Agenda and minutes

To approve as a correct record the minutes of the meetings of the Board held on 25 January and 5 February 2018 and to authorise the Chairman to sign them.

The minutes of the meetings held on 25 January and 5 February 2018 were agreed as correct records and signed by the Chairman.

The report before Members set out the Quarter 1 performance report as requested by the Overview & Scrutiny Sub-Committees.

In 2017/18, the Board decided to scrutinise a selection of more operational performance indicators, determined by the six Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committees. For Quarter 1 performance reporting, those indicators had been carried forward into 2018/19 and the report provided an overview of how the Council was performing against them. Greater detail was provided in the six sub-committee reports.

Several of the Overview and Scrutiny Sub-Committees were in the process of reviewing the performance indicators they tracked, so there was likely to be further changes to the suite of indicators reported to the Overview and Scrutiny Board as the year progressed.

Following a trial without them during 2017/18, tolerances around targets (and therefore the amber RAG rating) had been reinstated for 2018/19 performance reporting.

The report also highlighted areas where the Council was performing well and also included areas where improvements were required.

Appended to the report was the full Quarter 1 performance report.

The Board reviewed the performance set out in the report’s appendix and the corrective action that was being taken to improve where necessary.

It was noted that the Children & Learning Sub-Committee had yet to decide which indicators it wished to scrutinise.

The report before Members gave an overview of the way the Council sets its budget and Medium Term Financial Strategy (MTFS) each year and how it then monitored the budget on a monthly basis.

The report included projections of future pressures and grant reductions giving a financial gap to be closed by savings and increases in income.

Appended to the report was the Period 3 monitoring report which showed a potential pressure of £3.4m on the revenue budget.

Early identification of the revenue position allowed officers to develop action plans to mitigate and contain such pressures.

Members noted that there would be a further update to Cabinet in November which would set out the latest position and would include the results of the public consultation taking place and the resulting proposed savings. This would enable Councillors to take decisions over the required level of Council Tax and inform the full Council Tax setting report to Council in February 2019.

The Board noted the contents of the report.

Members received a presentation which related to ICT progress update.

Members noted that in 2016, an external assessment of ICT service was carried out. The review had highlighted the gap in ICT revenue budget compared to other Local London Authorities.

In early 2017, an assessment and review of ICT infrastructure was carried out with an aim to address issues with the failing infrastructure.

In October 2017, the ICT service submitted a report to Havering’s Cabinet for a growth bid to invest in ICT as urgent investment was required for sustaining support for key ICT systems and ICT infrastructure. 

The report also included a request for urgent investment to be made in security systems and improvements to security infrastructure including compliance with General Data Protection Rules (GDPR).

The council approved the funding request which was released in November 2017.

With regards to data protection GDPR successfully went live on 25 May 2018 and ICT were now working with services to secure operational compliance when processing personal data.

The Council had rolled out free public Wi-Fi in Romford town centre which had allowed market traders to use chip and pin devices.

The Council had won funding to invest in improving broadband connectivity across the borough.

The upgrade for corporate telephony from Lync to Skype for Business was underway. Mobile/flexible working options were being investigated to ensure smarter working strategies going forward. One of the key principles was to move to a Cloud based system to provide greater resilience and disaster recovery options.

Corporate Wi-Fi had successfully been deployed throughout the Town Hall and Central Library and updated AV facilities had been installed in committee rooms in the Town hall.

Officers would continue to develop a digital strategy that would support the Council’s new corporate vision and assist with its transformation programme.

Work was taking place with Members to develop and design a new CRM with specific emphasis on resident’s and Member’s portals.

The Board noted the contents of the presentation.

Following consideration of the report the Board formally agreed to the formation of a topic group to allow greater scrutiny of the council’s financial strategy.