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BABERGH DISTRICT COUNCIL
OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY
(STEWARDSHIP) COMMITTEE
MINUTES OF A MEETING OF THE OVERVIEW AND SCRUTINY (STEWARDSHIP) COMMITTEE HELD IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBER, COUNCIL OFFICES, CORKS LANE, HADLEIGH ON TUESDAY 16 AUGUST 2005
PRESENT: Ms J A Jenkins – Chairman
Mr D M Busby was unable to be present.
23 SUBSTITUTES AND APOLOGIES
It was noted in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 5 that a substitute was in attendance as follows:-
Mr C J Hunt (substituting for Mr D M Busby)
24 DECLARATION OF INTERESTS
None declared.
25 MINUTES
RESOLVED
That the Minutes of the meeting held on 5 July 2005 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.
26 PETITIONS
None received.
27 QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS
None received.
28 WORK PLAN
The Head of Legal and Administrative Services submitted a report (Paper E96), which provided details of the Committee’s anticipated work for the remainder of 2005/06 including items that may be the subject of call-in procedures.
It was noted that the Work Plan is regularly updated to reflect new items that arise from the Committee's discussions. In this connection the Work Plan would be updated to reflect the following:-
E-Government – see Minute No 32 below.
Review of Scrutiny role – to be shown as a separate item from the Review of the Constitution
RESOLVED
That the Work Plan submitted as Paper E96 be noted.
29 AUDIT AND INSPECTION PLAN 2005/06
Geoff Kistner, Corporate Director, presented Paper E97 reporting the results of his re-negotiations with the Audit Commission in accordance with the Committee's decision at its meeting on 17 May 2005. The Chairman reported to Members the comments of the Vice Chairman, Mr Busby.
During the course of the discussion on the updated position, Members generally expressed their dissatisfaction with the response received from the Audit Commission, whilst acknowledging the considerable efforts made by Mr Kistner to address their original concerns. They were also aware of the implications for the Council of any appeal. The recommendations contained in Paragraph 2 of Paper E97 were not moved and after considering various possible courses of action, a proposal to defer consideration was proposed and seconded, and on being put to the vote was carried on the Chairman’s casting vote. The proposal to defer was made subject to further information being obtained, including the views of other Suffolk authorities.
RESOLVED
(1) That further consideration of Paper E97 be deferred to the next meeting to enable the Committee to take into account further information obtained in accordance with (2) and (3) below.
(2) That the Corporate Director be asked to press the Audit Commission for an appropriate breakdown of the costs of the Audit and Inspection fees.
(3) That other local authorities in Suffolk be consulted through the Chief Financial Officers' Group with a view to a possible joint approach on this issue being made to the Audit Commission.
30 REVENUE BUDGET – QUARTERLY MONITORING REPORT
The Head of Finance and Performance Review introduced Paper E98 setting out key points from the current year’s first quarterly review of expenditure and income against budgets. Members noted that the report concentrated on some of the highest risk/sensitive areas previously identified by Members. They expressed concern about the increase in costs of works carried out to void properties to enable them to be let. Officers undertook to pass to the Head of Housing the Committee’s suggestion for the Housing Panel to consider whether a requirement for tenants to enter into some form of Bond to help offset such costs would be a viable option.
RESOLVED
(1) That the position on 2005/06 budget variations in Appendix 1 to Paper E98 and the key areas highlighted in Section 4.4 of the report be noted.
(2) That officers continue to work with Heads of Service on action plans to deal with any unfavourable variations.
(3) That the Member Service and Financial Planning Group be asked to consider carefully those variations that could impact on current and future budgets.
31 PROGRESS ON CAPITAL PROJECTS
The Head of Finance and Performance Review and the Head of Technical Services submitted a joint report (Paper E99), setting out the updated position on capital schemes that were delayed or on which money was not spent in the previous financial year.
RESOLVED
That the report be noted.
32 REPORT ON E-GOVERNMENT GRANT
The Head of Organisational Development presented Paper E100 updating Members on the E-Government grant as requested by the Committee at its previous meeting. He also gave an oral report updating Members on developments since the report was written. Members noted that following the decision of the Strategy Committee in relation to progressing the CAST Project, the ODPM will be requested to re-profile the project budget. Members were aware that this fast changing area is monitored on a fortnightly basis by the E-Government Steering Group and that the readiness of individual schemes to proceed is identified by means of a ‘traffic lights’ system. The Committee agreed that an update of Appendix 1 to Paper E100 should be made available to the Committee, for noting, on each agenda with a more detailed report being submitted at the November meeting.
RESOLVED
(1) That Paper E100 and the update from the Head of Organisational Development be noted.
(2) That an update be included as a regular item on future Committee agendas with a more detailed report being submitted to the meeting on 22 November 2005.
33 UPDATE ON 2004/05 BEST VALUE PERFORMANCE INDICATORS AND FUTURE TARGETS
Geoff Kistner, Corporate Director, presented the report of the Corporate Support Manager (Paper E103) responding to the Committee's request for further investigations into areas identified at its previous meeting, and reporting a number of changes to the figures arising from detailed checks. Mr Kistner asked Members to note further amendments to the Final Position on the 2004/05 Best Value Performance Indicators in Appendix 1 of Paper E103 as set out below.
BVPI
11a 05/08 Target to read ‘14%’ not 15%
82bi 04/05 Actual to read ‘4.24%’ not 4.37%
82bii Target 05/06 to read ‘1600’ not 1120 tonnes
Target 06/07 to read ‘1660’ not 1330 tonnes
Target 07/08 to read ‘1960’ not 1553 tonnes
He also explained the method of calculation for PI 203 where the Amendment showed a change from –35.2% to –3.85%. Members were asked to review the Final Position for 2004/05 in the light of the amended information. They also suggested some minor changes to the layout of future reports to aid clarity.
RESOLVED
That the amended PI data contained in Appendix 1 to Paper E103 and the results of the investigations carried out, together with the further amendments to BVPIs reported at the meeting be noted.
34 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT - QUARTERLY REPORT
Geoff Kistner, Corporate Director, presented the report of the Corporate Support Manager (Paper E101) asking the Committee to review the BVPI data set out in the report and determine whether further action was required. Mr Kistner asked the Members to note the following amendments to figures contained in the report:-
|
4.1 |
On target
Not reported |
to read
to read |
‘No 30
‘No 5 |
52%’
8%’ |
instead of 29:
instead of 6: |
50%
10%
|
|
4.2 |
On target
Not on target
Not reported |
to read
to read
to read |
‘No 14
‘No 8
‘No 3 |
54%’
31%’
11%’ |
instead of 13:
instead of 48:
instead of 4: |
50%
31%
15%
|
|
4.3 |
BVPI 12 |
insert |
‘1.8%’ under 1st Quarter, which meant that this performance was on target at this stage.
|
RESOLVED
That the BVPI data contained in Paper E101, as amended above, be noted.
35 REVIEW OF PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
Geoff Kistner, Corporate Director, presented the report of the Corporate Support Manager (Paper E105) setting out the results of a review of the Performance Management System for adoption by the Committee. He referred to Appendix 1 – The Revised Performance Management Framework and asked Members to note that ‘Service Standards’ would be added to the Framework. Members were also aware that further minor corrections to the document would be required.
RESOLVED
(1) That the Revised Performance Management Framework shown in Appendix 1 to Paper E105 be adopted for use by the Council to fulfil its performance management role.
(2) That Geoff Kistner, Corporate Director, be authorised to make minor corrections to the Framework document.
(3) That the finalised version of the Framework document be published on the website and drawn to the attention of Members and relevant officers, particularly those involved in the Service and Financial Planning process.
36 BENEFITS SERVICE – QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE AND REVISED SERVICE IMPROVEMENT PLAN
The Head of Revenues presented Paper E104 asking Members to comment on the performance of the Benefits Service for the first quarter and to approve the plan for ‘Delivering the Vision’ set out in Appendix B to the report. He reported that the online claim form referred to in Appendix A to the report had recently gone live, and referred to the current position on electronic signatures and DIP (Document Image Processing).
Members were also asked for any feedback on the format, detail and type of information contained in Paper E104 to be given to the Head of Service, to assist him in preparing reports for future quarters.
RESOLVED
(1) That the performance of the Benefits Service for the period 1 April to 30 June 2005 as summarised in Paper E104 be noted.
(2) That the Benefits Service Improvement Plan ‘Delivering the Vision’ set out in Appendix B to Paper E104 be approved.
Note: The Committee adjourned for refreshments between 10.50 a.m. and 11.15 a.m.
The business of the meeting was concluded at 12.30 p.m.
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