SCRUTINY COMMITTEE (CORPORATE RESOURCES)

 

MINUTES of a meeting held on 20th February, 2007.

 

Present: Councillor H.J.W. James (Chairman); Councillor Mrs. C.V.L. Clay (Vice-Chairman); Councillors Ms. L. Burnett, Mrs. J.E. Charles, Miss. J. Cole, M.R. Harvey, N.P. Hodges, T.H. Jarvie, F.T. Johnson, Mrs. M. Kelly Owen, C.L. Osborne, A.G. Powell, B.I. Shaw and K.R. Stockdale.

 

Also present: Councillor Mrs. M. Randall.

 

846  APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE-

 

These were received from Councillors A D Dobbinson and M R Wilson.

 

847  MINUTES-

 

RESOLVED -THAT the minutes of the meeting held on 23 January 2007 be approved as a correct record.

 

848  DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST-

 

There were no declarations received.

 

849  SOCIAL SERVICE ISSUES (CX) -

 

Committee were updated on current arrangements with Social Services as a result of the Chairman having raised a number of concerns, i.e.

 

Lack of corporate governance, process and controls for proper management of the budget of the department.

Action to tackle on-going re-organisation required to deliver good service at affordable cost.

Staffing and future resourcing issues for the proper delivery of a well managed department.

The impact of the overall Council’s operations of the re-organisation.

Change management within the department as a whole.

Ongoing financial and budget viability of the Council

Consultation and involvement of key partners such as WAG, SSIA, Vale LHB, and the voluntary sector.

 

To assist members in their deliberations, copies of the report submitted to Cabinet on 21 December 2006 had been circulated. The report had provided a background to consideration of the Chairman’s concerns as did the report to Scrutiny Committee (Community Wellbeing and Safety) of the 12 February 2007.

 

In addition, members of the Committee received a copy of the most to up-to-date version of the Change Plan.

 

Members were advised that work was underway to link the Change Plan with the Service Plan and the Council’s response to the Joint Review in order that everyone would be working from one single document.

 

The Chairman acknowledged that most of the points that he had raised were more than adequately dealt with in the Change Plan but enquired as to the completion date and resource implications.

 

The Committee were advised that, whilst the Council had approved a three year budget to bring spending back to base level, work on the detail was currently in progress and it could be seen from the Change Plan that much of the work was classified as being of high priority.

 

Much of the work of the Improvement and Development Team this year would be dedicated to assisting in the preparation and implementation of the Change Plan. There would inevitably be an impact on their scheduled work programme, but it was crucial that the timescale set as part of the budget strategy be maintained.

 

The following question and answer session then ensued:

 

Question  Answer
Regarding the action “introduce effective system for first contact and referral”, will a child access the system at the right point?  This is crucial. Business Process Re-engineering will be used to consider this point. Good social work requires good business systems and support.
Regarding the proposed review of Out of County placements – is this feasible?

There are a range of pressures on this area of service i.e. parental choice/court choice. Underpinning these issues is the fact that children do better the closer they are to home.

 

The answer to the question is that the review is feasible but assumptions should not be made at this stage.
The Change Plan is a management process. Are officers satisfied that the document will meet the budget requirements?  The Change Plan represents “work in progress”. A significant element will be the engagement of Managers. The impression of the Interim Manager of Social Services was that the staff would rise to the challenge.
Cultural change is one of the greatest challenges. Does the Council have the required levels of skills/qualifications/expertise, or will these qualities have to be bought? The impression of the Interim Manager of Social Services was that there were good staff within the Directorate.
Budgetary information is provided to this Committee regularly. Will the savings arising from the Change Plan be reported separately, although it was acknowledged that the savings may not materialise for some time. There will be regular reporting to both Cabinet and Scrutiny Committees.

 

Following the conclusion of the question and answer, the Chairman thanked all present for their constructive debate, and wished officers well in the task before them.

 

RECOMMENDED- THAT the Report be noted.

 

 

850  TAKING FORWARD SUSTAINABILITY (REF) -

 

Cabinet on 17 January 2007 received an update on progress in co-ordinating sustainable development in the Council and agreement was sough for new roles for Cabinet and Scrutiny.

 

It was reported that revised guidance for the Wales Programme for Improvement, published in December 2005, introduced new responsibilities for Councils to assess progress towards sustainability objectives within the annual Improvement Plan.

 

Sustainability was also linked to the Making the Connections agenda, as it was seen as a key component of efficiency and procurement. Efficiency would, in future, be defined in terms of whole-life and whole-systems costs. Sustainability was also linked to engagement, defining resources more broadly and using them sparingly, building and drawing on community resources, seeking synergies and favouring renewable and self-sustaining sources.

 

The role of the Wales Audit Office would be to assess continuing progress against sustainability objectives. Within the Joint Risk Assessment, sustainability would be more rigorously assessed.

 

The Deputy Leader had been identified as the Cabinet Member with responsibility for progressing sustainable development.

 

In the Corporate Plan, the Council’s working definition of sustainability had been agreed as:

 

· Ensuring a strong, healthy and just society – meeting the diverse needs of all people in existing and future communities, promoting personal wellbeing, social cohesion and inclusion, and creating equality of opportunity for all;

· Achieving a sustainable economy – building a strong, stable and sustainable economy which provided prosperity and opportunities for all, and in which environmental and social costs fell on those who imposed them (polluter pays), and efficient resource use was incentivised;

· Living within environment limits – respecting the limits of the planet’s environment, resources and biodiversity – to improve our environment and ensure that the natural resources needed for life were unimpaired and remained so for future generations;

· Promoting good governance – actively promoting effective, participative systems of governance in all levels of society – engaging people’s creativity, energy and diversity.

 

An officer working group had been established to:

 

· provide a strategic focus for sustainable development within the Council;

· co-ordinate the work necessary to embed sustainable development across the Council;

· build understanding and awareness of the importance of doing things in sustainable ways and achieving sustainable outcomes;

· identify and share examples of good practice from within the Council and from other organisations;

· establish ambitions and aspirations for sustainability within the Council.

 

The working group had agreed an action plan, attached at Appendix 1 to the report. In order to establish effective scrutiny of sustainable development, the working group was proposing that one Scrutiny Committee be identified to scrutinise sustainable development. In the past, this responsibility had been divided between all Scrutiny Committees, with a resulting loss of focus. With such a wide definition of sustainability, only the Scrutiny Committee (Corporate Resources) currently had a wide enough remit to take on this vital role.

 

Cabinet had

 

RESOLVED -

 

(1) THAT the Action Plan for the Sustainable Development Working Group be endorsed.

 

(2) THAT the Scrutiny Committee (Corporate Resources) be requested to undertake responsibility for scrutinising sustainable development.

 

Having considered the decision of Cabinet, Scrutiny Committee

 

RECOMMENDED - T H A T the request of Cabinet that Scrutiny Committee (Corporate Resources) be requested to undertake responsibility for scrutinising sustainable development be accepted.

 

851  CITIZENS PANEL (CX) -

 

Committee received a report which outlined the purpose and work of the Citizens’ Panel.

 

Consulting with the public was key to ensuring that the services delivered by the Vale of Glamorgan Council met local needs. The Citizens’ Panel was a way of tapping into public opinion and understanding the perceptions of the local population. The Citizens’ Panel had been in place since 2000 and currently had nearly 1,300 members. Panel members were all residents of the Vale of Glamorgan (but may not be elected members of staff) and were consulted regularly on a variety of topics and issues. All Panel members had agreed to take part in regular consultation activities and therefore high response rates could be relied upon.

 

In the past two years, the Panel had been involved in the following consultation activities:

 

· Race Equality First community research

· Community safety research

· Visible services – waste management and cleansing, highway maintenance and parks and grounds maintenance.

· A review of the Citizens’ Panel

· Fire and rescue service focus groups

· Kerbside recycling

· Leisure and tourism research

· Waste peer review

· Public opinion survey

· New library community space usage

· Adult learning opportunities

 

Approximately six questionnaires or surveys were sent to Panel members each year, and generally required very little time to complete and therefore being a Panel member was not a large commitment in terms of an individual’s time.

 

Committee were informed of how representative the Panel was when compared to the Vale population as a whole. These statistics demonstrated that in terms of ethnicity and disability, the Panel was not too far from being entirely representative. In terms of the age profile of the Panel, the Panel currently had an older profile, with a significant proportion of members being aged over 60.

 

Panel membership was regularly reviewed, and residents were only members of the Panel for two years.

 

· Efforts were being made to try and make the Panel more representative, particularly by targeted recruitment of younger people through leaflet campaigns and contacting appropriate local organisations.

· A Panel for young people aged between 11-16 was being established.

· Membership would also be reviewed to ensure that people who had been members for more than two years were removed from the Panel and new members were recruited.

 

RECOMMENDED- T H A T the work of the Citizens’ Panel and the efforts being made to make it more representative be noted.

 

852  QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT MONITORING – CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S DEPARTMENT- THIRD QUARTER (CX) -

 

Consideration was given to information relating to the action plan monitoring and performance indicators contained in the quarterly performance monitoring reports in respect of the Chief Executive’s Department for the above period.

 

Members enquired if they could receive a presentation on progress being made with the Council’s website.

 

RECOMMENDED

 

(1) T H A T the quarterly performance monitoring report for the period 1 April – 30 December 2006 in respect of the Chief Executive’s Department be noted.

 

(2) T H A T members of the Committee receive a presentation in relation to the Council’s website.

 

853  BARRY TOWN HALL POST IMPLEMENTATION REVIEW (DEER) -

 

Committee were provided with a post implementation review of the Town Hall Scheme in accordance with Committee’s earlier request.

 

Scrutiny Committee (Corporate Resources) in 2006 had carried out a review of major Corporate projects undertaken by the Council. The review had considered three areas in relation to Corporate projects, namely the general management of the project, partnership working and the levels of external funding and access to grants.

 

The findings of the research, amongst other things, had concluded that whilst members saw regular reports on how projects were progressing financially there was no reporting or evaluation on the impact that the Corporate projects had on the wider community it served, either at inception or completion of the project.

 

As part of the management of the implementation of the physical project, the project management unit required the consultant project team to carry out a post project analysis of the scheme and to reach a consensus on what lessons might be learned from the manner in which the project proceeded. A workshop was held in October 2006 which was one month after practical completion, but prior to full occupation and use of the buildings and car park and the Square that opened in November 2006.

 

The workshop had set out frame work for evaluating the scheme against a set of key delivery success factors in order that it identify and assess obstacles and risks which occurred and to develop learning points to apply to future projects. The success factor profile considered the following criteria:

 

· Purpose

· Appraisal

· Precedent

· Definition

· Management

· People

· Communication

· Procurement

· Design

· Cost Management

· Programme

· Risk.

 

The overall assessment of the project was positive and on the majority of the criteria concerned the project scored highly. The project team assessed eight out of twelve of the success factors as green and four as amber. There were no red scores across the entire review. The input to the workshop acknowledged that the design-procedure-construction processes were very challenging and that this had led to some stressful episodes. However, what came across clearly was the immense pride and satisfaction within the team at the resulting building and parklands. It was felt that the quality of the completed project had remained true to the original aspirations despite resulting cost and programme overruns.

 

RECOMMENDED -

 

(1) T H A T the contents of the report be noted.

 

(2) T H A T the relevant operational managers produce a further report to the Scrutiny (Corporate) Resources Committee at a later date providing a post project review in respect of operational matters.

 

854  UPDATE ON MAJOR PROJECTS (DEER) -

 

Scrutiny Committee (Corporate Resources) had previously asked that the Project Management Unit provide a quarterly briefing note to Cabinet and Scrutiny Committee (Corporate Resources) on current major corporate projects and upon completion of a project (or a phase) and assessment on the impact on the relevant community.

 

Attached to the report was a draft Cabinet Report with attachments referring to the following lists of projects:

 

· Barry Town Hall

· Penarth Heights

· Thompson Street Bridge

· Waterfront Innovation Quarter

· Business Support Centre Barry Waterfront

· Hydraulic Pump House, Barry Waterfront

· Medical Centre, Barry Waterfront

· Barry Steam Railway Project

· Central Station Project Phase One Barry Docks platform

· Catching the wave initiative, Barry Marina options

· UWIC

· Wales International Centre for Tourism and Leisure

· The Knap landscaping scheme

· Penarth Pier Pavilion and Italian Shelter

· Former bus depot, Broad Street

· Barry Island Footbridge and Plymouth Road access

 

Having considered the draft report to Cabinet, members expressed the view :

 

1. That the production of such reports on a quarterly basis may be too onerous and production of on an annual basis may be more appropriate.

 

2. That a more appropriate definition of a major project would be:

“A large or complex project that managed the following criteria:

 

· An element of possible large financial risk.

· The comprehensive assessment and management of other risk factors.

· The need for a corporate overview and set up of corporate management structures to take the scheme forward.

· The need for the creation or utilisation of external networks to facilitate the scheme.

· The creation of a wide ranging team, either internal or external, to manage a large number of complex issues.

· Dedicated resources that are not readily available within existing service delivery frameworks or staff structures.”

 

RECOMMENDED – T H A T subject to the above views the content of the report be noted.

 

855  QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE MONITORING – THIRD QUARTER – HUMAN RESOURCES AND EQUALITIES (DLD) -

 

Consideration was given to information relating to the action plan monitoring and performance indicators contained in the quarterly performance monitoring reports in respect of Human Resources and Equalities for the above period.

 

Consideration was given to those actions slipped and the corrective action required and to those indicators not currently achieving target.

 

RECOMMENDED – T H A T quarterly performance monitoring report for the period 1 April – 30 December 2006 in respect of Human Resources and Equalities be noted.

 

856  REVENUE MONITORING FOR THE PERIOD 1 APRIL 2006 – 31 DECEMBER 2006 (DFICTP) –

 

The projected out turn for the 2006/07 revenue budget was shown in comparison with the amended revenue budget. The current forecast was for a deficit of £4,301,000 on the General Fund and an underspend of £50,000 on the Housing Revenue account.

 

Learning and Development – there was an anticipated saving of £120,000 on Education and Schools as had been previously reported. This had been used to offset the overspending on Lifelong Learning of £120,000 as previously reported.

 

Directorate of Community Services – the current forecast for this Directorate was for an underspend of £50,000.00 on the Housing Revenue Account and a deficit of £4,634,000 on General Fund Services.

 

This deficit of £4,634,000 was made up of the following projected outturns:

 

Social Services – there was a projected overspend of £4,704,000 on this service as had been previously reported.

 

Catering – there was a projected overspend of £130,000 on catering as had been previously reported.

 

Private Sector Housing – the under-spending on Private Sector Housing/Community Safety (£200,000) was mainly attributable to an increase in subsidy income and savings on staff salaries.

 

Directorate of Environmental and Economic Regeneration – included in the figures was an anticipated deficit on Leisure Management (£150,000) due to significant increases in utilities costs, on parks maintenance due to the increase in prices charged by external contractors for grass cutting and verge maintenance (£120,000) and the additional costs of Ground Staff re: the Centenary Celebrations at Duffryn Gardens (£50,000) and on Building Maintenance (Trading Unit) (£180,000) attributed to pricing policies. These deficits were to be offset from underspends within the Directorate.

 

Policy – the underspending of £333,000 was mainly attributable to additional external interest earned.

 

RECOMMENDED –T H A T the position with regards to the Authority’s 2006/07 Revenue Budget be noted.

 

857  CAPITAL MONITORING FOR THE PERIOD 1ST APRIL 2006 TO 31ST DECEMBER 2006 (DFICTP)

 

Scrutiny Committee were advised of the progress on the 2006/07 Capital Programme for the period 1st April 2006 to 31st December 2006.

 

Schemes which were not anticipated to outturn on target were:

 

Director of Environmental and Economic Regeneration

 

Penarth Headland Link

Cowbridge Bypass, Rain Activated Sign

 

Policy

 

Disabled Access Audit and Improvements

Housing Advances

Duffryn Gardens

Holton Road Christmas Lighting

 

In addition, attached at appendix 2 to the report was Non Financial Information on Capital Schemes with a budget over £100,000.

 

RECOMMENDED – T H A T the position with regard to the 2006/07 Capital Programme be noted.

 

858  QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE MONITORING – THIRD QUARTER – FINANCE AND PROPERTY (DFICTP)

 

Consideration was given to the information relating to the Action Plan Monitoring and Performance Indicators contained in the Quarterly Performance Monitoring Report in respect of Finance and Property for the above period.

 

RECOMMENDED – T H A T the Quarterly Performance Monitoring Report for the period 1st April – 30th December 2006 in respect of Finance and Property be noted.

 

859  QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE MONITORING – THIRD QUARTER – ICT SERVICES (DFICTP) -

 

Consideration was given to the information relating to the Action Plan Monitoring and Performance Indicators contained in the Quarterly Performance Monitoring Report in respect of ICT Services for the above period.

 

RECOMMENDED –T H A T the Quarterly Performance Monitoring Report for the period 1st April – 30th December 2006 in respect of ICT Services be noted.