Agenda item - Oversight and Co-ordination of Key Council Policies and Strategies

Report of the Executive Lead, Strategy, Governance & Law

RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the report.

49.1      The Executive Lead Officer, Strategy, Governance & Law and the Senior Policy Partnership & Scrutiny Officer introduced this report and stating that it was being presented to this Committee as part of ensuring the risk assessments and performance monitoring was including the relevant policy issues and risk required legally. They confirmed that they also had optional strategies to adhere to, whilst the other part of the work was performed by the council’s legal team.  They confirmed that they had created a worksheet for each directorate and were now looking at which partners the council should work with in order to ensure the relevance of each one.  They confirmed that there was also a policy grid which informs and prepares the council for major events.  These grids had not yet been included with the report at this early stage.

49.2      Councillor Sykes asked about whether the sustainability strategy followed up on that from Full Council Action Plan from 2015 – p. 11 – 17.  The Senior Policy Partnership & Scrutiny Officer said they would have to check and reply on this after the meeting.

49.3      Councillor Janio commented on the 322 elements on the list and queried whether there were other committees that may be better place to present this to and he asked which Committee the review should be taken to.  In reply, the Executive Lead Officer, Strategy, Governance & Law replied that  these were required to be reviewed within each directorate and its working group, however, they often received conflicting advice and thus a mechanism was required to review this every year.

49.4      The Chair stated that he understood that policies that had already been allocated to Full Council required review, however he queried how often policies that were not currently being presented to Full Council should be reviewed?  The Executive Lead Officer, Strategy, Governance & Law replied that when policies were initially developed, they  were looked at in totals – not in isolation and that  therefore now a more detailed and accurate review was required.  The Senior Policy Partnership & Scrutiny Officer suggested that from the beginning of the new electoral cycle in May 2019 may be a good time to start afresh and ask the new Council what it requires at that time.

49.5      The Chair asked how long these plans should last, since the timescales did not seem to fit with the current political cycle.  The Executive Lead Officer, Strategy, Governance & Law replied that there were no set rules and some by law had to be reviewed annually and some every four years.  Councillor Janio stated that since there was already a lot of pressure on officers to produce reports for many committees, he agreed that it would be a good idea to review these policies after May 2019.

49.6    RESOLVED: That the Committee noted the report.