Councillors and committees

Agenda and minutes

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

Contact: Huma Younis 

Items
No. Item

1/19

APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE AND SUBSTITUTIONS

    To report any apologies for absence and substitutions.

    Minutes:

    Apologies were received from Graham Ellwood, Chris Botten and Mark Brett-Warburton.

2/19

DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST

    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); and

     

    ·         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:

    Rachael I Lake declared an interest in that her son was employed by Surrey County Council.

3/19

QUESTIONS AND PETITIONS

    To receive any questions or petitions.

     

    Notes:

     

    1. The deadline for Member’s questions is 12.00pm four working days before the meeting (5 July 2019).

     

    2. The deadline for public questions is seven days before the meeting (4 July 2019).

     

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

    Minutes:

    None had been received.

4/19

CABINET MEMBER PRIORITIES UPDATE pdf icon 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 4/19

5/19

QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE REPORT (Q4 2018/19) pdf icon PDF 70 KB

    Purpose of the item: To invite the Select Committee’s comments and suggestions in respect of the Q4 Performance Report 2018/19, regarding the format and nature of the presentation of the information, as well as any of the indicators and/or measures reported.

     

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    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

    Nicola Kilvington, Director of Intelligence, Analytics & Insight

    Una McCarthy, Interim Assistant Director for Intelligence, Data, Analytics & Insight

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

    1. The item was introduced by the Cabinet Member for Finance who stated that the report was a great start for performance reporting as the council had not previously had this type of detailed information. He stated that there were a few issues around no trends being displayed in the report and would be asking each Cabinet Member to look through the report focusing on five key drivers and then trying to understand how the report contributes to the delivery of the £82m saving required. The Director of Intelligence, Analytics & Insight explained that this was a new approach to corporate performance reporting which is complimentary to existing performance reporting taking place across the council. An eight lenses approach had been taken with the aim of keeping the report brief to highlight interdependencies. This is a work in progress and will be tailored to comments from members.

     

    Graham Knight, Vice-Chairman arrived at 10:45 

     

    1. The Vice-Chairman queried with the Cabinet Member for Finance the items marked red in the current year budget. It was explained that the council was forecasting a £10.3m shortfall for the year which was driven by SEND.
    2. A Member expressed their support for the scorecard approach to performance reporting asking how this performance report would interlink with various other performance reporting taking place across the organisation. The Director of Intelligence, Analytics & Insight explained that directorate reporting was robust but not standardised across the council and explained that indicators with the Q4 report are taken from directorate based reports.
    3. It was queried how targets for service delivery measures were agreed and how this translated to a RAG status. The Director of Intelligence, Analytics & Insight said that she would need to go back to services to discuss individual indicators. As some indicators were new, targets had not been set but the service did want to get into a position where targets were set for all indicators. The Member was of the view that a RAG status should not be set if there was no target in place.
    4. Another Member expressed their support for the report and the direction performance reporting was moving in.
    5. On the Strategic Risks (April 2019) contained within the Q4 report a Member queried which of the risks numbered between 3-8 would have the biggest payback for the council. The Executive Director of Resources stated that he believed the biggest risk area which would have an adverse impact on the council was SEND. The Member commented that he had knowledge of SEND and that transport in this area was very costly for the council.
    6. Concern was raised around people and customer measures included within the Q4 report. The Cabinet Member for Corporate Support explained that indicators were being worked  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5/19

6/19

SELECT COMMITTEE FORWARD WORK PROGRAMME pdf icon PDF 111 KB

    Purpose of the item: For the Select Committee to review the attached forward work programme making suggestions for additions or amendments as appropriate.

    Additional documents:

    Minutes:

    Declarations of interest:

    None

     

    Key points raised during the discussion:

    1. The Chairman explained that the transformation projects within the Committees remit would be considered at the October and December Select Committee meetings with the possibility that the order in which these projects are considered may be changed depending on the acceleration of the projects.
    2. The Vice Chairman recommended that the Digital transformation project is the main focus at the October meeting as an item on the digital strategy would be taken to Cabinet in October for consideration. It was agreed that the Chairman and Vice-Chairmen would decide which transformation projects are considered at the October and December Select Committee meetings.
    3. A Member of the Committee recommended that Members review investment re-appraisal reports. The Vice Chairman explained that there were plans to convene a budget and property task group which would look at investment re-appraisals.

     

    Resolved:    

    The Select Committee reviewed and agreed its forward work programme.

     

7/19

DATE OF NEXT MEETING: 18 OCTOBER 2019

    The next meeting of the Resources and Performance Select Committee will be held on 18 October 2019.

    Minutes:

    The next meeting of the Select Committee will be held on 18 October 2019 in the Ashcombe Suite, County Hall, Kingston upon Thames.