Agenda item

The Chair and members discussed a number of principles and approaches to work programming, topic selection and future meetings – including:

• Acknowledging the level of resource capacity and time available to scrutiny – one scrutiny officer and three further committee meetings, with limited support from the wider officer corps when needed.
• responsibility to read reports which are requested and take up officers’ time, otherwise officers scarce time is taken up inappropriately
• Chair suggested consideration of any mayoral pledge directly related to corporate and in general looking at the financial, resource and deliverability capacity of the CA in general.

Members’ discussion, questions and suggestions included the following:

Partnerships, soft power and other opportunities:

• WY internal: how well does the Combined Authority work with the five constituent authorities (and York) in all matters – from officer liaison, policy development, project and service delivery, communications and any other cooperation? What are the ‘joined-up working’ processes like? How effective is joint working currently? Where are the gaps, obstacles and areas of improvement? What are relationships like between the CA and between councils? How is knowledge sharing by officers across the five councils?
• External: what other partnership opportunities exist? What is being done to foster greater relationships between WYCA and central government, the public, key stakeholders and operators? Or relationships between combined authorities and metro-mayors? How well does the mayor cooperate with the other mayors, particularly on pan-northern and cross-CA border issues, such as through the M10 (which has its own secretariat and workstreams)? Are any new partnerships and being pursued?
• Comms/engagement: what is the focus of the CA’s current comms/marketing/engagement strategy, particularly since the Mayor’s election? How well does the CA engage with elected members and the public on its schemes during consultation stages? 

Strategic and financial decision-making:

• Budget and business planning process: what are the biggest pressures on the budget this year and how are they being mitigated? What are the biggest risks (and mitigations)?
• Financial/spending: How does the Mayor and CA decide what to invest in, how are spending priorities determined? For example, how are decisions about what Gainshare is spent on arrived at? How does the strategic investment framework fit in with this? What is the process for consideration and monitoring?
• Sources of funding: availability of funding determines what can be done. What opportunities for new or extra funding are available to the CA to potentially pursue? What are other MCAs doing? What is the current progress on business rate retentions or plans on precept?
• Overall priorities and consistencies: How are priorities ultimately determined – particularly when a conflict between two different priorities arises? (E.g. it could be argued that commitment to carbon reduction vs road building. Or something like creating jobs / economic growth vs climate action and carbon reduction). What priorities have been left out – and why?
• Impact assessments (E.g. carbon impact, EDI etc assessments): what is the methodology and process, how is it assessed during decision making (E.g. in committee meetings etc.)
• Evolution and effectiveness of new governance and scrutiny structure: these have changed significantly since the Mayor’s election – how are they coming along? Are there are any concerns already evident? When will they be reviewed for effectiveness – and how? 

Workforce and internal systems:

• How was the workforce evolved over the last few years – particularly since the MCA was established? What are future expectations and current plans to prepare for them? What are the biggest challenges? Are there any areas of concern – such as resources, recruitment/retention or overall delivery capacity?
• How are we utilising and attracting talent (local talent in particular) during recruitment? How well are we retaining this talent within the organisation? How well are staff developed and ‘up skilled’ long term?
• What’s the internal approach to apprenticeships and across the five councils? Is there cooperation?
• Which internal systems are due for an upgrade? Is there a capacity to engage in more harmonisation between the constituent authorities on corporate matters and systems used such as HR, finance, etc or a shared project management hub?
• What is the CA’s approach to cyber security and ICT resilience? How has this approach evolved since the pandemic as reliance on technology and vulnerability to system/information security has increased?