Yesterday we held a councillor induction session for Overview and Scrutiny.

Of the 72 councillors elected on May 3rd, 33 are new councillors.  The induction session was a brilliant opportunity for the Overview and Scrutiny team to meet many of those new councillors and we were delighted that a few of the more experienced hands were also able to come along and share their thoughts and experience.

The overall aim of the session was to give a general idea of the types of things that Overview and Scrutiny can do and to get people thinking about how they might be able to make a difference as overview and scrutiny councillors. 

We were bowled over by the knowledge and understanding that the new councillors had and excited by the many great ideas for scrutiny work coming out of the discussion groups.  It is clear that we will have to be on our A-game as a team to keep up!

Here is the presentation to give a sense of what was covered.

On the 4^th April the Board will meet for the final time in this council year. It will take the opportunity to reflect on what has been achieved over the past year, and any lessons learnt that will help improve the effectiveness of the Board. It will also consider areas for future scrutiny. 

The Board has continued to provide ‘critical friend’ challenge and support to the improvement programme for Child & Family Services.   During 2011/12 the Board has held 12 formal board meetings, 17 task and finish meetings and had an average attendance of 61%.

Some of the headlines from the year include:

• winning ‘Team of the Year’ in the Centre for Public Scrutiny’s Annual Good Scrutiny Awards
• praise from the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales’ (CSSIW) within its Annual Review and Evaluation of Performance of Swansea Social Services for 2010/11 for its effective challenge of service performance.
• carrying out an in-depth review and publishing a report with recommendations to improve the support to care leavers
• establishing a joint meeting with the Performance & Finance Overview & Scrutiny Board to focus on the Child & Family Services budget and financial monitoring. 
• recommendations from previous scrutiny reviews (Corporate Parenting; Eligibility Criteria for Services to Disabled Children) being implemented
• picking up on community concerns about proposed changes to ChildLine Services in Swansea
• sending views to the Deputy Minister Gwenda Thomas AM about Welsh Government plans to reorganise Local Safeguarding Children Boards in Wales

A detailed annual work plan review report is being put together and this will appear in the agenda for the final Board meeting – available online from 29th March 2012.

What do you think the Board should be looking at?

 During May and June the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Board will seek the advice of officers and partners in developing a new scrutiny work programme for the coming year.

If you have any comments or suggestions that you think would be relevant, please let us know. These will be fed into work planning discussions.  With your help by the time the Board meets again in July we should have a good idea about future work.

Photo credit: www.westminster.gov.uk/services/youngpeople/

At its last meeting the Board followed up on a review that it carried out in 2010. The Board had published a report following evidence gathering regarding Eligibility Criteria for Services to Disabled Children.

The recommendations from this review were considered by Cabinet in July 2010. Six of the seven recommendations made by the Board were accepted. Having already been provided with an action plan by the Cabinet Member in October 2010, the Board reviewed progress in relation to implementation in June 2011 and a final follow up took place in March 2012. 

As a result of the Board’s work:

•  existing eligibility criteria for services to disabled children has been reviewed and a final draft of a revised and updated eligibility criteria has been produced.   
• consultation with parents / carers is being strengthened.
• a newsletter has been produced for those disabled children (and families) registered on the Authority’ Child Disability Index.
• the Child Disability Index will be widely publicised and registration encouraged so that it both becomes an effective tool of communication and consultation and to assist in the effective planning of future services throughout the City and County.

The Board was pleased to see that all of its recommendations had either been implemented or in progress. The Board was pleased that it had helped to make a difference to improving services for disabled children in Swansea. The Board accepted progress and agreed to conclude monitoring of the recommendations.

 Photocredit: www.communitycare.co.uk

The Environment & Communities Overview & Scrutiny Board will hold its last meeting of the municipal year on 17th April. They will use the meeting to reflect on how they have worked together this year and how they could improve next year. During 2011/12 the Board held 13 formal board meetings, 10 task and finish meetings and had an average attendance of 67%. Some of the work the Board has completed includes:

• an in-depth review into Swansea City Centre 
• follow ups on previous scrutiny reviews of recycling and Communities First
• consideration of the revised residents car parking policy
• performance reports on the Libraries Service and Recycling & Waste Management
• a service briefing regarding affordable housing
• scrutiny of future options for the management of the Council’s car parks
• responding to a referral from Council regarding a notice of motion relating to traffic enforcement in the City Centre

At their final meeting the scrutiny councillors will also discuss ideas for next year’s work plan. Some of the topics that have already been suggested throughout the year include:

• Worklessness/economic inactivity
• Tourism
• Affordable housing
• Street lighting
• CCTV

During May and June the new Chair and Vice-Chair will meet with officers and partners to talk about other suggestions for the Board’s work during 2012/13. The new Board will then discuss and agree the final work plan at their first meeting towards the end of June.

The Board is keen to find out what the residents of Swansea think are important issues, so if you have any comments on the ideas listed above, or any other suggestions that you think would be relevant, please let us know. You can find details of the range of topics that the Board covers here.

The Children, Young People and Learning Overview and Scrutiny Board, at its meeting on the 16th April, will review the years activities, discuss those areas for future scrutiny and any lessons learnt from their work. 

The Board have had 11 Board meetings, 12 task and finish groups and looked at over 20 issues.  Some of the work the Board have completed included:

• A detailed review of the role of teaching assistants across schools in the primary sector in Swansea
• 3 challenge sessions with five schools across Swansea
• followed up on the previous Boards recommendations in relation to Child Poverty, Youth Support Services and Literacy
• Reviewed performance data in relation to Educational Attainment, school exclusions and school attendance,

The agenda for the meeting on the 16th April will be available online from 10th April 2012.

The Environment and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Board met today and received the final progress report on the recommendations that were made as a result of their in-depth review into recycling in 2010.

The Board were pleased to learn that the vast majority of their recommendations have been implemented and were advised by Reena Owen (Corporate Director of Environment) that the recommendations from the review have been incorporated into the Authority’s new Waste Strategy, which is currently in the process of being agreed.

The Board discussed progress towards achieving the Welsh Government’s recycling targets – where we are expected to be recycling 52% of our rubbish by April 2013, with the target increasing significantly in subsequent years (up to 70% by 2025). If these targets aren’t met then the Authority will face fines, which we can ill afford. Following the successful roll out of the extended kerbside recycling scheme  across the City and County of Swansea, the Director advised that that the Department’s focus for 2012/13 will be to increase participation rates. In order to enable this to happen, additional funds have been secured to employ six temporary (for 6 months) staff to door knock in areas of low participation to encourage people to recycle as much as possible and to explain how and why it should be done. It is hoped that this will assist in increasing recycling rates so that the target can be met.

The Board agreed that good progress has been made on this review and the action plan, and agreed that it can be concluded. However, given the importance of achieving recycling targets the Board decided that an annual monitoring report should be included in the Board’s work plan for 2012/13 so that it can be kept up-dated on the Authority’s progress.