Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meeting of the Board held on 5 May 2015 and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meeting held on 5 May 2015 were agreed as a correct record and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman updated the Board as to why a recent Executive Decision regarding the proposed Romford Leisure Centre had been exempted from call-in.

Following discussions with the Chief Executive it had become clear that there would have been insufficient time to allow for the call-in procedure to have been exercised as a decision had been required the same day.

Subsequently Morrisons had submitted new information regarding relating to their side of the arrangement and the progress of the development was now still to be determined.

It was agreed that there was no reason why the Towns and Communities Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committee could not consider the new information that had been received and also look at the way future Executive Decisions were dealt with.

The report updated the Board on oneSource’s current operating position, and reviewed and monitored the progress of oneSource at the one year anniversary of the formal launch of the shared service.

The report also outlined oneSource’s strategic aims for the next three years.

oneSource had developed a model that took the best from the Council’s services, looked at best practice elsewhere and reflected on what customers had told them what was important to them which in turn provided a standard support service, which was consistent across both councils.

Members were advised that against an original predicted £4.1m savings target, oneSource had actually achieved savings of £5m for 2014/15.

oneSource had four corporate KPIs which were Customer satisfaction, Saving achieved, Council tax collection and NNDR collection.

Two customer satisfaction surveys were carried out a year, which collated the views of 250/300 service managers.

Members felt that it was important that the views of Members were also taken on-board when analysing customer feedback.

During the debate Members questioned the number of services and staff that were going the way of Newham as opposed to Havering.

Members asked that a comprehensive report showing the breakdown of staff numbers of both Havering and Newham employees, how these numbers were different from the time of inception of oneSource and where services were being located and the number of redundancies since oneSource’s inception.

Following a question regarding the transfer of ICT services officers confirmed that the ICT helpdesk had been relocated to Stratford but the rest of the ICT team was remaining in Havering.

The report also outlined services that oneSource was providing to other local authorities.

Officers also confirmed that the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to develop a business case to assess whether the London Borough of Bexley could join oneSource. Officers were working closely with colleagues at Bexley to understand current ways of working and identify potential opportunities to deliver savings, more efficient processes and increased resilience through sharing services.

The Board noted the contents of the Annual Report.

Attached is the Corporate Performance Report that went before Cabinet on 8 July 2015.

The Board considered a report which outlined the Council’s performance against the corporate performance indicators and annual targets for 2014/15 according to the five Living Ambition goals of last year’s Corporate Plan.

The report identified where the Council was performing well and not so well. Where the Council was performing not so well corrective action had been included in the report highlighting what actions the Council was taking to address poor performance, where appropriate.

Also attached to the report, for the first time was a Demand Pressure Dashboard illustrating the growing demands on Council services and the context that the performance levels set out in the report had been achieved within.

Also included in the report were the proposed targets for 2015/16, to allow further comparison of the target against last year’s outturn.

Members noted that seventy Corporate Performance Indicators were measured annually and of these 85% had been given a green status as opposed to 83% in 2013/14.

The report that had been considered by Cabinet made clear that the measures and targets set out in the Corporate Plan at that time would continue to be refined as necessary as service plans were finalised. Members noted that changes that had been suggested to targets during the review period had been incorporated into service plans.   

The Board noted the performance indicators and the Demand Pressures Dashboard.

An update will be given at the meeting.

Members were advised that discussions had taken place between the Chairman and the Council’s Head of Business and Performance on how performance indicators were fed back to the Overview & Scrutiny Sub-Committees.

Members noted that each Sub-Committee would receive a report covering performance areas that were bespoke to the Sub-Committee’s terms of reference similar to the dashboard statistics that had been included with Annual Report mentioned in the last agenda item. The narratives to each performance indicator would also be much richer in information giving Members a better picture of where targets were being met/not met and the corrective action that was being taken.

The Board would continue to receive the full pack of performance indicator information.

Updates will be given at the meeting.

Environment Sub-Committee

The Chairman advised that a topic group had been set up to look at waste minimisation.

It was agreed to invite Councillor Kelly to the next meeting as his previous work with ELWA would provide valuable assistance to the group.

The Sub-Committee would also shortly be receiving a presentation on fly-tipping and its enforcement throughout the borough.

The Sub-Committee would also be investigating the future parking provision for residents of the borough.

Health Sub-Committee

The Chairman advised that the topic group looking at appointment cancellation was continuing with its work and was due to shortly meet with representatives from BHRUT to discuss the issues further.

Towns & Communities Sub-Committee

Members were advised that the meeting scheduled for September had been brought forward to August to allow the Sub-Committee to report to Cabinet the Private Sector Landlord topic group’s findings and recommendations.

Individuals Sub-Committee

The Chairman advised that a new topic group was being established to look at the care packages that were currently offered to residents and possible changes to the provision of future care offered.

Crime & Disorder Sub-Committee

The Chairman advised that the Sub-Committee was due to receive a presentation on the current position with the new Community Rehabilitation Company.

Others areas currently being monitored were tripartite courts, prisons and discharge rates.

Children & Learning Sub-Committee

The Chairman, Cabinet Lead and Head of Service, had met with four schools in a new process to meet with all Head Teachers and Chairs of Governing bodies. To date: one secondary, two primary and one special school had been invited to the Town Hall. The process was on-going.

It was noted that the Educational Attainment topic group had been unable to gain access to some schools however it was hoped that this situation would change in the near future.

The Sub-Committee was also reviewing the current provision of SEN transport provision in the borough.

Debt Recovery Topic Group

Councillor Williamson advised that a meeting of the topic group and the Director of Exchequer and Transactional Services had taken place with a further meeting taking place shortly.

Officers had provided the group with reports detailing the levels of debt that existed from non-payment of council tax.

Discussions had taken place regarding suggestions of how the debts could be managed in the future and ways of increasing payment of council tax.

The group would also be meeting with the Council’s Debt Management Project Manager shortly.