Agenda and draft minutes

Members to declare any personal or prejudicial interests in any business identified to be considered at this meeting.

Councillors Meirick Lloyd Davies, Arwel Roberts, Huw Hilditch-Roberts and David Simmons declared a personal interest in the call-in items.

Co-opted Members John Piper and Gareth Williams declared a personal interest in the call-in items.

To appoint a Vice-Chair for the Committee for the 2015/16 municipal year

It was agreed by Committee Members to defer the election of Vice-Chair to the Special Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting taking place on 22 June 2015.

RESOLVED that the election of Vice-Chair be deferred to 22 June 2015.

Notice of items which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency pursuant to Section 100B(4) of the Local Government Act 1972.

The Chair has permitted that the following be considered as urgent items of business:

(4i)      Cabinet’s decision of 2 June 2015 relating to Ysgol Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd and Ysgol Pentrecelyn (report attached)

(9:35am – 10:35am)

(4ii)     Cabinet’s decision of 2 June 2015 relating to Ysgol Rhewl (report attached)

(10:45am – 11:45am)

The Chair advised that decisions taken by Cabinet at its meeting on 2 June 2015 to approve the publication of a statutory notice to close Ysgol Llanfair Dyffryn Clwyd (Llanfair DC) and Ysgol Pentrecelyn had been called in for review.   Also the decision taken to approve the publication of a statutory notice to close Ysgol Rhewl had been called in for review.  Consequently, in order to comply with the Council’s Call-In Procedure Rules, which stipulated that a scrutiny committee had to consider a called-in decision within five working days, he had agreed to consider the matters as urgent items of business on the current meeting’s agenda.  All Committee members, including co-opted members had been furnished with copies of the reports and appendices considered by Cabinet at its meeting on 2 June 2015.

As Cabinet’s decision of 2 June 2015 related to the Council’s education provision, the Authority’s statutory education co-opted Members on Scrutiny were permitted to participate fully in the consideration of the ‘Called-In’ decisions as full voting Members of the Committee.

Call-in of the decision to publish statutory notices for the Proposed Closure of Ysgol Llanfair DC and Ysgol Pentrecelyn.

Denbighshire’s Cabinet at its meeting on 2 June 2015 approved the following recommendation:

“(a) to note the findings of the formal consultation for the closure of Ysgol Llanfair DC and Ysgol Pentrecelyn and the opening of a new area school on the two existing sites;

(b) to approve the publication of a statutory notice for Denbighshire County Council to close Ysgol Llanfair DC and Ysgol Pentrecelyn on 31 August 2016; and the Church in Wales to establish a new Voluntary Controlled Area School on the existing sites from 1 September 2016, and

(c ) to note the option for parents to apply to send their children to Ysgol Pen Barras as an alternative school should they wish their children to remain within a Category 1 school.”

The above decision was published on the Council’s website on 3 June 2015 and in accordance with the Council’s Call-In Procedure Rules, the decision was not implemented immediately enabling non-Cabinet members to call-in the decision for examination, if they felt it merited scrutiny.

A “Notice of Call-In” form, signed by the required number of non-Cabinet Councillors, was received on 5 June 2015.

The grounds for the call-in decision were:

(i)              Lack of explanation what Category 1 and Category 2 meant;

(ii)             Were the guidelines followed for the closure of rural schools?;

(iii)            Was the correct data given regarding the schools – pupil data numbers?; and

(iv)           The process was not followed correctly against local and national priorities.

Performance Scrutiny Committee Members were requested to determine, based on the information presented to them, whether the Committee believed that Cabinet should review its original decision, and if so, on what grounds.

Councillor Arwel Roberts introduced the call-in request and began the debate by outlining the four points which were the grounds for the call-in.

The Lead Member for Education and officers in attendance responded to the points raised and to Committee Members’ questions as follows:

(i)              The Council categorised its education provision in line with the Welsh Assembly Government’s Information Document Number 023/2007, issued in October 2007.  Every Council in Wales had been expected to adhere to the guidelines when categorising their education provision.

Category 1 primary schools were Welsh medium schools.  The curriculum delivery, assessments, and day to day communication language with the pupils was Welsh.   It was expected that pupils would easily transfer to Welsh medium secondary provision at the end of Key Stage (KS) 2.  Pupils would also have  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

At this juncture (1.25 p.m.) there was a 10 minute break.

Meeting reconvened at 1.35 p.m.

To receive the minutes of the Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting held on the 16^th April, 2015 (copy attached).

The minutes of a meeting of the Performance Scrutiny Committee held on 16 April 2015 were submitted.

RESOLVED that the Minutes be received and approved as a correct record.

To consider a report by the Principal Manager:  Business Support (copy enclosed) which presents a draft of the Director of Social Services Annual Report 2014/15 for the Committee’s comments prior to its submission to the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales (CSSIW)

The Lead Member for Social Care, Adult and Children’s Services, Councillor Bobby Feeley, introduced the Director of Social Services Annual Report (previously circulated). 

The Director of Social Services (DofSS) advised that whilst the County’s social care services were improving there was always room for further improvement.  Amongst the challenges that lay ahead would be the enactment of the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act 2014, which would come into full effect in April 2016. 

In response to Members’ questions the DofSS:

·       Advised that the challenges for the forthcoming year were detailed within the report.

·       Outlined the Service’s commitment to residents and service users wishing to communicate through the medium of Welsh.  The Council’s Welsh language portfolio holder, Councillor Huw Ll Jones, attended the Service’s Welsh Language Monitoring Group and Councillor Arwel Roberts would be in attendance in the near future.  The Group monitored the Service’s compliance with the “Mwy Na Geiriau – More Than Words” Action Plan.

·       Detailed the quality monitoring process to ensure services commissioned met the service users and the Council’s needs, and the changes to the complaints process aimed at expediting the resolution of complaints.

·       Explained that Direct Payments were paid into the service user’s account of choice to permit them to pay for their care.  The account could be a Post Office, bank, building society or credit union account.

·       Denbighshire performed well with regards to “delayed transfer of care” indicator.  There had been some issues with delayed transfers of care in the south of the county, which were in the main due to the rural nature of the area.  The problems were more prevalent when two carers were required to be in attendance at the same time.  The Council and the Health Service were working closely to resolve this issue.

·       Risks related to the amalgamation of the Education and Children’s Services under one Head of Service were being managed well, and elected members were being regularly briefed on the progress of the project.

·       The potential closure of residential care homes had been identified as a challenge in last year’s plan, these were currently being worked through.  The Lead Member for Social Care had emphasised the need for elected members to communicate clearly to residents the reasons behind the proposals to allay their concerns with respect to proposed future changes to service delivery.

·       Gave an explanation of what was classed as a “move” for a child in care.  These had included positive moves e.g. back to parents, discharge from hospital or adoption.  Consequently the statistics relating to this particular performance indicator (PI) had the potential not to give the full picture.   The Council had been chosen as one of the pilot authorities for trialling “outcome” measures for looked after children.  The purpose of this pilot was to devise a meaningful data set for looked after children which would assist authorities to improve services to them.

·       Despite registering a high rate of sickness absence in comparison to other council services, the Social Services Department’s performance was improving and compared well against the Wales and UK average for Social Services.

·       Briefed members on developments relating to the Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) following the Minister for Health and Social Services’ recent announcement that the Board would be placed in special measures.  The Lead Member for Social Care would be attending a meeting that afternoon with the newly appointed Accountable Officer at the Board, Mr Simon Dean.  The DofSS and Chief Executive would meet the Accountable Officer the following week.  The Chair of BCUHB had given assurances that it would be “business as usual”  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

To consider a report by the Strategic Planning and Performance Officer (copy enclosed) which seeks the Committee to monitor the Council’s performance in delivering its Corporate Plan, and identify specific areas or services which would benefit from detailed scrutiny in order to improve outcomes for citizens

The Strategic Planning Team Manager (SPTM) presented the Corporate Plan – Quarter 4 Report 2014/15 (previously circulated) which detailed the progress made with the delivery of the Corporate Plan and outcome agreements as at the end of Quarter 4 in the 2014/2015 financial year.  Regular reporting was an essential monitoring requirement of the Corporate Plan to ensure that the Council exercised its duty to improve.

During discussion the following points were raised:

(i)              No damage had been caused to the Pont y Ddraig in Rhyl following a car being driven over it.  A structural inspection had taken place to assess any damage.

(ii)             The Modernising Education Programme would be expected to deliver a reduction in the number of mobile classrooms used in both primary and secondary sector.  Progress in delivering the Programme and improving secondary school attendance would be monitored via the Service Challenge process.

RESOLVED that subject to the above, to receive the report, and that the Annual Performance Report be utilised to identify areas for detailed scrutiny with a view to improving outcomes for citizens and facilitating the Council to deliver its Corporate Plan.

To consider a report by the Corporate Complaints Officer (copy enclosed) which seeks the Committee’s views on the Council’s performance in dealing with complaints, and for it to identify areas for future detailed scrutiny

It was agreed the Your Voice Report – Q4 2014/15 would be deferred to the 16 July 2015 Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting.

RESOLVED that the “Your Voice” Report – Q4 2014/15 be deferred to 16 July 2015 Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting.

To consider a report by the Scrutiny Co-ordinator (copy enclosed) seeking a review of the Committee’s forward work programme and updating members on relevant issues

A copy of a report by the Scrutiny Coordinator (SC), which requested the Committee to review and agree its Forward Work Programme and provided an update on relevant issues, had been circulated with the papers for the meeting. 

RESOLVED – that, the Work Programme as set out in Appendix 1 to the report be approved.

To receive any updates from Committee representatives on various Council Boards and Groups

None.

The meeting concluded at 2.30 p.m.