If any

None.

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of the Business Transformation Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 28 October 2009.

(previously circulated)

RESOLVED

that the Minutes of the meeting of the Business Transformation Overview and Scrutiny Committee held on 28 September 2009 be confirmed and signed by the Chairman as a correct record.

To receive petitions in accordnace with the scheme of public participation set out in Annex 2 in Part 4 of the Constitution.

The Chairman announced that no petitions had been referred to this meeting.

To receive any questions, statements or deputations from members of the public in accordance with the Public Participation Procedure as set out in Annex 1 of Part A4 of the Constitution.

The Chairman announced that no questions, statements or deputations had been received.

To consider any matter referred to the Committee for a decision in relation to the call-in of a decision.

The Chairman announced that no call-ins had been referred to this Committee.

To consider any items referred to the Committee at the request of a Member under Procedure Rule 3.1 of Part D2 of the Constitution.

There were no disclosures of exempt information.

The purpose of this report is to:

·              set out the Council’s statutory equality duties and the action that must be taken to meet these duties; and

·              provide the Overview & Scrutiny Committee with the opportunity to:

o consider and comment on an early draft of the Council’s Equality and Diversity Scheme; and

oConsider the actions which members should take in providing clear and visible leadership on equality, building partnerships to address inequality and providing scrutiny of activities across the Council.

Members considered the report of the Portfolio Holder for Business Transformation, which set out the Council’s statutory equality duties and the action to be taken to meet these duties.  It provided the Committee with the opportunity to consider and comment on an early draft of the Council’s Equality and Diversity Scheme.  Members received a presentation, attached at appendix A, on the challenges for Central Bedfordshire in addressing equality and diversity.

Members of the Committee were fully supportive of the draft Scheme, and were content to endorse its submission to the Executive during February/March 2010, subject to the following comments and recommendations being incorporated within it before submission:-

(a)         Members clearly stated that the policy direction be followed through and delivered throughout the whole organisation and beyond. They felt that the draft Scheme should contain sufficient enough detail regarding the provision of targeted training and development for both Members and officers to assist in the practical achievement of this policy direction;

(b)         With regard to specific training and development initiatives, the Committee endorsed a number of suggestions from Members as follows, and requested that they too be captured within the draft Scheme:-

·        a phased staff training approach, which concentrated limited resources on frontline staff in the first instance, and also ensured that any training delivered was appropriate to the target audience i.e. back office staff receiving basic training with more comprehensive training for frontline staff;

·        the need to take into account, and coordinate, all Member training and development generally to ensure that limited time and resources were used to best effect. This may well mean the delivery of half/whole day training sessions in future, which addressed a number of topics such as Equalities & Diversity, Health & Safety, Risk Management, etc in bite-sized chunks at one session and it was suggested that the Member Development Champions Group should consider this issue at the earliest opportunity;

·        the need to produce and distribute a 1 page (or 2 page maximum) awareness raising document for all employees & Members, which would distil the draft Scheme into key action points;

·        the need to incorporate equality and diversity awareness raising into the staff appraisal scheme; and

·        the need to ensure that Members were aware of how to feedback equality & diversity issues encountered, whilst undertaking their duties as ward representatives.

(c)     Whilst Members reiterated their strong desire to tackle inequalities, they were of the opinion that the draft Scheme should also highlight the responsibility of the individual to strive for self-reliance, a conviction which very much reinforced the concept of Total Place and its primary theme of “from dependence to self-reliance”;

(d)    Members discussed in some detail whether there was a need to establish a Council ambition within the draft Scheme regarding the achievement of Level 3 (Excellent and making a difference) of the new Equality Framework for Local Government introduced by the IDeA in April 2009.

(e)    Whilst Members agreed that this may well be an aspiration, there was no need to make this ambition explicit. Instead, the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

To provide Members with details of the currently drafted work programme following initial discussion of the subject at the last meeting.

The Committee considered the Business Transformation Overview and Scrutiny Committee work programme for 2009-10. 

Councillor Murray enquired whether a report would be considered on the  Highways Customer Service.  He was advised that this was scheduled to be considered by the Sustainable Communities Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 25 January 2010.

RESOLVED

that the work programme for the Business Transformation Overview and Scrutiny Committee, be approved.