Issue - meetings

·        To select appropriate items from the Cabinet agenda for pre-decision scrutiny (cabinet reports enclosed for Scrutiny Members)

The committee scrutinised the following cabinet items:

Strategic Equality Plan 2020-2024

The Strategic Equality Plan 2020-2024 was presented to the Committee with the actions to meet the equality objectives.

Members asked how many staff had the Council employed who were on zero hour contracts and the reasoning behind why they were on this type of contract. In terms of the reason, it was noted that the individuals had elected themselves to take up casual contracts for work, for example in the Survey Team within the Environment Directorate; there was a relatively small number of staff who had specific reasons for being on that type of contract and these individuals make themselves available and can turn work down if it suits them; there was no specific pattern of work that could be planned in advance for them. It was confirmed that Officers would circulate the exact number of staff on zero hour contracts to the Committee following the meeting.

Detailed in the circulated report, it stated that no feedback was received from an event which was held with the Community of Practice for Engagement and Involvement in order to obtain an insight into what was important to the groups they regularly engage with; it was asked who was involved in the event and why wasn’t any feedback received. It was explained that the Participation Officers that the Council had across different service areas within the Council (including those who support the youth council, the looked after children version of the youth council and the community veterans) were asked to feed in any views, opinions or evidence that could support the development of the Strategic Equality Plan; whilst the equality objectives were being drafted, these Officers were asked to give some thought as to whether or not the right objectives had been selected, however due to the timing of the pandemic, the engagement work with these network of Officers was disrupted. The importance of their input and the need to pick up this work as part of the implementation was highlighted.

It was asked if the work to improve physical access to the committee facilities in both Neath and Port Talbot Civic Centres was still doable and if so, when it would be done; it was still very much the plan to improve the access arrangements for Members, especially in Port Talbot Civic Centre as there was some difficulties in terms of access particularly within the Council Chamber. It was noted that a lot of work was being undertaken prior to the pandemic, and one of the main pieces of work being looked at was clearing out the old kitchen area which wasn’t being utilised anymore and turning it into a meeting room as it was a very accessible space; having a meeting room downstairs would be beneficial as one of the issues with having meetings on the upper floors was that someone within that meeting would have to be responsible for evacuation procedures and be trained to do so, if there  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4