Agenda and 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.

The minutes of the Executive meeting held on 22 October 2025 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

To receive updates from scrutiny chairs.

The Chair of the Overview and Scrutiny Board (OSB) invited the respective Panel Chair to provide their update.

The Chair of the Children’s Services Scrutiny Panel advised the Board that at the Panel’s last meeting information had been received regarding Workforce Planning in relation to Education services. As part of the Panel’s review into Out of Area Provision, it intended to examine how this affected social care. At its next meeting in December the Panel would be receiving a presentation from the South Tees Child Safeguarding Board.

The Chair of the Place Scrutiny Panel advised the Board that the last meeting of the Panel had taken place on 17 November 2025 and had received a presentation from the Director of Regeneration regarding the Town Centre Board, the Place Leader’s Partnership and a presentation from Creative Factory whose intention was to create art facilities in the town. The Panel was continuing to examine ways the town centre could be regenerated and what barriers existed. The Chair of the Panel was also scheduled to attend Executive on 3 December 2025 to present the Panel’s final report into Empty Properties.

The Vice Chair of the Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Panel advised the Board that the Panel last met on 20 October 2025 and focussed on the review of Healthy Placemaking with a Focus on Childhood Obesity. The Panel approved its Terms of Reference and received information from officers in Planning Services, Public Health Services and the Head of Transport and Infrastructure. The next meeting of the Panel was scheduled for 1 December 2025 where it would hear information from the Chair of the Teeswide Safeguarding Adults Board.

NOTED

The Chair welcomed the Mayor, Executive Member for Finance, Director of Public Health and Head of Resident and Business Support to the meeting.

It was explained that the presentations to be delivered constituted an overview of the Board’s review into poverty. It was also explained there would be two presentations: the first covering the Welfare Strategy and the second covering the Poverty Sprint.

The Head of Resident and Business Support delivered her presentation, regarding the Welfare Strategy, which included the following points:

·         It was important to share the work being undertaken by the Council to support poverty in the town.

·         The initiatives described in the presentation had been commended and awarded in 2023.

·         There were 11 themes being delivered. Those included food poverty, Section 13A funds and centralising debt collection teams.

·         Several initiatives had seen quantifiable actions, including work with Public Health colleagues, to identify those eligible for free school means but not claiming them. This had led to an additional 546 recipients.

·         The Resident and Business Support Team was expanding to include debt management support. This was required as some residents were planning their finances on a day-to-day basis.

·         Crisis support was available for residents who had lost access to their money with over £55,000 worth of funding made available. This support had been crucial to those in need of it.

·         81 referrals had been to the MEC equating to over £3,000 in energy vouchers.

·         In terms of centralisation of debt, there had been 59 credits moved to support debt.

·         There had been over 8,000 Housing Benefit Claims with over £42 million of funding made available.

·         In terms of Household Support Fund (HSF), the government had continued their support and as such 65,245 awards had been made, totalling over £3 million distributed. Households could receive multiple awards rathe than just one award.

·         Overall, over 37,000 HSF awards were made to households with children, over 6,000 awards were awarded to households with pensioners and more than 21,000 awards were made to other household types.

·         Support had been delivered through a combination of vouchers, cash payments and physical goods.

·         Importantly, households were eligible for support if they fell outside the benefit window but were in employment.

·         In total there had been a total of 234,987 awards made under Household Support Fund totalling £10,662,772.

The Chair thanked the Head of Resident and Business Support for her presentation and invited questions from the Board.

A Member thanked the service area for their work and commented that a benefit awareness session had taken place in his ward several years ago. It was queried if this would be repeated. It was clarified there were plans to expand the team to cover such work and that officer would link in with community hubs to target those in need.

A discussion took place regarding the family resilience fund and how residents were being navigated to different places for support. It was important to drill down into the issues facing those in need to understand what support could  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/37

The Mayor will be in attendance to present the report.

Report to note.

The Chair invited the Mayor to deliver his presentation on the Continuous Improvement Plan.

The Mayor stated his presentation complemented a report that had been circulated to Members and which had been agreed by Executive on 12 November 2025. As part of his presentation the Mayor made the following points:

·         The Council was moving toward the end of its improvement journey and there was a need to talk about next steps.

·         The Council Plan contained high level aims which had been amended to make them more accessible and understandable.

·         This process was being undertaken for all the measures contained in the Council Plan with examples provided to the Board. One of the primary goals of transformation was to make Council services more efficient.

·         In terms of where the Council was heading, there was a need to introduce long term projects to bring about town-level change.

·         It was possible that promised returns may be difficult to articulate and that financial investments would be over the longer term but would be focused on the town.

·         Examples cited included the 10x10 childhood enrichment programme that was of a societal nature but would not be realised in the short term. This would see improved access to opportunity, highlight the industries and activities in the town and maintained links with schools.

·         The next cohort of children would not complete the programme until 2036.

The Chair thanked the Mayor for his presentation and invited questions from the Board.

Following an example cited in the Mayor’s presentation, a Member queried the definition of Biodiversity. This was provided and the Mayor advised that the wording of all actions was being examined to make them more accessible.

A Member queried what the Mayor’s main priorities were. It was clarified that childhood enrichment was a key priority followed by economic growth. It was important for the Council to articulate what Middlesbrough was.

There were no further questions for the Mayor and the Chair thanked the Mayor for his presentation and asked the Board to note the information.

NOTED.

The Executive Member for Finance will be in attendance to provide her update. The Executive Member will refer to the Quarter 1 Budget Outturn report which was approved by Executive on 3 September 2025. That report is attached to this agenda. 

The Chair welcomed the Executive Member for Finance to the meeting and invited her to deliver her presentation.

As part of her presentation the Executive Member for Finance made the following points:

·         An overview of the Finance portfolio included responsibility for of ensuring the Council was financially sustainable, delivered value for money and operated openly and fairly in these respects.

·         The Executive Member’s personal targets for the previous year had been to deliver within budget for 2024/25, balance the budget for 2025/26 without the need for further exceptional financial support and to introduce a new Member Enquiry system as well as creating a working group for Councillor communications.

·         All of the personal targets described had been achieved.

A Member queried if the identified underspend for 2024/25 would have been placed into reserves. It was clarified that the Council continued to contribute to its reserves. The cost of the Councillor Gateway system was queried, and it was clarified that the cost of the IT product was £145,000 but this did not include costs around support officers.

In terms of reserves, a chart was displayed for Members that demonstrated there was an upward trend in the replenishment of the Council’s reserves.

The Executive Member outlined her personal targets for 2025/26 which were:

·         To deliver within budget for 2025/26 and to improve the budget clinic process to incorporate Transformation.

·         Review the Councillor Gateway System and to improve communications channels with officers.

·         Use the Household Support fund to help pensioners impacted due to the removal of the Winter Fuel Payments and those on low incomes.

The Board was advised that at Quarter One there had been a projected overspend of £4.4 million but this was expected to be reduced when the Quarter Two information was released. Children’s Services continued to be the Council’s main overspending service, but there were also overspends in other areas. Members were advised that all services that had predicted overspends had been requested to submit recovery plans.

A Member commented that the Regeneration Department had a predicted overspend of 12% of its budget and this was concerning. It was clarified that the Regeneration Department’s overspend could be attributed to the relatively low size of its budget and high-income targets.

A Member queried that Children’s Services had consistently been overspent against its budget, and why it was forecasted as a lower spender. It was clarified that if additional budget was assigned to the service it would expand into it. Were additional funds be allocated to Children’s Services there would be reduced funding available for other front-line services. There was a need for Children’s Services to adopt a more corporate outlook.

In terms of reviewing the Councillor Gateway system and improving Member communication with officers, a survey had been carried out with Members and a project team had been established which included both Members and Officers. While there was not a significant response rate to the survey the issues contained in it would be examined.

A conversation took place during which Members  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/39

For members of overview and scrutiny board to consider the executive forward plan.

Report to note.

The Chair introduced the report for the Board’s consideration.  A copy of the Work Programme was attached at Appendix A and Members were asked to raise any issues they had in relation to any of the items listed.

There were no questions from Board.

NOTED.

To provide members of the overview and scrutiny board with an update on outstanding forward plan actions arising from the previous meeting.

Members were advised that questions arising from the previous meeting of Overview and Scrutiny Board relating to the Forward Plan had been circulated to the Board via email.

NOTED.

None.