Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record and sign the Minutes of the meeting held on 23 October 2012.

The Minutes (copies of which had been circulated) of the meeting held on 23 October 2012 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

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

No declarations of interest were made.

To consider call-in items (if any).

There were no call-in items to consider.

To consider a report of the Democratic Services Manager

During the last cycle of meetings, each scrutiny committee was given the opportunity to consider the Executive’s Savings Proposal report considered by the Executive on 18 February 2013 when it was agreed:

• the Chief Executive and Corporate / Service Directors, in consultation with the relevant executive councillors, be requested to undertake the appropriate consultation exercises and to develop implementation plans, including impact and risk assessments, to facilitate the delivery of the proposals set out in this report;

• the proposals be re-submitted for the Executive’s approval at its meeting in July, together with the outcomes of the consultation exercises;

• all scrutiny committees receive a report in the next cycle outlining the savings proposals relating to the specific scrutiny committee’s remit.

Further savings proposals had been developed for the next two years totaling £11.984m. It was anticipated that £4.473m worth of these savings would be delivered during 2013/14, following a period of consultation. Together with the utilisation of New Homes Bonus resources the successful implementation of the proposed measures would enable a balanced budget to be set for 2013/14 and would reduce the estimated savings requirement for 2014/15 to around £2.6m.

This report provides a summary of the discussions and comments made by each Scrutiny Committee. In the main, the meetings were attended by the relevant Executive Councillors and Corporate Directors. The main issues arising from the debates resulting from these reports are captured below. 

The Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee is asked to

a)         note the report and the points raised by Scrutiny Committees,

b)        identify and add any overarching comments that it wishes to make; and

b)        refer the report to the Executive Leader with a request that the Executive considers the issues raised in developing its budget proposals for 2013/14.

Officer contact Craig Ainsworth, Democratic Services Manager on 0161 474 3204 or email craig.ainsworth@stockport.gov.uk

The Democratic Services Manager submitted a report (copies of which had been circulated) providing a summary of the discussions and comments made by each Scrutiny Committee in the last cycle of meetings in relation to the Executive’s Savings Proposal report considered by the Executive on 18 February 2013.

RESOLVED – (1) That the report and the points raised by Scrutiny Committees be noted.

(2) That the report be referred to the Executive Leader with a request that the Executive considers the issues raised by Scrutiny Committees in developing its budget proposals for 2013/14.

To consider a report of the Democratic Services Manager (To follow)

The Democratic Services Manager submitted the draft Annual Scrutiny Report for 2012/13 (copies of which had been circulated).

RESOLVED – That the Annual Report for 2012/13 be submitted to the Council Meeting on 25 April 2012.

The Chair to report at the meeting.

The Democratic Services Manager reported that this item had been included on the agenda at the request of the Chair.

The Chair reminded the members that the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee had on 1 June 2012, considered whether if an item fell within the remit of more than one Scrutiny Committee, then for consultative purposes it should be submitted to both Scrutiny Committees. The Committee had agreed that should this occur, the Democratic Services Manager should send a list and brief description of the proposed items before each Executive Meeting to all Members of the Scrutiny Co-Ordination Committee identifying the proposed Scrutiny Committee for the purposes of ‘call in’ and should any Member of this Committee disagree with the proposals in the list then a meeting of this Committee would be convened to consider them further.

He suggested that in future, he together with the Vice Chair and the Democratic Services Manager should go through the draft Forward Plan in the week before it was published when hopefully which reports were intended to go to which Scrutiny Committees would be known. Where a report was destined for more than one Scrutiny Committee he would discuss with the Chairs of those Scrutiny Committees which was the ‘primary’ Scrutiny Committee (usually the one it would go to if the decision is called-in) to avoid reports going to several scrutiny committees.

It was agreed that where another Scrutiny Committee (other than the ‘primary’ scrutiny committee wished to comment on a report they should be able to do so but there should not be an expectation that officers would be in attendance. Alternatively, members of other scrutiny committees could be invited to the ‘primary’ scrutiny committee to comment on the report.

It was also acknowledged that on occasions it may be appropriate for a report to be considered at more than one Scrutiny Committee but this should be the exception.

RESOLVED – That the above arrangements be agreed.

It was suggested that Scrutiny Committees be invited to consider potential Scrutiny Reviews to be undertaken during the 2013/14 municipal year during the April cycle of meetings. Whilst it is acknowledged that the membership of the Scrutiny Committees may change, the advantage was that an initial  Scrutiny Work Programme could be approved by the Council Meeting on 27 June enabling the Reviews to get underway much earlier than in previous years.

There would still be an opportunity for any new members of scrutiny committees to contribute to the selection of further topics and perhaps once the consultation on the Executive Savings proposals has concluded it may be sensible to review the Scrutiny Work Programme at the Council Meeting on 12 September for the remainder of the municipal year.

RESOLVED – That Scrutiny Committees be invited to consider potential Scrutiny Reviews to be undertaken during the 2013/14 municipal year during the April cycle of meetings.