Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting of this Committee held on 12 July 2010.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 12 July 2010 were approved as a true and correct record and signed by the Chairman.

To receive any Declarations of Interest from Members.

There were no declarations of interest received.

Purpose: To receive an update on actions following the previous Committee meeting.  

The Committee considered a report providing the information requested at the last meeting (Agenda Item 4).

Newbury Cinema Subsidy

Andy Walker advised that it had yet to be confirmed by the operators whether the £16k saved from the 2009/10 financial year would need to be contributed within 2010/11.  The Chief Executive was due to meet the operators later in September 2010 and an update would be reported at November’s Select Committee.

Quarterly Budget Reports

At the last meeting, Members requested that the potential for quarterly reports to come to the Select Committee prior to the Executive, in order to make recommendations for improvement and comments etc, be given consideration.  Andy Walker had since discussed this with Councillor Keith Chopping, the Portfolio Holder for Finance, and Councillor Chopping’s view was that quarterly reports should be presented to the Executive prior to scrutiny. 

This was felt to be inconsistent as the monthly reports were not seen by the Executive, although they did go through Management Board, and as a result it was agreed that the Portfolio Holder would be asked to reconsider his decision based on this fact. 

Andy Walker was asked to recirculate budget reporting dates for the remainder of the year.

Section 106 (S106) Contributions

It was noted that all 16 S106 accounts which dated back to Berkshire County Council had been spent in their entirety within the last 4 years.  However, Councillor David Rendel, a Member of the S106 task group, recalled alternative information being provided to the task group to suggest this was not the case at the time of the review.  Andy Walker offered to clarify this point with the S106 Special Projects Officer. 

RESOLVED that Andy Walker would:

(1)       provide an update on the Newbury Cinema subsidy at the next meeting;

(2)       ask the Portfolio Holder for Finance, on behalf of the Select Committee, to reconsider his decision on whether quarterly reports could be considered by the Select Committee in advance of the Executive;

(3)       recirculate budget reporting dates for the remainder of the year;

(4)       confirm the dates that the Berkshire County Council S106 agreements had been spent with the S106 Special Projects Officer. 

Purpose: To continue work to review procurement processes in place across the Council. 

The Committee considered a report in continuation of the review into the procurement processes in place across the Council (Agenda Item 5).

Mike Sullivan introduced the item by making the following points:

·                    The Corporate Contracts and Procurement Unit worked within the rules outlined within the Contract Rules of Procedure (CRoP) (Part 12 of the Council’s Constitution), which was updated in January 2010, the Public Contracts Regulations 2006 and the Public Contracts Regulations (Amendment) 2009. 

·                    There was clear guidance in the CRoP on financial thresholds and the procurement processes that applied to each threshold.  The Procurement Unit would always be involved with contracts valued above £50k and those above £156k would need to be advertised through the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). 

·                    The Procurement Unit had less of an involvement for contracts valued at lower than £50k and the use of the Quick Quote facility was promoted for all contracts valued below this amount.  44 contracts had been awarded in this way for contracts valued at between £10k and £50k.  It was noted that this left a number of contracts unaccounted for and Mike Sullivan advised that the majority of these were for contracts valued at less than £10k, which were often for small one off purchases that did not require the involvement of the Procurement Unit or were grant funded.  However, he believed there was scope to increase the usage of Quick Quote.  Efforts had been made to do so via an article in Reporter, discussions held with service areas and by developing training for Officers and Members.

Concern was expressed, as at the last meeting, that the procurement process was very delegated and the Procurement Unit had little involvement in much of the procurement undertaken across the Council.  There had been no involvement in any contracts lower than £10k and this was particularly concerning for Members as the Coalition Government had announced a requirement for local authorities to publish all spend over £500. 

The £10k threshold was felt to be too high as the contracts below this amount could total a large sum when combined, even when omitting those below £500. 

Shiraz Sheikh informed the Committee that the £10k threshold had been approved by Council in January 2010 as part of the revision of the CRoP.  This raised the threshold in line with best practice.

There was a framework in place to support more strategic procurement, for example with neighbouring local authorities.  It was suggested by a Member that there was scope to do this and make savings, for example on stationery orders which totalled approximately £700k for non school staff.  

Andy Walker confirmed there were around 200 budget managers across the Council.  While budget managers could be cleared to authorise expenditure of up to £50k and service managers up to £100k, these permissions varied and it was up to Heads of Service to set an appropriate restriction.   

A question was then put to the Chief Executive as to whether there should be a more rigorous sign  ...  view the full minutes text for item 20.

Purpose: To receive feedback from Heads of Service on their experience of the Timelord process and that of their staff. 

The Committee considered feedback from Heads of Service on their experience of the Timelord process and that of their staff (Agenda Item 6).

This was in follow up to the last meeting of the Select Committee where concern was raised as a result of staff feedback that the introduction of Timelord was having a negative impact on team working, was causing isolation for staff and conducting confidential conversations was a difficulty due to the office layout and availability of meeting rooms. 

It was however noted at the last meeting that efforts were being made to ensure lessons were learnt and issues would be addressed in future.  Jackie Jordan reminded Members that Management Board had accepted the recommendations for improvement and these were being actively pursued.

Heads of Service based in West Street House, who had experienced the Timelord process, had been invited to attend this meeting to share their views and those of their staff, particularly on the issues listed above.  Ian Pearson read through feedback from a range of staff based at West Street House, this was based on both the new working style and the new building.  Firstly the positive aspects:

·                    The new working style meant that disruption during the severe winter weather was minimised with more staff able to work from home.

·                    The issuing of Blackberries to some staff was extremely useful.

·                    Work/life balance had improved.

·                    Working from home reduced travel time and cost, allowed for more uninterrupted and concentrated work and gave staff a feeling of being trusted and valued. 

·                    West Street House was ready for staff’s immediate use, minimising the disruption caused by the office move. 

Negatives:

·                    Desk areas were too small, this had partly been addressed in phase 2 and for phase 3.  One amendment was for Heads of Service to have a fixed desk and therefore a larger desk irrespective of their workstyle. 

·                    Initial IT problems had been experienced, but good support had been provided by IT staff.  Citrix had been reported as being occasionally slow by 2 teams, but this had not been the experience of others present.   

·                    A limited number of printers and photocopiers in busy periods caused congestion. 

·                    On the subject of team working, there was felt to be a loss of identity, informal information sharing/support and an inability to hold unplanned meetings.

·                    The reduced office space and the close proximity of colleagues caused distractions.  This was particularly an issue when making confidential telephone calls and it was often necessary to try and find a more private space for these, but room availability was an issue.  A working protocol to cover issues created by a more open plan environment, such as noise levels, had been produced.  Room availability was also an issue when trying to hold a confidential discussion with a member of staff.  The number of meeting rooms was partly constrained by the size of West Street House.     

·                    The removal of offices for Heads of Service was not only a loss of space for confidential discussions, but was also  ...  view the full minutes text for item 21.

Purpose: To outline to the Committee the work being undertaken to manage stress and sickness absence within the organisation. 

The Committee considered a report detailing a risk assessment toolkit designed to undertake stress risk assessments and help reduce stress in the workplace (Agenda Item 7). 

Robert O’Reilly explained that the toolkit, which was designed by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), had been piloted in Legal and Electoral Services with some success.  A presentation had also been made to the Corporate Management Team to raise awareness of its benefits.

This was a helpful addition to the existing practices of managing sickness absence, such as individuals being referred to Occupational Health and being offered a phased return to their duties. 

18% of the sickness absence recorded in the Annual Employment Report was reported as stress related, this could be as a result of personal issues as well as work pressures.  The Local Authority average was 17%.  However, overall sickness absence was showing a reduction.

The risk assessment would be undertaken anonymously across a service area and contained 35 questions.  Results were benchmarked against other organisations and if it was found that urgent action was required, then it was recommended that a focus group be formed to try and find solutions which would be forwarded to senior management teams.  The focus group would be led by HR and would not be represented by senior management. 

RESOLVED that the information be noted. 

Purpose: To provide RMSC with an update on the actions that have taken place within services to address issues identified in the EAS 2009 survey results.    

The Committee considered an update on the actions that have taken place within service areas to address issues identified in the Employee Attitude Survey (EAS) 2009 results (Agenda Item 8).

Robert O’Reilly highlighted the following points from the report:

·                    It was not felt necessary to produce a corporate action plan as overall there was a positive response in comparison to other local authorities.  Only two service areas scored lower than the local authority benchmark. 

·                    Results had improved since the survey was previously conducted in 2007.

·                    Individual service areas had been asked to produce an action plan where results deemed this necessary. 

·                    A number of recommendations for good practice had been identified for service areas to implement.  In some cases this was about ensuring that existing policy was adhered to. 

·                    The next survey was due in 2011 and it would be a significant challenge to improve upon the very positive 2009 results. 

In response to the final point, the importance of comparing performance with other local authorities was raised as a way of assessing progress.

It was noted that the results for Legal and Electoral Services were low and Robert O’Reilly advised that it was for this reason that they participated in the pilot of the stress management toolkit.  A focus group was also formed in an attempt to resolve issues within the service. 

RESOLVED that the report would be noted. 

Purpose: To receive an update on progress with the exit interview process. 

The Committee considered a report providing an update on progress with the exit interview process (Agenda Item 9).

Members noted that 23.3% of staff who completed an exit interview questionnaire did not specify their reason for leaving.  Robert O’Reilly informed Members that staff had the opportunity to provide further feedback as part of their exit interview and would check if staff had the opportunity to elaborate further within the questionnaire.

As the Council’s retention rates were good and turnover was currently low, it was not deemed necessary to have a more significant focus on ensuring a greater number of exit interviews were completed.

There was however a view among Members that greater effort should be given to ensure exit interviews were held as a matter of course, as this could provide vital information for the Council. 

The current process was for EC4 forms (which informed HR that an employee was leaving) to be sent to HR and exit interview forms were then sent to employees to complete.  However, this sometimes caused a delay meaning that exit interviews did not always take place.  It was therefore suggested that line managers should access forms direct to allow more time for exit interviews to be completed.  Departing employees should have the option of discussing their reasons for leaving with someone other than their line manager if they wished.

RESOLVED that Robert O’Reilly would be asked to give consideration to making improvements to processes in order to provide more robust data. 

Purpose: To inform the Select Committee of the latest financial performance of the Council.    

The Committee considered the month 4 revenue budget and quarter 1 capital budget as part of the financial performance report (Agenda Item 10).

Andy Walker advised that the Council’s revenue overspend forecast had increased by approximately £250k between month 3 and month 4. 

Nick Carter explained that measures had already been taken as a result of the Government’s in year budget cuts to find savings, including a recruitment freeze, and the ability to find further savings was therefore limited.  Indeed the recruitment freeze was having a limited impact as turnover was low. 

The most significant pressure, which could increase, was within Adult Social Care and it was difficult to reduce the demand for these services.  The underspend experienced in Children and Young People budgets in 2009/10, which helped with the budget position in that year, had not materialised in this financial year.  Similarly, budgets in the Chief Executive Directorate were not seeing significant underspends at this stage. 

The risk fund included a sum of £600k allocated to Adult Social Care, but a significant overspend would still remain even if this funding was drawn down.

Andy Walker explained that the remaining overspend could be covered by general fund balances, but meeting the forecasted overspend would mean that balances would be approximately £1m lower than the ideal level of £6.5m.  This amount was based on guidance from CIPFA (the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy).  A view would have to be taken on whether the remaining reserves would be sufficient if this action were to be taken.

It was queried whether more could be done in placing a charge against an individual’s property to help contribute or pay for their care, a particular concern was a property being signed over to a family member to avoid this charge.  Andy Walker agreed to discuss this further with the team responsible for this function.

The actual budget for Adult Social Care had reduced by around £334k since month 3, this was as a result of changes to a joint arrangement with the NHS.  This caused both expenditure and income to reduce by this amount. 

Further clarity was sought on the number of capital depleters that had been budgeted for in comparison to the number coming through.  Also whether a budget existed to allow for new care packages for people with a learning disability (3 new care packages had come through in year for clients previously unknown to the Council).  Andy Walker agreed to provide this information.

It was noted that although a £156k overspend was reported for the Children and Young People Directorate budget, it was expected that the budget would balance by year end as a result of management action.  It was therefore queried why this did not show in the accounts as with other Directorates, which was felt to be a preferable approach by the Select Committee.  Nick Carter acknowledged that there were differing approaches and a need for consistency would be discussed at Corporate Board. 

In the Environment Directorate, a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 25.

Purpose: To consider and prioritise the work programme for 2010/11. 

The Committee considered the Resource Management Select Committee Work Programme (Agenda Item 11).

It was agreed that the next meeting, scheduled for 22 November, would be rearranged to ensure that the Asset Management Plan was on the agenda.  Further agenda items were noted as follows:

·                    A focus on the Chief Executive Directorate budget

·                    Continuation of the review into the work of Property Services and its contractors within schools.

·                    Value for money. 

RESOLVED that the work programme would be noted and the next meeting rearranged to ensure that the Asset Management Plan was on the agenda for discussion. 

Purpose: To receive a report on the changes to the Council’s Establishment over the first quarter of 2010/11. 

The Committee considered the Quarter 1 Establish Report (Agenda Item 12).

RESOLVED that the report would be noted.