Agenda and minutes

There were no declarations of interest.

a)  To agree the Minutes of the previous meeting held on 4 March, 2020

b)  Any matters arising

The Minutes of the meeting held on 4 March, 2020 were agreed as a true record.

To receive a presentation at the meeting.

Cllr Brown, Chair of Scrutiny Co-Ordination Committee introduced the item by outlining the role and structure of scrutiny during the pandemic period, which would be timely, proportionate and supportive in line with guidance from the Centre for Public Scrutiny. The focus of scrutiny’s work would be on reset and recovery post-covid-19 and the impact of the pandemic on individuals, communities, groups and business.

Gail Quinton, Deputy Chief Executive, gave an overview of the shift of the organisation from its emergency planning phase into reset and recovery, which would take a One Coventry Approach. This work had been identified as seven pillars which were presented to the Board for scrutiny, along with a number of principles which would sit behind the work. There were three external pillars; Regeneration and the Economy; Health and Wellbeing and Working with our Communities and New Social Economies and three internal pillars; Organisational Future Operating Model; Financial Management and Political Leadership and Governance Support.

The Board would not scrutinise the seventh pillar at this meeting “Covid-19 Measures and Decision making: Business Continuity Recovery” as that was a piece of transition work to step services back up following the pandemic.

Health and Wellbeing Pillar

Gail Quinton presented the Health and Wellbeing Pillar on behalf of Liz Gaulton, Director of Public Health and Wellbeing. Key points raised during the presentation were;

·  The work was being overseen by the Health and Wellbeing Board.

·  Work was underway to quantify the impact of Covid-19.

·  There had been a significant impact at a local- level and due to the Council’s work as a Marmot City Officers were aware the impact was disproportionate across the City

·  Developing a vibrant economy would be key to improving outcomes for residents.

Members asked a number of questions and received the following responses;

·  There was a tension between developing a ‘clean, green Coventry’ and the existing planning process which Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee would include on their work programme, which linked to sustainable travel.

·  How well test and trace performed would be important and scrutiny would look at this issue.

·  Scrutiny would look at the impact of Covid-19 on BAME communities.

·  Data on the impact of Covic-19 would be shared with Members.

Regeneration, the Economy and Sustainability Pillar

Richard Moon, Director of Property Services and Development, introduced the Regeneration, and the Economy Pillar. Key points raised during the presentation were;

·  These were unprecedented times and Governments have never been forced to shut down economies on this scale before which had resulted in a GDP drop of 20% between March and June.

·  The possible depth and scale of the likely recession and depression were unclear, but it was becoming more apparent that businesses will be operating in a new normal until a cure or vaccine could be found.

·  An increase in unemployment would occur and would probably impact most on the young as they are more likely to work in the leisure, hospitality and retail sectors.

·  The loss of jobs would have a public health effect as it was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

Oral report of the Director of Law and Governance

RESOLVED that Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee Members use the information provided at the meeting to inform the Work Programme.

Councillor R Brown, Chair of the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee, attended the meeting of Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration held on 3 June, 2020 for consideration of an item relating to “High Street Safety Fund”

Councillor R Brown agreed that the decision was urgent and that call in should not apply. In accordance with the Constitution, this matter is reported to inform the Committee of the reason for urgency which is that following the award to the City Council of £334k from the High Street Safety Fund by the Department of Communities and Local Government, work needed to be undertaken to develop and implement measures under the Fund at the earliest opportunity, particularly in light of shops potentially opening on 15 June,  2020 in line with Government guidelines.

The Committee noted that Councillor R Brown, Chair of the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee, had attended the meeting of Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration held on 3 June, 2020 for consideration of an item relating to “High Street Safety Fund”

Councillor R Brown had agreed that the decision was urgent and that call in should not apply. In accordance with the Constitution, this matter was reported to this meeting to inform the Committee of the reason for urgency which was that following the award to the City Council of £334k from the High Street Safety Fund by the Department of Communities and Local Government, work needed to be undertaken to develop and implement measures under the Fund at the earliest opportunity, particularly in light of shops potentially opening on 15 June, 2020 in line with Government guidelines.

Any other items of public business which the Chair decides to take as a matter of urgency because of the special circumstances involved.

There were no other items of urgent public business.