Agenda and draft minutes

None.

Councillor Ellie Chard declared a personal interest in business item 6, ‘Corporate Plan’, in her capacity as a Local Education Authority (LEA) appointed governor on the Governing Body of Ysgol Tir Morfa, to which reference was made within Appendix 1 of the report on this business item.

No items of an urgent nature had been raised with the Chair or the Scrutiny Co-ordinator prior the commencement of the meeting.

To receive the minutes of the Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting held on the 26 September 2024 (copy attached)

10:05am – 10:10am

The minutes of the Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 26 September 2024 were submitted.  It was:

Resolved:  that the minutes of the Performance Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 26 September 2024 be confirmed as a true and accurate record of the proceedings.

Matters arising:  Page 6. ‘Minutes of the Last Meeting’:  it was confirmed that four elected members had accepted the recent invitation, extended to all county councillors, to visit the Cefndy Healthcare and Manufacturing facility.  All of those who had participated in one of the arranged visits felt it had been a valuable and informative experience.  All had been impressed and felt encouraged by the work undertaken there. 

To consider a report on the Corporate Risk Register from the Strategic Planning and Performance Officer reviewing the risks facing the Council and the Council’s risk appetite statement (copy enclosed).

10:10am – 11:00am

The Lead Member for Corporate Strategy, Policy, and Equalities alongside the Head of Corporate Support: Performance, Digital and Assets, and the Insight, Strategy and Delivery Manager presented the Corporate Risk Review, September 2024 report (previously circulated).

The report was an update on the September 2024 review of the Corporate Risk Register and the Council’s Risk Appetite Statement. It also informed the Committee of the amended risk appetite statement regarding project financing which attempted to reflect the present financial environment.  Therefore, it was suggested that it would be appropriate to amend the Council’s ‘cautious’ risk appetite in relation to project financing to ‘open’.

The Corporate Risk Register was developed and owned by the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) alongside the Cabinet. It was reviewed twice yearly by the Cabinet at Cabinet Briefing. Following the February and September reviews, the revised register was presented to the Performance Scrutiny Committee and the Governance & Audit Committee. A summary of reviews was shared for information only to both committees ahead of their January and July meetings.

The Council currently had 13 Corporate Risks on the Register. Summaries of the conclusions following the latest review for this period were provided at the start of each risk in Appendix 2. No risks had been de-escalated during this review. However, a new risk, risk 53 (the risk that Transformational Programmes and Major Project benefits are not fully realised), was proposed to be added to the Register. This proposed addition would increase the total number of Corporate Risks on the Register to 14 risks.

Regarding the risk appetite, officers clarified that seven risks, 01, 21, 34, 45, 50, 51 and 52 (54%), were currently inconsistent with the Council’s Risk Appetite Statement (appendix 3). Nevertheless, this was expected as the register contained the Council’s most serious risks. Officers stated that it was timely for the Authority to review the Council’s Risk Appetite Statement (appendix 3), which was last revised in April 2024, as the statement needed to reflect its appetite now reflecting on the key external factors (Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental) that influence an organisation along with internal dynamics and demands. An initial discussion had taken place at the Budget and Transformation Board in July 2024 and at the Corporate Executive Team (CET) in October 2024  to provide feedback on the appropriateness of the Risk Appetite Statement as it stood at that time.

The Committee was also informed that discussions at the Budget and Transformation Board and CET drew particular attention to the Council’s cautious risk appetite regarding financial projects. As a result, it was proposed to move this risk appetite to “open” to provide a more appropriate framework to support the organisation's transformation to achieve financial sustainability and creative responses to residents' requirements.

Following the comprehensive introduction by officers, members discussed the following further –

• The committee queried the newly proposed risk, risk 53; Transformational Projects – the timeline for the transformational programmes or major projects to commence, be delivered, and the benefits realised, and when would they be presented to Scrutiny? Officers clarified that any capital projects would need to be discussed with the Capital Scrutiny Group and the Budget and Transformation Board (BAT) before the business cases would be sufficiently developed to be consulted upon with members.  Performance Scrutiny Committee has been allocated the committee to consider transformational projects which formed part of the ‘Influencing Demand and Digital’ Workstream of the Transformation Programme with scrutiny proposal forms completed for scrutiny chairs and vice chairs consideration as business case development progresses and projects go for approval and into delivery Once transformation projects had been approved their  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To consider a report on the Corporate Plan Performance Update: April to September 2024 to discuss the council’s performance and the improvement actions (copy enclosed).

11:10am – 12:00pm

The Lead Member for Finance, Performance and Strategic Assets alongside the Head of Corporate Support Service: Performance, Digital and Assets and the Planning and Performance Officer introduced the Corporate Plan Performance Update: April to September 2024 (previously circulated). The report aimed to update the Committee on the Council’s performance against its Corporate Plan from April to September 2024, including Strategic Equality objectives and the seven governance areas (corporate planning, financial planning, performance management, risk management, workforce planning, assets, and procurement). Regular performance reporting was part of the Council’s values and principles. It was an essential monitoring requirement of the Council’s performance management methodology and a statutory duty.  Despite the current challenging financial climate within which local government was operating there was some excellent performance in some service areas, and staff were to be congratulated on these achievements in such challenging circumstances.  Of course, there were other areas requiring improvement.

The report outlined progress against the Authority’s performance objectives. These comprised of the Corporate Plan / Strategic Equality Objectives (which also formed the Council’s Well-being Objectives under the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015) and the seven governance areas (as set out in the Local Government and Elections (Wales) Act 2021).

The report also identified indicators or activities that related to Equality Objectives or contributed to the Welsh Language and Culture.  The report also contained case studies to exemplify good work. The Strategic Planning Team were continually seeking further opportunities to improve the Performance Management Framework and Performance Update Reports.

Officers emphasised that it was not possible to highlight all significant points of interest included within Appendix 1.  However, some positive highlights and areas which had shown improvement during April to September 2024 included:

• Reducing reliance on Bed and Breakfast accommodation to house homeless families; and
• According to the Welsh Government’s Social Landlords’ Tenant Satisfaction Survey 2024, Denbighshire was the highest-performing stock-holding council in Wales regarding tenants’ overall satisfaction with Denbighshire Housing.

Officers stated that three improvement actions had been identified following discussions with services about current performance.  The first two demonstrated the correlation between resources, performance, and risk.  These were:

• performance relating to the percentage of damaged roads and pavements made safe within the target time (CAT1 - Category 1 defects dealt within timescale), which had fallen short of the 95% target time for some years. The service continued to struggle with meeting the demands of the asset within the limited budgetary and staffing resources available, and a substantive discussion was needed about the prospects of improvement and what continuing poor performance was likely to mean given the expected increased impacts of flooding, landslips and heat risks on road condition and community connectivity.
• Linked to the previous reporting period’s improvement action to keep our Corporate Plan commitments and performance expectations under continual review in the future, the next Corporate Plan Tract Review should consider the impact of reducing capacity and ceasing projects such as Llwybrau and how these would impact the Council’s ability to deliver the Corporate Plan and outcomes.
• The need to publish details of the engagement network of people and groups with protected characteristics on the Council’s website.

Members discussed the following further –

• Concerns were raised that the Council’s performance in relation to some indicators and was not improving, or was worse than in previous reporting periods. What were the potential risks and consequences to the Council of not meeting thresholds for excellence and delivering aspects of the Corporate Plan?   Officers clarified that the consequence was reputational damage to the Council but more importantly the detrimental impact on residents if performance was to continually deteriorate and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

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.

12:00pm – 12:20pm

The Scrutiny Co-ordinator introduced the report and appendices (previously circulated) which sought the Committee to review its programme of future work.

There were four items listed for the January meeting.  These included progress report on Christ the Word School which had been deferred from the current meeting’s agenda as specified in the report. The Scrutiny Co-ordinator was awaiting confirmation whether the Economic & Business Development Strategy would be available for examination at the January meeting.  It not, it would be deferred to March’s meeting. There were three substantive items for January regardless of the potential deferment.

Members were advised that following the recent meeting of the Scrutiny Chairs and Vice-Chairs Group (SCVCG) no scrutiny requests had been allocated to the Performance Scrutiny Committee.  However, the committee would be asked to be the ‘parent committee’ to formally establish the task and finish group that would review the roll-out of the new waste and recycling service, and in due course to receive its report. A report to formally establish the task and finish group would be presented to the Committee in January 2025.  The Committee:

Resolved:  subject to the inclusion of a report on the establishment and reporting arrangements for the ‘Scrutiny Review of the Roll-Out of the New Waste and Recycling Service’ on its forward work programme for the January 2025 meeting, to confirm the Committee’s programme of future work.

The Chair and Vice-Chair informed the Committee that they had attended a series of Service-Challenge meetings during November.  All these meetings had been extremely informative providing them with a good understanding of each Service’s performance in delivering their services on a day-to-day basis, their contribution to the delivery of the Council’s Corporate Plan, along with a valuable insight into the budgetary pressures they faced and the consequential impact on service-delivery.  An early insight was also given into potential Service transformation projects currently under development, some of which were likely to be presented to Scrutiny for consideration in the near future.  The final Service Challenge meeting was scheduled to be held in early December.  More detailed notes of the meetings would be available following the conclusion of the Service Challenge process.  Members:

Resolved:  to receive the information.

Meeting concluded at 12.40pm