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RESOLVED That the Committee scrutinised the Law and Governance team and agreed to discuss the topic further during the scheduled forward work programme planning session to ascertain whether they required any further information on any Law and Governance service matters.
RESOLVED That the Committee received and scrutinised the latest minutes and information provided regarding both Strategic Partnerships.
RESOLVED That the Committee scrutinised the Organisational Learning Review Follow Up report and considered the main issues arising.
RESOLVED That the items scheduled for the January Committee meeting be approved as appropriate.
Councillor Simon Hancock declared a personal interest in Agenda Item No. 5 - Corporate Services - Law and Governance, in relation to his role as Lay Judge within the Family Proceedings Court.
Moved by Councillor Steve Alderman; Seconded by Councillor Tom Tudor AGREED That the Minutes of the meeting held on 18 October 2022 be approved as a correct record in both English and Welsh.
There were no public submissions or items of correspondence received.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED That the Committee scrutinised the Law and Governance team and agreed to discuss the topic further during the scheduled forward work programme planning session to ascertain whether they required any further information on any Law and Governance service matters.
The Committee considered a report by the Head of Law and Governance on the Corporate Service, Law and Governance. The Chair welcomed both the Head of Law and Governance and the Head of Democratic Services to the meeting. The key points of the report were outlined and questions from Members were welcomed. The Committee debated the contents of the report and the key points were highlighted as follows: · The Chair made reference to the fairly new arrangement of the combined Head of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer role and sought clarification as to whether that arrangement was working. The Head of Law and Governance advised that no specific difficulties had arisen from combining the role other than the significant increase in workload, although added that the recently appointed Legal Services Manager should be able to assist with the workload pressures when she joins the team later in the month. · Reference was made to the shortage of staff within public protection and the Chair queried if that was having a knock on effect on public protection prosecutions. The Head of Law and Governance advised that she did not have specific figures for previous years but stated that it was felt there had been less prosecutions in the past year than expected which may be due to the staff shortages. · Councillor Alan Dennison raised concerns with the number of vacancies within the Law and Governance team and queried if Pembrokeshire offered competitive rates of pay in comparison to neighbouring Authority’s. The Head of Law and Governance informed Members that Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion salaries were on par but Carmarthen seemed to have a slightly better pay offer. It was added that the ‘grow our own’ approach may need to be considered in the future. · Councillors Reg Owens, Mike Stoddart, Michael Williams and Jacob Williams, reiterated their concerns regarding the amalgamation of the Head of Law and Governance and Monitoring Officer (MO) role stating that the role of the MO should be independent to any other role in the Authority to ensure impartial advice can be given with no conflict of interest and separation of powers. Members assured that their concerns were not personal to the current Head of Law and Governance/MO but was a general view they held. In response to a question, the Head of Law and Governance stated that as the roles had only recently been merged, there were no current plans to review the decision that she was aware of and endeavoured that impartiality would be retained. It was added that she believed there was only one Welsh Local Authority who still operated with an independent MO. On further discussion of the matter a number of suggestions were made by Members regarding how they could propose that the roles are split again and they agreed to discuss the matter between themselves further offline. · In response to a question from Councillor Reg Owens, the Head of Law and Governance informed Members that the Authority did not employ agency staff for any of the Law and Governance roles due to the large cost implications but added that some large pieces of work had been outsourced to private practice to assist with internal capacity. · Councillor Simon Hancock highlighted that the pressure on the housing market seemed to be slowing down and queried if the pressure was also reducing for the Land Charges team. The Head of Law and Governance confirmed that the Land Charges team were starting to see a slight ease in requests. · The Child Social Care team vacancy was highlighted and following a question from Councillor Simon Hancock, the Head of Law and Governance stated that recruitment to that post was not currently planned as the facility to attend Court remotely had assisted with team capacity greatly due to the reduced time spent travelling between Courts within the region. It was noted that the matter was being monitored closely as physical attendance in Court was starting to resume which could bring with it capacity concerns. · Councillor Simon Hancock highlighted the current shared resource with Merthyr Tydfil County Borough Council in the form of a Contracts and Procurement Lawyer and raised concerns that it may not be a sustainable arrangement. The Head of Law and Governance expressed that she was very grateful for the current arrangement, due to no applications being received for the maternity cover post despite it being advertised twice and fully remote working also offered. · Following the success of sharing a resource with another Council, Councillors Simon Hancock and Mike Stoddart queried if that model would be beneficial on a regional basis for a range of resources. The Head of Law and Governance advised that such arrangements used to be in place in the form of a Regional Contracts Team but that arrangement dwindled and there did not seem to be any current appetite for such arrangements to restart, although agreed to raise it with counterparts when they next meet. · Councillor Jonathan Grimes made reference to the outstanding debt figure and current budget deficit within the Council and queried if adequate resource was in place to collect the outstanding debts, which could help close the budget gap. The Head of Law and Governance confirmed that a permanent debt lawyer was in place and believed that the collection issues had stemmed from capacity within the revenues department during a time when a new system was being rolled out, but confirmed that the role had now been filled which should lead to a steady flow of debt collection referrals. In summing up the Committee expressed their thanks to the Law and Governance team, in particular Democratic Services, for their continuous diligence and hard work. The Head of Law and Governance advised that she would pass the messages of thanks back to the teams. Moved by Councillor Michael John; Seconded by Councillor Alan Dennison The vote, undertaken by way of show of hands, was carried. RESOLVED That the Committee scrutinised the Law and Governance team and agreed to discuss the topic further during the scheduled forward work programme planning session to ascertain whether they required any further information on any Law and Governance service matters.
It was agreed that Agenda Item No. 6, Organisational Learning Review - Follow Up, would be pushed back and considered following Agenda Item No. 7, Strategic Partnerships - Swansea Bay City Deal and South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee, to enable the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Corporate Improvements and Communities to be in attendance.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED That the Committee received and scrutinised the latest minutes and information provided regarding both Strategic Partnerships.
The Committee considered a report by the Director of Community Services regarding two Strategic Partnerships which fall under the remit of the Committee, the Swansea Bay City Deal (SBCD) and the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee (CJC). The Chair welcomed both the Director of Community Services and the Deputy Leader/Cabinet Member with responsibility for Place, the Region and Climate Change to the meeting and suggested that to ensure both partnerships were provided with adequate scrutiny time, that each partnership be discussed separately. The Deputy Leader/Cabinet Member with responsibility for Place, the Region and Climate Change provided a brief overview of both partnerships stating that the Leader was the principle responsible portfolio holder for both, although added that since the 2022 election, it was now a role they often shared. He expressed that in his opinion good progress was being made regarding the SBCD and commented that it had been promising to see effective working relationships being established within the Corporate Joint Committees. The Director of Community Services outlined the key points of the Swansea Bay City Deal section of the report and welcomed questions from Members. The Committee debated the SBCD contents of the report and the key points were highlighted as follows: · A point of accuracy was raised by the Chair in relation to the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee minutes which stated that apologies had been received from ‘Councillor Darren Price PCC’, but that Councillor was a Councillor for Carmarthen not Pembrokeshire. · The Chair sought assurance that the Swansea Bay City Region Joint Committee held a non-bias Membership and that all proposals were given equal consideration, to which the Deputy Leader/Cabinet Member confirmed that in his opinion all partners were equal with strong relationships being formed. · Following a question from Councillor Alan Dennison regarding if/how officers time is reimbursed, the Deputy Leader/Cabinet Member informed Members that when Pembrokeshire are providing a service (for either body) then service level agreements are abided by and the Authority are able to re-charge for officer time but stated that when officers are attending/contributing as part of the SBCD/CJC then officer time is not reimbursed as they are representing the Authority as part of their roles. · Councillor Alan Dennison queried if the Authority could find itself in a position where they would need to provide direct funding for projects if costs increased unexpectedly, to which the Cabinet Member responded to state that it was project specific and was dependant on the Authority’s liability in relation to such projects. The Director informed the Committee that the Authority also contribute £50,000 per annum to the Portfolio Management Office, which oversees the Swansea Bay City Deal programme, to cover running costs and advised that 2022-23 is the last year of the contribution agreement, so a debate will be held to ascertain future financial support for the running costs. · Councillor Michael Williams requested information regarding the level of challenge and debate which takes place during the joint committee meetings as the Minutes did not portray a large amount, to which the Cabinet Member advised that challenge and debate most certainly happens, although was often conducted outside of public meetings. The Director of Community Services outlined the key points of the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee section of the report and welcomed questions from Members. The Committee debated the South West Wales Corporate Joint Committee contents of the report and the key points were highlighted as follows: · The Chair requested further information regarding the planned electrical charging stations and the electric taxi pilot scheme as mentioned within the CJC Minutes. The Director informed Members that the electric vehicle funding for the charging points and electric taxi pilot scheme began around 12 months ago following a successful bid for funding from Welsh Government by the Authority, and did not directly relate to the CJC but was provided as an update during the meeting as part of a Pembrokeshire update. Moved by Councillor Alan Dennison; Seconded by Councillor Steve Alderman The vote, undertaken by way of show of hands, was carried. RESOLVED That the Committee received and scrutinised the latest minutes and information provided regarding both Strategic Partnerships.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED That the Committee scrutinised the Organisational Learning Review Follow Up report and considered the main issues arising.
The Committee considered a report by the Head of Procurement & Customer Services on the Organisational Learning Review Follow Up. The Chair welcomed the Head of Procurement & Customer Services, the Cabinet Member with responsibility for Corporate Improvements and Communities and also the Senior Auditor to the meeting to partake in the item of business. The Cabinet Member with responsibility for Corporate Improvements and Communities outlined the Organisational Learning review and the follow up and provided information on a retrospective coherence tool that was used following the pandemic. The Head of Procurement & Customer Services outlined the main points of the report and welcomed questions from Members. The Committee debated the contents of the report and the key points were highlighted as follows: · The Chair made reference to the priority setting opportunities section of the report and requested more information regarding the suggestion to prioritise one or two objectives within a narrow timescale not being adopted. The Senior Auditor stated that the suggestion had come from the initial review, where it was recognised that not everything could be a priority and emphasised that it would be better to concentrate on a smaller number of things and fully deliver on those. · Reference was made to the findings being based on 25 responses and the Chair queried if that was a reflective sample. The Senior Auditor advised that the findings incorporated the 25 survey responses plus a much wider scope of documentation. · The positive progress in call answering time was highlighted by the Chair and thanks were expressed to all call centre staff. The Head of Procurement & Customer Services advised a recent upgrade of technology to enable call centre to staff to work from home had also assisted in the progress made. · Reference was made to the suggestion to widen the membership of the Corporate Risk Management Group and an update was requested by the Chair as to whether more Elected Members now attended the group. The Head of Procurement & Customer Services advised that the Cabinet Member for Finance had joined the group. · Councillor Simon Hancock requested that Neyland be included as the smallest town and expressed that it always seemed to be forgotten. The Cabinet Member noted the observation. · Following clarification sought by Councillor Simon Hancock, the Cabinet Member advised that a sample of 40 had been chosen based on being able to speak to people who were experiencing the matters first hand, in particular members of staff who had/were being re-deployed and it was stated that although a larger sample would have been favourable, it had been hard to allocate time from a bigger sample at such a turbulent time during the pandemic. · Councillor Simon Hancock requested how the alleged inequity between job roles matter would be managed to which the Cabinet Member provided details of a Council wide staff survey which had recently been commissioned and stated that it was the first of its kind for the Authority and would provide first hand in-depth data which would be analysed to allow improvements to be made. · Reference was made to the risks the Authority were currently facing and Councillor Simon Hancock queried what would be done to manage the risks outlined. The Cabinet Member suggested that further scrutiny of specific could be conducted via the Governance and Audit Committee and also added that a strategic risk manager was now in place who would be assisting in driving the issues highlighted within the report forward. · Discussion was had regarding the national shift to homeworking and Councillor Alan Dennison queried if the removal of the matter from the risk register was premature. The Head of Procurement & Customer Services advised that although it had been removed as an opportunity from the risk register, some roles were still benefiting from fully remote employees, although the volume of remote workers that had been initially predicted did not come to fruition. The Cabinet Member advised that discussion regarding the removal of the matter from the risk register would be more appropriate for the Governance and Audit Committee. Moved by Councillor Alan Dennison; Seconded by Councillor Steve Alderman The vote, undertaken by way of show of hands, was carried. RESOLVED That the Committee scrutinised the Organisational Learning Review Follow Up report and considered the main issues arising.
Y penderfyniad fel y'i cofnodwyd
RESOLVED That the items scheduled for the January Committee meeting be approved as appropriate.
The Chair outlined the items scheduled for the January Committee meeting and reminded Members of the forward work programme session which was arranged for the 12 December 2022 and encouraged all Members to participate in the session. Moved by Councillor Simon Hancock; Seconded by Councillor Alan Dennison The votes, undertaken by way of show of hands, were carried. RESOLVED That the items scheduled for the January Committee meeting be approved as appropriate.
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