Agenda and minutes

Apologies for absence were received from Councillor Gemma Cobby, Councillor Majid Khan, Antoinette Drinkhill and Bernadette Nesbit.

None

RESOLVED that it be noted Councillor Kidd declared that she worked for a disability organisation that provides training.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of Overview and Scrutiny Management Committee held on 13th December, 2023 be agreed as a true record.

[A period not exceeding 20 minutes for statements from up

to 5 members of the public on matters within the

Committee’s remit, proposing action(s) which may be

considered or contribute towards the future development of

the Committee’s work programme].

There were no public statements made at the meeting.

OVERVIEW AND REGENERATIVE COUNCIL

It was outlined that the City of Doncaster Council was a low-cost authority, had a balanced financial position and demonstrated a successful achievement in terms of its service standards with around 76% of standards being green.

Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) High Needs Block - Concern was raised about the Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) forecast and Members were provided with an outline of the challenges around the High Needs Block. It was acknowledged that it was a significant issue which was incrementally going to increase in terms of costs to the Council.  Reference was also made to the underlying services pressures that were increasing due to the growing number of assessments for Early Health and Care Plans (EHCPs).

It was explained that the Council had undertaken a Delivering Better Value Assessment with the Department of Further Education (DFE) alongside 55 Councils in total.  Members heard that intelligence placed Doncaster about mid-range of all those Councils. It was added that the Council had incorporated a savings target within the budget to address such financial challenges.  It was noted that even with those savings achieved, it was still a significant issue nationally as well as for the Council and had been raised by external auditors as a concern.  The Committee heard that without the statutory override in place, the Council would need to find the accumulative spend which was considered as a key priority going forward.

It was noted that an all-Members meeting would be arranged in the future regarding this issue.

The Assistant Director of Partnerships and Operations provided assurances about the work being done to reduce the accumulated figure having reduced the estimated projected deficit expected in 26/27 (from an estimated £72m to a mitigated total of around £48m).

The following steps that had been taken were outlined and included.

·       The development of 4 new 10 place provisions for children and young people with Social, Emotional and Mental Health needs

·       The creation of a SEND Quality Assurance Panel helping to find local solutions for children and young people.

·       Refurbishment in other schools and more bespoke offers to see what more can be done collectively.

It was considered that a collective and creative approach was needed to provide Delivering Better Value and that improved outcomes were already being seen for children within the Borough.

A Member of the Committee voiced their concern at learning through a recent school visit that 20% of the schools’ children had an EHCP, which was considered high.  It was noted that there were around 2,500 children or 3.4% children across Doncaster with EHCPs which was considered a small number. It was recognised that there was a challenge with higher levels of children with requests for statutory assessments for EHCPs, Pupil Premiums and other forms of Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) support in more deprived areas.

Action: A Member from the Committee requested to see the figures of ECHPs across schools.

Further clarification was sort on the role of the Bridge on Clay  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The Committee received a report providing performance information for Quarter 3 of the 2023/24 Financial Year. The report provided feedback on successes and challenges against the 2023/24 Key Performance Indicators.

Dave Richmond, Chief Executive of St Leger Homes attended the meeting to respond to any questions and queries from Members of the Committee.

Customer Service Satisfaction Rates - A Member asked what was in place for improving customer services and it was acknowledged that there had been a reduction in satisfaction rates nationally around social housing.  The reason behind this reduction included concerns around damp and mould and increased reporting of complaints.  It was noted that SLHD was one of the top performing ALMOs at 76% which was outperforming Local Authorities by 10% on average.

Reference was made to the recently established national system of Tenant Satisfaction Measures which would compare Social Housing Landlords on an equal basis. The Committee was informed that it would be publishing its final interim results in June 2024 and based on bench marking information, SLHD came out at one of the top quartile performers on that issue.

Complaints - It was explained that the issue was the volume of complaints received rather than meeting specified timescales (particularly concerning emergency repairs) when completing them.   It was outlined that this was due to several reasons including a back-log of repairs since Covid.

It was explained how 40% of repairs requested were considered as emergency repairs (to be completed within 2 hours target as set by SLHD itself) when generally this was around the 10-20% mark within the industry. It was explained that the national benchmark was 24 hours, and if SLHD was responding within that timescale then it would be completing 95% of its repairs. It was noted that this was therefore being reviewed.

Members were informed that there was a new code clarifying exactly how landlords should deal with complaints.  It was also explained that it was found that many other landlords had a pre-complaint stage in place, which therefore presented an opportunity to address such issues before they were recorded as a complaint.  This meant that complaints were being recorded differently and could mean that SLHD figures may improve in comparison if this was used.  

Clarification was made regarding how the complaint process and reporting could look going forward and how it could be considered through the scrutiny process.

Rough Sleepers being placed in hotels – It was clarified that SLHD did not house families within hotels for over 6 weeks in accordance with legislative requirements.  It was continued that with over 100 households going into temporary accommodation (including hotels), similar numbers were also going out, therefore indicating the level of turnover being faced.

It was explained that all rough sleepers needed to be assessed first before being housed where appropriate.  It was noted that in Doncaster, individuals were often housed on a short-term basis even when there was no statutory duty to do so.

The Chair of the Committee thanked Dave Richmond for  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The Committee gave consideration to the Overview and Scrutiny Work Plan and the Council’s Forward Plan of key decisions.

RESOLVED that the report be noted