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.

The following declarations of interest were made:

·         Councillor Thompson in relation to her employment at St John’s Centre in Old Trafford which was one of the Trafford response Hubs.

Councillor Lloyd enquired as to whether being a governor of a school needed to be declared if schools became part of the discussion. The Corporate Director of Governance and Community Strategy responded that it would only be required if the Committee were to discuss the particular school that a Committee Member was involved with.

A maximum of 15 minutes will be allocated to public questions submitted in writing to Democratic Services (democratic.services@trafford.gov.uk) by 4pm on the working day prior to the meeting. Questions must be relevant to items appearing on the agenda and will be submitted in the order in which they were received

No questions were received from the public.

To note the Terms of Reference agreed by Council 15 May 2020.

RESOLVED: That the Terms of Reference be noted.

To note the Membership of the Committee.

RESOLVED: That the Membership of the Committee was noted.

To receive an overview of recent key, delegated and urgent decisions that have been taken since the last meeting of the Executive.

The Chair explained that this item and the one following on the agenda were to discuss how the Committee would conduct pre and post scrutiny at the remainder of their meetings. A guidance note had been circulated to Committee Members which suggested ways that they could undertake both forms of scrutiny.

The Corporate Director of Governance and Community Strategy gave a brief overview of the guidance note. The note built upon the Committee’s terms of reference and the report to Council which created the Committee. Detailed descriptions of pre and post decision scrutiny and suggestions of how the Committee could practice them were contained within the appendix of the guidance note.

For pre-decision scrutiny it was proposed that the Agenda Setting Panel select from a list of upcoming decisions which ones the Committee would consider. This would enable the Committee to have input prior to decisions being made and to add value to the decision making process. Members were told that effective pre-decision scrutiny would reduce the need for post decision scrutiny and enable the Committee to fulfil its role as a critical friend.

Post decision scrutiny would look at key and other relevant decisions made between the Committee’s meetings. This was to include urgent decisions taken in relation to the COVID 19 Pandemic for example the creation of Trafford response hubs. The decisions would be listed and detailed within the agenda for each meeting.  The Agenda Setting Panel would receive the list of decisions in advance of the meeting so that they could ask for an Executive Member or Officer to attend to provide more detail at the meeting.

Additional items relating to COVID 19 were to be suggested and agreed by Committee Members. These items would then be scoped out by the Agenda Setting Panel and the relevant Executive Member or Corporate Director would attend to provide an overview. Due to the regularity of the Committee meetings and taking into account the workload due to COVID 19 reports and/or presentations were to be provided by exception for items where they were deemed necessary by the Agenda Setting Panel.

Following the overview Committee Members were given the opportunity to raise questions. The Vice Chair raised concern that the guidance was weighted towards pre and post decision scrutiny The Vice Chair felt that the meetings should have a greater focus upon the areas that Committee Members were concerned about in relation to COVID 19 rather than pre and post decision scrutiny.

Councillor Barclay noted that the guidance spoke about Executive Members and Officers and hoped that representatives of the Council’s partner organisations would also be able to attend. The Corporate Director responded that the guidance spoke about Executive Members in relation to the pre and post decision scrutiny elements of the Committee’s role. The Corporate Director assured the Committee that they would be able to invite representatives of partner organisations and relevant experts to meetings as they saw fit.  

Councillor Williams asked how the pre decision scrutiny was going to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To receive an overview of key decisions that are expected to be taken over the following month.

This item was covered under agenda item 6.

To suggest and agree items, relating to the COVID 19 Pandemic, to be on the agenda for future meetings of the Committee.

The Chair introduced the item and informed the Committee that prior to the meeting he had spoken with the Members of the Labour Group and they had identified the Council Budget and Pandemic Spending, and the decision taken on pupils going back to school as items to be looked at by the Committee.

The Vice chair had also consulted with the Conservative Group leading up to the meeting and they had put forward a number of items that they would like the scrutiny committee to consider. Two of the items were the same as those put forward by the Labour group. They specifically wanted to look at the impact of COVID 19 upon the investment management strategy, economic recovery, and disadvantage children in the area.

Councillor Barclay proposed health as a topic specifically testing, tracking, and isolation within the area as this would be of key importance to the areas COVID 19 response and recovery. As the Council’s director of public health would be leading on this Councillor Barclay asked that the Committee be kept up to date with the work they were doing.

Councillor Dillon proposed a specific item within schooling regarding the relaxing of the rules around EHCPs for Children with special educational needs. The Councillor felt that this needed to be scrutinised closely to ensure that the pandemic did not disproportionately affect the most vulnerable children in the borough.

Councillor Winstanley enquired about the decisions that had been made around adult social care following the changes to the Care Act by the Secretary of State. The Corporate Director for Governance and Community Strategy responded that the Corporate Director of Adult Services could attend a meeting to provide an overview of those changes. Councillor Holden informed the Committee that an update on adult social care had been delivered to the Health and Wellbeing Board at their recent meeting. Officers informed the Committee that a video of the meeting was to be uploaded to YouTube and it was agreed that a link would be sent round to Committee Members after the meeting.

The Corporate Director for Governance and Community Strategy informed the Committee that a report on the Council’s finances and the impact of COVID 19 had been delivered at the last Executive Meeting and could be circulated to Committee Members after the meeting.

RESOLVED:

1)    That finance, education, public health, and adult social care be listed as Agenda Items at later meetings.

2)    That a link to the Health and Wellbeing Board Meeting 22 May 2020 be circulated to the Committee.

3)    That the Finance Report which went to the Executive meeting 24 April 2020 be circulated to the Committee.