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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 22 NOVEMBER 2005
PRESENT: Ms J A Jenkins – Chairman
Mr D M Busby and Mrs W J Sadler were unable to be present.
Mr H Todd, Chairman of the Procurement Task Group attended the meeting for the Item referred to in Minute No 56 below.
48 SUBSTITUTES
It was noted that in accordance with Council Procedure Rule No. 5, substitutes were in attendance as follows:-
Miss J J Chapman (substituting for Mrs W J Sadler)
Mr C J Hunt (substituting for Mr D M Busby)
49 DECLARATION OF INTERESTS
Miss J J Chapman declared a personal interest in Agenda Items 8 and 9, Revenue Budget Monitoring and Capital Programme Monitoring, by virtue of her membership of Hadleigh Town Council, but indicated that her interest was such that she was able to speak and vote on the matters concerned.
50 MINUTES
RESOLVED
That the Minutes of the meeting held on 27 September 2005 be confirmed and signed as a correct record.
51 PETITIONS
None received.
52 QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS
None received.
53 WORK PLAN
The Acting Head of Legal and Administrative Services submitted a report (Paper E199) 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 suggested that an item on Monitoring the CPA Improvement Plan might need to be added to the Work Plan. Officers were asked to investigate this.
RESOLVED
That the Work Plan submitted as Paper E199 be noted.
54 RISK MANAGEMENT ACTION PLANS
The Head of Finance and Performance Review presented a report (Paper E200) setting out Risk Management Action Plans drawn up following the Risk Identification exercise carried out earlier in 2005. It was noted that the Overview and Scrutiny (Stewardship) Committee would be responsible for monitoring these on a quarterly basis.
Appendix 2 to Paper E200 set out Action Plans drawn up by Officers. Appendix 1 to Paper E200 set out Action Plans suggested by Members following the Strategy Committee meeting held on 15 September 2005.
It was accepted that the great majority of the issues in Appendix 1 were either reflected in the Risk Management Plans drawn up by Officers or were included in risks that had been agreed as being below the risk tolerance line. The Head of Finance and Performance Review agreed to amend Appendix 2 for those issues that were not already adequately reflected.
RECOMMENDED TO STRATEGY COMMITTEE
(1) That the Risk Management Action Plans set out in Appendix 2 to Paper E200 be approved.
(2) That Members also consider Appendix 1 to Paper E200 and whether any amendments are felt to be necessary in relation to the Risk Management Action Plans set out in Appendix 2 to Paper E200.
55 REVENUE BUDGET – QUARTERLY MONITORING REPORT
Mr N H J Irwin declared a personal interest in Paper E201 , by virtue of the fact that his mother is a Council house tenant. However, he indicated that his interest was such that he was able to speak and vote on the matter concerned.
The Head of Finance and Performance Review introduced Paper E201, setting out key points from the current year’s second quarterly review of expenditure and income against budgets. It was noted that in the current year there was a potential net overall saving of £278,000 indicated in the Appendix to Paper E201, most of which arose from additional investment income. In addition, the Government grant for 2005/06 and 2004/05 was to be reduced by £36,000 to reflect changes in data and population estimates. That would reduce the net overall saving to £242,000. The Service and Financial Planning Group was examining investment income and this would be reflected in the draft budget for 2006/07.
At its meeting on 16 August 2005 the Committee had suggested that it might be possible to introduce a system whereby tenants could be required to make a financial deposit to help off-set the cost of works carried out to void properties. The Head of Housing did not consider this to be a viable option for the reasons set out in paragraph 4.11 of Paper E201. It was noted that steps had been taken to reduce the costs of clearing the gardens of void properties. Currently the average void cost was approximately £980. Members believed that it should be possible to reduce that sum still further by introducing some form of bond. It was agreed to ask the Overview and Scrutiny (Community Services) Committee to consider whether such a system could be implemented within the context of the new Choice Based Lettings arrangements.
Officers were asked to provide individual Members with further information relating to:
pump priming for partnership arrangements for legal services in Suffolk; removal of abandoned vehicles; and tourism advertising income.
RESOLVED
(1) That the position on 2005/06 budget variations be noted as set out in Appendix 1 of Paper E201 and that the key points 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 requested to ensure that variations which will impact on current and future budgets are reflected in their formulation of budget proposals for 2006/07.
56 CAPITAL PROGRAMME MONITORING
The Head of Finance and Performance Review and the Head of Technical Services submitted a joint Report (Paper E202 ) setting out progress on the current year’s Capital Programme to the end of September 2005. In the course of the discussion on this Report, the following were among the points noted:
· Every effort would be made to achieve the targets for minimum levels of expenditure compared to the 2005/06 budget of 97% for Council Housing and 89% for other services. However it seemed likely that the final results would narrowly miss the targets. There had been particular problems relating to the Sandringham Court and the Stour House schemes.
· Greater distinction between expenditure on organisational development and on e-Government/ICT projects would be helpful.
· Members expressed concern that halfway through the financial year little capital expenditure had taken place. However, it was noted that because of time spent on design work and tendering it was often the case that the majority of capital expenditure took place in the second half of the financial year.
· Concern was also expressed that the level of Council Tax for 2005/06 might have been determined on the basis of capital projects which would not be undertaken in the current financial year and that the Council might have a serious problem relating to under capacity. Officers remained confident that the capital programme was realistic and adequately resourced. Nevertheless they undertook to investigate non construction projects to see if there were any capacity problems and to report on this to the meeting of the Committee scheduled for 31 January 2006.
· It was noted that the Council’s record on achievement of capital projects was good compared to other Local Authorities, and that Officers would seek to alleviate any problems of under capacity by improving the project management skills of staff: recruitment of additional staff was seen as an option of last resort.
RESOLVED
That the overall position on the capital programme at the end of September 2005 as set out in Paper E202 be noted.
57 PROGRESS ON PROCUREMENT STRATEGY
Mr H N Todd, Chairman of the Procurement Task Group, introduced a report (Paper E209) setting out progress on procurement strategy.
It was noted that the Task Group had already achieved savings in a number of areas, the largest being on waste collection. The establishment of the new Leisure Trust was also expected to reduce growth in expenditure.
Members noted that the Service and Financial Planning Group had accorded a high priority to a shared procurement resource whose key task would be to achieve a saving of £30,000 per annum on commodity purchases.
RECOMMENDED TO STRATEGY COMMITTEE
(1) That progress on implementing the Council’s Procurement Strategy and savings achieved to date and estimated in the future as set out in Paper E209 be noted.
(2) That the proposed Action Plan in relation to the IDeA fitness check as set out in Appendix 2 to Paper E209 be approved, subject to these being prioritised in order to match the available resources.
RESOLVED
That the Procurement Task Group be asked to monitor progress on the Action Plan referred to in Recommendation 2 above and that a further report be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny (Stewardship) Committee in May 2006 on progress on this and the overall procurement strategy.
58 MONITORING THE 2005/06 COMPREHENSIVE PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT (CPA) IMPROVEMENT PLAN
The Corporate Support Manager presented a report (Paper E203 ) setting out the status of the CPA Improvement Plan as at 10 November 2005.
It was noted that 27 of the 33 actions in the Plan had either been completed or were on target. Six were not on target, but it was anticipated that an extension of the initial deadlines would allow all actions to be completed in 2005/06.
RESOLVED
That the deadlines for Actions 4, 9, 24, 26, 30 and 33 in the CPA Improvement Plan be extended as set out in the Appendix to Paper E203.
59 PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT – QUARTERLY REPORT
The Corporate Support Manager introduced a report (Paper E204 ) setting out figures for Best Value Performance Indicators and Local Performance Indicators included in the Corporate Plan for the period 1 April 2005 to 30 September 2005.
It was noted that a total of 125 Best Value and Local Performance Indicators were included in the Corporate Plan Priority Action Plan and that of those 98 were currently capable of being measured. Indicators requiring further action were highlighted in Tables 3 and 4 of Paper E204. In the case of Indicator BV79bi, it was hoped that introducing the appropriate software would allow an accurate figure to be calculated by the end of the financial year. In relation to LP129, Officers were asked to develop the process required to identify divisional contributions, and provide information on cashable as well as non cashable savings.
RESOLVED
That performance on Best Value Performance Indicators and Local Performance Indicators for the period 1 April 2005 to 30 September 2005, as set out in Paper E204, be noted.
60 BENEFITS SERVICE – QUARTERLY PERFORMANCE AND SERVICE DEVELOPMENTS 1 JULY TO 30 SEPTEMBER 2005
The Head of Revenues presented a report (Paper E206 ) updating Members on a number of strategic projects aimed at improving the Benefits Service, which would come to fruition in the period up to April 2006.
The staff in the Benefits Service were congratulated on the improvements achieved to date. It was noted that in general terms performance had deteriorated slightly in the period from July to September 2005. However, it was recognised that this was due to staff resources being stretched to deal with strategic projects including the Business Process Re-engineering Revenues pilot which had commenced in October.
The Committee noted that the new on-line benefit claim form was available on the website and in the interview rooms at the Council Offices. Some on-line claims had been received. Training for the Sudbury Advice Centre staff was scheduled for December 2005 to increase their confidence in the use of the on-line form to be able to assist residents to submit claims. The implementation of Document Image Processing/Workflow software would be completed by January 2006. Members were invited to visit the office after the Committee meeting scheduled for 31 January 2006, or to arrange to drop in individually to view progress.
RESOLVED
That the performance of the Benefits Service and the developments in progress during the period 1 July to 30 September 2005 as set out in Paper E206 be noted.
61 ICT AND E-GOVERNMENT PROJECTS
The Head of Organisational Development submitted a report (Paper E205) summarising the progress on ICT and E-government projects, and in particular considering the current status of the expenditure against E-government (IEG) Grant.
The ICT Manager explained that it was still unclear whether any IEG Grant unspent by 31 March 2006 would need to be returned, but the report assumed that this would be the case. Several major projects had recently been started which would consume a large part of the remainder of the Grant. In addition, a number of contingency projects could be called upon at very short notice to spend further funds if necessary. As requested at the previous meeting, information had been supplied about the benefits obtained from IEG expenditure. It was estimated that they had produced non-cashable gains of £90,000 for 2004/05 with predicted non-cashable gains of £330,000 for 2005/06. Members were grateful for the work done to produce this information, and Officers were asked to e-mail to Members a checklist setting out in non-technical language how access had improved in the period 2000 – 2005 from the customer’s point of view. In addition it was suggested that the e-Government Steering Group be asked to produce a report setting out how the £900,000 of IEG funds had been spent, and what savings (cashable and non-cashable) had been achieved as a result.
RESOLVED
(1) That the report on ICT and e-Government projects as detailed in Paper E205 be noted.
(2) That the e-Government Steering Group continue to monitor and take appropriate action to maximise the expenditure of the IEG Grant under existing delegated authority arrangements.
62 REVIEW OF THE INTRODUCTION OF THE GENERAL OFFICER DELEGATION
The Acting Head of Legal and Administrative Services submitted a report (Paper E208) reviewing the effect of the introduction of the General Officer Delegation. The Committee Services Manager reported that since its introduction in February 2005 the new delegated procedure had been used three times.
RESOLVED
That the report submitted as Paper E208 be noted.
63 LOCAL LAND CHARGES – PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
The Acting Head of Legal and Administrative Services submitted a report (Paper E207) setting out the latest performance indicators for the Local Land Charges service. The Electoral and Administrative Services Manager reported that since the previous meeting of the Committee the Land Charges services had maintained its average response time for searches at below 10 days. As the performance of the service had improved, the proportion of personal searches had decreased. Although it was too soon to conclude that this might represent a continuing trend, the fewer personal searches there were, the smaller was the negative impact on income derived from the service. The Local Land Charges team was congratulated on this achievement.
RESOLVED
That the report submitted as Paper E207 be noted.
NOTE: The Committee adjourned for refreshments between 11.00 a.m. and 11.20 a.m.
The business of the meeting was concluded at 1.00 p.m.
…………………………..
Chairman
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