Issue - meetings

Report by the Chief Executive.

27.1     The Chair introduced report and outlined that this is the Committee’s opportunity to review its input into the RPPR process. The Chief Executive commented that as the Council had just completed the RPPR round and was working toward the State of the County report in July, it was a good point to review the process.

27.2     The Chair asked what benefit there had been from the Place Scrutiny Committee input into the RPPR process, and invited comments from the Lead Members. The Chief Executive commented that in shaping the proposals for activity and budget planning that it was helpful to have the Scrutiny Committee’s input on areas of search for savings, desired approach to activity and risk. The Director of Communities, Economy and Transport reminded the Committee of the work it has done historically that has helped shape the savings plans.

27.3     The Lead Members commented that they valued the input from the Scrutiny Committee and understood the Committee’s request to have more detail earlier. Information had been shared as soon as it was available with Scrutiny Committees and also through Whole Council Forums. The RPPR process involves all Councillors in the budget setting process, and the activity and savings proposals came forward through this process. The Lead Members noted the Committee’s comments on RPPR, but did not perceive there had been any challenge from Scrutiny on the areas of search for savings in the last round.

27.4     The Committee discussed the timing of the RPPR information received by the Committee. It noted that at the September meeting the Committee had the full State of the County report and the Portfolio Plans with all the departmental budgets and targets. The savings plans were available at the October Cabinet meeting. The Committee considered whether it may be better to move the September meeting to after the Cabinet papers are published, so the Committee can then ask for further information based on the savings plans presented to Cabinet.

27.5     The Chair added the Committee has had real impact where it has early access to the detailed financial information, but this appears to have stopped happening. The way the RPPR process has been presented to the Committee this year has meant the Committee has not been able to make the contribution that it would have liked to have made.

27.6     The Chief Executive responded that the Scrutiny Committee did have the opportunity to request information and offer suggestions for savings. As budgets become tighter the room to manoeuvre is much less, therefore savings options are much more constrained. The approach agreed by full Council in February 2019 included savings plans for the next two years as well as 2019/20 so consideration of those could be made immediately. Scrutiny has had impact through other work and officers are ready to make the information available that Scrutiny requests.  It is also possible to look at the timing of Scrutiny meetings if that would be helpful.

27.7     One of the Committee members commented that the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 27

17.1     The Chief Operating Officer introduced report, which follows on from the RPPR report presented to the Committee at the September meeting. At that meeting the Committee requested more detail on the Core Offer which is provided in the Cabinet report of 13 November (see Appendix A of the report) and the current year savings plans (see Appendix B). The areas of search for savings were agreed by Cabinet on 13 November 2018 and are detailed in appendix 3 of the Cabinet report. The recommendations of the report invite the Committee to comment on the Core Offer, Medium Term Financial Plan (MTFP) and the areas of search for savings. It also asks the Committee to identify any further information it requires for the RPPR Board in December and to consider any other work for input into the RPPR process.

17.2     The Chair outlined that there appeared to be more unknowns than knowns in the MTFP. The Chair acknowledged that the Core Offer was an articulation of the services that a competent council should provide and is not intended to be the detailed budget proposals for the Council. These will be developed later through the RPPR process, following the announcement of the provisional local government settlement on or around 6 December 2018. The Chair noted that the Core Offer had been discussed in detail at the recent Cabinet meeting, and suggested that the Committee focus on the areas search for savings and any requests for further information for the December RPPR Board.

17.3     The Committee discussed the proposed savings for 2019/20 to 2021/22 (appendix 3 of the Cabinet report), and made the following requests for further information, or sought clarification on the savings proposals and impacts.

Road Safety Services

• The Committee asked for further information on what is intended for Road Safety Services and what this would mean in practice for Community Safety Partnerships (CSP’s) and Joint Action Groups. The Director of Communities, Economy and Transport (CET) outlined that the Team will still attend community safety meetings and continue work with Public Health team on road safety issues (e.g. driver behaviour change initiatives).

Trading Standards

• The Committee asked for more information about the proposed changes to Trading Standards and in particular the work to protect people vulnerable to scams. The Committee also requested a more in depth explanation of the changes to food sampling regimes, especially in the light of national interest in food sampling to protect consumers.

Civil Parking Enforcement

• The Committee would like further detail on Civil Parking Enforcement (CPE) proposals for fee increases including where the fee increase are, residents parking permits, and whether there is scope to increase fees further. The Director of Communities, Economy and Transport (CET) explained that the existing CPE schemes started at different times and vary in nature. Any changes to fees needs to reflect local circumstances, but work in this area will look to rationalise the fee structure where possible. It is also important to look at what Borough and District councils  ...  view the full minutes text for item 17

Report by the Chief Executive.

9.1       The Chief Executive introduced the report and outlined that East Sussex County Council (ESCC) has a robust business planning process. There has been a change in approach to finding the savings required this year by setting out a Core Offer of services that the Council will provide, as outlined in the State of the County report. Work is taking place to look at what those services are, together with costings of the minimum service. More detailed information on the Core Offer will be presented to the Committee later in the year.

9.2       The Chief Executive emphasised that ESCC is in a very different position from Northamptonshire County Council, whose financial position has been linked to that of ESCC in recent media reports. This occurred because Northamptonshire County Council thought ESCC’s budget setting approach was coherent and adopted ESCC’s approach. The situation has had the effect of raising ESCC’s profile with central Government, and the Council has taken the opportunity to make the case to Government that more funding is needed for East Sussex.

9.3 The Committee discussed the content of the report and the appendices. The Committee made the following comments on the report and RPPR process.

Core Offer

9.4       The Committee noted the information provided in the Portfolio Plans, the Council Monitoring reports and the State of the County report. However, the Committee considered that it was difficult to know what is going to be different without further detail on what services are to be included in the Core Offer and what was not going to be included. The Committee asked if it would be possible to have this further detail by the next meeting in November.

9.5       The Chief Executive responded that the work on the Core Offer had already looked at all the statutory services that the Council provides and is currently considering the preventative work the Council should continue to provide, which is more difficult to define. This is a bigger and more challenging task than the Council has undertaken previously, and therefore it is taking longer to detail the savings proposals. This work needs to be completed before it will be possible to provide further information to answer the Committee’s questions. The Chief Executive outlined that the Committee will have the opportunity to have a proper discussion of the savings proposals and comment on them.

Information required by Scrutiny

9.6       The Committee commented that the focus of the RPPR discussion should be on the sort of cuts that the Council might have to make in the future. Where the Committee can add value is by looking at the impacts and analysing the implications of the services it is proposed to provide as part of the Core Offer. It is difficult to start this process without more detailed information.  Also, it would have been helpful to have the current year savings figures as a starting point, to enable the Committee to develop lines of questioning.

9.7       The Chief Executive responded that the information  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9