SCRUTINY COMMITTEE (CORPORATE RESOURCES)

 

 

MINUTES of a meeting held on 19th February, 2008.

 

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, Miss. J. Cole, M.R. Harvey, T.H. Jarvie, Mrs. M. Kelly Owen, A.G. Powell, K.R. Stockdale and M.R. Wilson.

 

 

802     APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE –

 

These were received from Councillors Mrs. A.J. Moore and B.I. Shaw.

 

 

803     MINUTES –

 

RESOLVED – T H A T the minutes of the meeting held on 22nd January, 2008 be approved as a correct record.

 

 

804     DECLARATIONS OF INTEREST –

 

There were no declarations received.

 

 

805     WALES AUDIT OFFICE (WAO) ANNUAL LETTER 2006/07 (REF) –

 

The Cabinet at its meeting held on 23rd January, 2008 had considered a report which advised the Council of the views of the WAO on the overall position of the Council in relation to audit and inspection work.  The report itself published in December 2007 was attached for consideration. 

 

In previous Annual Letters, the Relationship Manager had commented favourably on the Council’s position in relation to its improvement journey to date.  As in previous years, the Annual Letter was positive towards the continuing improvements being made by the Council. 

 

Matters of note included the following:

 

·                    the Council’s resources were, in all material respects, properly used and accounted for;

·                    the Council had satisfactory arrangements in place to help it achieve  economy, efficiency and effectiveness, and the Improvement Plan had been delivered appropriately;

·                    the Council’s arrangements for OneVale had been effective in the short term with procurements achieving significant efficiency savings.  The impact of changes to OneVale projects needed to be fully assessed against the original Business Case;

·                    the Council had recognised the importance of project management and continued to strengthen its internal processes;

·                    the Council had engaged with the Wales Audit Office initiatives to promote improvement to shared learning and the Good Practice Exchange;

·                    the Council was making good progress in implementing the Making the Connections agenda and had created a momentum for change that augurs well for future progress;

·                    delayed transfers of care have not been tackled in a whole systems way by the Cardiff and Vale Health and Social Care community;

·                    the Council was committed to achieving the Welsh Housing Quality Standard and was making progress to improvement the arrangements required to achieve successful delivery of improvements although some high risks still remained;

·                    the Council was making progress in developing its Business Community arrangements;

·                    the Council was making good progress in delivering its target to reduce CO2 emissions in domestic housing;

·                    the Council had continued to increase its level of compliance with the Freedom of Information Act, putting in place appropriate and robust arrangements to manage its Information Governance requirements, although there were some areas where there remained some work to be completed;

·                    the Council had developed a number of effective security measures to protect its key information systems, but some areas still needed to be addressed.

 

The Scrutiny Committee having considered the contents of the report which were generally welcomed

 

RECOMMENDED – T H A T this Scrutiny Committee welcomed the contents of the WAO Annual Letter particularly given it reflected on the period when the Conservative administration was in control and set the budget.

 

 

806     QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE MONITORING: 3RD QUARTER: 1ST OCTOBER – 31ST DECEMBER, 2007 – CONTACT CENTRE (CX) –

 

The Operational Manager indicated that in respect of indicator L470 and 471 that gradual improvements had been made into improved performance in both these areas over recent months.  In response to a question from Councillor Burnett the Operational Manager indicated that with regard to indicator L470 and indicated that the 80% target had been achieved during the period November 2007 to January 2008.  However, the launch of a single number on 17th March, 2008 was likely to be challenging for the service and consequently it was possible that there may be a reduction in this performance indicator.  Councillor Burnett suggested that data be provided by the Operational Manager for the period prior to the launch of the single number in order that a comparison can be made of the data to assess the impact on indicator L470 post the single number launch. 

 

Discussion ensued regarding the ability of Members to contact officers directly by the telephone and not via the Contact Centre.  The Operational Manager indicated that Members could indeed contact officers directly by direct line calling however, he reminded the Committee that if Elected Members were reporting service issues that this should be done through the Contact Centre in order that an audit trail could be maintained in the event of any problems subsequently arising.

 

Councillor Wilson made reference to complaints that he had received from members of the public regarding their experience of using the Contact Centre and the handling of their enquiries.  He expressed concern that he had been informed that complaints regarding the quality of the user experience was of concern and he expected that all users of the Contact Centre should be treated with courtesy.  The Operational Manager indicated that he was not aware of any such complaints however, he indicated that staff were trained to treat all users of the service with courtesy and professionalism. 

 

Having regard to the above and related issues it was

 

RECOMMENDED –

 

(1)       T H A T the Quarterly Performance Monitoring Report for the period 1st October to 31st December, 2007 in respect of the Customer Contact Centre be noted.

 

(2)       T H A T the Operational Manager be requested to submit to the meeting of this Scrutiny Committee in April 2008 data in respect of indicators L470 and L471 for the first half of March 2008 prior to the launch of the single number and for the second half period of March following the launch of the single number to assess the impact on the Call Centre capability to deal with incoming calls.  (This information was in addition to the normal quarterly reporting arrangements required for the 4th quarter period 1st January, 2008 to 31st March, 2008).

 

 

807     REVENUE MONITORING FOR THE PERIOD 1ST APRIL, 2007 TO 31ST DECEMBER, 2007 (DFICTP) –

 

The projected outturn for the 2007/08 Revenue Budget was currently forecasting favourable variance of £1,050,000 on the General Fund and a balanced budget on the Housing Revenue Account.  In relation to Education and Schools Services as previously reported there were projected underspends on the Central Education Budget which would be used to fund overspends elsewhere within the Directorate.  These savings would be used to support the residential special schools provision, where the combined deficit balance was projected to total £378,000 at 31st March, 2008 as a result of the financial implications of Care Standards legislation.  It was also noted that although there were a number of pressures on the service, the expenditure on placements in independent schools included in the Access and Inclusion budget was forecasted to be £130,000 less than was estimated.  This was due to a number of pupils returning to placements within the authority.  At present there was also potential additional income of £350,000 as a result of more out of county pupils.  However, given the volatile nature of the budget the income was not considered secure at the current time.  In addition, within the Strategic Planning and Performance budget, as a result of the combination of a recent re-tendering exercise on certain home to school transport routes and contract information for all other routes being lower than expected, there was a projected saving of £137,000 on home to school transport.  The education based budget currently included £450,000 to support the School Investment Strategies.  In 2007/08 the budget would be used to help fund the cost of the external design team.  Any further savings that were realised by the end of the financial year would also be available to further support the above Strategy.  With regard to Lifelong Learning there was an adverse variance of £137,000 was predicted for this service due to delay in starting the new learning programmes to the economically inactive and low enrolments over the summer period (£51,000), premises costs at the Heritage Skills Centre (£9,000) and the cost of the Vale Learning Network (£77,000).  Actions would be implemented in an effort to reduce this figure and consequently reduce the support needed from the Education Strategy and Performance budgets.  The Catering Service was still predicting an adverse variance of £90,000 in December.

 

The projected outturn in respect of Social Services was projecting a deficit of £1,289,000 a reduction of £231,000 from the previous months reported figure.  However, the Head of Finance indicated that the predicted reduction for the next reported period was projecting a further improvement reducing the projected deficit to £571,000.  The probable outturn in respect of Children’s Services was showing a projected surplus of £190,000.  This was mainly attributable to a reduction in the cost of Children’s Placements £66,000, savings on fostering costs £135,000, vacant posts £221,000, additional savings as a result of negotiations on Service Level Agreements with the not for profit sector £26,000 and a reduction in the projected overspend on Children in Need budgets of £21,300 off-set by additional costs associated with adoption allowances, court expenses and general expenses.

 

Community Care and Health was projecting a deficit of £1,486,000 at the year end.  As reported previously this position reflected the continued pressure on Community Care packages which had been reduced by a recalculation of the projected known commitments and identified savings on salaries.  It also included the increase in Care Homes these already agreed an estimate of new commitments that may be made before the year end.  It was noted that this budget was volatile and would be adjusted as information became available.  Currently, the unallocated Community Care commitments were shown under the Elderly client group and would be allocated to other client groups as contracts were finalised.  The additional uplift to the budget of £1,110,000 had been allocated over client groups pro rata to current commitments. 

 

To conclude it was noted that policy there had been an underspend of £2,339,000 which was mainly attributable to additional external interest (£1,800,000) a reduction in loan charges (£300,000) in levies (£130,000) and other running costs (£109,000). 

 

The Committee welcomed the contents of the report and congratulated officers in what was considered to be a very challenging period for all service areas. 

 

RECOMMENDED – T H A T the position with regard to the Council’s 2007/08 Revenue Budget be noted.

 

Reason for recommendation

 

That Members are aware of the projected revenue outturn for 2007/08.

 

 

808     CAPITAL MONITORING FOR THE PERIOD 1ST APRIL, 2007 TO 31ST DECEMBER, 2007 (CMT) –

 

The Capital Programme for the above period which included where necessary, request a change to the Programme, were set out for information.  The following changes were noted:

 

(i)         Director of Environmental and Economic Regeneration

 

·               Leisure Centre Refurbishment - the Council had received a small scale improvement fund grant in the sum of £31,914 from the Sports Council for Wales (SCW) for the related refurbishment of the wet side changing room, refurbishment of the changing area and the purchase of larger lockers at Penarth Leisure Centre.  In addition, a further grant had also been awarded by the SCW in the sum of £4,448 for related refurbishment works at the Barry Leisure Centre in the current financial year;

 

·               Entrepreneurship Centre - an additional grant of £72,000 had been received from the Welsh European Funding Office (WEFO), subject to the funding being spent prior to the end of June 2008.  This funding was proposed to be utilised on fencing works, public art, workshop doors and work to the sub-station, all within the Innovation Quarter;

 

·               Alleygates Phase 8 - additional funding of £80,000 had been received from WEFO for the extension of phase 8 Alleygates into the Buttrills, Court and Cadoc Wards.  The award had been conditional on the monies being spent prior to the end of June 2008;

 

·               Knap Development - the sum of £100,000 had been included in the Capital Programme for the current financial year relating to the refurbishment of the two shelters at the Knap Lake in Barry.  However, due to ongoing vandalism, tenders recently received for this work indicated the lowest acceptable tender to be £194,562.  Given that it was preferable to progress the works on both shelters during the financial year, in order to halt any further deterioration of the shelters, it was proposed that £100,000 be vired from the Network Rail Bridges budget during 2007/08, as this work would not be progressed until 2008/09 at the earliest.  It had also been requested that £100,000 be transferred from the proposed £800,000 Visible Services Asset Renewal Budget for 2008/09 into 2008/09 Network Rail Bridges budget;

 

·               Barry Central Station Scheme - Cabinet at its meeting held on 21st November 2007, agreed the short term funding of £195,000 of the above scheme from capital receipts whilst a bid for further funding for Transport Grant was submitted to WAG.  The Council had since received notification that the grant bid had been approved and therefore the use of capital receipts of £195,000 was no longer required.

 

(ii)        Directorate of Social Services

 

·               Flying Start grant - an additional project had now been approved by WAG for Maes y Coed outdoor area refurbishment in the sum of £13,000.

 

(iii)       Policy

 

·               Barry Town Hall - the final outturn of the above scheme was now estimated to be £371,000 for 2007/08.  This was £124,000 greater than was currently included in the 2007/08 Capital Programme.  It was therefore proposed that the Capital estimates be increased by the above amount, funded by £25,000 from the Visible Services Maintenance Fund and £99,000 from capital receipts. 

 

In addition to the above matters, it was anticipated that the following schemes would not be completed on target:

 

(i)     Directorate of Environmental and Economic Regeneration

·        Ystradowen public open space - due to ongoing delays with the Compulsory Purchase Order for the land at the site;

·        Works to existing Civic Amenity Site - it was not anticipated that any major infrastructure works at the above site would be undertaken prior to April 2008 and accordingly, it had been requested that the remaining budget of £44,000 be slipped into the 2008/09 Capital Programme;

·        Civic Amenity adaptations for WEEE - adaptations to the Council’s Civic Amenity Sites to comply with the Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) initiative on the disposal of electrical items were not commenced prior to April 2008 and accordingly it had been requested to slip the budget of £18,000 into the 2008/09 Capital Programme;

·        Network Rail Bridges - due to delays with progress with Network Rail it was proposed that the remaining balance of the budget be slipped into 2008/09;

·        Holton road Shopfronts - given that officers were still currently developing individual projects, it was not anticipated that grants would be issued prior to April 2008 and accordingly it had been requested to slip the budget of £50,000 into the 2008/09 Capital Programme.

 

(ii)        Directorate of Learning and Development

·               Nursery Units - the scheme had been delayed pending the evaluation of the implementation of the foundation phase which had been delayed in itself until September 2008 and as a consequence, it was not anticipated that this budget would be required until 2009/10;

·               Upgrade Primary Schools (Cogan Hall Farm development) - approval had been given for three schools to be extended in order to accommodate the anticipated additional pupils from the above development.  As a consequence, it had been requested that the balance of £130,000 on this budget be slipped into the 2008/09 Capital Programme;

·               Attendance Management System - a grant of £42,000 had been received from WAG for 2007/08 in respect of the above system.  Accordingly the Capital Programme for 2007/08 had been increased by this amount.

 

(iii)       Policy

·               OneVale - there had been a delay in progressing the procurement of Information Technology.  Accordingly, it had been requested that a sum of £346,000 for 3rd party integration connectors and technical QA consultancy fees be slipped into the 2008/09 Capital Programme.

 

Appendix 2 to the report also provided non-financial information on capital schemes with a budget of over £100,000.

 

RECOMMENDED - T H A T the position with regard to the Council’s 2007/08 Capital Programme be noted.

 

Reason for recommendation

 

That Members are aware of the projected capital outturn for 2007/08.

 

 

809     QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE MONITORING - 3RD QUARTER -

1ST OCTOBER - 31ST DECEMBER 2007 - FINANCE AND PROPERTY (DFICTP) -

 

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

 

The Head of Financial Services referred to Performance Indicators NS20c and NS22Bii and provided an explanation for below target performance in these areas.

 

RECOMMENDED - T H A T the Quarterly Performance Monitoring report for the period 1st October - 31st December 2007 in respect of Finance and Property be noted.

 

 

810     QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE MONITORING: 3RD QUARTER -

1ST OCTOBER - 31ST DECEMBER, 2007 - ICT (DFICTP) -

 

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

 

RECOMMENDED - T H A T the Quarterly Performance Monitoring report for the period 1st October - 31st December 2007 in respect of ICT be noted.

 

 

811     QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE MONITORING: 3RD QUARTER -

1ST OCTOBER - 31ST DECEMBER - HUMAN RESOURCES (DLD) -

 

Consideration was given to the information relating to the Action Plan Monitoring and Performance Indicators contained in the Quarterly Performance and Monitoring report in respect of Human Resources for the above period.

 

The Head of Service indicated that with regard to Indicator CHR2 that he as confident that the outturn performance by the year end would improve given that school figures were not currently included in the data.  With regard to Indicator L265, this Indicator was proving to be challenging and volatile given the degree of staff leaving Council employment in certain Directorates.  Discussion ensued regarding the possible reasons for why certain employees groups left employment so soon after joining the Council and it was suggested to assist the officer that a new category be included in next year’s Service Plan i.e. “non starters” which would account for those employees who left the employment of the Council so quickly after joining.

 

RECOMMENDED - T H A T the Quarterly Performance Monitoring report for the period 1st October - 31st December, 2007 in respect of Human Resources, be noted.

 

 

812     TASK AND FINISH GROUP (WARD MEMBER CONSULTATION) -

 

RECOMMENDED - T H A T the minutes of the Group held on 27th November, 2007 be accepted.