Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillors S Graham and Stephen Fallon – Church Representative

To receive a report on the appointment of Substitute Members

Pursuant to the Council’s constitution the appointment of the following substitute Member was reported: - Councillor J O’Shea for Councillor S Graham.

You are invited to declare any registerable and/or non registerable interests in matters appearing on the agenda, and the nature of that interest.

You are also invited to disclose any dispensation in relation to any registerable and/or non-registerable interests that have been granted to you in respect of any matters appearing on the agenda.

Please complete the Declarations of Interests card available at the meeting and return it to the Democratic Services Officer before leaving the meeting.

There were no Declarations of Interest

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 4 March 2019.

Resolved that minute of the meeting held on 4 March 2019 be confirmed;

To receive and monitor progress of the Creating a Brighter Future programme.

The Committee received a report that detailed the delivery of the Creating a Brighter Future (CBF) Programme as at the end of year 2018/19 position.

The Committee report set out progress in relation to each project in terms of project delivery and achievement of savings.

The financial outturn showed:

 £7.142m was delivered against the overall target via project activities outlined in associated 2018/19 business cases;

 Another £0.147m of underachieving projects was achieved by mitigation in Health, Education, Care and Safeguarding (HECS) through additional income received in-year;

 £2.854m of the overall target that remained to be delivered at year end was mitigated through in-year actions and savings within the wider General Fund that saw the Authority achieve an overall surplus position in the General Fund at the year end. Mitigation was possible due to additional interest savings generated by the Authority’s Treasury Management strategy and additional income received via Central Government (such as the Levy Account Surplus).

With respect to the savings relating to Health, Education, Care and Safeguarding that were still to be delivered in 2018/19 a member questioned and it was confirmed that the saving requirement would be carried forward into 2019/20.

The Head of Resources informed the Committee that the remaining outstanding milestones will continue to be reported until complete.

Agreed that the Creating a Brighter Future Programme: 2018/19 year end Progress Report be noted.

To receive an update presentation on the progress that has been made to deliver the aims and objectives of the Our North Tyneside plan.

The Head of Corporate Strategy, Senior Manager Policy, Performance and Research accompanied by the Deputy Mayor who holds Cabinet Responsibility for performance attended the meeting.

The Head of Corporate Strategy introduced the item highlighting that the information the Committee receive was pitched at a high level.

The Senior Manager Policy, Performance and Research presented the report and reminded that the Our North Tyneside plan sets out the ambition for the Borough via the three themes; Our People, Our Place and Our Economy, providing information on each.

The plan not only supported the strategic policy framework of the Authority but also those of its external partners with the example given of the North of Tyne Combined Authority supporting a number objectives of the Safer North Tyneside Partnership that directly contributed the some of the Our People objectives.

With respect to the information provided on North Tyneside being a safe place to live, the Committee heard there had been a reduction from 60% to 55% of people who feel safe after dark, this was against a national figure of 75%.

It was emphasised that this was perception of nuisance and not necessarily actual nuisance of being unsafe, however to challenge this perception there had been the development of an Anti-Social Behaviour toolkit, alongside new Environmental Wardens, the introduction of CCTV vehicle to target hotspot areas and providing diversionary activities through Sports and Leisure services.

A member asked for information to what area was the lowest percentage area in the Borough and asked for a greater understanding to how the Anti-Social behaviour toolkit helped to target hotspots to find resolutions.

It was Agreed that (1) the Our North Tyneside Performance update be noted; (2) the information requested in respect to North Tyneside being a safe place to live be provided

To receive Cabinet’s response to the report of the Effectiveness of Collaborative Working in North Tyneside.

The Committee received the response report from Cabinet to the recommendations submitted by the sub group of the Children, Education and Skills Sub-committee to its review of the collaborative working practices of the Authority and included the Multi Agency Safeguarding Hub, the Tyneside Alliance and the North of Tyne Collaboration.

Appended to the report was the actions to be taken with associated timescale for the completion of each of the recommendations. It was agreed that continued monitoring of the actions to the recommendations be placed on the work programme for 2019/20.

Agreed that the recommendation response from Cabinet in relation to the work of the sub group of the Children, Education and Skills Sub-committee in its review of the collaborative working practices of the Authority be noted.

To inform the Committee to the development of its work programme for the 2019/20 municipal year.

A report was considered the work to be undertaken by Overview, Scrutiny & Policy Development Committee during 2019/20.

The Committee was reminded that it had agreed the in-depth review to be undertaken during the new municipal year, would be the review of the Authority partner Engie. By undertaking this review would complete the reviews of the partners that provide services on behalf of the Authority.

It was stated that arrangements would be started in the coming months with an expected start date being in September 2019.

The Committee was informed that arrangements were in place to conduct the Budget Scrutiny in Decembers in line with previous years.

Members raised the perceived concerns to developers disregarding planning permission conditions and it was a view that Planning and Development Control was an area that should be looked at more closely by scrutiny.

Agreed that the Work Programme 2019/20 report be noted