Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies for absence.

A copy of the Register of Interest for each Selby District Councillor is available for inspection at www.selby.gov.uk.

Councillors should declare to the meeting any disclosable pecuniary interest in any item of business on this agenda which is not already entered in their Register of Interests.

Councillors should leave the meeting and take no part in the consideration, discussion or vote on any matter in which they have a disclosable pecuniary interest.

Councillors should also declare any other interests.  Having made the declaration, provided the other interest is not a disclosable pecuniary interest, the Councillor may stay in the meeting, speak and vote on that item of business.

If in doubt, Councillors are advised to seek advice from the Monitoring Officer.

There were no disclosures of interest.

To confirm as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Scrutiny Committee held on 21 November 2019.

The Committee considered the minutes of the meeting held on 21 November 2019.

RESOLVED:

To approve the minutes of the Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 21 November 2019 for signing by the Chair.

The Chair informed the Committee that a number of subjects for Scrutiny Committee’s attention had been suggested by the Leader at the most quarterly Executive and Scrutiny Chairs meeting, including looking again at Community Engagement Forums, devolution/One Yorkshire, Local Enterprise Partnerships and the Northern Powerhouse.

Half of full day scrutiny sessions were being considered to look at these issues, with further information available in due course.

To provide a progress update on delivery of the Council’s Corporate Plan as measured by a combination of progress against priority projects/high level actions and performance against key performance indicators.

The Committee received the report of the Head of Business Development and Improvement which asked Members to consider and comment on the performance information contained in the report.

Members noted that in Quarter 2 there were a number of things that had gone well, including the number of empty homes brought back into use, the reduction in the average time taken to re-let void properties, the decrease in the customer contact centre wait times, an increase in the membership of the leisure centres and the number of completions in the leisure centre health referral programmes.

However, there had also been some issues with performance in Quarter 2, including rent arrears collection, sundry debt collection, access to benefits and taxation direct debit forms online, a shortfall on savings, response timescales for corporate complaints and employee sickness rates.

Members asked a number of questions relating to action taken to being empty homes back into use, and requested that a further breakdown of figures and details of such properties be circulated to the Committee by Officers. Members were pleased to note that 27 empty properties had been brought back into use in Quarter 2.

Officers explained in relation to corporate complaints that one late response could impact the measured performance significantly, and that there was now a dedicated resource whose role was to ensure that responses to complaints were dealt with in a timely manner.

The Committee also noted that performance issues relating to emergency repairs had been down to problems with the handheld device used for the monitoring of the requested repair jobs, and that the problems with the collection of rent arrears had been mainly due to delays in the processing of Universal Credit claims. Members were pleased to note that in most cases once the claims were processed the Council was receiving back dated payments.

Members acknowledged that the rates of sick days for employees were average against national figures, and that a review of absence management policies and procedures would be undertaken with additional resource support from NYCC. The figures set out in the report were made up of a mixture of short and long term absences. Members requested that Officers supply benchmark figures on absence and circulate these to the committee.

Lastly, Members were pleased to hear that the improvement in the re-letting of major void properties was due, in part, to better working between the Council’s trades and lettings teams.

RESOLVED:

i.             To note the Corporate Performance Report for Quarter 2 2019-20 (July to September).

ii.            To ask Officers to provide a further breakdown of the action taken in relation to empty homes, and circulate this information to the Committee.

iii.          To ask Officers to supply benchmark figures on absence and circulate these to the Committee.

Representatives from the Police, Fire, and Ambulance Services will be in attendance to discuss how the Council can work better with these services.

Confirmed as attending:

• Andrew Blades, Group Manager York and Selby District, NY Fire and Rescue Service
• Supt. Lindsey Robson (Butterfield), York and Selby Commander, NY Police Service
• Rachel Pippin, Interim Sector Commander, Yorkshire Ambulance Service

The Committee welcomed Rachel Pippin, Sector Commander at Yorkshire Ambulance Service (YAS), to the meeting.

Members received a presentation on the role and performance of the YAS, and noted the following points:

·           The YAS served a population of over five million people across Yorkshire and the Humber. It provided non-emergency Patient Transport Service (PTS) and a vital 24-hour, seven-days-a-week emergency and healthcare service. The YAS had a Resilience and Special Services Team (including a Hazardous Area Response Team), and also provided clinicians to work on the Yorkshire Air Ambulance.

·           The number of calls received by the YAS in 2018-19 went up by 5.5%, which equated to over 2,700 calls a day. The service responded to almost 800,000 incidents, provided over 900k patient transport service journeys, 100k of which were by volunteers. As a result of the increase in demand, staff numbers had risen to over 5500 and 138 new ambulances had been procured.

·           There were 248 Community First Responders (CFRs) in North Yorkshire, with 737 public access defibrillators available across the county. In 2020 a new app, GoodSAM, would be rolled out to professionals who could volunteer to attend cardiac arrests. The app would also mean tracking capability and a more accurate use of CFRs.

·           The Committee noted the new performance standards for the YAS and have an overview of the current performance against them in North Yorkshire.

·           Members were also informed about a number of ways in which the YAS was managing performance and the quality of care, including working as a health system partner, streaming and forecasting demand, and developing a workforce aligned to the health system and improving patient care and experience.

The Committee asked a number of questions in relation to ambulance handover at hospital, patient transport, hospital discharges and the use of the emergency services to treat intoxicated people. Members requested that further information about the apprenticeship scheme be circulated to them after the meeting.

The Chair thanked Rachel Pippin for attending and for the information provided.