefordshire Community Strategy; and performance against revenue and capital budgets and corporate risks, and remedial action to address areas of under-performance. 

Performance against Performance Indicators

The Corporate Policy and Research Manager (CPRM) presented this section of the report, summarising progress.

He reported a slight increase in the number of red indicators (not on target) and those marked green (on target or met target) since the last report.

He provided an update on progress in identifying an agreed set of defined indicators and targets for measures of healthy teenage lifestyles, an issue highlighted by the Committee in November 2007.  He reported that a set of proxy indicators had been developed for consideration by the Director of Children’s Services prior to submission to the Children’s Trust Board and the Herefordshire Partnership Performance Management Group.  Subject to their consideration, these would be included in future IPRs.

He also updated the Committee on the percentage of children on the child protection register that are re-registrations (26 HCS), which had improved significantly in the third quarter; the % of 15 year-old pupils achieving 5 or more GCSEs at grades A* - G or equivalent, including English and Maths (30 HCS) and  the number of half-day sessions missed by looked after children as a % of total number of sessions in primary schools (35b HCS) – in both cases, although the target had not been achieved, performance had improved compared with the previous year;  and the completion rate of initial assessments of children in need within 7 working days of referral (89b HC), where third quarter out-turn had improved compared with quarter two.

He also referred to the apparent stabilisation in the number of referrals of children in need (89a HC) at around 240 to 245.  Although the necessarily tentative target set following the 2005 Joint Area Review had been 280, there were no longer concerns about the thresholds for referrals and the level being achieved was regarded as within the acceptable range.

He drew attention to the findings of the satisfaction survey 2007, the results of which had been taken into account in the IPR, noting that the survey was something to which the Committee might wish to give further consideration.  In summary there were few significant changes since the previous year’s General Survey.   Performance against a few perception indicators had declined but there had also been improved performance against some others.  Work was underway to examine in detail what underlay areas where public satisfaction was relatively low or had declined.

He added that a new national survey was being introduced in September 2008.  This would be a place survey focusing on citizens’ perceptions in relation to quality of life and outcomes.

He reported that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 53.

To outline and consider the recent problems arising from the elections and prepare

an action plan, designed to improve the service and process based on the lessons

learnt from previous elections.

The Committee considered a report by the Head of Legal and Democratic Services arising from the May 2007 elections and an action plan designed to improve the service and process based on lessons learned.

The Head of Legal and Democratic Services (HOLD) presented the report.  He informed the Committee that any challenge to the procedural conduct of an election had to be by way of an electoral petition.  A petition had to be lodged within 21 days from the day the election was held.  No such petitions had been lodged and the May 2007 elections must therefore be considered good elections in accordance with the relevant legislation.  However, a number of issues had arisen. 

He commented on the issues point by point as described in the report.  He also referred to the action plan appended to the report which was designed to improve the electoral registration service, addressing the issues that had arisen in the May 2007 elections.

He added that the Electoral Commission had agreed that the late introduction of significant legislation in an election year had not been appropriate.  A paper from the Commission (Electoral administration in the United Kingdom – the Electoral Commission’s assessment) published in December 2007 was also appended to the report.  He noted that this indicated that electoral registration in its current structure was at “breaking point” and that there should be: “a “no change” period of at least one year until after May 2008 to help embed recent changes and give those who run our electoral processes a chance to ensure that proper resources are devoted to planning and managing the new procedures.”

The Commission was due to report to the Government in the summer of 2008 with recommendations.  It was expected that significant additional resources would be required for the electoral registration process.

In conclusion he praised the electoral registration services team, the support from Legal and Democratic Services together with Corporate and Customer Services and all election staff for their efforts in what had been very difficult circumstances.

In the ensuing discussion the following principal points were made:

·         That the elections in May 2007 had been described as a shambles and had placed stress on all those participating in the election.  Whilst a large proportion of the difficulties could be attributed to the legislative changes that had been introduced, it was essential that substantial improvements were made to avoid the problems that had been experienced reoccurring. 

      The HOLD said that difficulties had been experienced across the whole Country.  He commented on the efforts that had been made to deal with the problems that had arisen, noting in particular the difficulties relating to postal votes.

·         Referring to problems in calling candidates to their count it was proposed that action should be taken to ensure that the public address system used on election nights functioned effectively.

·         That it had to be recognised that the difficulties with postal votes meant that some people had been unable to vote.  This was unacceptable to the Head  ...  view the full minutes text for item 54.

To consider the work being undertaken by the Scrutiny Committees.

The Committee noted the work being undertaken by the scrutiny committees.

To consider the Scrutiny Committees’ current and future work programmes.

The Committee considered the Scrutiny Committees’ current and future work programmes.

It was noted that in the view of its earlier discussions the following issues needed to be reflected in the work programme:

·         ongoing work on the electoral registration service in response to the elections 2007

·         the findings of the annual satisfaction survey

·         monitoring of the effectiveness of the Communication Strategy

Requests from the Audit and Corporate Governance Committee, as set out in the report remained to be considered.

RESOLVED: That subject to the amendments above the current Work Programmes serve as a basis for further development.