| 723 | RECORD OF THE MEETING |
| | | The record of the meeting held on 3 February 2009 was signed by the Chairman as correct. |
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| 724 | APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE |
| | | Apologies for absence were received from Councillors Harriott, Stephen Kearney and O'Brien. |
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| 725 | DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST |
| | | Councillor Griffiths declared a personal interest in any item concerning Danecourt School as his wife is an employee there and in any reference to NHS Medway (formerly Medway PCT) on the grounds that he is a non-executive director. |
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| 726 | ATTENDANCE OF THE LEADER OF THE COUNCIL |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Leader of the Council, Councillor Rodney Chambers, addressed the Committee about the areas of his portfolio relating to democracy and governance. He mentioned the briefing note circulated to all members of the Committee prior to the meeting and referred to the following issues:
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| | • | Democratic Services
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| | • | Work strengthening links between the Cabinet, the Local Strategic Partnership (LSP), Overview and Scrutiny Committees and partners.
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| | • | Council meetings taking place in the St Georges Centre
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| | • | Strengthening the role of overview and scrutiny
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| | • | Members' Services
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| | • | Freedom of the Borough for the Royal Engineers
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| | • | Electoral Services increasing the registration rate at annual audit to 90%
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| | • | Preparation for the forthcoming European Parliamentary elections.
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| Members questioned him on the following topics:
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| | • | The number of task groups allowed at one time for each Overview and Scrutiny Committee
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| | • | The Council's role in the successful application by the Historic Dockyard to hold the Armed Forces Day
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| | • | Alternative ways of improving the registration rate for the Register of Electors
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| | • | Improving budget scrutiny.
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| | > Leader (pdf file 100.6kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | The committee thanked the Leader for attending the meeting. |
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| 727 | WORK PROGRAMME |
| | Discussion: |
| | The Committee Co-ordinator introduced a report that advised members of its current work programme and the work of all Overview and Scrutiny Committees.
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| | > Appendix 1 Work programme shcedule (pdf file 104.8kb) |
| | > Appendix 2 (pdf file 100.9kb) |
| | > Appendix 3 Forward Plan (pdf file 79.4kb) |
| | > Work programme (pdf file 97.3kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | | (a) | Members noted the work undertaken by all Overview and Scrutiny Committees in the last cycle and those to be considered at the next cycle of meetings and made no amendments to the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee's work programme.
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| | (b) | Members agreed to reconvene the Energy Conservation Task Group to review its scope and determine the timescale for completion of its work The membership being amended to: 2 Conservative, 1 Labour, 1 Liberal Democrat. |
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| 728 | SIX MONTHLY REVIEW OF THE COUNCIL'S CORPORATE BUSINESS RISK REGISTER |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Quality Assurance and Client Manager introduced a report that dealt with the 6 monthly review of the Council's Corporate Business Risk Register prior to consideration at Cabinet on 31 March 2009.
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| Members were concerned that Risk Reference 14, "Delivering Radical Innovation" had been removed from the register by the Corporate Management Team (CMT) in February 2009 despite the previous recommendation to Cabinet by this committee on 16 October 2008 that the risk score for this item was increased to B2 (high/critical), which the Cabinet also agreed to on 4 November 2008. |
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| | > APPENDIX A - Corporate risk register - record of amendments Feb09 (pdf file 214.6kb) |
| | > APPENDIX B - Risk Matrix - Feb 09 (pdf file 109.9kb) |
| | > APPENDIX C -Corporate Risk Register - Feb 09 (pdf file 643.7kb) |
| | > APPENDIX D - Monitoring & Escalation of Risk (pdf file 58.9kb) |
| | > Risk Register Covering Report (pdf file 106.2kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | | (a) | Members recommended to Cabinet that Risk Reference 14, "Delivering Radical Innovation" be reinstated into the Council's Corporate Business Risk Register together with Director's comments to explain why this risk had been removed from the register by CMT in February 2009.
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| | (b) | The committee noted the report and asked that their Member's comments were included in the forthcoming report to Cabinet.
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| 729 | LOCAL AREA AGREEMENT 2008 - 2011 (LAA2) ANNUAL REVIEW AND REFRESH |
| | Discussion: |
| | | The Assistant Director, Communications, Performance and Partnerships presented a report that informed members of the progress towards reporting performance against Medway's local area agreement (LAA) and refreshing the LAA.. It was further reported Cabinet had also considered this report on 10 March 2009 and the comments of this committee would be passed on to Full Council via an addendum report on 25 March 2009.
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| Members stated that the management of performance in relation to these indicators was important and that there was a need for the indicators to measure public perception of how the Council was making a difference.
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| The Assistant Director, Communications, Performance and Partnerships was asked to investigate whether the indicators look at prosecuted or reported crime and whether when graffiti is reported to the Council this is relayed to Kent Police.
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| | > Appendix 1 Current Medway LAA Approved 2008 (pdf file 375.5kb) |
| | > Appendix 2 LAA Data Tables Annual Performance Report Submitted to GOSE November 2008 (pdf file 414.5kb) |
| | > LAA Refresh Report 10 March 2009 (2) (pdf file 246.1kb) |
| | Decision: |
| | | | (a) | The Committee supported the LSP Board recommendation to include NI130 (Social care users in receipt of direct payments and individualised budgets if they so chose) in the list of "up to 35" national indicators and the proposal to replace NI17 with NI21 (Dealing with local concerns about anti-social behaviour and crime by the local council and police).
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| | (b) | The Committee asked the Assistant Director, Communications, Performance and Partnerships investigate whether the indicators look at prosecuted or reported crime and whether when graffiti is reported to the Council this is relayed to the Police and report back to them. |
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