Councillors and committees

Agenda and minutes

Venue: Ashcombe Suite, County Hall, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 2DN

Contact: Ross Pike 

Items
No. Item

9/17

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

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    Minutes:

    Apologies were received from Bill Chapman, Bob Gardner, Mark Brett-Warburton, Denise Saliagopoulos and Hazel Watson.  Jonathan Essex substituted for Hazel Watson.

10/17

MINUTES OF THE PREVIOUS MEETING: 18 JANUARY 2017 pdf icon PDF 123 KB

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    To agree the minutes as a true record of the meeting.

    Minutes:

    The minutes were agreed as an accurate record of the meeting.

11/17

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

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    All Members present are required to declare, at this point in the meeting or as soon as possible thereafter

    (i)            Any disclosable pecuniary interests and / or

    (ii)           Other interests arising under the Code of Conduct in respect of any item(s) of business being considered at this meeting

    NOTES:

    ·         Members are reminded that they must not participate in any item where they have a disclosable pecuniary interest

    ·         As well as an interest of the Member, this includes any interest, of which the Member is aware, that relates to the Member’s spouse or civil partner (or any person with whom the Member is living as a spouse or civil partner)

    ·         Members with a significant personal interest may participate in the discussion and vote on that matter unless that interest could be reasonably regarded as prejudicial.

     

    Minutes:

    There were no declarations of interest made.

12/17

QUESTIONS AND PETITIONS

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    To receive any questions or petitions.

     

    Notes:

    1.    The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm four working days before the meeting (Thursday 26 January 2017).

    2.    The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting (Wednesday 25 January 2017).

    3.    The deadline for petitions was 14 days before the meeting, and no petitions have been received.

    Minutes:

    There were no questions or petitions submitted to the Board.

13/17

RESPONSES FROM THE CABINET TO ISSUES REFERRED BY THE SCRUTINY BOARD pdf icon PDF 144 KB

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    The Board’s final budget recommendations are to be considered by Cabinet at their meeting on 31st January 2017.

    Minutes:

    Zully Grant-Duff entered the meeting at 10:12am

     

    1.    A Cabinet Response to Council Overview Board was tabled at the meeting and is annexed to these minutes.

     

    2.    The Chairman explained that when addressing Cabinet, he had stated that he hoped for the scrutiny function to be able to have input into the proposals that were being considered as part of the substitute budget.

     

    3.    The Chairman informed the Board that a recommendation to provide a transparent member led process to identify savings required for the alternative budget was removed by Cabinet and substituted by the following two recommendations:

    A.    Agree to establish a Sustainability Review Board comprising of three cross party Members, the Strategic Director for Adult Social Care and Public Health, the Deputy Chief Executive and the Director of Finance.

     

    B.    Require this Board to bring back an initial report to the Cabinet meeting on 28 March 2017 on progress toward identifying £30m permanent service reductions and up to a further £22m one-off reductions required to achieve a balanced budget in 2017/18

     

    4.    Members indicated that the aforementioned permanent service reductions would require scrutiny at Board level, and that a cross-party group of three Members would not allow for a transparent process.

     

    5.    Members acknowledged that they had the right to call in any decision taken by the Cabinet on 28 March 2017, however this could significantly delay the council’s ability to publicise, prior to any referendum, information on service reductions. 

     

    6.    It was the view of the Board that there should be a role for scrutiny in formulating the substitute budget prior to decisions being taken at Cabinet on 28 March 2017.

     

    Resolved

     

    It was agreed that the Chairman of the Council Overview Board contacts the Leader to discuss the need for a scrutiny process to underpin the work of the Sustainability Review Board and agree a timetable for scrutiny of the existing MTFP savings plans and the proposals developed by the Sustainability Review Board ahead of the Cabinet meeting of 28 March 2017.

     

     

     

14/17

RECOMMENDATIONS TRACKER AND FORWARD WORK PROGRAMME pdf icon PDF 10 KB

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    The Scrutiny Board is asked to monitor progress on the implementation of recommendations from previous meetings, and to review its Forward Work Programme.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Forward Work Programme

     

    1.    The Chairman explained that the Investment Strategy item scheduled for the March meeting had been deferred until the new Council year, to allow for a meaningful report with the required information.

     

    Recommendations Tracker

     

    1.    Recommendation reference R9/2016.  The Chairman informed the Board that a meeting had been arranged for 21 February 2017, for the Members of the Transformation sub-group to meet with Members of East Sussex County Council to discuss performance and prioritise scrutiny related to Orbis. 

     

    2.    Recommendation reference R13/2016.  The Vice-Chairman reported to the Board on the work carried out so far by the Agency Staffing task group.  Due to officer and Member availability, the task group met as a group of two, namely Eber Kington and Colin Kemp.  The group heard that the usage of agency staffing had been significantly reduced, and that the introduction of a short term resourcing needs policy, an improved waiver process which now included a HR sign-off role and COB scrutiny had helped achieve this reduction.  COB noted at its December meeting, that the usage of agency staff within Business Services was 33.9% of their budgeted spend.  This figure was found to be inaccurate following the task group meeting.  It was understood that usage had reduced to 7.5% and that the current level of agency staff usage was 3.7%.  A further meeting of the task group will be arranged, with a final report expected to come to COB in March.

     

    3.    Members agreed that it would be useful for an item to be brought to the COB March meeting detailing a breakdown of the already identified £93m savings that have been identified in the Medium Term Financial Plan, in order to assist Members’ understanding before they can have further input into where another £30m of savings could be found.

     

15/17

EXCLUSION OF THE PUBLIC

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    Recommendation: That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information under the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

    Minutes:

    Resolved: That under Section 100(A) of the Local Government Act 1972, the public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information under the relevant paragraphs of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Act.

     

    PART TWO – IN PRIVATE

     

16/17

SURREY CHOICES BUSINESS PLAN pdf icon PDF 103 KB

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    This report is to enable the Board to scrutinise the performance and business plan of Surrey Choices Ltd.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Declarations of interest:

     

    None

     

    Witnesses:

     

    Susan Smyth, Strategic Finance Manager and Secretary of the Shareholder Board

    Peter Martin, Deputy Leader and Member of the Shareholder Board

    Denise Le Gal, Cabinet Member for Resident Experience and Business Services and Member of the Shareholder Board

     

    Key points raised during the discussions:

     

    1.    The Board noted that the Scrutiny in a New Environment Task Group were looking into the governance arrangements of Local Authority Trading Companies (LATCs) following the joint letter sent to the Leader and Chief Executive from the Chairmen of COB, SCSB and A&G.

     

    2.    The Chairman informed the Board that confirmation had been received from the Director of Legal, Democratic and Cultural Services that LATCs fall under the same rules as a regulated company, meaning LATCs should provide to a member of a relevant authority such information about the affairs of the company as the member reasonably requires for the proper discharge of his duties.

     

    3.    Members noted that the Chairman had requested for the Interim Managing Director of Surrey Choices to attend this meeting, however this request was not deemed appropriate.

     

    4.    Members questioned whether the Shareholder Board were still satisfied that Surrey Choices Ltd was the right vehicle for providing disability and learning difficulty support services to the residents of Surrey.  The Deputy Leader stated that the reason for forming the LATC in this instance was to provide better services to residents at a lower cost.  The service was utilised by a large number of residents and it was paramount that service provision was of a good standard.  The Shareholder Board were satisfied that Surrey Choices was given a Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating of good, and that experience surveys completed by service users were also very positive.

     

    5.    The Chairman agreed for the meeting to go into Part 2.

     

    Resolved

     

    By virtue of paragraph(s) 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 this meeting can now go into Part 2 as the following information to be discussed falls into the category of information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular persons (including the authority holding that information).

     

    Actions/Further information to be provided:

     

    Deputy Leader to take feedback from service users provided by COB on the quality of activities to Surrey Choices management for comment.

    Recommendations:

     

    a)    The Board notes the financial and managerial difficulties experienced by Surrey Choices since its creation and has considered evidence from the Shareholder Board on a new business plan for the company; and

     

    b)    Agrees that future scrutiny of Surrey Choices and Council owned LATCs by the Council Overview Board in 2017/18 should be further considered in the light of any recommendations made by the Scrutiny in a New Environment Task Group on access to officers and information.

     Agreed by 5 votes to 4.

17/17

INTERNAL AUDIT: PREMISES SECURITY pdf icon PDF 84 KB

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    This report summarises the audit findings and Management Action Plan produced as a result of an internal audit review of the security of council premises.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Declarations of interest:

     

    None

     

    Witnesses:

     

    Ken Akers, Head of HR & OD

    Claire Barrett, Deputy Chief Property Officer

    Simon White, Audit Performance Manager

    Tasneem Ali, Internal Auditor

     

    Key points raised during the discussions:

     

    1.    The Board noted the overall audit opinion of Significant Improvement Required and acknowledged that some progress had been made in addressing some of the high priority recommendations.

     

    2.    The Deputy Chief Property Officer explained that the outcome of the audit was taken very seriously and that there were four overarching points to make.

                          i.        Progress against all recommendations was ongoing, with continual review, and that the recommendations were not simply addressed as a tick box exercise.

                         ii.        The recommendations do not have one specific owner; the actions involved input from various services, and that everyone had a part to play in maintaining general security of council premises.

                        iii.        There was a need to establish what was required in order to deliver a good level of security whilst maintaining the day to day operation of the organisation.

                       iv.        Some of the recommendations relate to a culture of practise and that there was a requirement to change behaviours in order to achieve these.

     

    3.    The Chairman agreed to take the meeting into Part 2

     

    Resolved

    By virtue of paragraph(s) 3 of Part 1 of the Schedule 12A of the Local Government Act 1972 this meeting can now go into part 2 as the following information to be discussed falls into the category of information relating to any action taken or to be taken in connection with the prevention of crime.

     

    Recommendations:

     

    That Internal Audit provide an update to the Chairman and Vice-Chairman in April 2017, detailing progress towards achieving the high priority recommendations following their six-monthly follow-up visit.

18/17

DATE OF NEXT MEETING

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    The next meeting of the Board will be held at 10:00am on Wednesday 1 March 2017.

    Minutes:

    The Board noted that its next meeting would be held on Wednesday 1 March 2017 at 10:00am