Agenda item

To advise the Commission of the Council’s Corporate Programme and its current areas of activity in order that it might identify projects requiring Overview and Scrutiny involvement. 

Nick Carter introduced the report (Agenda Item 8) which advised the Commission of the Council’s Corporate Programme and its current areas of activity. The Commission was asked to consider projects requiring Overview and Scrutiny involvement.

The Corporate Programme highlighted major projects that were underway and was split into sections to aid its presentation. There were a vast number of infrastructure projects and a large ICT project underway. Projects were placed on the programme as a result of their size or complexity.

Councillor Mike Johnston noted that the project on the GDPR was not complete. Nick Carter reported that this was due to post implementation work. The GDPR had gone live across the Council and various follow up work was underway. Nick Carter stated that it would be particularly helpful for Members to take a look at this area. Councillor Emma Webster reported that Councillors James Cole and Ian Morrin were the representatives looking at this area in more detail.

Councillor Graham Bridgman highlighted that Corporate Programme needed to be updated to ensure the Member Sponsors represented the Portfolios accurately.

Councillor Lee Dillon queried the red areas of the Corporate Programme. He felt well informed about the areas detailed on page 31 however less so on the areas detailed on page 32 including the Shared Service for Legal, ePcs, the Social Care Replacement (CareDirector) and Digital Transformation of Training Courses.

Nick Carter explained that the Shared Service for Legal was scheduled to go to Corporate Board in August 2018. The project was behind schedule because further work was required on the business case. The ePcs project had been a challenge and Officers from West Berkshire Council would be meeting with Hampshire County Council, which was already using the system. Regarding the CareDirector project, there were outstanding issues that required addressing and Jo England (Client Financial Services Manager) was working on this. The Digital Transformation of Training Courses project had been slipped because ICT were having to deliver various projects on digitisation, so therefore it was a capacity issue.

Councillor Dillon requested that the spreadsheet include further detail that provided clear explanations for why projects were overdue and costs associated with this.

Councillor Johnston queried why for Superfast Broadband, two phases were red and one was green. Nick Carter explained that Phase 2 was Gigaclear and it was red because it was running late. Phase 3 was BT and the Council had been informed that this was running a year late. Phase 3 for Gigaclear involved rural areas of the district and it was expected that this could turn red at some point. Nick Carter believed that the delay in the projects was a result of sub-contractor availability.

Councillor Richard Somner noted that a number of the Schools Capital Projects were pending and queried why this was. Nick Carter stated that some of the projects marked as pending were active and needed updating.

Councillor Somner referred to the recent press release regarding the new Theale Primary School, which was at risk. Nick Carter stated that legal documentation needed to be signed by Theale Parish Council by 31^st July 2018. Councillor Emma Webster had seen in the Newbury Weekly News that Theale Parish Council had called off a meeting due to bullying in relation to the new primary school. Nick Carter stated that he was aware of this and had been informed by the Parish Council that they had no intention of indicating their direction of travel and would not be driven by timescales. Nick Carter added that something would need to happen by the 31^st July 2018 as there would need to be decisions regarding alternatives schools for pupils, who had been due to join the new school in September 2019.

(Councillor Laszlo Zverko joined the meeting at 6.15pm).

 RESOLVED that:

·         The Corporate Programme include explanations as to why projects were overdue together with associated costs.

·         The latest version of the Corporate Programme be noted.