Issue - meetings

That the progress achieved during Q3 of 2022/23 be noted the contents of report CAB3380 be endorsed.

Councillor Tod introduced the report which had previously been considered by Scrutiny Committee on 27 February and the Performance Panel on 15 February 2023 (the notes of which were attached as Appendix 5 to the report).

At the invitation of the Leader, Councillor Horrill addressed Cabinet as summarised briefly below.

Councillor Horrill thanked the Leader for attending the Performance Panel meeting and responding to questions there.  At Scrutiny Committee, the following two matters had been requested for consideration by Cabinet:

(a)     To examine the possible inclusion of one or two additional key performance indicators.

(b)     To review the process for the submission of questions prior to each Performance Panel.

She stated that progress on both items was underway.

The Leader thanked both the Panel and Scrutiny Committee for their work scrutinising the report.

Cabinet agreed to the following for the reasons set out above and outlined in the report.

RESOLVED:

That the progress achieved during Q3 of 2022/23 be noted the contents of the report be endorsed.

RECOMMENDATIONS:

That the Scrutiny Committee:

1.       Notes that the Performance Panel met on the 15 February 2023 to scrutinise the attached report, CAB3380 and its associated appendices. The minutes of the panel’s meeting are included as an appendix of the Cabinet report.

2.       Notes that the Chairperson of Performance Panel will provide a verbal update at the Scrutiny Committee.

3.       Raises with the Leader or relevant Cabinet member any issues arising from the information in this report, ref CAB3380, which is being presented to Cabinet on the 6 March 2023 and considers whether there are any items of significance to resolve or to be drawn to the attention of Cabinet.

The Chair referred to the previous meeting of the performance panel where a large number of questions had been submitted from councillors who were not appointed to the panel. This had caused some issues in answering all the questions ahead of the meeting, although it was acknowledged that there remained the opportunity for further questions to be asked on the papers at the scrutiny committee.

The Chair suggested that it was necessary to discuss with officers how to prevent such issues in the future and to take a wider review of the panel’s processes.

Councillor Caroline Horrill, Chairperson of the Performance Panel introduced the report, reference CAB3380 which set out the Quarter 3 Finance & Performance Monitoring report, (available here) and the notes of the performance panel meeting of 15 February 2023.

Councillor Horrill gave an overview of the following matters:

1. The questions that had been pre-submitted by panel members.
2. The outstanding issues as detailed within the notes of the performance panel meeting of the 15 February 2023.
3. That the leader of the council had attended the meeting to discuss the new performance measures and metrics related to the council plan and had agreed to review suggestions made by the panel with officers.

RESOLVED:

The committee:

1.    Noted that the performance panel had met on 15 February 2023 to scrutinise the report, CAB3380, and its associated appendices.

2.    Noted the draft minutes of the panel’s meeting and the verbal update provided by the Chairperson.

3.    Requested that the leader of the council review the points raised by the panel regarding the revised performance measures and respond back to the scrutiny committee following his review with officers (questions 38 to 44 of the notes of the performance panel refer).

4.    That Councillors Horrill, Cutler and Brook meet with Sharon Evans, Strategic Director and Dawn Adey, Strategic Director to review the processes of the performance panel, particularly regarding the pre-submission of questions.