Meeting documents

To approve as a correct record the Minutes of the meeting held on 28 November, 2017, copy attached as an appendix.

RESOLVED –

That the minutes of the meeting held on 28 November, 2017, be approved as a correct record.

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Maryvonne Hassall (01296) 585663

The Committee was informed that Cabinet had received a report in December 2017 (a copy was attached as an appendix to the agenda) in relation to the investment proposal for the delivery of Phase 2 of the Connected Knowledge strategy starting in April 2018.

Cabinet had agreed for £1.53m to be included within the budget proposals for 2018/19, which was the next agenda item.  The funding would be made from unallocated New Homes Bonus balances and would enable work to continue on delivering a leading edge, forward thinking platform to facilitate the development of customer first processes, a streamlined internal operation and a framework for increased opportunities for external commercial sales.

The delivery of the "Connected Knowledge" strategy was central to enabling AVDC to continue to make savings in the provision of services, to remain at the vanguard of innovative thinking and to the provision of excellent customer service.  It also provided the opportunity to generate income by both supporting general commercial opportunities and providing consultancy services to other councils keen to emulate the approach being taken by AVDC.

As referred to in earlier reports, the strategy would be delivered over a five year period.  The first phase of the strategy (approved by Council in February, 2017), was now coming to an end and the report to Cabinet highlighted achievements made so far and the proposed programme for phase 2 covering the period up to the end of the 2018 financial year.  The Cabinet report and the investment proposal for phase 2 were available to read on the Council’s website.

Phase 2 required investment across three key areas, namely:-

·                    Innovation – the introduction of innovative new solutions such as voice recognition and artificial intelligence for call handling and decision making.

·                    Transformational – the roll-out of internal process automation and customer self service.

·                    Legacy reduction – the removal of legacy technology and the introduction of more flexible systems that would further support integration of data to enable customer needs to be anticipated.

Experience of previous change programmes had indicated that strong governance processes were required both to ensure that the programme delivered on time and to budget, and that any variations to scope (and cost) were closely scrutinised and that benefits realisation was tracked.  To this end, the release of funds during the programme (and benefits realisation) would be closely monitored by the governance board to ensure on-going value for money.

The Cabinet report (and accompanying investment proposal document) set out the resource implications and specifically the staff resource requirements which required specific skills sets.  The total investment required had been estimated to be £1.53 million and Cabinet had agreed that this should be built into the budget requirements for 2018/19 onwards.  This element had now been taken into account in the budget proposals for next year.

Part of the programme of works took into account the new data handling compliance requirements of the European General Data Protection Requirements (GDPR) Directive.  The revenue cost of this had been estimated to be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 2.

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Nuala Donnelly (01296) 585164

Cabinet had considered its initial budget proposals on 20 December 2017.  Due to the timing of scrutiny meetings, it had not been possible for these proposals to be reported to this scrutiny meeting.  Following the Government’s announcements in late December regarding the draft Grant Settlement 2018/19 for Councils and on other significant issues such as the future of New Homes Bonus, Cabinet had further honed its proposals and an updated set of budget proposals would be reported to the Cabinet meeting to be held on 9 January, 2018.  That report together with the updated Medium Term Financial Plan was also included as an appendix to the agenda.

The scrutiny committee was requested to indicate any comments that it had on the draft budget proposals for 2018/19, that it wished Cabinet to take into account (at the Cabinet meeting on 9/1/2018) in making final recommendations to full Council on the final budget proposals for 2018/19.

The key budget proposals that Cabinet was being asked to recommend to Council were:-

·                    to increase Council Tax by £5.00 for a Band D property, equivalent to a 3.48% increase from 1 April 2018.  This was the maximum allowable for lower tier councils.  The Government had assumed that each council would make maximum allowable increases and had reduced the amount of Grant awarded to Councils by an equivalent amount.

·                    subject to any amendments Members wished to make, recommend to Council the budget for 2018/19 and the Medium Term Financial Plan as detailed at Appendix A.

·                    to approve the use of £1.53m of New Homes Bonus to meet the costs of the Connected Knowledge programme in 2018/19.

·                    to agree the proposed fees and charges as detailed at Appendix E.

·                    to approve the level of the Band D Special Expenses charge for 2018/19, as detailed at Appendix F.  The precept charge of £45 was unchanged from the initial budget proposals.

The budget report also included information on:-

Government Grant Update

The draft Grant settlement for 2018/19 had been announced on 19 December, 2017, in which the Government had largely honoured the commitments within the 4 year settlement and left the pre-announced Grant numbers mostly unchanged. Importantly, the Revenue Support Grant and Baselined Business Rates settlements were virtually the same as those announced for 2018/19 (which was Year 3 of the four year settlement).

However, there had been a 1% increase in the Council Tax referendum thresholds across all Councils.

The Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government had also announced a formal consultation on a review of relative needs and resources which would feed into a new funding system that would be introduced in 2020 to 2021.  Alongside the new methodology, a new phase for business rates retention programme would also be introduced.  The aim was for local authorities to retain 75% of business rates growth from 2020 to 2021, and was intended to be a lever and incentive for local authorities to grow their local economies.

The mechanism for this would be through incorporating existing  ...  view the full minutes text for item 3.

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Andy Barton (01296) 585430

The Council maintained an integrated strategic Capital Programme divided into three elements:-

·                    Major projects - These being the largest and highest profile.

·                    Housing Schemes - These being the housing enabling and housing grant based schemes.

·                    Other Projects - These being all other schemes included within the Capital Programme.

The Programme was reviewed annually with the current programme being last approved and adopted at Council in February 2017.

Cabinet had considered a report on 20 December 2017 on the capital programme for the current year, as well as for the updated programme for 2018/19 onwards.  The report provided an updated position with respect to forecast receipts and the position with regards to current and future major investment projects. It also incorporated changes made since February 2017 and reflected these in the overall resources projections.

Cabinet had approved the updated Capital Programme for the purposes of scrutiny.  Any feedback from scrutiny would be considered by Cabinet on 9 January 2018 in making final recommendations to full Council.

The following table set out the available resources as at the beginning of 2017/18 and the projected resources during 2017/18 and 2018/19 before any expenditure had been taken into account:-

The Council had for some time been in a position where the generation of significant capital receipts were no longer likely as the asset base now comprised largely of small land holdings and operational property.  Large capital resources were now dependant upon external funding sources and in particular, borrowing.  The Capital resource position was the subject of an on-going review within the context of future demands and needs.  A copy of the Capital Programme had been appended to the Committee report.

Particular reference was made to the housing enabling element of the Programme.  The Council had been successful in its delivery of affordable housing, the capital commitment to which was tied to the VAHT housing stock transfer.  With the ending of the VAT shelter, beyond residual right to buy capital receipts and nominal sums from New Homes Bonus, the Council had no means to fund new schemes other than by way of borrowing.  However, as borrowing for this purpose provided no return by which to recover the borrowing costs, funding an affordable housing programme though this means was not sustainable.

Housing Associations had been obliged to review their business plans in the light of a change in the level of rents they could charge and so demand for potential new schemes had been delayed.  The Government had made it clear that housing provision was a priority and the recent Budget had included a number of commitments to provide funding.  However, the details had not yet been made available.  The Council would continue to work with Housing Associations to deliver  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

To consider the attached report.

Contact Officer:  Andy Barton (01296) 585430

Section 149 of the Equality Act 2010, the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED), came into force on 5 April 2011. The objective behind the duty was to ensure that consideration of equality issues formed part of the routine, day-to-day decision making and operational delivery of public authorities. In summary, it required that the District Council, in the exercise of its functions, had due regard to the need to:

·                    eliminate discrimination, harassment and victimisation and any other conduct prohibited by or under the Equality Act.

·                    advance equality of opportunity between people who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not by:

o        Removing or minimising disadvantage that people in the protected groups suffer because its connected to that protected characteristic

o        Take steps to meet the needs of people from the protected groups where these differ to those of other people

o        Encourage participation from protected groups in public life or other activity where their participation was disproportionately low

·                     foster good relations between persons who share a relevant protected characteristic and those who do not by:

o        Tackling prejudice.

o        Promoting understanding.

The protected characteristics were age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity status, race, religion or belief, sex, sexual orientation.

Following the introduction of the Equalities Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011, the Council had published a statement in 2012 on how the Council was meeting the Public Sector Equality Duty.  The regulations were designed to ensure that public bodies were transparent about their compliance with the Equality Duty. And, by publishing information about their equality performance and objectives, public bodies would be accountable to the people and communities they served.

The Committee received a report which provided an assessment (Appendix 1) of the Council’s performance against the Public Sector Equality Duty and which had been updated in light of the Council’s performance assessment for 2017, and also demonstrated that AVDC was complying with the general Equality Duty.  This included information about the population of the District, information about Council staff and what AVDC was doing to meet the equality duty.  The information would be considered by Cabinet on 9 January 2018, with a view to publishing an updated Public Sector Equality Duty statement on how AVDC was continuing to meet its statutory duty.

While the Scrutiny Committee was satisfied with the assessment given of the Council’s performance against the Public Sector Equality Duty for 2017, Members suggested that future reporting should:-

·                    look to include measurable objectives/baselines and report on performance against them.

·                    include more information on health and disability and how the Council was meeting it’s legal obligations.

·                    include more explanatory information generally throughout the report, for example:

o        on why the percentage of employees who had self-declared disability had fallen over the last 10 years.

o        on why there were generally more females in the grades (SG2-SG5).

o        on flexible working (e.g. female/male breakdown, grades of people that were working flexibly.)

o        highlighting, by way of examples, some of the positive  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

To consider the future work programme.  Meetings are scheduled as follows:-

5 February 2018

1.            Treasury Management Strategy

2.            Quarterly Finance Digest

4 April 2018

1.            Quarterly Finance Digest

9 July 2018

1.            Leisure Centres Management Contract

2.            Quarterly Finance Digest

The Committee considered the work programme for the period up until July 2018.

The list of updated agenda items for future meetings would be:

(i)            5 February 2018 – Treasury Management Strategy, Options for Future Finance Reporting.

(ii)           4 April 2018 – Quarterly Finance Digest.

(iii)          9 July 2018 – Leisure Centres Management Contract, Quarterly Finance Digest.

RESOLVED –

That the future work programme be agreed, as discussed at the meeting.