Agenda and draft minutes
Venue: Council Chamber, County Hall, Ruthin
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APOLOGIES Minutes: Apologies were received from Councillor Ann Davies, Bob Murray and David Williams. |
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DECLARATION OF INTERESTS PDF 116 KB Members to declare any personal or prejudicial interests in any business identified to be considered at this meeting. Minutes: A declaration of a personal interest was submitted by Councillor Emrys Wynne, who in his capacity as a magistrate had dealt with a case involving Kingdom Security.. |
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APPOINTMENT OF VICE-CHAIR PDF 58 KB To elect the Committee’s Vice-Chair for the municipal year
2018/19 (see attached copy of the role description for Scrutiny Member and
Chair/Vice-Chair) Minutes: The Chair asked the Committee for nominations for Vice
Chair. Councillor Hugh Irving had
expressed an interest in serving as the Committee’s Vice-Chair for a further
term. Councillor Irving had submitted a
CV which had been circulated to Committee members. Councillor Martyn Holland proposed that Councillor Irving be
appointed as the Committee’s Vice-Chair for the forthcoming year, Councillor
Huw Jones seconded the proposal. No
other nominations were received and the Committee unanimously: Resolved: -
that Councillor Hugh Irving be appointed as the Committee’s Vice-Chair for the
2018-19 municipal year |
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URGENT MATTERS AS AGREED BY THE CHAIR 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. Minutes: No urgent matters were raised. |
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MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING PDF 402 KB To
receive the minutes of the Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 26
April 2018 (copy enclosed). 10:00am – 10:05am Minutes: The minutes of the meeting of the Performance Scrutiny Committee held on 26 April 2018 were submitted. Matters arising: ·
Members queried when they would receive the
information report in regards to the school exclusion data, they were informed that
the information report would be circulated in September. ·
The school visit which was raised as an
observation during the
discussion on ‘Behaviour Management in Denbighshire Schools’ item was also
queried, the scrutiny co-ordinator informed members that Education Service
staff were currently in the process of arranging a visit for members to the
Pupil Referral Unit and associated projects. RESOLVED that the minutes of the Performance Scrutiny
Committee meeting held on 26
April 2018 be received and approved as a correct record. |
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USE OF KINGDOM SECURITY LTD FOR THE ENFORCEMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME PDF 129 KB To consider a report from the Head of Planning and Public Protection (copy enclosed) outlining how the Council manages its contract for environmental crime enforcement work with Kingdom Security Limited and to seek the Committee to make recommendations to Cabinet in relation to the future provision of those services 10:05am – 11:05am Additional documents:
Minutes: The Lead Member for
Housing, Regulation and Environment introduced the Head of Planning and Public
Protection’s report (previously circulated) which updated the Committee on
environmental crime enforcement activities undertaken by Kingdom Security
Limited on the Council’s behalf. The report was presented to the
Committee in response to a request from members who wanted to know how the
Council’s contract with Kingdom was being managed to realise value for money
and what controls were in place to avoid damaging the Council’s reputation
whilst undertaking enforcement action. During his
introduction the Lead Member emphasised that the contract with Kingdom in
Denbighshire was robustly and effectively managed by the Council’s Senior
Public Protection Officer (Community Safety). Complaints relating to
environmental crime in Denbighshire, particularly dog fouling, were amongst the
highest in Wales prior to the Council entering into a contract with Kingdom to
deliver enforcement services. Surveys undertaken by Keep Wales Tidy in
recent years had shown a marked improvement in street cleanliness, with the
number of fixed penalty notices (FPNs) issued for dog fouling offences in
Denbighshire being consistently amongst the highest in Wales. Prior to
Kingdom delivering environmental crime enforcement services Denbighshire served
very few FPNs for dog fouling. The current trend indicated a reduction in
the number of FPNs served for dog fouling offences, this was attributed to the
effectiveness of past performance acting as a deterrent coupled with the
educational aspect of the work undertaken by Kingdom i.e. handing out dog
faeces bags to the public and where owners were allowing dogs to run freely
drawing their attention to the signs which advised the public that the area was
subject to a Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) which necessitated dogs to be
kept on a lead at all times.
Representatives
from Kingdom Security Limited had been invited to attend the meeting to discuss
environmental crime enforcement with the Committee. Whilst they had
initially accepted the invitation, due to concerns about the safety and welfare
of their staff they had, within the preceding 24 hours, taken the decision not
to attend. They had however issued a statement which the Head of Planning
and Public Protection read out at the meeting which outlined the reasons behind
their decision not to attend the meeting. Committee members expressed
their disappointment that Kingdom had withdrawn from sending a representative
to the meeting at such a late stage. Whilst they understood the company’s
concerns they stressed that they should have nothing to fear from attending a
meeting of a democratically constituted committee. The Head of
Planning and Public Protection detailed the report and associated appendices’
contents. He informed the Committee that whilst Kingdom were based at the
Council’s offices in Denbigh they operated across the county and were deployed
based on intelligence and complaints received from council officers and the
general public. The Council’s contract with Kingdom was reviewed and
amended annually based on the types of enquiries and complaints received from
residents. Members were advised that the Council had entered into a contract with Kingdom following the 2012 local authority elections when dog fouling had been highlighted by residents as a major problem across the county, which consequently led to a Dog Fouling Strategy being adopted by the Council. The contract with the company was for enforcement against a number of different types of environmental crime i.e. dog fouling, littering, fly posting, smoking in enclosed areas, graffiti, breaches of PSPOs etc. Examples of the different types of offences for which FPNs had been served, along with the number of such offences and their locations, were listed in Appendix A to the report. As part ... view the full minutes text for item 6. |
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YOUR VOICE' COMPLAINTS PERFORMANCE (Q4) PDF 297 KB To consider a report by the Statutory and Corporate Complaints Officer (copy enclosed) which seeks the Committee to fulfil its role in relation to scrutinising the Council’s performance in dealing and learning from complaints. 11:15pm – 11:45pm Additional documents: Minutes: The Lead Member for
Developing Community Infrastructure introduced the Statutory and Corporate
Complaints Officer’s report (previously circulated) on Services’ compliance and
performance with the corporate customer complaints policy during quarter 4 of
the 2017/18 reporting year. During his introduction he informed members
that the number of complaints received along with the number of compliments and
suggestions received were all higher than the previous quarter.
Nevertheless, only one complaint had not been dealt with within the set time,
this complaint related to the Education Service. Due to the pressures it
was under because of personnel and resources being allocated towards the work
involved with the Estyn inspection at the time, the Service had not been able
to gather all the views it needed to respond to the complaint in time.
Nevertheless the Council had still attained a performance rate of 99% in
dealing with complaints. During quarter 4 2017/18 customer feedback had
resulted in a learning point for the Single Point of Access (SPoA) Service, which would result in a better service for all
in due course. For the 2017/18 year in its entirety the Council’s
performance in dealing with complaints within the specified time was in the
region of 99%. In response to
members’ questions the Lead Member, Principal Manager (Support Services) – Community
Support Services, and the Statutory and Corporate Complaints Officer: ·
advised that having a dedicated officer dealing
with statutory and corporate complaints had been crucial in securing an
improvement in the Council’s performance in dealing with complaints. He
was able to focus on responding and handling the complaints and securing that
they were dealt with within the designated target dates. There was now a
better system in place to deal with complaints and processes relating to dealing
with complaints had been tightened; ·
confirmed that there had been an increase in
recent months in the number of Freedom of Information (FOI) requests
received. However, as a separate officer dealt with FOI requests it did
not adversely impact on the Authority’s performance in dealing with complaints; ·
advised that complaints received in relation to
individual schools were dealt with by the schools concerned. Complaints
relating to education or education related policies were dealt with centrally
by the Council; ·
confirmed
that the nature of the complaints received were analysed with a view to
identifying any emerging trends and improvements to services i.e. trends
identified as part of the social services complaints process would be reported
within the Director of Social Services’ Annual Report along with proposed
improvements to address any shortcomings or failings; ·
advised
that all complaints received were analysed on a quantitative and qualitative
basis; and ·
informed the Committee that it was pleasing to
report that Highways and Environmental Services had received a high volume of
compliments following their efforts clearing snow and keeping roads open etc.
during the recent periods of adverse weather conditions. Committee members
congratulated all services on their excellent performance in responding and
dealing with complaints and Resolved: - subject to the above observations to
recommend that in future (i)
Quarter 1 and Quarter 3 ‘Your Voice’
performance reports be presented to the Committee as ‘Information Reports’; and
(ii)
Quarter 2 and 4 ‘Your Voice’ performance
reports be formally presented to the Committee at a meeting, unless any
concerns in relation to performance in complying with the complaints procedures
or the types of complaints received necessitates the presentation of a report
to the Committee to highlight concerns. |
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SCRUTINY WORK PROGRAMME PDF 138 KB To consider a report by the Scrutiny Coordinator (copy enclosed) seeking a review of the committee’s forward work programme and updating members on relevant issues. Additional documents:
Minutes: The Scrutiny
Co-ordinator presented to the Committee the forward programme. Members were informed that the next meeting had
a potentially heavy workload and asked whether members would like to reschedule
specific items. The Committee
was informed that an officer from Welsh Government (WG) would be attending the
meeting on 19 July 2018 for the discussion on Capital Funding for Highways
Projects. Following a discussion on its forward
work programme and the number of important items that merited discussion the
Committee was of the view that all items listed on the work programme for the
19th July should be considered and therefore no item should be
deferred. As Councillor
Peter Scott was now Chair of County Council he was no longer a member of the Committee.
Councillor Martyn Holland informed the Committee that he was seeking a
nomination from the Conservative Group to serve on Performance Scrutiny
Committee in place of Councillor Scott. Councillor
Scott had also been the Committee’s representative on the Finance Service’s
Service Challenge Group, therefore the Committee was requested to appoint a
replacement representative to serve on that Group. Following a discussion by members on which
services they felt would benefit from their individual expertise the Committee: Resolved: - subject to the above observations – (i)
to confirm its forward work programme; and (ii)
that Councillor Ellie Chard serve as the Committee’s representative on
the Education and Children’s Services Service Challenge Group and Councillor
Martyn Holland serve as its representative on the Finance Service’s Service
Challenge Group |
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FEEDBACK FROM COMMITTEE REPRESENTATIVES To receive any updates from Committee representatives on various Council Boards and Groups Minutes: Councillor
Arwel Roberts reported on a recent meeting of the School Standards Monitoring
Group (SSMG) in which he had participated.
Representatives from Ysgol Trefnant
and Ysgol Frongoch had
attended the meeting and been robustly challenged on a number of aspects
relating to their education provision and performance. Councillor Roberts was of the view that the
SSMG was an effective forum for raising school standards. Meeting
concluded at 12.35pm |