Agenda item

Terms of Reference of the Committee

Decision:

(a) That the report be received;

(b) That the Constitution Committee be requested to amend the terms of reference of the Committee to specifically include a reference to value for money; and

Minutes:

The Member Engagement Manager introduced a report to advise the Committee of its Terms of Reference.

He detailed the background to the report and explained that the new Overview & Scrutiny structure had been agreed at the Annual Meeting of the County Council held on 12^th May 2015. The differences between the old and new terms of reference were reported which included that this Committee was now the designated ‘Crime and Disorder’ Scrutiny Committee. This would require one meeting per year to be held as a Crime and Disorder Committee to consider issues such as Community Safety Partnership. Appendix 1 listed the function of each of the Overview & Scrutiny Committees and included details of the main external partner organisations.

Responsibility for the Organisational Design & Change Programme would be shared with the Organisational Change Committee and the principal issue for this Committee would be on the budgetary impacts of the Programme.

The Member Engagement Manager explained that the Police & Crime Commissioner had initially been invited to attend the meeting of Community Profile and Partnerships Overview & Scrutiny Committee on 23^rd July 2015 but due to a number of requests from Members, it had been cancelled and replaced with a Special County Council meeting which the Commissioner had been invited to. The Chief Officer (Governance) also suggested that the Police & Crime Commissioner be invited to a future meeting to discuss his preparation of the Crime and Policing Plan.

Councillor Richard Jones expressed significant disappointment that the revised Terms of Reference did not specifically include ‘value for money’. He felt that it was important to show this in the terms of reference to ensure that it was considered and added that Mr. Goodlad from the Wales Audit Office had indicated that the Council would be assessed on value for money in future years. The Member Engagement Manager felt that considerations of value for money would be included in the revenue and capital strategic planning function. In response to a comment by the Member Engagement Manager, Councillor Robin Guest said that changes raised by the Overview & Scrutiny Committees, once they had considered their new terms of reference, could be referred to the Constitution Committee for consideration. The Deputy Leader felt that value for money should be borne in mind in all aspects even if it was not specifically listed in the terms of reference. Councillor Arnold Woolley suggested that the words ‘including value for money’ could be added to the function of ‘Revenue and capital strategic planning’. Councillor David Roney commented that consideration of value for money could be included in the resolution in reports.

The Chief Officer (Governance) concurred that the other Overview & Scrutiny Committees might request changes to their terms of reference once they had considered the report. On the issue of value for money, he advised that it was important that Overview & Scrutiny Committees held Cabinet to account to ensure that budgets were spent wisely.

Councillor Richard Jones proposed that the a request be submitted to the Constitution Committee that value for money be included in the terms of reference for this Committee; the proposal was duly seconded.

RESOLVED:

(a) That the report be received;

(b) That the Constitution Committee be requested to amend the terms of reference of the Committee to specifically include a reference to value for money; and

Supporting documents: