Agenda and minutes

There were no apologies.

Members are asked to consider any Pecuniary and Non-Pecuniary Interests they may have to disclose to the meeting in relation to matters under consideration on the Agenda.

County Councillor David Whipp declared a non-pecuniary interest in Item 5 as he was the Lead Member for Covid-19 at Pendle Borough Council.

County Councillor Erica Lewis declared a non-pecuniary interest in Item 5 as she was the Leader of Lancaster City Council and was responsible for Lancaster City Council's response to Covid-19.

The report presented set out the constitution, membership, chair and deputy chair and terms of reference of the Internal Scrutiny Committee for the remainder of the municipal year 2020/21.

Resolved: That Internal Scrutiny Committee note:

1.  The appointment of County Councillors David O'Toole and Matthew Salter as Chair and Deputy Chair of the Committee for the remainder of the 2020/21 municipal year.

2.  The Membership of the Committee following the County Council's Annual Meeting on 16 July 2020; and

3.  The Terms of Reference of the Committee.

In regard to Agenda Item 5, Redefining Lancashire: Our Approach to Recovery, there was a request to have noted that there had been some discussion and dissatisfaction due to there not being a cabinet member in attendance at the meeting to present the item. In addition, significant concerns were raised that the county council had represented that district councils had agreed to the Redefining Lancashire document when they disputed that they had not.

Resolved: That subject to the inclusion of the above points, the minutes from the meeting held on 10 July 2020 were confirmed as an accurate record and signed by the Chair.

The Chair welcomed Angie Ridgwell, Chief Executive; County Councillor Keith Iddon, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport; County Councillor Shaun Turner, Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing; County Councillor Graham Gooch, Cabinet Member for Adult Services; and Mike Kirby, Director of Strategy and Performance, to the meeting.

The Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport stated that Highways and Transport had been extremely busy during the pandemic. One of the tasks faced was building the temporary morgue at Warton. The main transport issue was in relation to getting pupils back to school in a safe manner. A detailed update from the Highways Team had been presented at the last meeting of the Internal Scrutiny Committee. The team was making progress in getting back to normal.

The Cabinet Member for Health and Wellbeing stated that public health and wellbeing had been central to the Lancashire Resilience Forum (LRF) and it had been vital to reduce the impact of the pandemic on the communities and individuals of Lancashire. Throughout the pandemic the Public Health Team had worked closely with Public Health England and continued to work closely with district councils to ensure premises were Covid-19 secure across Lancashire. The team had worked very closely with public health commissioned services and the county council had also been required to set up an Outbreak Engagement Board.

The Cabinet Member for Adult Services stated that the biggest policy decision the Government had been faced with was to ensure the NHS was not overwhelmed. The county council's main adult social care priority had been to ensure the safe and effective delivery of care to those who needed it by supporting care homes and other providers. The county council had developed a comprehensive daily tracker which was used to record significant amounts of data in relation to Covid-19 that was used to provide national data, this took an enormous strain off from care homes and providers and was welcomed support across Lancashire. A dedicated Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) phone hotline and online ordering pathway was made available so that providers and care homes were able to let us know their needs. 

Angie Ridgwell, Chief Executive presented committee members with an update on Lancashire's response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The presentation covered topics suggested by Members as part of the Internal Scrutiny Committee work planning session which took place on 29 May 2020. The three suggested areas of finance, social care and children would be looked at separately and in depth by the Budget Scrutiny Review Panel, the Health Scrutiny Committee and the Education and Children's Services Scrutiny Committee.

At the beginning of lockdown Lancashire County Council made rapid decisions during an unprecedented, fast moving situation which set the tone for its response to the pandemic. This included supporting all county council staff in working from home and providing councillors with corporate laptops to facilitate access to meetings. 

A key priority for the county council was to protect the vulnerable people of Lancashire particularly in maintaining the adult social  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

The committee was presented with a single combined work programme for all of the Lancashire County Council scrutiny committees.

The topics included were identified at a work planning workshop for members of the Internal Scrutiny Committee held on 29 May 2020 and subsequently discussed at meetings of all the scrutiny committees.

The Chair welcomed Josh Mynott, Democratic Services Manager, to the meeting. It was pointed out that the work planning process was critical to the success of scrutiny. The committee was asked to think about why they wanted a certain topic to come to scrutiny and what questions they wanted to ask on the topic so that scrutiny officers could invite the appropriate cabinet members and officers to the meeting.

There was a request for scrutiny to look at how Lancashire could greater benefit and get added value during the Covid-19 crisis.

The role of engagement with councillors in civil contingencies was another area which could be looked at.

Regarding the item on speeding traffic and the lack of enforcement scheduled for the November 2020 meeting, there was a request to invite the police to the meeting as well as representation from the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety.

Resolved: The Internal Scrutiny Committee noted the single combined work plan presented.

An item of urgent business may only be considered under this heading where, by reason of special circumstances to be recorded in the Minutes, the Chair of the meeting is of the opinion that the item should be considered at the meeting as a matter of urgency. Wherever possible, the Chief Executive should be given advance warning of any Member's intention to raise a matter under this heading.

There were no items of Urgent Business.

The next meeting of the Internal Scrutiny Committee will be held on Friday 13 November 2020 at 10:00am.

The next virtual meeting of the Internal Scrutiny Committee would take place on Friday 13 November 2020 at 10.00am.