Agenda item

This report provides an overview of the work undertaken by the Task Group to date.

Declarations of Interest:

None

Witnesses:

Zully Grant-Duff, Task Group Chairman

Stephen Cooksey, Task Group Member

David Harmer, Task Group Member

Nick Harrison, Task Group Member

Key points raised during the discussion:

1.    The Chairman agreed to take this item earlier on the agenda due to the meeting running ahead of time and officers were not present for the scheduled item.

2.    The Task Group Chairman began by explaining to the Board that the main objective of the Task Group was to discern whether the Council Overview Board was able to conduct effective scrutiny of new and emerging local government structures within current governance arrangements or whether revisions needed to be made.

3.    Members noted that they were able to access information that was required in the context of a piece of programmed overview and scrutiny work; and that part two papers were available to all Members upon request.  However, the Task Group Chairman explained that this did not necessarily reflect the past experiences of the COB Chairman.

4.    The Task Group Chairman explained that the group had interviewed the COB Chairman, the Director of Legal and Cultural Services, the Leader of the Council and the Chief Executive and devised five recommendations based on their findings.  The proposed recommendations were tabled and are attached to these minutes at annex 1.

5.    Members commented that as investments involved public money, it was important to ensure they were value for money and therefore key performance indicators needed to be in place to ensure performance of investments and LATCs was tracked against the original business plan. 

6.    Members noted that the Investment Strategy paper going to Cabinet on 28 March 2017 would potentially change the role of the Investment Advisory Board to a decision-making board, and the details of the proposed scrutiny and governance arrangements surrounding this proposed change were currently unknown.

7.    Members suggested a change to the wording to recommendation (iv) to include “companies for which SCC has a controlling interest” in addition to wholly owned LATCs. 

8.    The Task Group Chairman explained that the Task Group felt that service scrutiny boards should be able to request directors and chief executives of wholly owned LATCs attend as witnesses to agenda items in relation to their service provision and performance.  The Chairman of the Social Care Services Board explained that sometimes however, service provision and performance are linked to the finances of a company and therefore scrutiny boards other than COB may also require the financial detail in order to set context.  It was agreed that the recommendation should be rewritten accordingly. 

Final Recommendations:

That Cabinet review:

a)    the terms of reference for the Shareholder Board and consider the inclusion of a mechanism for tracking the performance of individual investments, and specifically the Property Investment Portfolio.

b)    the terms of reference for the Shareholder Board and consider the requirement that it report regularly, at least annually, to Cabinet on the performance of individual investments - and specifically the Property Investment Portfolio held by the Council - including with reference to each original business case and the Investment Strategy stated aims.

Future scrutiny role and Constitution changes

c)    Annual reviews of the Shareholder Board (including a review of each LATC’s performance) in the context of the Investment Strategy should be undertaken by the Council Overview Board in line with the constitution.

d)    Following this report the Constitution of Surrey County Council should be explicit in permitting the Council Overview Board to require Directors and Chief Executives of wholly owned LATCs (or trading companies where the Council has a controlling interest) to attend as witnesses to programmed agenda items to allow COB to fulfil its existing constitutional role to “review the performance of and hold to account any trading companies established by the Council.”

e)    The Council Overview Board recommends that Scrutiny Boards consider conducting enquiries on proposals to commission services from wholly owned LATCs, at the initial stage when the business case is formulated. Long-term, once contracts are awarded, the boards should consider incorporating in their programme of work regular overview and scrutiny of service delivery. 

f)     To carry out this work Scrutiny Boards should also be given the role to review the performance of trading companies that deliver relevant services under their remit. As above, the Constitution should be explicit in permitting  Scrutiny Boards to access company financial information as part of their enquiries and to require Directors and Chief Executives of wholly owned LATCs (or trading companies where the Council has a controlling interest) to attend as witnesses to programmed agenda items.

Hazel Watson and Stephen Cooksey left the meeting at 12:24pm.