Agenda and draft minutes

In the event the fire alarm sounds attendees will be advised to evacuate the building via the nearest fire exit and assemble at the Bottle of Notes opposite MIMA. 

The Chair welcomed all those present to the meeting and described the fire evacuation procedure.  

To receive any declarations of interest. 

There were no declarations of interest received at this point in the meeting.

To receive the minutes of the previous meeting. 

A Member commented that minute number 25/72 (fourth paragraph) should read “Members queried if any further information was available relating to the Forward Plan item ‘Update on the Neighbourhoods model’”.

Notwithstanding the changes identified, the minutes of the Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 18 March 2026 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

To receive updates from Scrutiny Panel Chairs. 

The Chair of OSB invited the Chair of the Children’s Scrutiny Panel to provide his update. The Board was informed that the Children’s Scrutiny Panel was due to meet on Monday 20 April where it would consider its draft final report on Out of Area Specialist Provision and also receive an update on a recent Ofsted focused visit.

There were no questions from the Board.

The Chair invited the Chair of the Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Panel to provide his update. The Board was advised the Panel had received further evidence in relation to its review into Violence Against Women and Girls, and a quarterly CQC update from the Corporate Director of Adult Social Care. The Panel had also received the annual report of the Director of Public Health and would consider the annual Quality Accounts of the South Tees Trust at its next meeting.  

There were no questions from the Board.

AGREED that the information presented be noted.

To consider forthcoming Executive Decisions. 

The Chair presented the Executive Forward Plan, as detailed in the report, and invited questions.

The Chief Executive drew Members’ attention to the Forward Plan entry for 8 April regarding the Council’s Performance Management Framework.

Members were advised that report intended to align financial and performance information, which would provide for more effective oversight of the Council’s activity.

A Member requested further information relating to the Forward Plan entry, “Commercial Waste Collection and Disposal”. The Member queried if the cost of contracting out such services would be less than if the Council carried out those services. It was agreed the service area would be approached for further information on this matter. 

A Member queried if, in relation to the Forward Plan Entry “Cost reduction of Garden Waste”, if further information could be provided regarding potential reduction in subscriptions for Green Waste.

A Member queried if any local companies were involved in the initiative relating to the Forward Plan entry “Corporate Food Poverty Policy”. They also queried what the aim and reach of the policy would be.

ORDERED that:

1.     Further information be sought from the relevant service area in relation to Forward Plan entry Commercial Waste Collection and Disposal, specifically around costs of the Council running the service versus the private sector.

2.     Further information be sought from the relevant service area in relation to Forward Plan entry Cost reduction of Garden Waste, specifically around potential reduction in green waste subscriptions.

3.     Further information be sought from the relevant service area in relation to Forward Plan entry Corporate Food Poverty Policy.

To provide Members of the Overview and Scrutiny Board with an update on outstanding forward plan actions arising from the previous meeting. 

•         Update on the Neighbourhoods Model

Members were advised an update to the query raised at the last meeting of OSB had been circulated via email and that the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods, who was in attendance, would provide further detail on that subject.

AGREED that the information presented be noted.  

To receive the Board’s Final Short Review Report into the Council’s Approach to Poverty. 

The Chair presented OSB’s draft final report following its short review into the Council’s approach to poverty.

The Chair outlined the report’s rationale and findings and invited questions from Members.

There were no questions from Members on the report.

Members were advised that draft recommendations had been circulated before the meeting and the Chair invited comments from the Board.

The Terms of Reference were:

1.     The Council develops a clearer overarching approach to addressing poverty, including consideration of how this is best defined and framed (for example 'poverty' or more broadly 'social inclusion'), and supported by a strategy or a shared corporate ambition.

2.     If the Council chose the option of a mission statement, it should improve coordination and alignment across existing policies, strategies, and service areas, to develop a consistent approach to tackling poverty and its wider impacts, such as social exclusion.

3.     The Council considers its performance management in regards to how it tackles poverty, including whether it needs to develop clear benchmarks to understand and demonstrate how its efforts to tackle poverty have impact.

4.     As part of Recommendation 3, an annual progress report should come to OSB.

A Member sought clarification on Terms of Reference three. It was clarified that the Council’s approach to poverty should be incorporated within the Council’s performance regime going forward.

The Chair stated he would like to see any work on the poverty agenda brought back to OSB on an annual basis and for poverty to become part of its annual update schedule. The Chief Executive commented there needed to be a singular use of language around this issue to prevent any confusion.

The Mayor commented that a Key Performance Indicator in future strategies would be around Household Income which was linked to the poverty agenda.

ORDERED that the findings and recommendations of the OSB short review into the Council’s approach to Poverty be endorsed and referred to the Executive.

To consider draft Terms of Reference for the Board’s Short Review.  

The Chair advised Members that the Board’s short review into Faith and Belief in Middlesbrough’s Civic Life was due to commence and that draft Terms of Reference had been circulated to Members before the meeting. The draft Terms of Reference were:

1.     To understand the role and impact of faith and belief in Middlesbrough’s civic life and in supporting residents.

2.     To understand how faith and belief groups interact with Council services, partnerships, and community cohesion.

3.     To examine how Middlesbrough Council considers religion or belief in decision-making and service delivery, including governance and engagement.

4.     To identify strengths, gaps, and risks in current approaches, including issues of inclusion, fairness, safeguarding, and any barriers faced by different faith and belief communities in engaging with the Council.

The Chair commented that the review could contribute to the wider social cohesion agenda and aimed to assess how faith and belief groups could be engaged by the Council more effectively. A Member queried the nature of faith and belief groups in this context. The Chair provided a brief definition of a faith community and belief community.

There were no further questions or comments on the draft Terms of Reference.

ORDERED that the draft Terms of Reference be approved. 

The Mayor will be in attendance to provide the Board with an update on the Council’s Continuous Improvement Plan.

The reports attached for OSB’s consideration were considered and approved by Executive at its meeting of 3 March 2026.  

The Chair invited the Mayor to present the Continuous Improvement Plan update to the Board.

The Mayor stated there was a need to achieve a balance between finance and performance reporting and potential for different officer groups to provide updates to both Executive and OSB to demonstrate how the two disciplines would work together.

The Town Board, referenced in Appendix 1 of the report, would be Member led and would be the first step on a journey to close off recommendations made by the Middlesbrough Independent Improvement Board. The Chief Executive commented that during the Best Value period the Council had lost sight of what good looked like. However, there was now an opportunity to refine complex processes and demonstrate value for money. One mechanism to achieve this was to re-instate service action plans to improve monitoring across the Council. This would help show the health of the organisation more clearly and move towards integrating finance and performance reporting information.

The Chair thanked the Mayor for his update and invited questions from the Board. A Member queried if there was an update on the MDC action plan. The Mayor responded the action in question had been assigned to the Council in order to resolve the hiatus. There was a review being carried out and the Council was working with the TVCA to resolve the matter of asset return to the Council.

The Member continued by drawing the Mayor’s attention to page 81 of the report and queried how many audit days were planned for the year. It was commented a report on this matter would be submitted to Audit Committee in June.

Following a query about Independent Persons sitting on Audit Committee, it was also confirmed this issue would be addressed at the June meeting of Audit committee.

With regard to return of assets from the MDC, a Member asked if the Council had resources to develop those assets. It was confirmed the Council would likely enter into partnerships, where appropriate. It was commented it would likely be June before there was clarity on this matter.

A conversation took place regarding the effectiveness of the MDC during which it was commented there was a cautious approach to the return of assets and there was a need to get those initiatives back on track.

A question was raised regarding the Council’s approach to equality and diversity. It was commented there had been investment in the Council’s HR services and recognised good work had been carried out in this regard. A further question was raised about how data could be used to monitor continuous learning. It was commented the Council had worked with various partners and stakeholders to refresh the performance indicators it used to monitor the Council’s effectiveness in this area. This would be demonstrated over the coming months.

A Member raised a query about the status of the Crown after having attended several Local Plan meetings. It was agreed that when further clarity was available this issue would be brought  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/87

The Mayor will be in attendance to provide an update on his portfolio.  

The Chair invited the Mayor to deliver his update which included the following points:

•         The presentation followed a similar format to the Mayor’s previous update, namely “Review, Celebrate and Preview.”

•         Council budget highlights included youth services in every ward, the introduction of a free pest control service and doubling the team of neighbourhood caretakers.

•         In terms of youth services, some funding was ending so there was a need to look at new and existing schemes. The Council was working with Middlesbrough Football Club to provide a bus to areas that did not have a hub or obvious community venue.

•         Regarding pest control, a report had been submitted and approved by Executive to create a free pest control service, and it was hoped this service would begin in July. The service covered rats, mice, bed bugs and cockroaches.

Following a question, it was clarified that landlords were responsible for pest control in their properties and they would be liable for any costs. It was also clarified that while tenants could report instances of pests to the Council, landlords should have been doing this as a matter of course. It was also clarified the new service would be within the curtilage of a property, as the Council already undertook pest control for land it owned. There was a concern about how pest control applications could harm pets, but it was commented there were different methods of pest control that could be applied.  

A Member suggested several options for the placement of youth services. The Mayor responded by saying it was important to understand where the service was needed in the first instance. A discussion took place regarding the lack of youth hubs in some areas of the town. Members were also advised how other schemes and mechanisms were being examined to provide services in areas where there was not an obvious hub.

A Member queried how the proposed initiative for youth services was going to work. Members heard that Middlesbrough had an array of youth activities already in place, but it was not consistent. Therefore, the initiatives aimed to bring a level of consistency.

A Member queried if the framework in place to deliver youth services could be shared with Members so they could then share that with their respective community councils. It was clarified that a full list of activities would be released through initiatives such as the 10x10 scheme. When those activities were known, and a consistent programme was in place, it would be released to all Members. It was recognised that it was often difficult to learn about different youth activities from a single source. 

It was clarified that the age ranges of proposed youth activity began at eight years and lasted until teenage years. There was a need to plug gaps in youth provision, and where there was no youth activity, this would be aimed at 10-14 years.

A conversation took place regarding the types of facilities available to young people in the town  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/88

The Executive Member for Neighbourhoods will be in attendance to provide an update on his portfolio.  

The Chair welcomed the Executive Member for Neighbourhoods and the Head of Neighbourhoods to the meeting and invited the Executive Member to deliver his update.

The Executive Member advised the Board that a copy of his portfolio had been circulated to Members immediately before the meeting.

The Executive Member’s update included the following points:

•         The Executive Member had been in post since 2025 with many of the functions contained within the portfolio having had existed for some time.

•         This was a busy period for the Neighbourhoods team which had seen the recruitment of several staff following approval of the budget and work with external partners such as Belong in developing a community strategy.

At this point the Executive Member invited the Head of Communities to address Members which included the following points:

•         An important part of the Communities area was work around Navigators which played an important role in signposting people to relevant services.

•         A range of staff had been recruited to relevant posts.

A Member commented that the Neighbourhoods team worked well and wanted to see this continue. An explanation of the Neighbourhood Caretaker role was provided. While Area Care operatives were multidisciplinary and carried out routine maintenance, Neighbourhood Caretakers were involved, primarily, in project primarily.

A Member queried if a poster on the work of Neighbourhood Navigators had been completed. It was agreed that the Head of Neighbourhoods would follow up on this with the Member outside of the meeting. It was clarified that different areas had different neighbourhood priorities.

A discussion took place about roles in the Neighbourhood’s teams and how issues were reported to them via the Councillor Gateway system. It was commented that the Neighbourhood’s Model and Customer Model were closely linked, and it was important to understand how those links worked to ensure issues were not missed. The Head of Neighbourhoods commented that the current system was useful in capturing and processing information.

A Member queried the status of new community buildings. It was clarified there was to be four neighbourhood community hubs that would be open for residents, Councillors, officers and partners. The hubs would be based in the North, South, East and West of the town. Members also noted that the North hub, based in Newport, was operational. There was a programme of investing £5 million of upgrades to the hubs. The East hub was based in Norfolk Shops, South hub was based in the Viewley Centre, and the West hub was based in Grove Hill. Several important partners worked out of the hubs.

In terms of refurbishment timescales, the South hub would take 14 weeks starting in May 2026, with East starting in August 2026 and lasting 20 weeks, North starting in October 2026 lasting 26 weeks and West starting in late 2026.

A Member complimented the Neighbourhoods Team but commented that responsiveness of the Councillor Gateway system could be improved.

It was commented there was a disconnect between Members and the workings of the various Neighbourhoods  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/89

None.