Agenda and draft minutes

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

It was proposed, and agreed, that the following typographical changes be made to minute number 25/51, namely:

•         “After required spending, the remaining addition funding totalled approximately £6.4 million” should read,

“After required spending, the remaining additional funding totalled approximately £6.4 million.”

•         “Overall, the Mayor stated that with increased investment and planned to spend the Council was making progress on planned outcomes” should read, “Overall, the Mayor stated that with increased investment and planned spend the Council was making progress on planned outcomes.”

Notwithstanding the agreed changes, the minutes of Overview and Scrutiny Board meeting held on 18 December 2025 were submitted and approved as a correct record.

The Chair of OSB invited the Chair of the Children’s Services Scrutiny Panel to provide his update. The Board was advised that the Panel had last met on 26 January at which further information had been received relating to its review into Out of Area Provision. As part of this review the Panel had received information relating complex needs, both within education and children’s social care, foster carers and the workforce plan. The Panel was hoping to conclude its review into this subject at its meeting in March 2026.

The Chair of OSB invited the Chair of the Adult Social Care and Health Scrutiny Panel to provide his update. The Board was advised that at the Panel’s last meeting, on 12 January, an update had been provided regarding the Adult Social Care CQC inspection. The Panel also received an overview of its next topic, Violence Against Women and Girls. Its next meeting would receive further evidence on the topic and consider the Terms of Reference for the review. The final draft of the Panel’s review into Healthy Place Making would also be presented at its next meeting.

The Chair of OSB invited the Chair of the Place Scrutiny Panel to provide his update. The Board was advised that the Panel last met on 29 January during which updates were received from the Head of Communities on topics including CHANNEL and the Community Safety Partnership. An update was also provided regarding PREVENT where the Panel discussed the issue of radicalisation. The Panel continued to examine evidence relating to its review into Barriers to Regeneration and looked at future topics including Middlesbrough’s bicentenary celebrations.

The Chair of OSB thanked the Panel Chairs for their update and asked the Board to note the information.

NOTED. 

The Chair presented the report and sought comments from the Board.

A Member requested further information be circulated to the Board in relation to the Forward Plan entry Town Centre Future Development.

The Chair commented there was a relatively low number of decisions on the Executive Forward Plan. He encouraged more decisions be placed on the Forward Plan going forward.

ORDERED That further information relating to the Forward Plan entry Town Centre Future Development be circulated to the Board.

The Democratic Services Officer advised the Board that a response to queries raised at the previous meeting of OSB had been circulated via email.

There were no questions from Members.

NOTED. 

The Board noted the apologies of the Executive Member for Public Health and invited the Director of Public Health to deliver his presentation.

The presentation included the following points:

•         Public Health South Tees adopted a programme approach to its work covering five programmes, four core approaches and three levels of intervention across the life course.

•         The Protecting Health Programme included the successful mobilisation of the new Teesside Together sexual health service. This was a major multi-agency change programme which had been delivered on time an included four operational hubs. The protecting health programme also included the expansion of the Blood Borne Virus out-out testing at James Cook University Hospital. Local detection rates were higher than national pilots which demonstrated early identification impact. This programme also included progress in the Pegasus and Solaris exercises, Tees Valley Immunisation steering group and allergen sampling. The main challenges to this programme included lack of timely data for immunisation and screening while opportunities included the launch of the National HV action plan.

•         The second programme was the Creating Environments for Healthy Food choices and Physical Activity Programme. Elements of this programme included the Tees Urban Nature Network which was a joint bid by Middlesbrough, Stockton and Redcar and Cleveland Councils and the Tees Valley Wildlife Trust to secure three years of funding to enhance partnership capacity, deepen community engagement, and build a pipeline of greenspace projects. Healthy placemaking also featured in this programme which intended health, and health inequalities, be embedded in major decisions ahead of the Local Plan’s adoption. Socially inclusive football involved a partnership between Public Health South Tees, Cultural Services and Middlesbrough Football Club Foundation which delivered an innovative, socially inclusive football event. This included hosting the first-ever Northern Homeless World Cup trials which attracting 110 participants and selected two players from Middlesbrough to represent England. The Tees Valley Active Schools programme was funded through You’ve Got This and engaged with 10 schools to embed physical activity throughout the school day. Opportunities within this programme included timing and interest of Health Scrutiny, as well as progressing work on advertising policy which contributed towards Healthy Weight Declaration commitments. Challenges included whole Council engagement in the Healthy Weight Declaration. 

•         The third programme was Ill Health Prevention which included BP Kiosks/ Community checks. Over 800 targeted Blood Pressure checks had been completed in community locations through Blood Pressure kiosks and Blood Pressure Community champions. It also included the atrial fibrillation (AF) project. This was a successful collaboration between public health, Holgate PCN and specialist cardiology during which 34 undetected AF cases were diagnosed. NHS Health Checks was a community outreach project, started through the ELM GP Federation. Substance misuse nurses had been trained to support delivery. The cervical screen pilot targeted the declining participation and inequalities in practices across South Tees. For the pilot 104 (46%) patients who had a successful telephone contact attended a screening and 7% had tested positive for HPV. Opportunities in this area included reducing Did Not Attends (DNA)  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/58

A Member of the OSB Task and Finish Group, established to consider Community Cohesion, presented the group’s Final Report and sought OSB’s input to its recommendations.

The Member stated the intention of the group was not to review the issue of Community Cohesion through a single event understand service provision relating to Community Cohesion and if there were any gaps in that provision.

As part of its work the group compared a previous review into Community Cohesion, carried out in 2021. To understand what progress had been made, the group had spoken to relevant internal and external stakeholders as detailed in the report.

The issue of community cohesion was broad and complex, and the Task and Finish approach was carried out with a relatively narrow focus.

The group would also stress that the review may have been in response to the riots in 2024 but was still relevant.  

While the group was reassured the Council’s approach to Community Cohesion was more robust than in previous years, this this seemed to be in response the riots.

Using the recommendations of the 2021 report, the group was initially concerned that a Community Cohesion strategy was not in place at the time of the riots. However, it is reassured that work on developing such a strategy was now progressing well.

The group hoped that following additional funding from the Home Office in the form of the Community Recovery Fund, the Council’s current approach to Community Cohesion can help prevent a repeat of the unrest experienced in 2024.

The Member stated there was no real way to predict the riots of 2024, and the Council had put more robust procedures and processes in place following them.

As part of the Board’s discussion, clarification was provided around which groups had received funding from the Community Recovery Fund and how there was a need to communicate effectively to all community groups across the town.

Members also discussed the different factors that contributed to the riots in Middlesbrough in 2024 and agreed that a more strategic approach toward Community Cohesion was required.

Members asked that the relevant service area be invited to a future meeting of OSB to receive an update on work to support Community Cohesion.

Following discussion about the report OSB proposed and agreed the following recommendations:

1.                  To ensure Scrutiny contributes to Community Cohesion agenda: - Develop a Community Strategy as quickly as possible with quarterly progress updates brought to scrutiny.

2.                  A draft of the Community Strategy should be brought to Scrutiny as the earliest opportunity before it is finalised.

3.                  To mitigate the risk of future unrest: - An early warning system, such as a Community Cohesion dashboard, should be developed to alert the Council and relevant partners of community tensions.

4.                  To ensure a robust Community Cohesion offer: - that the Council embeds initiatives created because of Home Office funding as part of its business-as-usual operations. An update should be brought back to Scrutiny on this  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/59

The Chair welcomed the Mayor and Head of ICT and Digital to the meeting and invited them to deliver their presentation.

As part of the presentation the following points were raised:

•         Artificial Intelligence (AI) was part of wider growth in emerging technology and there was a rapid growth in AI usage.

•         The use of AI introduced new risks and responsibilities.

•         AI could be leveraged to support productivity and service improvement, such as repetitive tasks and to reduce demand on some services.

•         AI needed to be used transparently and with accountability.

•         The Council had an AI policy in place which provided clear guidelines for AI’s safe, ethical and responsible use across the Council. 

•         The policy also ensured the use of AI was lawful, fair and transparent which meant keeping track of how it was used.

•         The need to be accountability in its use to ensure that any decisions taken were not reliant on AI. As such, there was a need to ensure the Council only used approved AI tools with all outputs reviewed by a human.

•         It was important that staff used AI confidently and responsibly. Doing this would realise several benefits including adherence to Data Protection principles, improved productivity and supplier compliance.

•         In terms of next steps, there would be continuous monitoring of emerging technologies and further investigations of tools on the market. 

•         A development of mandatory staff training was in progress and was likely to be implemented in March 2026.

•         The Council would also be engaging with new and existing suppliers in the coming year.

The Chair thanked the Head of ICT and Digital for her presentation and invited question from Members.

A Member queried if there was a list of approved AI tools. It was commented that some AI tools were already within the Microsoft environment, such as CoPilot, Chat and Magic Notes. It was also stated that it was better to channel the use of AI tools so they, and the data they used, was managed appropriately and the AI policy helped to do this.

It was stated there was a lot of technology that could assist Council processes, such as in Adult Social Care. There was also a distinction to be made between AI and tools that assisted with processing.

A Member commented that, due to its potential, a specific session for Members on the use of AI would be beneficial.

A Member queried if there was a way to quantify the efficiencies AI could bring. The Mayor stated that AI was not intended to replace staff, but instead to speed up processes while maintaining human control.

A Member queried if work on AI would cover Chatbots. It was clarified that Chatbots, when used with the public facing website, would be provided with a knowledge base which would speed up response times for common enquiries. This would need to be tested before being rolled out.

A Member queried what would be required from an AI supplier. It was stated that any provider would need to  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25/60

None.