In the absence of the Vice Chair the Board agreed that Councillor Bowie is appointed as Vice Chair for this particular meeting.

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

There were no declarations of interest made by councillors in accordance with the code of conduct.

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Board will be asked to agree the minutes of the meeting held on 3 July 2012 and 5 September 2012.

Agreed that the minutes of the meetings held on 3 July and 5 September 2012 are confirmed as a correct record.

The Project Initiation Document for the alcohol strategy had been drafted and would be submitted to the Chair and Vice Chair of the Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Panel and the opposition lead member for its final sign off (with any amendments that were deemed necessary).

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.

To review the time of scheduled meetings of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board.

The Chair advised that she wished to consult with Board members regarding the start times of its scheduled meetings.  One Councillor found it extremely difficult to attend the meetings at 4pm due to their work commitments.

Councillor Bowyer suggested that due to the lack of public interest in the Management Board meetings, the start times should be varied.

The Lead Officer advised that the council now had the opportunity to webcast meetings that were held in the Warspite Room or the Council Chamber.  Consideration could be given to webcasting future Board meetings in order to reach a wider audience (as potentially more people would look at the webcast rather than attending the meeting).

The Board agreed to start its meetings at 4.30pm rather than 4pm subject to a maximum time limit for each meeting of two hours (where possible).

The Overview and Scrutiny Management Board will monitor progress on previous decisions.

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

The recommendations arising from the Board meeting held on 3 July 2012 would be included in the tracking resolutions.

The Chair considered that the MPs meeting held on 21 September 2012 had been extremely successful.  All three of the city’s MPs would be invited to attend future meetings of the Management Board. The meeting would follow the same format, as the previous meeting.

Members will be advised of any executive decisions that have been called in.

There were no call-ins for consideration at this meeting.

Any executive decisions that have been deemed urgent with the agreement of the Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board will be submitted.

There were no urgent executive decisions to consider at this meeting.

To receive new items from the Notice of Forthcoming Key Decisions/Private Business (formerly known as the Forward Plan).

The Board noted the forthcoming key decision ‘the continued provision of school meals to maintained schools post school funding post school funding reform’.

To receive and consider any recommendations from panels, Cabinet or Council.

There were no recommendations to consider at this meeting.

The Lead Officer advised that the Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Panel had scrutinised NHS regional pay, at its meeting held on 26 September 2012.  The meeting had been well attended with representatives from Plymouth Hospital NHS Trust, British Medical Association, Royal College of Nursing, Royal College of Midwives, Plymouth University, Plymouth Chamber of Commerce and Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust JSNC.

Councillor James enquired whether the recommendation that he had put forward

(the panel requested that PHNT produce an effective sickness/absence management strategy and that the Trust returns to a future meeting of the panel to discuss progress against the recommendations) had been included in the Panel’s final recommendations.

The Lead Officer gave an assurance that the recommendation would be included.

To receive and consider a report on the first quarter joint performance and finance report.

The Head of Finance and the Senior Policy and Performance Officer submitted a report on the performance and finance report (including Capital Programme update) and the July/August Corporate Monitoring (Councillor Lowry, Cabinet Member for Finance was also present), which highlighted the following issues –

The following responses were provided to questions raised by the Board –

The Board welcomed the new format for the July/August corporate monitoring report.

The Chair thanked Councillor Lowry and officers for attending.

(Councillor Davey entered the room and was present for the remaining items).

To consider and approve work programmes for each of the panels, to include a progress update from each of the Chairs.

The work programmes of the Overview and Scrutiny Management Board and Panels were submitted for consideration and approval.

With regard to Support Services, the Chair raised concern over an issue that had arisen at the recent meeting held on 1 October 2012, whereby a report that had been requested had not been provided to the Panel; the Chair considered this situation to be totally unacceptable and suggested that if reports were not being provided, Panel Chairs should follow this issue up with their Lead Officers; if this situation arise in the future, a senior officer should be asked to attend the meeting to explain why no report had been provided.

A further discussion took place regarding the importance of the level of support provided by senior officers for the scrutiny process.

Agreed the work programmes as submitted subject to –

With regard to the concern raised by the Chair of the Board, it was also agreed that the Lead Officer would raise with the new Chief Executive the importance of senior management supporting the scrutiny process.

To consider the proposal for a task and finish group on library modernisation by the Customers and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Panel.

The Board agreed the Library Modernisation Project Initiation Document subject to the amendment of the timetable and key dates, following the Cabinet decision to defer this item to January 2013.

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(s) the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in paragraph(s) … of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act, as amended by the Freedom of Information Act 2000.

There were no items of exempt business.