To note attendances, including Officers, and any apologies for absence.

Councillor Acton welcomed the new Members of the Committee and in particular, Councillors New and Thomas who had recently been elected on the Council. The Committee also welcomed Councillor Freeman, Executive Member for Constitutional Reform and Resident Engagement who was attending for a couple of specific items on the agenda.

To note that Council has appointed Councillors David Acton and Chris Boyes as Chair and Vice-Chair of the Scrutiny Committee respectively, for the Municipal Year 2018/19.

RESOLVED: That, as determined at the Annual Meeting of Council held on 23 May 2018, Councillors Acton and Boyes are appointed as Chair and Vice-Chair respectively, of the Scrutiny Committee for the municipal year 2018/19.

To note the Membership of this Committee for the Municipal Year 2018/19, as determined at the Annual Meeting of the Council held on 23 May 2018.

RESOLVED: That the Membership of the Scrutiny Committee for the municipal year 2018/19, as determined by Council at the Annual Meeting held on 23 May 2018 and set out as follows, be noted:

Councillors Acton, Bowker, Boyes, Coupe, Holden, New, Shaw, Taylor, Thomas, Williams, Michael Young, Chilton (ex-officio non-voting) and Denise Western (ex-officio non-voting).

To note the Committee’s Terms of Reference as agreed at the Annual Meeting of the Council held on 23 May 2018.

RESOLVED: That the Committee’s Terms of Reference, as agreed at the Annual Meeting of the Council held on 22 May 2018, be noted.

To receive and, if so determined, to agree as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 14 March 2018.

RESOLVED: That the minutes of the meeting held on 14 March 2018, be agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chair.

Members to give notice of any interest and the nature of that interest relating to any item on the agenda in accordance with the adopted Code of Conduct.

No declarations of interests were made by Members.

Further to the submission of the Task & Finish Group’s recommendations to the Executive on 19 March 2018, the attached response has been formulated and is to be presented to the Committee by the Executive Member for Constitutional Reform and Resident Engagement.

The Committee received the Executive’s response to each of the recommendations proposed by the Committee’s Task and Finish Group Review of the Council’s Scrutiny Function. The recommendations had been considered by the Executive at its meeting held on 19 March 2018 and the response finalised by the Executive Member for Constitutional Reform and Resident Engagement.

Councillor Freeman, Executive Member for Constitutional Reform and Resident Engagement outlined the actions to be taken in response to the recommendations which included:

Recommendation 2: The proposal to include the Statutory Scrutiny Officer role alongside the statutory officer roles in the Constitution would be referred to the Constitutional Working Group that had been established.

Recommendation 9: The Leader was amenable to meeting with the Chairs’ of Scrutiny.

Recommendation 11: The availability of a budget for Scrutiny to hire external experts when necessary would require an estimate of costs.

Recommendation 12: In connection with the webcast of Scrutiny meeting, the Constitutional Working Group had been requested to seek estimates, including options for audio only.

Concerning the transmission of Committee meetings it was acknowledged that public interest may vary for meeting to meeting, however, whatever the subject matter, everyone was entitled to have access to the business of the Committee and webcasting was a way of enhancing engagement. Members discussed the affordability of the proposals and accepted audio as a viable alternative to webcasts. It was recognised that the broadcast of meetings would be an incremental process which would hopefully be rolled out across all Committees and that marketing would be an influencing factor upon success.

RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

Discussion item with the Executive Member for Constitutional Reform and Resident Engagement.

Linked to the previous item (Minute No. 7) the Task and Finish Group’s review of the scrutiny function, the Committee noted that the recommendations sought to embrace openness and transparency of Council business and that this would extend beyond the statutory committee framework to task and finish group work. Naturally, the type of engagement would be accessed on a case by case basis and some caution was expressed that broadcasting may slow or inhibit scrutiny investigations.

The Executive Member for Constitutional Reform and Resident Engagement advised that the issue of public engagement would be explored further by the Constitutional Working Group.

          RESOLVED: That this matter be noted.

To consider a report of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, which was also presented to the Executive Meeting on 25 June 2018.

The Committee received a report produced by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) on the development of the two year Greater Manchester Strategy (GMS) Implementation Plan and along with a copy of the performance dashboard which provided the first assessment of performance against headline GMS targets compared to the baseline position.

Despite the detail in the report, there was uncertainty as to how the indicators represented what was specifically happening in Trafford in terms of why and where, and whether or not the Council would be able to drill down through the statistics to ward level. It was acknowledged, however, that in utilising the performance dashboard the Council was best to start with the red ‘RAG’ rated indicators and those assessed as declining.

GMCA had requested that the report be considered to the Executive and Scrutiny Committee and there was an option to invite its officers to a meeting. Members considered it appropriate to consult with the Executive on future work so not to duplicate actions and also to liaise with the Council’s own representatives on the Combined Authority to ascertain the outcomes at a regional level.

        RESOLVED –

(1)        That the content of the report and dashboard be noted.

(2)        That the matter be discussed at the Scrutiny Chairs meeting with the Leader of the Council.

(3)        That the report and dashboard inform the work of the Health and Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Committees.

To receive a report of the Executive Member for Constitutional Reform and Resident Engagement presented to the Executive Meeting on 25 June 2018.

The Committee received a report of the Executive Member for Constitutional Reform and Resident Engagement submitted to the Executive on 25 June 2018 which provided a summary of performance against the Council’s Annual Delivery Plan, 2017/18. The report covered the period 1 January to 31 March 2017, as well as the full year-end performance.

Members discussed the issue and the approach to tackling litter. Performance targets were all well but concern was expressed about the problem once targets were met. All agreed that education positively affected behaviour but it was the Council’s responsibility to maintain clean spaces. The Chair confirmed that the matter would be addressed through the Task and Finish Group on the Amey Contract as performance against the target was a concern.

Sickness absence continued to be a concern and the Committee was advised that the issue was now to be targeted by Executive Member-led focus groups.

Indicators in relation to Delayed Transfers of Care attributable to Adult Social Care per 100,000 population 18 plus were also highlighted and Councillor Chilton informed Members that Health Scrutiny Committee was continuing to investigate a number of factors, however, the relatively high volume of delayed discharges from all hospital settings was something to be mindful of. It was also noted that the actual number of NHS Health Checks delivered to the eligible population aged 40-74 was in excess of the target and that the Trafford Clinical Commissioning Group would continue to monitor performance.

To assist with the monitoring of all delivery plan data and to be able to tabulate from the previous actual figures, there was a suggestion that equivalent figures from the previous year/month be included in future performance reports.

          RESOLVED: That the report be noted.

To consider a report of the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

The Committee received a report of the Chair setting out the proposed work programme for the 2018/19 municipal year following discussions with the Vice-Chair.

A Task and Finish Group and already been established and had commenced its review of the Council’s Joint Venture Contact with Amey, which was envisaged to be a significant piece of work. Further topics for Task and Finish Group work had also been identified and the Committee was requested to prioritise the areas of review.

The issue of high rise cladding had been included in the Committee’s work programme and it was suggested that this be widened to include Trafford Housing Trust repairs and safety procedures. It was acknowledged that in light of the Grenfell disaster, interim measures had been implemented which the Committee could oversee.

In connection with the proposed Task and Finish Group on Affordable Housing in Trafford, it was noted that the Council’s Housing Strategy had recently been published with affordable housing targets. Developer Section 106 contributions were also a factor and the focus on private rent to buy properties.

Further to the report, the Chair also suggested a baseline report on the Trafford Youth Trust as a possible area of work.

Members recognised that the Amey Task and Finish Group was initially a significant project and deferred programming the commencement of other Task and Finish work on the basis of capacity.

        RESOLVED –

(1)        That the report be noted.

(2)        That a decision on an Affordable Task and Finish Group be postponed to enable Members to absorb the contents of the Council’s recently published Housing Strategy.

(3)        That the programming of Task and Finish Group topics be revisited at the next meeting.