Agenda and minutes

Councillor N Akhtar thanked Councillor R Brown, the outgoing Chair of Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee, for all his work undertaken during his time as Chair of the Committee. The Committee members congratulated Councillor Akhtar on his appointment as the Chair of Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee.

There were no declarations of interest.

The minutes of the meeting held on 7 October, 2020 were agreed as a true record. There were no matters arising.

Report and presentation of the Chief Executive

Councillor G Duggins, Cabinet Member for Policy and Leadership has been invited to the meeting for the consideration of this item

Councillor Duggins introduced the One Coventry Plan Annual Performance Report 2019-20. The report contained performance information up until the end of March 2020. The report for 2020-21 would look different as it would reflect the impact of COVID-19, particularly on the economy. Of the 75 indicators in the report, 39 had improved and 11 had stayed the same which was positive as this had been delivered against the backdrop of significant funding reductions since 2010.

The Committee received a presentation of the Chief Executive on the One Coventry Plan Annual Performance Report. Following this meeting, there was to be a Member Seminar to develop a refreshed plan for 2020-21.

The presentation outlined the following:

• The One Coventry Plan was a 10-year plan agreed in 2014 with three key focuses – globally connected; locally committed and delivering our priorities with fewer resources.
• In 2019/20, 79% of directional headline indicators improved or stayed the same.
• Detail of the three key focuses was provided including the current context and actions.
• The approach to refreshing the One Coventry Plan was outlined and would reflect the COVID-19 situation. It would also consider City of Culture 2021, the Climate Emergency, Brexit, Housing and Homelessness and the One Coventry approach, which had emerged since the plan was initially written in 2014.

Following the presentation, Members raised a number of questions and issues, and received the following responses:

·  Scrutiny Board Chairs would look in more detail at the indicators relating to their portfolio and decide which to scrutinise. During the meeting some items for work programmes were identified which were set out in the recommendations.

·  Information on home ICT access for children and young people to support their learning, in light of COVID-19, would be provided.

·  Coventry was still second to Cambridge with regards to the number of patents issued, showing the innovation taking place across the City.

·  Investment in the City was discussed. Work was underway to explore opportunities with anchor institutions across Coventry and Warwickshire to maximise spend of investment money within the sub-region.

·  The population figure in the report was pre-COVID and based on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment (JSNA). There had been an increase in population due to job growth, especially around some innovative business. The population projections showed an increase in the numbers of over 65s.

·  Human Resources had undertaken a lot of work to support the Council Workforce well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. The staff sickness figures covered one week of lockdown at the end of March.

·  The Council workforce did not reflect the diversity of the population in the City, especially at a senior level. Finance and Corporate Services Scrutiny Board (1) would add this to their work programme to review the plans being implemented to address this gap, including the delivery on unconscious bias training.

RESOLVED that:-

1)  All Scrutiny Board Chairs to review the performance indicators relating to their portfolio and scrutinise performance where appropriate

2)  In future when the One Coventry Plan Annual Report is  ...  view the full minutes text for item 33.

Councillor N Akhtar, Chair of the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee, attended the meeting of Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration held on 21 October 2020 for consideration of an item relating to “Green Homes Grant LAD Scheme Funding”.

Councillor Akhtar 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 that the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery (LAD) Scheme was made available to Councils with the capacity to deliver between October 2020 and March 2021. As a result, the timescales for delivery are already tight, and further delay to the acceptance of the funding will reduce the time to deliver further.

The Committee noted that Councillor N Akhtar, Chair of the Scrutiny Co-ordination Committee, attended the meeting of Cabinet Member for Jobs and Regeneration held on 21 October 2020 for consideration of an item relating to “Green Homes Grant LAD Scheme Funding”.

Councillor Akhtar agreed that the decision was urgent and that call in should not apply. In accordance with the Constitution, this matter was reported to inform the Committee of the reason for urgency which is that that the Green Homes Grant Local Authority Delivery (LAD) Scheme was made available to Councils with the capacity to deliver between October 2020 and March 2021. As a result, the timescales for delivery were tight, and further delay to the acceptance of the funding would reduce the time to deliver further.

Report of the Scrutiny Co-ordinator

The Committee considered and noted their Work Programme for 2020/21. They noted that an item on Brexit would be brought to a future meeting at an appropriate time.

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 items of urgent public business.