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Corporate and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel - Friday, 11th July, 2025 10.00 am
July 11, 2025 View on council website Watch video of meetingSummary
The Corporate and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel were scheduled to meet to discuss options for County Hall, review performance and budget monitoring, and consider their work programme for the coming year.
County Hall Options
The panel were scheduled to discuss a report on County Hall options that was due to be considered by the cabinet on 17 July 2025.
The report covered:
- arrangements for services, functions, agreements, people, documents and equipment that have been or will be displaced from the County Hall Campus
- the decommissioning of the County Hall Campus, including buildings, services, security and rights
- the disposal of all or part of the County Hall Campus.
The Assistant Director for Legal and Governance recommended that the public and press be excluded from the meeting during the consideration of exempt appendices to the report, as they contained:
Information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information) and the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosing the information.
The panel were asked to comment on the proposed options in the report, provide comments to Councillor Rob Wharton, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Finance and Efficiency, and determine whether any further information or scrutiny was required.
It was noted that on 6 February 2025, the cabinet had agreed in principle that County Hall was surplus to the council's current needs and requested that proposals be prepared. Local elections in May 2025 resulted in a change of council administration, with the newly elected leader announcing the cabinet members at the annual council meeting on 22 May 2025.
Performance and Budget Monitoring
The panel were scheduled to receive an update on performance and financial information for services relating to corporate and communities. Councillor Rob Wharton, Cabinet Member with Responsibility for Finance and Efficiency, and senior officers from the directorates were expected to be present to answer questions.
The panel were scheduled to review a dashboard of performance information for Quarter 4 (January to March 2025), covering indicators from the directorate level scorecard relevant to the panel's remit. They were also scheduled to receive in-year budget information, including a summary of reserves, with a focus on the year-end draft outturn for 2024/25.
The report pack included a performance information dashboard for Quarter 4 2024/25, and budget monitoring information presentation slides for the year-end draft outturn 2024/25.
The panel were asked to decide whether further information or scrutiny was needed on any particular topic, and to highlight any comments for the cabinet members at the meeting.
Performance highlights included:
- Birth Registration Appointments: In 2024/2025, appointments were offered within 5 working days.
- Death Registration Appointments: Full availability of appointments was maintained throughout 2024/2025.
- Staff Engagement: The 2024
Your Voice
staff survey had a 40.1% response rate. - Library Visits and Issues: The 2024/2025 financial-year visits totalled 1,795,676, a 1.3% increase from the previous year.
- Bikeability: The number of pupils receiving Bikeability training at Level 2 in the 2024/2025 financial year was 3,202, up 17.7% compared with 2023/2024.
Areas of concern included:
- Registration of Deaths: While the percentage of deaths registered within five days had risen, it was being monitored against a new target of 95%.
- Sickness Rates: The average days sick per person (Full-Time Equivalent) was 8.81, exceeding the target of 7 days or less.
- Museum Visits: County Museum's visits totalled 21,069, a 14.1% decrease compared to the previous year.
- Countryside Standards: The average percentage for Countryside Sites Standards achieved in 2024/2025 was 85%, in line with the target, but a decrease from 89% in 2023/2024.
The draft year-end outturn position for 2024/25 showed a net overspend of £6.2 million on a £433.4 million net budget, after using £7.9 million of budgeted reserves. This overspend was to be funded by a transfer from risk reserves, increasing the use of reserves to £14.1 million. The general fund balances had been increased from £16.1 million to £19.2 million.
The report noted that £38.4 million of savings were targeted in year, with £27.6 million (72%) being fully achieved. The closing balance on Earmarked Reserves was £93.7 million.
Specific items relevant to the panel included:
- Central Services: A draft year-end net underspend of £0.4 million, with an overspend on Property Services due to loss of tenancy income at County Hall Campus, offset by underspends in Legal Services, Finance, and HR.
- Corporate Budgets: An overall £31.7 million net budget underspent by £5 million, mainly due to underspends in Financing Transactions and the Minimum Revenue Provision (MRP) budget, partially offset by an overspend in Organisational Review.
- Communities: An overall £7.8 million net budget underspent by £0.6 million, due to additional ceremony income in Registration and Coroners Service and increased room booking income within library services.
Work Programme
The panel were scheduled to review their work programme for 2025/26 and consider which issues should be investigated as a priority. The work programme is part of the council's rolling annual scrutiny work programme, which was due to be discussed by the Overview and Scrutiny Performance Board (OSPB) on 24 July 2025 and agreed by the council on 11 September 2025.
The panel were asked to consider the work programme and agree on any amendments to ensure the topics listed were as relevant as possible to the new panel following the county council elections.
Possible future items for scrutiny included:
- Worcestershire's Volunteers
- Libraries Update (including Libraries Unlocked)
- Communication Policies for Social Media
- Revised Workforce Strategy - to include Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)
- Review of Museums, Arts and Culture Strategy 2023/24
- Household Support Fund
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Standing items included:
- Budget Scrutiny
- Refresh of the Scrutiny Work Programme
- Annual update on the council's energy purchasing arrangement via the West Mercia Energy Joint Committee including the Business Plan
- Worcestershire Councillors' Divisional Fund
- Performance monitoring of comments, compliments and complaints
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