SCRUTINY COMMITTEE (CORPORATE RESOURCES)

 

 

MINUTES of a meeting held on 29th May, 2007.

 

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

 

Also Present: Councillor N. Moore.

 

 

62            APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE -

 

These were received from Councillors B.I. Shaw and M.R. Wilson.

 

 

63            MINUTES -

 

RESOLVED - T H A T the minutes of the meetings held on 24th April and 16th May, 2007 be approved as correct records.

 

 

64            DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST –

 

No declarations were received.

 

 

65            MAKING THE CONNECTIONS – SHARED SERVICES IN SOUTH EAST WALES (REF) –

 

Cabinet at its meeting held on 9th May, 2007 considered the above matter and at that time were apprised of progress to date of a multi-authority project in South East Wales to evaluate the feasibility of sharing certain “back office” and professional support services as part of the “Making the Connections” agenda.

 

The Head of Finance apprised the Scrutiny Committee with regard to this initiative and referred to specific issues in relation to the project.  He indicated that Phase 1, which related to the development of a Strategic Outline Case (SOC) examining seven functional areas with a view to sharing viz. payroll and Human Resources; training; Council Tax and NNDR; Internal Audit; procurement; ICT and Debt Recovery had been completed. The Outline Business Case (Phase 2) was expected to be completed by end of July, 2007. He indicated that discussions were ongoing between the 10 authorities that made up the South East Wales group on how best to progress the matter and accordingly the report was to update Members on the current developments.

 

A number of areas of concern were raised regarding the above proposals and these related to the following matters:

 

·                    The implications for the Council’s current Business Processing Re-engineering exercise being impacted upon as a consequence of the introduction of shared service arrangements, in particular the Council’s ability to assess and realise efficiency savings as a result of BPR investment.

·                    The methodology for merging potentially disparate arrangements within each local authority that proposed to share services e.g. Human Resources and Council Tax.

·                    Existing high performance standards being detrimentally impacted upon as a result of entering into any shared service arrangements.

·                    The potential for Councils to incur additional costs in pursuing shared service arrangements.

·                    That any savings as a result of entering into any shared service arrangements would be made available to re-invest in this Council’s frontline services and the Council would not be penalised by WAG reducing its Revenue Support grant to Councils.

·                    The potential impact on local businesses as a result of shared service arrangements, particularly relating to procurement of services / equipment.

·                    Loss of corporate identity as a result of entering into shared service arrangements.

 

The Head of Service in response to a question from Councillor Stockdale indicated that the Outline Business Case in respect of HR / Payroll and Training were currently being undertaken by the Joint Working Group.  With regard to the Outline Business Case for Internal Audit the respective authority’s treasury officers were currently undertaking this.  Councillor N. Moore reiterated that the report was only an update of progress to date and that further reports would be made to the Cabinet and relevant Scrutiny Committee as the initiative developed.  He also reminded Members that the local authorities within the South Wales Group were at different stages of development of share service arrangements and, in particular, with regard to the Council’s existing progress with Oracle, it was unlikely that the Council would pursue shared service arrangements with other local authorities with regard to HR / Payroll.  He also shared concerns with regard to any impact on current performance levels within those services, which could be subject to shared arrangements.

 

The Head of Service in conclusion indicated that the main thrust of the initiative was to assess and identify any opportunities to work on a shared basis with other local authorities in the immediate geographical area.  However, he recognised that there required to be a balanced approach taken to the initiative and that the Council’s interest should be protected at all times.

 

The Chairman reminded the Committee that the projected financial settlements for the next three financial years received from WAG were likely to be very challenging and with the consequent difficulty in identifying funding for frontline services. 

 

RECOMMENDED –

 

T H A T the position with regard to the Making the Connections: Shared Services in South East Wales be noted.

 

(Councillor N. Moore spoke on the matter with the consent of the Committee.)

 

 

66            DRAFT ANNUAL REPORT MAY 2006 – APRIL 2007 AND FORWARD WORK PROGRAMME FOR 2007/08 (RAF) –

 

RECOMMENDED – T H A T the matter be withdrawn in acknowledgement that this Scrutiny Committee had previously accepted, at the request of the Cabinet (Minute No. 850 20th February, 2007 refers) to undertake the responsibility for scrutinising sustainable development.

 

 

67            DRAFT SERVICE PLAN 2007/08  - CHIEF EXECUTIVE’S (CX) –

 

The Operational Manager presented the new formatted Service Plan for Committee’s consideration.

 

A short question and answer session took place on the following matters:

 

·                    Councillor Mrs. A. Moore referred to the recent WAG elections and to her awareness of difficulties encountered by the Electoral Registration staff in particular, matters relating to technology used for the verification of postal votes and requested that a report detailing such issues be submitted to a future meeting for consideration.  The Operational Manager confirmed that there had been some difficulties with the new arrangements for postal voting and agreed to arrange for a report to be submitted outlining the problems;

 

·                    Councillor Ms. L. Burnett referred to the Council’s Equality Scheme as proposed and enquired of the Operational Manager how these were linked to legislated equalities requirements, in particular how these dovetailed into the three statutory duties placed on employers.  The Operational Manager indicated that all departments within the organisation would be required to work towards the achievement of Level 1 which links directly to the equality duties;

 

·                    Councillor K.R. Stockdale referred to the implementation of the Pan Wales performance management software and the Operational Manager informed him that the introduction had been delayed to the end of June and training for elected members would be arranged as soon as practicable thereafter;

 

·                    Councillor K.R. Stockdale referred to the proposed adoption of a Sustainable Development Appraisal Framework for major projects and to the re-development at Penarth Heights, particularly the relevance of the Framework to this scheme.  The Operational Manager indicated that a Sustainable Development working group had been established to look at the issues surrounding sustainability by way of self-assessment to identify gaps in procedures so as to achieve sustainability with regard to Council projects and to ensure the life costings of projects were addressed.  This process had been used with regard to the town hall redevelopment (retrospectively) and would be also used in future strategies such as the School Investment Strategy;

 

·                    Councillor Stockdale referred to the Team Awards event which had been held last year and enquired if a similar event would be undertaken during the current year.  The Operational Manager indicated that the event was an award ceremony which was independently assessed and judged and was linked to performance of teams.  Whilst last year’s event was very successful, there would not be an event in the current year and it was proposed that this would be undertaken every two years in future;

 

·                    Councillor N.P. Hodges referred to the publication of Vale Waves and enquired if additional publications would be produced in future and referred to the potential utilisation of private advertising to fund additional editions of the publication.  The Operational Manager indicated that due to efficiency savings that were required to be met the additional publication of Vale Waves was not possible at the current time.  In acknowledging the concept of using private advertising she indicated that this would likely result in additional staff costs for the Council and would also detract from the purpose of the publication;

 

·                    The Chairman referred to Indicator L128 and L250 and enquired as to why the targets for 2007/08 and the ensuing two following years were static for performance.  The Chairman also referred to Indicator L129 in particular, the target set for 2007/08 of 60% and why no targets were set for the following years 2008/09 and 2009/10.  The Operational Manager referred to Indicators L128 and L250 and indicated that this was likely to be an error with the data.  With regard to the latter point in relation to Indicator L129, she indicated that it had been difficult to record complaints using the existing system coupled with the long-term sickness absence of the officer responsible for this area.  Targets had not been set for the subsequent years due to the introduction of the Contact Centre.

 

Having regard to the above and related issues it was

 

RECOMMENDED –

 

(1)       T H A T the draft Service Plan in respect of the Chief Executive’s Department be endorsed.

 

                  (2)       THAT the Chief Executive be requested to submit a report to this Committee detailing all issues that affected the administration of the recent WAG elections.       

 

 

68            DRAFT SERVICE PLAN 2007/08 - CUSTOMER CONTACT CENTRE (CX) -

 

The Operational Manager presented the new formatted Service Plan for Committee’s consideration.

 

A short question and answer session took place on the following matters:

 

·             The Operational Manager indicated that the Council was pursuing a number of avenues with internal and external agencies with the potential to expand the delivery of services on a shared service basis.  Discussions on the above issues were currently being held with Bridgend County Borough Council, Carmarthenshire County Borough Council and Emergency Planners for local industry;

 

·             The Chairman referred to the cross-cutting objective “to deliver efficiency whilst maintaining the quality of service provision”, in particular to the risk objective relating to the failure to adequately match available resources to patterns of call demand, resulting in the Contact Centre being under-resourced at peak times and over-resourced during troughs in demand and enquired which officer would be responsible for overseeing this objective.  The Operational Manager indicated that this role was currently split between himself and his Team Leaders.  However, there may be the need in the future for a stand-alone post to be created to oversee such matters;

 

·             The Chairman referred to Indicators L474 and enquired why the target was static at 70%.  The Operational Manager indicated that this Indicator was linked also to Indicator L473 associated with benchmark targets for Call Centre efficiency, as was the case for Indicators L470, 471 and 472.  He indicated that resource planning had been difficult to predict given the demands placed on the service during its short time in operation.

 

RECOMMENDED - T H A T the Draft Service Plan in respect of the Customer Contact Centre be endorsed.

 

 

69            DRAFT SERVICE PLAN 2007/08 - DEMOCRATIC SERVICES (DLPPHS) -

 

The Operational Manager presented the new formatted Service Plan for Committee’s consideration and commented on the following matters which were contained therein:

 

·               The Council had submitted an application for Charter Status for Member Support and a Review Team from the WLGA would be visiting the Authority on 14th June, 2007 with the purpose of assessing the Council’s application.  He indicated that the Council was only one of four Authorities in Wales to have submitted a formal application for Charter Status;

 

·               With regard to efficiency savings, work was currently ongoing with regard to making available all Council agendas and accompanying reports in electronic format on the Council’s website.  The availability of such a facility would allow the Council to make appropriate efficiency savings in respect of the cost of producing and posting Council agendas.  Savings initially in this respect in the main would be achieved by reducing internal availability of agendas and reports across all Directorates but he encouraged all Elected Members to make use of the facility from when it became available;

 

·             Still on the matter of efficiency savings, the Operational Manager also indicated that a six month contract was to be entered into with a competitor to the Royal Mail for the delivery of certain categories of mail;

 

·             In response to the Review of the Council’s Scrutiny Arrangements, a Scrutiny Workshop was proposed to be held on Friday, 29th June, 2007 and Scrutiny Committee Members would be invited to attend.  The Operational Manager invited Members to submit any ideas that would assist in providing a “steer” as to where priority should be given to developing the scrutiny process;

 

·             The Operational Manager referred to the Draft Service Plan and in particular to those Local Performance Indicators for which targets had not yet been established for subsequent years.

 

Having regard to the above and related issues, it was

 

RECOMMENDED - T H A T the Draft Service Plan in respect of Democratic Services be endorsed.

 

70            REVENUE AND CAPITAL MONITORING: 1ST APRIL, 2007 - 30TH APRIL, 2007 (DFICTP) -

 

The current forecast for the Revenue Budget for 2007/08 was for a balanced budget on the General Fund and a surplus of £215,000 on the Housing Revenue Account.  Details were also contained within the report of the financial progress on the Capital Programme.

 

RECOMMENDED - T H A T the position with regard to the 2007/08 Revenue and Capital Monitoring be noted.

 

Reason for recommendation

 

To apprise Members of the position with regard to the 2007/08 Revenue Budget and Capital Programme.

 

 

71            SOCIAL SERVICES CHANGE PLAN 2007-10 (IDSS) -

 

The Head of Service for Strategy, Performance Manager and Commissioning referred to the purpose of the report which was to seek the Committee’s agreement to the objectives and actions contained in the Plan.  She indicated by its very nature the Plan was a corporate document due to the involvement of officers from across the Council who were instrumental in the involvement for the delivery of key actions within the Plan.

 

She indicated that the Plan was long-term, designed to achieve fundamental changes in the way in which the Social Services Department operated.  It also built upon some of the significant strengths of the service and marked the introduction of a culture characterised by high performance and rigour and was both ambitions and challenging.  The Head of Service further indicated that the Plan also addressed those areas of service identified by the recent Joint Review as requiring improvement.

 

The implementation of the Plan would be a dynamic and developing process.  Some of the actions described in the Plan were already underway and as the improvements rolled out, other actions would be included.  The Plan would be regularly and routinely updated, and the outcomes made public.

 

One of the key objects of the Plan was to address the causes of overspending and to enable the Directorate to make savings and efficiencies in the way it operated whilst still providing services to the residents of the Vale of Glamorgan.

 

The Chairman referred to the Plan which had already been considered by the Scrutiny Committee (Community Wellbeing and Safety) and requested that regular monitoring reports be submitted to this Scrutiny Committee the Scrutiny Committee (Community Wellbeing and Safety) and the Cabinet on a quarterly basis in a “traffic light” format.

 

Councillor N. Moore stressed the importance of Elected Members challenging the Plan as it was developed.  He also referred to the Plan being available in electronic format which allowed for it to be updated on a daily basis.

 

Councillor Mrs. L. Burnett expressed her appreciation of the efforts of all officers from all Council Directorates who had been involved in the development of the Plan.

 

RECOMMENDED -

 

(1)       T H A T the Social Services Change Plan be endorsed.

 

(2)       T H A T quarterly monitoring reports of the Plan be submitted to this Scrutiny Committee, the Scrutiny Committee (Community Wellbeing and Safety) and the Cabinet based on a “traffic light” format.

 

Reasons for recommendations

 

(1)       To approve the Change Plan which would provide for the necessary improvements required in Social Services, following the Joint Review, in the performance and quality of services.

 

(2)       To allow appropriate monitoring of progress in respect of the Plan.

 

 

72        EXCLUSION OF PRESS AND PUBLIC -

 

RESOLVED - T H A T under Section 100A(4) of the Local Government Act 1972, the press and public be excluded from the meeting for the following items of business on the grounds that they involve the likely disclosure of exempt information as defined in Part 4 of Schedule 12A (as amended) of the Act, the relevant paragraphs of the Schedule being referred to in brackets after the minute heading.

 

 

73        SITE OF THE FORMER KNAP POOL, BARRY (REF) (EXEMPT INFORMATION - PARAGRAPH 19) -

 

The above matter which had been subject of a Request for Consideration by Councillor R.J. Bertin had been considered by the Scrutiny Committee (Economy and Environment) at its meeting held on 17th April, 2007.

 

The above Scrutiny Committee at that time had considered the content of the Request for Consideration from Councillor Bertin which related to the below matters:

 

·             to ascertain what had gone wrong with the development;

·             to find out who was responsible for the project;

·             to find out when the site was going to be ready for use;

·             to answer public concerns about the waste of tax payers’ money on the project;

·             to find out how the problem was going to be rectified;

·             to ensure that a similar problem did not reoccur.

 

In response to the request, a comprehensive report had been submitted to the Scrutiny Committee (Economy and Environment) and following further discussion on the above and related matters, including the need to keep the residents of the area fully informed on issues relating to contractor procurement, it was subsequently recommended

 

“(1)      T H A T the Scrutiny Committee (Corporate Resources) be asked to commission a report on contractor procurement, that report to concentrate on incidents of poor performance and the steps taken to address that poor performance.”

 

The Scrutiny Committee (Corporate Resources) having considered the above request

 

RECOMMENDED - T H A T the Council’s Internal Audit Section undertake an investigation into the above matter and submit a report to this Scrutiny Committee as soon as possible for consideration.

 

(Note: Councillor N. Moore spoke on the above matter with the consent of the Committee).