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Agenda and minutes
Venue: Muriel Matters House, Breeds Place, Hastings, East Sussex, TN34 3UY
Contact: Democratic Services on 01424 451484 email: democraticservices@hastings.gov.uk
Items No. Item Apologies for Absence
Minutes:
None Received.
Declarations of Interest
Minutes:
None Received.
Minutes of the Previous Overview and Scrutiny Committee PDF 279 KB
Minutes:
RESOLVED (unanimously) – that the minutes of the meeting held on 24th June 2021 be approved as a true record.
Overview and Scrutiny proposed Work Programme for the 2021-22 municipal year PDF 270 KB
(Mark Horan, Continuous Improvement and Democratic Services Manager)
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Chair gave an overview of the programme broken up into the quarterly areas of inquiry. Although the programme indicates items planned for each quarter, the Committee will be taking a flexible approach in response to the pandemic. In addition to the previously published programme, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee will review the DFG funding and scrutinise relationships with HBC housing partners. This additional work is proposed for the quarter three meeting.
The Managing Director gave an update on the Covid situation in the Borough. The number of infections is still high, fluctuating at around 300 cases per 100.000. The number of patients admitted to the hospitals doubled this week and is now 30. 25% of those are young, unvaccinated adults. Self-isolation hasn’t impacted the council operations just yet as many members of staff keep working from home. There are resilience plans in place in case of staff shortages in essential services. A lot of work is being done with local businesses to ensure that premises are safe whilst maintaining business continuity. Council is working closely with NHS to deliver the adult vaccinations programme. The Managing Director thanked councillors and staff involved in vaccination rollout.
The Council is getting ready to lead through the recovery from the pandemic. A road map with recovery guidance has been created. At the moment, the Council is in the “reflect” phase. The teams returned their feedback, and management is looking into rebuilding the resilience of their staff. They are looking into adapting new innovative working models implemented during the pandemic. Services are supported with plans and short-term measures to deal with the backlogs of work while taking care of the current workload and addressing the priorities. Those include the budget deficit, recovery from the pandemic and future funding.
The Managing Director advised that the O&S Committee looks into the DFG process and relationships with partners as a part of their programme. It would be beneficial to invite representatives of those partners as witnesses and review their work.
The Chair thanked the officers involved in the preparations of the programme.
The Leader of the Council thanked the Committee for their commitment and taking on the ambitious programme for the coming year.
Resolved (unanimously) that the Committee agreed the Overview and Scrutiny work programme for the 2021-22 municipal year, including additional items.
AOB
Minutes:
Councillors proposed to invite a member of parliament to the future O&S meeting to ask questions relating to the budget.
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