In accordance with the Council's Code of Conduct, Councillors of the Council are reminded that it is a requirement to declare interests where appropriate.

Councillors must also declare if they are subject to their party group whip in relation to any items under consideration.

The following disclosures were made:

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Commission held on 28 September 2020 and consider any matters arising.

The minutes of the meeting of the Commission held on 28 September 2020 were approved as a correct record and signed by the Chair. 

To consider any written questions that were submitted in advance and accepted in-line with the Constitution.  These will be read to the Committee and be followed by a response. The questioner will receive an emailed copy of the response given at the meeting. There will be no supplementary questions.

No questions from the public were asked.

To receive the annual update of the Community Safer Partnership along with the future priorities.

The Commission is asked to note the update, and requests that the views expressed during the presentation and any actions are acknowledged and documented by the officers.

The Commission received an update from Chief Inspector Baker and the Community Services Manager on the annual performance report of the Safer Crawley Partnership along with the future priorities.    

            During the discussion, the following points were expressed:

The purpose of the Safer Crawley Partnership was to reduce re-offending, tackle crime and disorder, anti-social behaviour, alcohol and substance misuse and any other behaviour which had a negative effect on the local community so that people in Crawley were safer and felt safer.

Statutory partners included:  WSCC, Sussex Police, West Sussex Fire & Rescue Service, Probation Service and Crawley Clinical Commissioning Group together with other partners including OSPCC, Crawley Community Action, Crawley Open House, Crawley & Gatwick Business Watch and CGL.

In terms of crime data, total crime data had reduced by 5.6% on the same period last year. Crimes with a domestic abuse marker were up 1.9%, however this could be attributed to better reporting of offences and dedicated campaigns. It was noted that overall burglary data was down 11%, potentially as a result of the lockdown and more people remaining at home.  Crimes with a weapon marker had been increasing, however reporting methods had improved and operations had taken place to target this. Actual possession of weapons had decreased by 13.5% so whilst the threat of using a weapon may have risen, the actual physical possession of the weapon was in decline.

The make-up of the Neighbourhood Policing Team was discussed. The distribution of PCSOs was based on a number of factors: demand, geography and job allocation (job share/part time working etc) and consequently the number of officers assigned to an area was not indicative to the service that area received.  The updated list could be provided within the Councillors’ Information Bulletin. Additionally the Sussex Police website would be updated to list all the PCSOs and this would link to the Sussex Police HR system to automatically take into account of any relocations.

The Commission were updated that following the Government’s ‘Everyone-In’ Initiative, 89 people were accommodated with currently 14 people in temporary accommodation, with other referrals to supported housing projects. 

2019-2020 key achievements included:

·       Serious and Organised Crime (SOC) - a Safer Crawley School event and presentation on the dangers of County drugs lines and the importance of reporting to relevant agencies.  SOC priorities were changed during the year to ensure the work was on behalf of the whole of West Sussex. Crawley and Chichester swapped SOC priorities as Human Trafficking and Modern Day Slavery was more relevant to the locality.

·       Street Community – Town Centre Task Force established to liaise and jointly work with partners on a regular basis to tackle street homelessness, begging and street drinking.  There had been multiple diverted giving awareness raising events and Greater Change contactless donation terminals were being introduced, but also enforcement powers were used for those that unfortunately were not willing to engage due to the complexity of their needs

·       Protecting Vulnerable Individuals – There was continued awareness raising of domestic abuse and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To consider report DCE/06 of the Deputy Chief Executive.

Commission Members considered report DCE/06 of the Deputy Chief Executive. The Commission has within its function to review the council’s transformation programme, measures, and performance information (including budgetary information) together with service reviews.

Transformation consisted of time-limited projects to drive strategic change in order to meet corporate objectives. These are projects that generally lie outside of any single service and require impetus and additional resource/focus in order to deliver and embed that change. The aim is to create change and for that change to then to become business as usual. This means that the Council’s Transformation Plan will need to be regularly reviewed over time as changes are successfully implemented. 

Much progress had been made and the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic had accelerated the Transformation Plan, in particular in terms of new ways of working, values and behaviours and digital transformation (whereby the council’s IT infrastructure and programme rolled out what was necessary in 3 days in order to keep council services running).

Review of Transformation Plan –

·       New Town Hall – the building was taking shape, with the 8^th floor nearing completion.

·       Digital Transformation - this was now more about how IT can transform other services. The telephony system would be changing so phone calls would in the future be taken through council laptops for officers ensuring they become completely agile. 

·       New Ways of Working – there had been a lot of support for staff and managers in terms of managing organisations in a virtual context.

·       Values and Behaviours – the culture was the biggest challenge. However the adaptation by officers over the last 6 months had been remarkable. Staff hold each other accountable for the behaviours that they themselves developed.  There was still work to embed the values and behaviours further within the People Strategy and recruitment.

·       Service Re-design – whilst there had been some successes, this had been revised due to the pandemic.

·       Commercialisation – this had been affected by the pandemic and as a result the financial challenges.

·       Reducing Bureaucracy – this involved identifying mandatory functions and processes that could be streamlined or completed more efficiently.

The Revised Transformation Plan 2020-2022 included:

·       Channel Shift – reflected the massive shift to online work, which included how residents wished to interact with the council. There were huge advantages to the council in terms of efficiencies.

·       New Ways of Working – there was still work to complete to embed agile working.  There was a new intranet and website.  The new intranet would be a personal landing page, operating as a virtual workspace.

·       People Strategy – the focus on wellbeing and people needs to continue, together with embedding the success of the values and behaviours into all areas of the HR including management, recruitment and performance.

·       Service Re-design – this and commercialisation would fit with the budget strategy and how the council would aim to meet the financial challenges of Covid, better support its communities and perform better as an organisation.

·       Assets – it would be important to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The Commission is asked to appoint a representative to the West Sussex Health and Adult Social Care Select Committee (HASC), following Councillor McAleney’s resignation.

It was moved by Councillor Burrett, seconded by Councillor Lanzer that Councillor R G Burgess be appointed as the representative for West Sussex Health and Adult Social Care Select Committee (HASC). There were no further nominations.

RESOLVED

That the Commission agreed the following appointment:

West Sussex Health and Adult Social Care Select Committee (HASC)

Councillor R G Burgess

To consider any requests for future items. Those highlighted items have been referred to the Commission.

Cabinet 25 Nov 2020                                         OSC 23 Nov 2020  

Cabinet 13 Jan 2021 – PROVISIONAL   OSC 11 Jan 2021 

Cabinet 3 Feb 2021                                           OSC 1 Feb 2021  

Cabinet 10 March 2021                         OSC 8 March 2021 

The Commission confirmed the following reports:

23 November 2020

·       Crawley Borough Local Plan 2021-2036

·       Budget Strategy 2021/22 – 2025/26

·       Treasury Management Mid-Year Review 2020-2021

·       2020/2021 Budget Monitoring – Quarter 2

1 February 2021

·       2021/2022 Budget and Council Tax

·       Treasury Management Strategy 2021-2022

·       2020/2021 Budget Monitoring - Quarter 3

·       Proposed Article 4 Directions - Change of Use from C3 (dwelling houses) to C4 (houses in multiple occupation)

·       Economic Development Strategy