The Committee is asked to note any apologies for absence and substitutions received from Members.

Apologies for absences were received from Councillor Ferguson (with no substitution) and Councillor Oxley (with Councillor Goldman substituting).

To confirm and sign as a correct record, the minutes of the last meeting of the Committee, held on 15 April 2025.

It was RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting of the Committee, held on Tuesday, 15 April 2025, be approved as a correct record and be signed by the Chairman.

Councillors are invited to declare any Disclosable Pecuniary Interests or Personal Interest, and the nature of it, in relation to any item on the agenda.

Councillor Steady (Chairman) noted under Minute 5 below for the public record that he knew Pat Popat as he had 2 dentists within the Brightlingsea Ward.  

Subject to providing two working days’ notice, a Member of the Committee may ask the Chairman of the Committee a question on any matter in relation to which the Council has powers or duties which affect the Tendring District and which falls within the terms of reference of the Committee.

No Questions on Notice pursuant to Council Procedure Rule 38 had been submitted by Members for this meeting.

To provide a briefing note relating to NHS dental commissioning for the Community Leadership Overview and Scrutiny Committee.

Councillor Steady (Chairman) noted for the public record that he knew Pat Popat as he had 2 dentists within the Brightlingsea Ward.

The Committee heard that the Integrated Care Board (ICB) had recently refreshed its five-year NHS dentistry vision and strategic priorities. A 2-year delivery plan had been agreed from 2025 to 2027, building on priorities and areas of work which the Committee were previously updated on in September 2024.

Suffolk and North East Essex’s (SNEE) vision for what they wanted to achieve was:

·         to improve access to high quality oral healthcare

·         to reduce oral health inequalities

·         to improve the oral health of the population

·         to build stability and resilience across the NHS dental services

·         to integrate dental services with other healthcare providers/partners

The strategic priorities were:

1. Oral Health education and prevention for children, young people, and adults
2. Support and development of the whole dental workforce
3. Improved access to oral healthcare
4. Further development of Level 2 (intermediate care) services
5. Development of Secondary care (hospital) services
6. Integration – dental service integration and collaboration
7. Building of Clinical leadership, engagement, and collaboration

Members were made aware that examples of projects either planned or underway in the next 2 years, aligned with the strategic priorities 1 to 3 above were detailed in the body of the briefing note.

The Committee was told that an additional 20,500 Units of Dental Activity (UDAs) had been commissioned from practices in the Tendring area and the number of people seen by dental practices increase by 6,799 in 2024/25.

Oral Health Improvement Programme:

Members were reminded that Essex County Council led on the commissioning of the oral health improvement programme and worked in partnership with the ICB.

The Committee was informed that supervised toothbrushing “actively brushing” was taking place with children aged 3 – 5 years in 15 early years settings across Tendring. An additional 20 early years setting across Colchester and Tendring were commissioned to undertake supervised toothbrushing until March 2027. Nationally, 23 million toothbrushes would be donated over the next 5 years to support the programme, alongside educational materials with a public-facing children’s oral health campaign. 31 early years settings, childminders and primary schools in Tendring would be targeted.

Members also heard that young people oral health champions who encouraged good oral health among their peers were in place in 17 primary schools across Colchester and Tendring.

Staff at 4 care homes in Colchester and Tendring had been trained in general oral health and 2 had been accredited as Life Long Smiles care providers. More homes were being encouraged to join the scheme.

Dental Workforce:

Work was being continued to support and develop the dental workforce. As part of that, 5 posts had been recruited across 10 practices in SNEE as part of the national Dental Recruitment Incentive Scheme, with 1 dentist recruited in North East Essex. The recruitment of a post in Frinton was ongoing.

Dental Access:

The Dental Priority Access and Stabilisation (DPASS) pilot was launched in April 2024 for 18 months. 4 practices in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

This report confirms the position in respect of the approved community governance review for Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick Sands and that the review will commence on 1 July 2025.  In relation to the review, the report sets out the decision of Council on 26 November 2024 (Minute 75 refers) for the review to proceed and the activities that have taken place in preparation for the review commencing.  The views of the Committee in respect of the revised draft Terms of Reference for the review are invited.  The Committee is also invited to set dates for it to meet in October 2025 and March 2026 in order to then oversee the outcome of the first stage of consultation, development of options/recommendations and (at the end of the second phase of consultation) to set out proposals for Full Council to consider in spring 2026.

The Committee considered a report of the Chief Executive which set out the approach to the approved community governance review of Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick Sands to commence on 1 July 2025. Critical to that review was the Terms of Reference for it. A draft Terms of Reference were considered by Council on 26 November 2024 (Minute 75 refers) and, by virtue of the delegation provided to the Chief Executive, those had been revised and were set out in Appendix A of the Officer report. It was intended to publish the final Terms of Reference on 1 July 2025 to trigger the formal commencement of the community governance review.

Members were reminded of the following motion approved at its meeting on 17 September 2024 (Minute 50 refers):

“That Full Council –

(1)  notes that:

a.    Parish and Town Councils are an established and valued form of local democracy with an information role to play in both rural, and urban, areas.

b.    the District currently has 27 Town and Parish Councils with a cumulative electorate of almost 75,000 and that Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick are not currently parished and the cumulative electorate for those areas is almost 45,000. As such, about 62% of residents have one of 27 Town and Parish Councils to represent them and their interests at a very local level. 38% of the District’s residents do not have that representation.

c.     between 1891 and 1974, Great Clacton (later renamed Clacton as it also covered Clacton-on-Sea) had its own specific tier of local government, and the area of this tier of local government was expanded in 1934 to take in the then former parish of Little Holland (later renamed Holland-on-Sea).

d.    since 1974, with the abolition of Clacton Urban District Council and creation of this District Council, there has been no distinct Local Council representation for specifically Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick.

e.    it has been more than 25 years since the electors of Jaywick Sands last had the chance to express their view on the issues of a parish for that Town.

f.      the nature/responsibilities of local government has changed over the years and, in recent years, there has been a distinct impetus to devolve power from Whitehall to local councils and communities that will further change that landscape.

g.    the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 devolved the power to take decisions about matters such as the creation of parishes and their electoral arrangements to the District Council for its area, through a process called a community governance review which has, at its heart, engagement with local people in the defined review area and that representations received in connection with the review are taken into by the District Council.

(2)  requests that proposals for a community governance review of Clacton-on-Sea, Holland-on-Sea and Jaywick be prepared and submitted to the next ordinary meeting of the Council to enable Council to determine whether to proceed with such a review, the timetable for a review and the resourcing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

The report provides the Committee with an update on its approved Work Programme for 2024/25 (including progress with enquiries set out in its Work Programme), feedback to the Committee on the decisions in respect of previous recommendations from the Committee in respects of enquiries undertaken and a list of forthcoming decisions for which public notice has been given. The report also notifies the Committee that Officers will be launching a consultation with regards to the Committee’s Work Programme for the 2025/26 municipal year.

The Committee considered a report of the Assistant Director (Corporate Policy & Support) which provided an update on its approved Work Programme for 2024/25 (including progress with enquiries set out in its Work Programme), feedback to the Committee on the decisions in respect of previous recommendations from the Committee in respects of enquiries undertaken and a list of forthcoming decisions for which public notice had been given.

Members were reminded that the Council had commissioned the Centre for Governance and Scrutiny (CfGS) to undertake an ‘Overview & Scrutiny Development Review’ in 2021 as a way of further improving that function at the Council.  Two relevant recommendations arising from that review had been:

“Further strengthening the annual process for developing work programmes for each O&S committee - Engaging Members, Officers, partners and the public to prioritise the topics for review. This could include a selection criteria to identify appropriate topics for the work programme. Currently the work programme is also the last item on the agenda at O&S meetings, we would recommend bringing it to the beginning, so it can be given greater priority and benefit from more considered discussion, rather than being subject to the inevitable end of meeting fatigue.

Reviewing how the recommendations are made and how impact is measured – This could include putting the ‘recommendations monitoring report’ at the beginning of agendas to orientate O&S towards outcomes-focused meetings, alongside an emphasis on finding strong recommendations from questioning to present to Cabinet (or partners) as improvement or challenge proposals.”

The inclusion of the matters set out in the “purpose of this report” section above sought further re-enforcement of the inter-relationship of the matters referred to.  As such, it had been designed to further support consideration of work programming of the Committee and contribute to addressing progress with the Corporate Plan.

The detailed matters relating to the following matters had been set out in the relevant Appendix identified:

(1) Work Programme for 2024/25 approved by Full Council on 6 August 2024 – Appendix A;

(2) feedback to the Committee on the decisions in respect of previous recommendations from the Committee in respects of enquiries undertaken –Appendix B; and

(3) a list of forthcoming decisions for which notice had been given since publication of the agenda for the Committee’s last meeting –Appendix C

In considering work programming matters, the Committee was further reminded of the other recommendations from the CfGS review undertaken in 2021:

“Considering greater use of task and finish groups – This more informal type of O&S can allow improved cross-party working and detailed investigation of a single issue focussed on producing substantive recommendations.

Improved agenda planning and management - Committees should focus on one or two substantive items per agenda to allow for cross-cutting themes to be properly identified and explored, and different insights brought to bear on critical issues.

Considering how to engage the public in the work of O&S - This could include O&S going on more site visits in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.