Members will be asked to make any declarations of interest in respect of items on this agenda.

In accordance with the code of conduct, Councillor Mrs Aspinall declared a person interest as she was a governor at Salisbury Road Primary School.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will be asked to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 21 October 2015.

The Board agreed that the minutes of the meeting held on 21 October 2015 are confirmed as a correct record.

To receive reports on business which, in the opinion of the Chair, should be brought forward for urgent consideration.

There were no items of Chair’s urgent business.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will be asked to consider and approve the work programmes for each panel and receive a progress update from each Chair.

The Board considered and agreed the following work programmes –

The Board also agreed to hold a budget scrutiny training workshop on Tuesday 15 December 2015 at 4pm – 6pm.

The Board, will receive notification of the decisions taken under delegated authority with the Board’s Lead Officer in consultation with the Chair and Vice Chair.

The Board was advised that the lead officer in consultation with the Chair and Vice Chair had approved under delegated authority that the Working Plymouth Panel hold an additional meeting on Thursday 24 November 2015, in order to consider the key actions arising from the Corporate Plan.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will monitor the progress of its previous decisions.

The Board considered its schedule of decisions and noted the latest position.

To receive new items from the Forward Plan of Key Decisions and Private Business with a view to identifying items for scrutiny.

The Board considered the key executive decisions contained within the Forward Plan which were due to be discussed by Cabinet between November 2015 and March 2016. Three new items had been included in the plan, as follows -

·         Council Tax Base Setting 2016/17

·         A ‘Fair Price for Care’ for Older Persons’ Residential and Nursing Homes;

·         A ‘Fair Price for Care’ for Residential and Nursing Homes for Adults under 65 Years of Age.

The retender of the Education Home to School Transport Contracts was already included on the Ambitious Plymouth Panel’s work programme for March 2016, although the date of the decision contained in the Forward Plan was July 2015 – November 2015.  The Chair of the Ambitious Plymouth Panel undertook to liaise with the lead officer to confirm the date of the decision.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will consider the Capital and Revenue Monitoring report 2014/15 Quarter 2.

The Cabinet Member for Finance (Councillor Lowry), the Head of Finance Operations (Chris Randall) and the lead accountant (Hannah West) presented the Capital and Revenue Monitoring Report 2014/15 Quarter 2 report which outlined the finance monitoring position for the Council as at the end of June 2015.

The estimated revenue overspend was £2.265m.  The overall forecast net spend equated to £195,274m against a budget of £193.009m which was a variance of 1.2%. This needed to be read within the context of needing to deliver £21m of savings in 2015/16 on the back of balancing the 2014/15 revenue budget where £16m of net revenue reductions were successfully delivered.

The main area of questioning from Members relating to the following –

The Chair took this opportunity, on behalf of the Board, to thank Chris Randall for his help and support and wished him well for the future.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will consider the Corporate Plan Performance Monitoring quarter 2.

The Transformation Programmes Manager (Peter Honeywell) presented the Corporate Plan Performance Monitoring Quarter 2 2015/16 report which provided a summarised evaluation and assessment of the overall progress towards maintaining the Council’s ambitions as a brilliant cooperative council using key actions, milestones and performance indicators.

The report included the following –

The main area of questioning from Members relating to the following –

The Board agreed to recommend that the directional arrows are reinstated within the report for ease of reference.

The Chair thanked Peter Honeywell for attending the meeting.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will be advised of any executive decisions that have been called in.

There were no call-ins to consider.

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will be advised of an executive decision that had been deemed urgent with the agreement of the Chair.

The Chair advised the Board that he had signed one urgent decision for the replacement of Salisbury Road Primary School’s roof.  The roof replacement project needed to be undertaken to avoid incurring further additional costs due to deterioration and dilapidation and to avoid legal action.

The decision taken was as follows –

The Board noted the decision.

To receive and consider recommendations from Panels, Cabinet and Council.

The Board was asked to consider the recommendations submitted by the Your Plymouth Panel and the Working Plymouth Panel.

The Board agreed –

The Co-operative Scrutiny Board will be asked to consider co-operative review(s) (if any).

There were no Co-operative Scrutiny Reviews to consider.

To consider passing a resolution under Section 100A (4) of the Local Government Act 1972 to exclude the press and public from the meeting for the following item(s) of business on the grounds that it/they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

There were not items of exempt business.