Agenda and minutes

Members and officers must declare any disclosable pecuniary interests in relation to any business on the agenda. Declarations should also be made at any stage such an interest becomes apparent during the meeting.

If in doubt contact the Legal or Democratic Services representative for this meeting.

Councillor Theodoridi declared an interest as an employee of West Sussex County Council

Councillor Sparkes declared an interest as a Member of West Sussex County Council

Councillor Evans declared an interest as a Member of West Sussex County Council

Councillor Fuhrmann substituted for Councillor Flower

To approve the minutes of the Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting held on 28.01.2025, copies of which have been previously circulated.

The minutes of the meeting of the 28.01.2025 were approved as a correct record and be signed by the Chairman

So as to provide the best opportunity for the Committee to provide the public with the fullest answer, questions from the public should be submitted by 12.00 noon on Monday 24th of February 2025.

Where relevant notice of a question has not been given, the person presiding may either choose to give a response at the meeting or respond by undertaking to provide a written response within three working days.

Questions should be submitted to Democratic Services democratic.services@adur-worthing.gov.uk 

(Note: Public Question Time will operate for a maximum of 30 minutes.)

A resident had submitted the following question; “As a proportion of residents in Adur and Worthing are young people who may not easily have a voice in such debates, would it be an idea to ask the question of engagement via participation forums in schools and colleges? There would, in my view, be much to be gained from such enquiry.”

Members were informed that the Council agreed that there was much to be gained from listening to the voices of young people.  

That the Council was actively designing youth voices into participation projects and working with a range of youth forums to do this and engaging with schools. For example: 

Lancing: now and into the future worked with Electric Storm Youth Forum to involve and include young people’s aspirations for Lancing. 

Young adults from Esteem were paid for their involvement in the sense-making of public survey data on community participation that was influencing the support strategy for community participation - including a new commission.   

The safer communities team were working regularly with the Worthing-based youth forum hosted by Sid Youth in partnership with Sussex Police with a focus on youth safety. 

Councillors had also been regularly engaging with youth voice project ‘Truth To Power’ facilitated and funded through Audio Active in Worthing - which had been very revealing of young people’s feelings, experiences and priorities communicated through music and spoken word. 

With the neighbourhood teams now in place, the Councils were now engaging schools to include young people in conversations about the future of parks and open spaces. 

Some things the Assistant Director for People and Change felt the Councils could do more:  

Make the offer around youth participation more visible and consistent across projects.

Strengthen ties with local schools 

Engage young people on how the Councils could better recruit young people as part of diversifying the workforce, and how they communicate as part of developing the communications strategy

Currently there was no dedicated youth participation resource. This was partly because the Councils were not the authority for schools or youth services - this sat with West Sussex.  

Some things the Assistant Director for People and Change said the Councils were planning for: 

Designing in youth participation into the public conversation on the future of our places (in the context of devolution) and experimenting with digital tools as a way of reaching and engaging with different groups of people including young people and adults

Connecting into the Connect to Work programme run by West Sussex County Council so the Councils could explore how they could create pathways for people supported by this programme into work at Adur & Worthing Councils. This was aimed at helping people with barriers to employment and while it was not limited to young people this could help diversify the Councils workforce.

Councillors who are not members of this committee can ask questions under CPR 12  Questions should be relevant to the committee where the question is being asked and also relevant to an item on the agenda. Please contact Democratic Services for more information

Members question time is 30 minutes and questions should be submitted no later than 12.00 noon on Monday 24th of February 2025..

Questions should be submitted to Democratic Services democratic.services@adur-worthing.gov.uk 

(Note: Members’ Question Time will operate for a maximum of 30 minutes.)

There were no questions from Members

To consider any items the Chairman of the meeting considers to be urgent

There were no urgent items

There were no call-ins

To consider a report by the Assistant Director for People and Change, copy attached as item 8

The Committee had a report before it attached as item 8, which had been circulated to all Members and is attached to a signed copy of these minutes.

A Member asked “This report outlines the achievements of the Communications and Participation teams over the last year, in the context of very limited resources with five people across both teams. Has any public engagement occurred to get public feedback on the communications performance?”

Members were informed that no - although they reviewed and responded to comments online about the comms approach. Once they had completed the People & Change redesign, the Councils would be developing strategies for the different areas - including a new overall communications’ strategy for 2025/26. They would work internally and externally to shape this, in a way that best helped promote Adur and Worthing Councils to explain how services were making a difference to people’s lives and attract people to use services and improve communities. This would build on achievements, learn from how residents communicated and engaged for different purposes in their everyday lives that can inform how the Councils communicated in the future.

A Member asked “We’ve launched a Participation Lab as a new way to bring people together to learn and apply participation skills to practical challenges. This has helped develop teams to work in a neighbourhood-based way”. Can you tell us how the participation lab works?”

Members were informed the participation lab was a training and development programme facilitated by the Participation Lead and consultants from Ideas Alliance and funded using the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. 

It had been co-designed with internal teams including frontline staff, officers and managers to support teams to develop their capabilities in engagement and participation as they worked on ‘live projects’. 

Part 1 included people from across the Neighbourhood team and matrix services including waste and environmental health. It began with a co-design session in July followed by three Lab sessions (September-November) and covered L&D on designing participatory consultation and engagement process and practice; working with data and communications; political nous training and working with members.  Following feedback from participants and further work with managers and elected members in the Council for Community Working group. Part 2 of the Lab was planned to commence from March with a focus on the participatory skills and methods that could be applied to a range of projects including public conversation on devolution and Adur Local Plan and projects including Worthing Seafront 2050, the Worthing Town Centre and community toilet schemes.  The Councils planned to run a further 6 lab sessions between March and September and intended to scale involvement to include other teams and potentially elected members and community stakeholders.

A Member asked “In appendix 1 under Thriving Organisation the report talks about  “Enabling people to have their say on the issues that affect them” with the intended impact of “Greater resident participation in council decision making processes” and "Increased trust and confidence in the Councils’ commitment to community empowerment.”

Can you  ...  view the full minutes text for item JOSC/60/24-25

To consider a report by the Director for Sustainability and Resources copy attached as item 9

The Committee had a report before it attached as item 9, which had been circulated to all Members and is attached to a signed copy of these minutes.

A Member asked “What challenges have the council experienced over the last year with regard to its commemorative events and how have these been addressed?”

Members were informed that over the last year there had been a major change with a member of an officer group who had spent years developing and understanding commemorative events and that the challenge was to find that information but that this meant a more robust process in the future. That most events were owned and run by groups like the Royal British Legion and the support offered from the council, was done so by a previous officer who had now left. Members were reminded that, as stated in the report, the Council had no statutory responsibilities for commemorative events and that these were largely run and organised by third party groups.

A Member asked “Para 4.2 states that “Remembrance Events in Worthing are planned and overseen by a Working Group of Officers from Democratic Services, Events, Facilities and Waste Management, with support from the Veterans Association. This involves arranging road closures, marshalls and on site set up, completing risk and health & safety assessments, arranging first aid responders; communicating with and coordinating numerous volunteer organisations and armed forces as well as collaborating with key stakeholder groups like the Royal British Legion and Veterans association.” If in the event of a discrepancy (when guidance for remembrance day protocol differs between the Royal British Legion and the Veterans Association), what position does the council take?”

Members were informed that in Adur, historically, it was one organisation that took the lead, while there would sometimes be discord, leading groups took the lead while ward councillors and officers would be the mechanism to mediate any disputes. That it was important to remember while commemorative events evoked strong emotions and responses, people could be reluctant to change and differing opinions. 

A Member asked “It appears that the Councils are not planning any commemorative events to mark VJ Day, even though 365,000 British troops and 1.5m Commonwealth troops were still deployed in Asia and the Pacific. 

On the basis that VJ Day effectively marked the end of the Second World War, why is this event not being commemorated?”

Members were informed that while there were no current plans for commemorations of VJ day, that wasn’t to say that the Councils wouldn’t be marking the day in some way. No national guidance had yet been released and officers would normally wait to see what advice and guidance is given so that plans would best align with the rest of the country where possible.

A Member asked, “Para 4.1 - the provision of commemorative events is not a statutory responsibility of the Councils. There is the exception of the events listed. Does the council review whether there are any other events of significance for different  ...  view the full minutes text for item JOSC/61/24-25

To consider a report by the Director for Sustainability and Resources copy attached as item 10

The Committee had a report before it, which had been circulated to all Members and is attached to a signed copy of these minutes.

A Member asked “In the report, dentistry has been discussed at the June 2024 meeting and the January 2025 meeting. The report states that there has been improved access to dentistry. Do we have figures to show the scale of this improved access and how quickly do you think we’ll see the impact of the Government’s Dentistry Rescue Plan?”

Members were informed that according to information presented at HASC, it was a local and national priority to enhance access to dental services. There were four main focus areas: firstly  to reform the national dental contract (Agi Tarnowski of The West Sussex Dental Committee was questioned about the current contract, and she confirmed that contract reform must be a priority), secondly a roll out of supervised tooth-brushing for 3-5 year olds, thirdly to fill the appointments gap with 700,000 emergency dental appointments, and lastly to flood 'dental deserts' with new recruits. Since Covid there had been considerable underperformance. Dentists had been handing back NHS contracts. National guidance was now being implemented, including 'golden hellos' to promote recruitment. NHS Sussex was supporting oral healthcare for younger children. Emergency care was being enhanced.

In terms of measurable data, the following information was presented at HASC:

In 2018/19 94% of NHS Units of Dental Activity were delivered, in 2021 this fell to 65%. In 2023/24 84% of UDAs were delivered. In Sussex, most areas exceeded the 30% targeted increase in delivery of UDAs, with the exception of Arun. Adur delivered a  38% increase, and Worthing a 36% increase, however the NHS has still not achieved pre-pandemic figures.  

There was some very good work in progress and the West Sussex Dental Committee were reassured that the Intergrated Care Board was listening. 

Sadly, the fact remained that there was still a very poor cohort in local communities, who could not afford NHS Dental Treatment. The programme of prevention, and improved access to emergency treatment would potentially help, but there was still work to be done to ensure that all of the community could access the treatment they needed. As councillors, they were actively working with both the MPs to ensure that this happened. Further progress updates would be coming to HASC in due course.

Members also asked about how HASC hears from staff about day to day operations, council abilities to attract new practices, where stroke patients were primarily being treated, format of HASC meetings and access to sexual health services. Members were told that the Members of HASC were co-opted non voting members and therefore limited with their influence but union involvement often came up as did staff needs in terms of mental health; that attracting new practices needed to be put to the integrated health board; that stroke where stroke patients were sent for treatment depended on bed and ambulance availability among other things and once figures on  ...  view the full minutes text for item JOSC/62/24-25

To consider a report by the Director for Sustainability and Resources, copy attached as item 11

The Committee had a report before it attached as item 11,which had been circulated to all Members and is attached to a signed copy of these minutes.

Members discussed workshops for determining the 25/26 work programme, considered including a themed meeting on the environment, intentions to continue the budget working group and reflected on the positive changes in the committee that had occurred over the past year.

Resolved:

The Joint Overview and Scrutiny Committee:

• Noted the progress made in delivering the JOSC Work Programme for 2024/25;
• Considered and confirmed a draft Work Programme for 2025/26 whilst noting that the Work Programme would be fully developed in consultation with JOSC Members at Member Workshops in the Spring which may affect further changes to the Work Programme;

• Approved the referral of the confirmed draft JOSC Work Programme for 2025/26 for reporting to the Full Council meetings in March 2025 for approval