The Overview Panel meeting on 10 December 2024 focussed on the performance of the council and its plans to make the scrutiny function more effective. It was decided to endorse the Scrutiny Transformation Programme Phase 2 and to establish a cross-party working group that will meet and consider a number of key scrutiny functions, including the scope of scrutiny panels, the call-in process and pre-decision scrutiny. The working group will then propose a series of changes to the scrutiny process at the next meeting of the Overview Panel on 19 February 2025.

Corporate Performance

The Panel considered the Corporate Performance Report – Quarter 2 2024/25. The report provides a summary of the finances and staffing resources of each directorate, as well as data and commentary on each of the council's corporate key performance indicators.

There was discussion about a number of the performance indicators. In particular the Panel discussed the increase in the number of full time equivalent positions, FTEs, which had risen by 2.2% (55.3 FTEs) from the end of Q1 to the end of Q2. It was noted that the largest individual increase (19.5 FTEs) was in the Place directorate.

There was discussion about the council's gender pay gap, which was reported as -0.7% in 2023/24, meaning that on average women were paid 0.7% more than men working for the Authority. However, it was also noted that 60.03% of the lowest earning 25% of the workforce were women.

There was discussion about the number of planning enforcement notices issued, with the Senior Policy Officer and SEND Improvement Lead, Alec Milner explaining that this could be viewed either positively or negatively as whilst more enforcement action can be seen as a proactive step, it also indicated a higher number of breaches in planning control. It was further noted that this quarter's increase in enforcement action was due to officers working to clear a backlog.

There was also discussion about fly-tipping enforcement, with the Director of Place, Julian Jackson confirming that the enforcement approach had been revised approximately 18 months ago, including designing services so there were more investigation and enforcement processes. He reported that there had been eleven successful prosecutions and an increase in the payment of fixed penalty notices.

Scrutiny Transformation Programme

The Panel considered the Scrutiny Transformation Programme Phase 2. This paper proposes a series of improvements to make the scrutiny function more effective. The programme was originally adopted in September 2024 and focussed on member development, refining scrutiny processes and fostering a more integrated organisational culture.

The paper presented for consideration by the Overview Panel proposes an examination of some of the more structural, systemic issues to improve scrutiny’s functioning. The Panel discussed a number of proposals, including:

• The need to review the remits of each of the council's scrutiny panels to ensure that they cover all of the council's activities. In particular the remit of the Overview Panel was questioned.
• The effectiveness of the council's call-in procedure. The Panel discussed whether the existing criteria for call-in were appropriate and whether the Call-in Panel was the correct body for the consideration of called-in decisions.
• The effectiveness of the council's pre-decision scrutiny framework. The Panel discussed the merits and drawbacks of different pre-decision scrutiny frameworks, as well as the need for timely and strategically planned scrutiny panel meetings.
• The need for clear terms of reference for scrutiny panels and the Overview Panel. The Panel discussed the need for clarity about the roles and responsibilities of each of the scrutiny panels.

Councillor Allison Gwynne, the Chair of the Overview Panel, stated that she wanted to spend his and the Members time by investigating areas within the Council’s remit so to make effective change.

The Panel decided to establish a cross-party working group to meet and consider each of these issues in detail, with the aim of formulating and proposing a series of changes to the scrutiny process. These recommendations will then be submitted to the next available meeting of the Overview Panel in February 2025.