23 CABINET MEMBER PRIORITIES UPDATE PDF 115 KB
Purpose of the report:For the Select Committee to receive an update from the Cabinet Member for Corporate Support and Cabinet Member for Finance on progress against their priorities and objectives.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Witnesses:
Dr Zully Grant-Duff, Cabinet Member for Corporate Support
Mel Few, Cabinet Member for Finance
Leigh Whitehouse, Executive Director of Resources and Section 151 Officer
Key points raised during the discussion:
1. A Member enquired what the key dates were for the Coroner’s Service Local Government Accountability and Performance (LGAP) review and when findings for this would be received. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Support responded that the report would be available at the end of December 2019.
2. A Member assumed that the new ‘single front door’ system in customer services, whereby customers would be assisted as early as possible by the customer services team, rather than by a more specialised team, had been the default system for some time already. They queried the impact there would be on the contact centre with the new system. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Support confirmed that there had indeed always been a ‘single front door’ in the form of a contact centre, but that now enquiries that would previously have been referred to a specific service at an earlier stage were being triaged and resolved at the contact centre. Enquiries were only referred to a specific service when they needed specialised attention.
3. A Member asked how the new single front door system would translate to more effective services for residents. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Support indicated that the new system was more effective because it was more efficient, as the volume of enquiries that required specialised attention was reduced.
4. The Cabinet Member for Finance reported that the results of periods six and seven showed improvement on the budget shortfall to just over £1 million. The initial indications of period eight showed an estimated shortfall of around £500,000, meaning that the gap in the budget was closing.
5. A Member questioned whether the £8.5 million overspend in Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) had been reduced or whether measures had been taken elsewhere in the budget to compensate. The Cabinet Member for Finance confirmed that compensatory measures had been taken. A SEND board was being set up to focus directly on the causes and effects of rising demand and cost of the SEND service.
6. The Committee questioned how much of the improvement in the budget position was due to the capitalisation of costs in highways. The Cabinet Member for Finance stated that about £4.5 million was capitalised and it was based on a reassessment of what was being charged into the roads and repairs costs. The Executive Director added that not capitalising highway costs previously was an omission, it was explained that some works had been charged to capital and some to revenue, and capitalising now had brought the council in line with current accounting practice.
7. A Member queried a reference in the report to the majority of capital projects being completed in the financial year, and asked for this to be quantified. The Executive Director replied that in this meant a vast majority, and that the ... view the full minutes text for item 23
24 CABINET MEMBER PRIORITIES UPDATE PDF 55 KB
Purpose of the report:For the Select Committee to receive an update from the Deputy Leader, Cabinet Member for Highways, Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste and Cabinet Member for Community Safety, Fire and Resilience on progress against their priorities and objectives.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
[Jan Mason arrived at the meeting at 10.05]
Witnesses:
Denise Turner Stewart, Cabinet Member for Community, Safety, Fire & Resilience
Colin Kemp, Deputy Leader
Mike Goodman, Cabinet Member for Environment and Waste
Key points raised during the discussion:
12 CABINET MEMBER PRIORITIES UPDATE PDF 115 KB
Purpose of the report:For the Select Committee to receive an update from the Cabinet Member for Corporate Support and Cabinet Member for Finance on progress against their priorities and objectives.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
Witnesses:
Dr Zully Grant-Duff, Cabinet Member for Corporate Support
Mr Mel Few, Cabinet Member for Finance
Key points raised during the discussion:
1. The Committee heard from the Cabinet Member for Corporate Support, who provided Members with further information on work that had been completed since the last Committee meeting, as well as her ongoing projects.
2. Discussing the implementation of the digital strategy, the Cabinet Member explained that she had hoped the strategy would be in place by October 2019 but that the delay was a result of the appointment of Rainmaker Solutions as partners in the design phase. As a result, the revised deadline was now February 2020.
3. The Cabinet Member went on to talk about the preparation of the forward procurement plan for the next financial year. This was expected to come to Cabinet in December 2019, and an interim procurement plan had already been approved by Cabinet for Q3 and Q4. Both plans listed the intentions for strategic commissioning and had been drawn up in conjunction with all of the Council’s services.
4. Members heard that the third piece of ongoing work was concerned with the improvement programme in business operations, with a particular emphasis on pensions administration. The service needed to be modernised and work had started but there was still much left to do.
5. Referring to the design phase of the digital strategy, a Member questioned whether between two and three weeks was a enough time to get a realistic view of the thoughts of residents and partners. He also asked for further information regarding the dates associated with the Digital Business and Insights Programme. In response, the Cabinet Member explained that the digital strategy design phases were “proof of concept phases”, with the idea being to select around five of these cases so that there was a high-level sign of what needed to change. This would allow changes to be made in response to obstacles, issues that users have and matters relating to efficiency. The idea was to get feedback on those five proof of concept cases and develop the strategy within 15 weeks. With regards to the Digital Business and Insights Programme, the Cabinet Member informed the Committee that a paper was going to that month’s Cabinet meeting and would include an outline of the business plan and a request to proceed to the procurement stage. It was expected to come back to Cabinet with the responses to the tendering exercise, and approval would be sought to begin implementing a new system from April 2020.
6. A Member asked about the improved online reporting for highways and asked for absolute numbers to be provided alongside the percentage changes, as this would better indicate to the Committee how big the problem still was. It was then agreed that the Cabinet Member would provide the Committee with a written response that included the required numbers relating to the percentage figures used in the report.
7. Discussing the digital strategy, the Vice-Chairman asked ... view the full minutes text for item 12
4 CABINET MEMBER PRIORITIES UPDATE PDF 114 KB
Purpose of the item:For the Select Committee to receive an update from the Cabinet Member for Corporate Support and Cabinet Member for Finance on their priorities and objectives for the year ahead.
Additional documents:
Minutes:
The Chairman informed the Committee and those present at the meeting that there had been an accident on the M25 and therefore a number of attendees were running late including the Cabinet Member for Corporate Support and Vice-Chairman.
Declarations of interest:
None
Witnesses:
Dr Zully Grant-Duff, Cabinet Member for Corporate Support
Mr Mel Few, Cabinet Member for Finance
Leigh Whitehouse, Executive Director of Resources
Key points raised during the discussion:
1. The Vice-Chairman started with questioning asking the Cabinet Member for Finance the following questions: what his top three priorities for the year ahead were, what his greatest areas of concern were within his portfolio, how these concerns would be tackled and finally how the Cabinet Member would work with the Cabinet Member for Corporate Support going forward. The Cabinet Member for Finance started by saying that the main area of focus for him was the budget and delivering the savings plan of £100m, which included £80m for transformation plans and £20m for operational budgets. The second focus was the delivery of capital projects and the third focus would be working to have a regular cash flow presented. Property was included as a priority and specifically how the council develop and dispose of properties and ensure property is aligned with service requirements. Staffing in property would also need attention.
2. The Cabinet Member for Finance explained that the Cabinet Member for Corporate Support was responsible for the daily running of council property whilst he was responsible for the Capital side of property. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Support was also responsible for agile working, IMT and transforming Orbis.
3. A Member queried how the Cabinet Member for Finance was involved with the development and disposal of property assets alongside services. The Cabinet Member for Finance explained that services were responsible for setting their own property agendas and property requirements were forwarded from the service to the property team for actioning. All capital investments come forward on an investment proposal which have a payback analysis.
4. The Chairman queried to what degree property savings had been separated out from operational savings and if there were savings targets for the property function. The Executive Director of Resources explained that the MTFP was currently being refreshed for the next four years and targets would be coming forward from savings flowing from the assets and place strategy which was agreed by Cabinet earlier in the year. These savings would be counted against property. To date there are some examples where service changes include some property savings which are being tracked to ensure they are being delivered. It was added that the council would be operating a corporate landlord model as part of the assets and place strategy which would require close collaboration between the service and property. Services would also be asked to develop property strategies over the next five years which sets out there service requirements going forward.
5. It was confirmed that service property strategies would focus on delivering service outcomes within ... view the full minutes text for item 4