DECISION

To note the report (Appendix 1 of the report) of the scrutiny challenge session on examining the council’s revised approach to Idea Stores and library services; and

Agree the action plan (Appendix 2 of the report) in response to the scrutiny recommendations.

Action by:

CORPORATE DIRECTOR, PLACE (A. SUTCLIFFE)

(Director, Customer Services (R. Chand)

Reasons for the decisions

To provide a formal response to the OSC report and an action plan to cover any recommendations, or elements thereof, not already included in the report that was taken to Cabinet on the 3 March 2021.

The attached report is the Executive’s response to the scrutiny recommendations arising from the scrutiny challenge session’s examination of the council’s revised approach to Idea Stores and library services.

In practice, the challenge session formed part of the consultation process that fed into the final report on the revised approach to Idea Stores and library services taken to Cabinet on 3 March 2021

Alternative options

The alternative option would have been to delay the cabinet report until after the formal report from OSC had been received.  This was not acceptable as it would have delayed the timing of any savings agreed in the final report.

The option to delay engaging with OSC was dismissed as this would have reduced the potential for the session to influence design and decisions.

Councillor Sabina Akhtar, Cabinet Member for Culture, Arts and Brexit introduced the report that submitted the executive’s response to the scrutiny challenge session recommendations which examined the council’s revised approach to Idea Stores and library services. Councillor Akhtar explained how the timescales for delivery of the council’s revised approach to Idea Stores and library services had made it impractical for formally respond to the scrutiny challenge session’s recommendations prior to the decision made at cabinet in March 2021, but feedback from the session did influence the shape and content of the March cabinet paper. 

Councillor Mohammed Pappu, Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee, welcomed the report, thanked the Mayor and cabinet for their response to the scrutiny proposals and encouraged engagement of scrutiny at formative stages of proposals as had been the case with this review.

The Mayor moved the recommendations as set out and they were agreed without dissent. It was:

RESOLVED

To note the report (Appendix 1 to the report) of the scrutiny challenge session on examining the council’s revised approach to Idea Stores and library services; and

Agree the action plan (Appendix 2 to the report) in response to the scrutiny recommendations.