Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record and order that the Minutes of the meeting held on 1 June 2020 be signed.

The Minutes (copies of which had been circulated) of the meeting held on 1 July 2020 were approved as a correct record, subject under the second line of Minute 5 to the amendment of “Scrutiny Committee” to read “Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee”.

Councillors and officers to declare any interests which they have in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

Councillors and officers were invited to declare any interests which they had in any of the items on the agenda for the meeting.

No declarations were made.

To consider call-in items (if any).

There were no call-in items to consider.

To consider a presentation from the Strategy and Performance Manager.

This item will provide Scrutiny Chairs with details of work underway to develop 20/21 Portfolio Performance and Resource Agreements as well as updating on 20/21 performance and resource reporting including dashboard development.

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee considered a presentation submitted by the Strategy and Performance Manager, Stockport Council providing details of work underway to develop 2020/21 Portfolio Performance and Resource Agreements as well as updating on 2020/21 performance and resource reporting including dashboard development.

The following comments were made/ issues raised:-

·         It was suggested that copies of the presentation provided to the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee should be circulated to all scrutiny members.

·         It was important that the impact of Covid-19 was disaggregated from the Council’s ongoing performance in order to provide a clearer understanding of how well the Council was performing against its indicators.

·         There needed to be more consistency in the application of the ‘red, amber’ green’ labels against performance indicators as in some cases measures had been identified as ‘amber’ where there was a significant variance from the approved target.

RESOLVED – (1) That the presentation be noted.

(2) That the Statutory Scrutiny Officer be recommended to make arrangements for the circulation of the presentation provided to the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee to all scrutiny members.

To consider a report of the Monitoring Officer.

The report provides an update on the legislation relating to remote meetings, the proposals and justifications for moving all committee meetings to the Connect Remote platform and a review of public engagement in and viewings of remote meetings to date.

The Committee is recommended to note the report and confirm whether the committee would like a similar report going to CRMG Scrutiny Committee.

Officer contact: Vicki Bates on 0161 474 3219 or email: vicki.bates@stockport.gov.uk

The Monitoring Officer submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) providing an update on the legislation relating to remote meetings, the proposals and justifications for moving all committee meetings to the Connect Remote platform and a review of public engagement in and viewings of remote meetings to date.

The following comments were made/ issues made:-

·         The training that that had previously been requested by the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee and had now been arranged for committee chairs on the chairing and conduct of remote meetings was welcomed.

·         Members extended their thanks to Democratic Services for their work in developing and implementing solutions that allowed the Council to continue to conduct its businesses remotely. 

·         The transition to the new ‘Connect Remote’ platform for the conduct of remote meetings was welcomed as a significant improvement on the initial Microsoft Teams product.

·         Information was requested in relation to the viewership for meetings of the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee that had not been provided in the report.  In response it was stated that meetings of the committee had not typically been webcast in the past, and as such there was no data against which to compare performance against, however viewership data for the most recent meetings could be shared with members of the committee.

·         It was noted that meetings that had been webcast using the Connect Remote platform had lost an element of functionality that allowed meetings to be indexed according to the current speaker.  In response it was stated that the introduction of this facility formed part of the roadmap for the future development of the Connect Remote product.

RESOLVED – That the report be noted.

To consider a report of the Deputy Chief Executive

The report sets out Scrutiny Review topics which have been proposed by Scrutiny Committees for 2020/21.

The Committee is invited to consider the proposed topics and make recommendations to the Council Meeting in relation to the Scrutiny Work Programme for 2020/2021.

Officer contact: Damian Eaton on 0161 474 3207 or email: damian.eaton@stockport.gov.uk

A representative of Deputy Chief Executive submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) inviting the Committee to consider Scrutiny Review topics that had been identified and proposed by scrutiny committees for inclusion in the 2020/2021 Work Programme.

RESOLVED – (1) That the proposed Scrutiny Work Programme of scrutiny reviews be approved.

(2) That approval be given to the inclusion of ‘The Scrutiny of Outside Bodies’ as a topic for review by the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee within the Scrutiny Work Programme.

(3) That the inclusion of a topic for review by the Economy & Regeneration Scrutiny Committee in the final Scrutiny Work Programme submitted to the Council Meeting for approval in September 2020 be delegated to the Statutory Scrutiny Officer.