None.

Apologies were received from Councillor Dean and Councillor Jones.

RESOLVED:  Panel agreed the Minutes as a true record of the meeting.

Panel agreed to re-order the agenda and consider Item 6 first – call in: waste collection, street cleaning and recycling opportunities.

Gareth Young introduced the report and sought the Panels views, ahead of Cabinet consideration, on the proposed move to a commissioning model for the delivery of Merton Adult Education Service (MAE). 

Gareth Young outlined the arguments for the recommended commissioning model and the benefits to the council and service, in light of Skills Funding Agency grant reduction expected in future years. The design and model put forward is in response to financial information, identified risk to the council and to the type of service that residents have shown they would like to see in the future. The commissioning model also enables the council to retain an adult education service which can easily be varied in light of grant reduction. It also provides a more flexible cost effective model and enables the council to retain full control over the commissioning process.

Gareth Young outlined the commissioning principles that the service would adhere to.

Councillor Ross Garrod asked if the consultation was open to the wider public or just existing users of Merton Adult Education. Gareth Young explained that the consultation was aimed at the wider public. The aim of the consultation was to allow as many to input as they wished. Most respondents were those that are service users at present but this is to be expected in a consultation of this nature. There were 850 respondents and a range of public meetings were held.

Councillor Ross Garrod asked how close to the make up of users was the data capture on age and ethnicity of respondents within the report. Gareth Young explained that there was a pretty good match to users, but not as good a match to the population of Merton as a whole.

Councillor Imran Uddin stated that there needed to be sufficient monitoring and review of the results of the operation of a commissioning model, once implemented, to determine with providers and users how effective this model is. Gareth Young explained that commissioned providers would be responsible for ensuring certain outcomes and user satisfaction. Provision can be varied dependent upon the outcome of on going monitoring and review of existing contracts and an analysis of user satisfaction. He added that this model wouldn’t necessarily alleviate the full impact of a reduction in the Skills Funding Agency grant. There would have to be further cuts to the service if grant was reduced. This commissioning model however, enabled the council to respond to this reduction in grant funding.

Councillor John Sargeant enquired about the potential cuts to vocational versus community learning courses and how it would be decided which courses to cut. Gareth Young explained that these courses have separate funding pots and therefore this is not a decision that will be made by the council, but reflective of the cuts to the grants received for either type of course.

Councillor James Holmes stated that the commissioning principles needed to be meaningful and there should be full commitment to them. Councillor Martin Whelton added that these basic principles would  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

Councillor David Dean outlines his reasons for the call in and highlighted the following points:

·         Lack of pre decision scrutiny;

·         Recommendations of the 2011 Scrutiny Task Group Review of Waste Management and the fact that only two recommendations had been implemented, despite all 22 recommendations being agreed by Cabinet;

·         That resources would be better allocated toward Adult Social Care and Merton Adult Education, rather than the wheeled bins pilot;

·         Not all residents required large wheeled bins;

·         The potentially negative impact on recycling rates and increase in residual waste;

·         Increased costs of a wheeled bin service when collecting waste;

·         Efficiency of the waste collection process with wheeled bins;

·         Issues concerning storage of wheeled bins;

·         Costs of processing significant volumes of waste; and

·         Why the pilot was necessary

Councillor Judy Saunders agreed that scrutiny had a role to play in considering the outcome of the pilot, and any recommendations that may result from the pilot, such as the introduction of wheeled bins. This issue has been on the council’s agenda for some time. One of the recommendations made by the task group was that the council review its position on wheeled bins at a later stage. It is taking this opportunity to do so now when there is ring-fenced funding from DCLG and additional funding available from an underspend in the highways budget. There is an issue with littering and this may be resolved through the wheeled bins approach. At present small recycling bins have no lids and cause an issue regarding litter and capacity. The pilot will be undertaken before any decision is to be made on wheeled bins. There are no plans to roll out wheeled bins borough wide as the council does not presently have the funds.

Councillor James Holmes asked if this was a suitable time to be undertaking this pilot given its cost and the recent cuts to adult social care and adult education budgets. Councillor Judy Saunders responded that there would always be other considerations in the budget at whatever time this pilot was rolled out. If this is taken forward, following the pilot, then it may be funded on a ward by ward basis to manage costs and operational implications.

Councillor James Holmes asked if the Cabinet Member was satisfied that this pilot was a wise course of action and use of funds, as even if the pilot is positive, the council is unable to deliver this scheme immediately. Councillor Judy Saunders explained that the department would assess the findings of the pilot and then make a decision as to how it would roll out the scheme if that was the conclusion of the analysis.

Councillor Daniel Holden asked if the DCLG grant was not solely intended for communications, and other related incentives, to increase recycling rates. Councillor Judy Saunders confirmed that communications had been undertaken and that the mega recycle campaign had not had the intended impact. Therefore other measures, which the fund is allowed to be used for are being taken forward to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.