To receive any announcements from the Mayor, Leader of the Council, Members of the Executive, Chairmen of Scrutiny Committees and the Head of Paid Service.

(a)        Brussels Attacks

Shocked and saddened by the terrorist attacks in the Belgium capital city of Brussels on 22 March 2016, the Council stood in silence in remembrance of all those who were killed and injured by explosions at the airport and on the metro.

(b)        Public Service Awards

The Mayor was pleased to announce that Star Procurement, the shared procurement service for Stockport, Trafford and Rochdale Councils, had won the Leadership of the Year category of the National Government Opportunities (GO) Excellence in Public Procurement Awards 2016/17.

The Mayor was also delighted to announce that at the 2016 ‘Improvement and Efficiency Social Enterprise Awards’, Trafford Partnership was presented with the gold award in the ‘Police Project of the Year’ category and Trafford’s Environmental Improvement Team received bronze in the ‘Transformation in Waste and Environment’ category.

(c)        Scrutiny Committee Update

Councillor Coupe, Chairman of Scrutiny Committee provided an update on recent activity.

The Committee had convened on 9 March 2016 to consider the call in of an Executive Decision concerning a review of in-house Children's Homes. Following discussions, the Committee felt that the concerns raised had been adequately dealt with and that no further action needed to be taken. Scrutiny, however, felt that more detailed decision reports would be beneficial going forward.

The ‘Closing the Gap’ Task and Finish Group had now concluded its investigation and the final report was considered by the Executive on 21 March 2016 where it was agreed that a formal response to the report’s recommendations would be provided in due course. ‘Closing the Gap’ would be added as an ongoing item on the work programme to allow Scrutiny to follow its progress.

The Chairman announced that the Scrutiny Committee had now successfully completed its annual work programme which covered all items set out at the beginning of the municipal year and thanked Members for all their work during the year.

(d)        Health Scrutiny Committee Update

Councillor Lloyd, Chairman of Health Scrutiny Committee of Council updated the Council on the Committee’s activities since the last Council meeting. 

Councillor Lloyd had met with the new Chairman of the Trafford Adult Safeguarding Board and he will attend the next meeting of the Committee to discuss how the two bodies will work together going forward.

The Committee visited Wythenshawe Hospital in February and received a tour of the current Emergency Department the Acute Medical Unit (AMU) and the Acute Medicine Receiving Unit (AMRU) from senior managers of the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust (UHSM) and discussed the building proposals for the new Emergency Department development.

The Chairman, Vice-Chairman (Councillor Mrs. Young) and Councillor Taylor had also held a meeting with Trafford Clinical Commissioning Group to discuss the recent inadequate rating of the Brooks Bar Medical Centre and progress since the Care Quality Commission inspection. The Councillors were assured that the practice had drawn up an action plan and would be aiming to bring the practice up to standard before the follow up inspection was conducted.

Councillor Lloyd was appreciative of the support of the Committee throughout a busy year and thanked Members for all their efforts.