Agenda and minutes

To be notified of the appointment of any Substitute Members.

Councillor J O’Shea was in attendance as a substitute for Councillor D Drummond.

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.

Councillor Julie Cruddas declared a Registerable Personal Interest in Item 6 as she is a Director and Employee of Justice Prince CIC which receives funding for contract delivery.  Councillor Cruddas' partner also works for the authority.

Councillor Martin Murphy declared a Non-Registerable Personal Interest in Item 6 as he has a family member who works for North Tyneside Council.

Councillor Pat Oliver declared a Non-Registerable Personal Interest in Item 6 as she has a family member who receives Adult Social Care from the Council.

Councillor Jane Shaw declared a Non-Registerable Personal Interest in Item 6 as she has a close family member who works for Monkseaton High School.

Councillor Matthew Thirlaway declared a Registerable Personal Interest in Item 6 as he is employed by a social care provider who has a contract with North Tyneside Council to provide adult social care.  Councillor Thirlaway also has close family members employed by the authority.

To confirm the minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2024.

The Chair queried the omission of the Work Programme as an ongoing Agenda item, as detailed in the minutes of item OV67/24 of the 11 September 2024.  It was agreed that this would be sent to members as a separate email item and be added going forward, as well as discussed at this meeting. 

RESOLVED – that the minutes of the meeting held on 11 September 2024 be approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

This item was deferred to the next meeting as the Mayor had sent her apologies.

To receive and scrutinise the Authority’s performance and financial management report. The report provides a full overview of both the budget and service delivery performance position across the Authority as at 31 July 2024.

The Committee received a report that had been considered by Cabinet at its 16 September 2024 meeting.

This report provided a full overview of both the service delivery performance and budget position across the Authority as of 31 July 2024.

In terms of performance, service delivery still remained strong whilst there continued to be high levels of demand and financial implications in EHCP, children in care, children in need, children’s residential placements, home care provision and nursing care placements.  Some pressures had also come into play relating to homelessness, with additional external legal costs and higher than anticipated premises costs.  Members were informed that the Affordable Homes programme had delivered 2,289 homes towards it its target of 5000.

Officers stated that a breakdown of actions taken to tackle deficits was included within the Service Commentaries section, but in future would be pulled out separately to make it more explicit.

Finance Officers gave a short presentation updating the Committee on the latest projections against the 24/25 savings identified for the 13  MTFP Projects to supplement the overall budget position reported in the Cabinet report with the majority falling under a green Rag rating.

Following the discussion at the previous OSCFC meeting, the Director of Children’s Services was in attendance to speak to members on the budget pressures facing her Directorate. 

A question was asked about the steps taken to address the increased financial pressure since May 2024 in Adult’s / Children’s Services.  Officers stated there were weekly meetings taking place to stay uptodate with the figures and there was currently an improving upwards financial trajectory.  Officers told the Committee that these issues were currently national challenges, as was the staffing level in both areas.  The Director told the Committee that while recruitment was still ongoing, there had been 9 FTEs joining since January.  In terms of internal placements / beds, it was said that the Authority was well served in comparison with nearby local authorities.

A question was asked about whether there had been any impact on the Service from the Monkseaton High School consultation yet.  The Director of Children’s Services informed the Committee that parents were currently being asked to await the outcome of the consultation.

The Director of Children’s Services told the Committee that the Directorate was in the process of trying to transition out of very costly external care into both community / outreach work and internal placements.  Less reliance on these providers was the goal for the Authority, and discussions with other local Authorities were expected.  Members suggested that Authorities working together as a collective would likely be more effective in combatting these pressures.  These costs were considered to not be inflationary, but rather were driven by market forces and therefore not expected to fall of their own accord.

Officers explained that the internal placements were mostly full, but there were occasions when children had needed to be moved, either for safeguarding or specialist support reasons.  Members asked if it would be worthwhile to make further capital  ...  view the full minutes text for item OV5/24

To receive a report of the Family Friendly Sub-Committee’s Scrutiny Task and Finish Group – School Attendance in North Tyneside. 

The Family Friendly Sub-Committee had set up a cross-party Task and Finish Group to look at issues relating to attendance in North Tyneside Schools.  The OSCFC Committee was asked to consider and comment on the report and proposed recommendations.

The headlines from the report were that the overall average absence level was lower than national and North East averages, but that unauthorised term time holidays were higher in North Tyneside than Nationally.

The Director of Children’s Services assured the Committee that attendance remained a priority and that there was a balance to be reached between keeping children in education and not disrupting education for others.  This was raised as a concern for teaching levels, and specialist staff.

The Committee agreed to all of the group’s recommendations:

a) That the Family Friendly Sub Committee receive an annual report on the impact and progress of the attendance policy.

b) The Family Friendly Sub Committee receive a report on the impact of statutory changes to attendance which come into effect on 19 August 2024.

c) To note the refresh of the North Tyneside Attendance Code of Conduct.

d) To support the work of the Permanent Exclusion and Suspension working group.

To receive a report of the Overview & Scrutiny Co-Ordination & Finance Committee Task and Finish Group – Highways Delivery.

This report is to follow.

The Committee received a report and presentation on the work undertaken by the Highways Delivery Task & Finish group.  The report detailed recommendations to be considered by the Committee, including a recommendation that these be reported in turn to the next available cabinet meeting to support the return of the Highways Service back to North Tyneside Council.

A discussion took place regarding the ‘flag to flex’ recommendation and its use in North Tyneside especially with the amount of pavement parking in residential areas.

The Chair asked members of OSCFC to vote on whether they accepted the recommendations of the Highways Delivery Task and Finish Group in the report. On putting this to the vote, all members present agreed to accept the recommendations of the Group.

Members asked that mention be made of the below further points to go forward as part of the Committee’s recommendations; that they would like to see the Task & Finish group continue as Highways became re-embedded in the Authority, that they would prefer to see the Gully cleaning service kept in-house and that until the enquiry portal is established that members are kept updated via email as an interim measure.

The Chair reminded the Committee that the combined Scrutiny Work Programme should have been available for members as a recurring agenda item.  Officers assured the committee that this would be the case going forward and would be circulated before the next meeting.

A discussion took place regarding which Committees suggested items would be brought to or heard at, and where previously suggested items were now sitting in terms of being actioned, and a response to this would be brought back to the next Committee.