CMT Lead Officer:  Director for Community Services

Councillor Fox (Chair of the Joint Task and Finish Group) presented the recommendations in the scrutiny report as approved by the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board.

Member’s attention was drawn to Appendix 7 of the report of the Director for Community Services on the findings of the Joint Task and Finish Group.

Resolved that –

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Board will receive the Joint Task and Finish Group’s scrutiny report in respect of Localities Working.

The joint Task and Finish Group’s scrutiny report in respect of Localities Working was submitted.

Councillor Fox, Chair of the joint Task and Finish Group, introduced the report and advised that –

• the item had taken two days to scrutinise, plus a meeting to finalise recommendations, and the group had heard from 15 witnesses;

·        it had been established that there was a common view that Area Committees were not working well;

·        there were 43 neighbourhoods and community engagement should be at that level which would then feed up to Localities level;

·        each neighbourhood was different and a flexible approach was required, building on community networks already in place and working well, e.g. PACTs, Northern Network.

Members commented that –

• Area Committees cost around £40,000 and this was money wasted;

·        the cost of Area Committees could be transferred to neighbourhood working;

·        meetings such as the Northern Network did not cost the Council money and it helped if engagement with the community was not on an official basis;

·        there was still an issue about locality boundaries –

Ø      in order to avoid barriers, there was work to be done with Member colleagues to help their understanding of neighbourhood working;

Ø      concern about boundaries was mentioned in the scrutiny report and further discussion was needed;

Ø      good practice indicated that there were four factors to be taken into account – education and health, pilot projects, respect for political boundaries, emphasis on Councillor engagement;  Councillors had been excluded from the process of setting locality boundaries in Plymouth;

·        there was a need to be aware of the risks and the resources that would be required to make partnership working effective;

·        joint commissioning of services was referred to in the scrutiny report and it was for Cabinet to agree with partners how it would work.

Resolved that –

(1)               the Assistant Director for Safer Communities be thanked for his valuable contribution to this piece of scrutiny;

(2)               the recommendations of the scrutiny report be agreed.

(This item was moved up the agenda to facilitate good management of the meeting.)