Agenda and minutes

Councillors Ceris Jones, Hugh R M Hughes and Caryl Roberts apologised their inability to attend the meeting.

None.

Councillor Matthew Vaux, Cabinet Member for Partnerships, Housing, Legal and Governance and Public Protection presented the Engagement and Participation Policy - Half yearly monitoring update. He reported that the report on progress of the action plan during 2022-23 was presented to the

committee in June 2023. It was agreed that a 6-month monitoring update report was presented in December 2023.

It was reported that Ceredigion Engagement and Participation Policy ‘Talking, Listening and Working Together’ included an action plan on which the report was based. The Policy was also published on Ceredigion County Council website.

Cabinet had agreed the recommendations from the Corporate Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

• that all engagement exercises participants should receive the

outcome results;

• that a 6-month monitoring update report was presented to the Corporate

Resources Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its December meeting.

A revised Engagement and Consultation Toolkit, which was presented as Appendix 1, has been prepared that includes a section on feeding back to participants. The importance of feedback would be further highlighted in training on use of the toolkit. The actions that were highlighted Red or Amber in the previous report have now progressed, mainly as a result of the revised  toolkit. The action plan contained four aims. Progress was monitored by a Red/Amber/Green system. Red (no progress made), Amber (some progress made), Green (action is on track or complete).

1. To mainstream effective engagement and participation across Ceredigion

County Council.

RAG status of the actions had progressed from 2 x Green and 1 x Amber to 3

Green.

2. To ensure that we engage with the people of Ceredigion in the best way

RAG status of the actions had progressed from 1 x Green, 1 x Amber and 1 x Red to 1 x Green and 2 x Amber.

3. To meet our statutory duties and responsibilities under legislation

RAG status of the actions had progressed from 1 x Green and 2 x Amber to 3 x Green.

4. To keep up to date with the latest innovations and best practice in the field of engagement

RAG status of the actions had progressed from 2 x Green and 1 x Amber to 3 x Green.

Further detail in the progress report was present in Appendix 2.

Following questions from the floor, it was AGREED:

(i)             to note the content of the Engagement and Participation Policy – Half yearly monitoring update; and

(ii)       to note the new Engagement and Consultation Toolkit

The Corporate Manager-Partnership & Performance would also circulate to Members some statistics generated nationally in relation to response rates to consultations.

Following a presentation on Procurement from officers, it was AGREED that a Task and Finish Group would be established. Further discussion on the scoping document for the group would be considered following the meeting to with include potential items to be considered such including as the Procurement & Commissioning Strategy, Capacity within the Service and Quality Checks and Value for Money.

        All Members and the Corporate Lead Officer – Finance & Procurement wished to note their thanks for all the work and commitment to George Ryley ( the Corporate Manager, Procurement & Payments) who would be retiring in the near future. All wished him well for the future.

It was RESOLVED to confirm as a true record the Minutes of the Meeting of the previous meeting.

It was AGREED to note the Forward Work Programme as presented subject to agreeing that the next meeting would be cancelled as only one report was being presented; as Open Reach were unable to attend but would be providing a written statement to the Committee. It was agreed that the Half yearly Compliments, complaints and FOI report broken down into service

area could be considered at a subsequent meeting.