Meeting documents

Apologies were received from Bill Chapple OBE, David Shakespeare OBE and David Watson.

To disclose any Personal or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

There were no interests declared.

To agree the Minutes of the Meeting held on 25 July 2013 to be agreed as a correct record.

The minutes of the meeting held on 25 July 2013 were agreed as a correct record after the tabled amendments had been approved.

Public Questions is an opportunity for people who live, work or study in the county to put a question to a Scrutiny Committee about any issue that has an impact on their local community or the county as a whole.

Members of public, who have given prior notice, will be invited to put their question in person.

The Cabinet Member and responsible officers will then be invited to respond. 

Further information and details on how to register can be found through the following link:-

http://www.buckscc.gov.uk/about-your-council/scrutiny/get-involved/

There were no public questions.

For the Chairman of the Committee to provide an update to the Committee on recent scrutiny related activity.

The Chairman reported that the budget Scrutiny meetings would be taking place on 7, 8 and 9 January 2014.   Following discussions at the previous meeting Members were advised that Select Committee Chairman will not be formally co-opted to the Committee but will be invited to attend the budget scrutiny meetings that relate to their Committee. 

John Chilver and Richard Schmidt will update the Committee on the Council’s Capital spending.

The Chairman welcomed the Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources (the Deputy Cabinet Member), Richard Schmidt and Elspeth O’Neill to the meeting and reported that the Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources (the Cabinet Member) was attending as an observer.

The Deputy Cabinet Member explained that the last written strategy was in 2011 and that a review was due.   The issues to be considered include areas for key investment and how to prioritise. 

Richard Schmidt explained that capital items generate an asset for example replacing single glazed windows with double glazed windows is capital expenditure as it improves the asset by contributing to energy saving.  Members were informed that the Capital Programme was agreed by the Council in February.  Schools Property maintenance has an allocation of £3.5m.  The bulk of the funding was for schools, highways, street lighting and property maintenance in addition to the reconfiguration of day services in Adult Social Care. 

It was acknowledged that the track record regarding slippages was patchy, although the record in 2010/11 was good.  Members were informed that some projects depend on planning activity whilst others, for example academies, were on track to deliver projects on time.  It was noted that the planning profile of spending needs careful consideration. 

It was noted that the Business Investment Group (BIG) was important in the management of capital investments and this Group was chaired by the Cabinet Member.  Bids for the capital part of the Medium Term Plan process will be submitted in September and October and the aim is for it to be in line with the Strategic Plan.  A formal plan will be submitted to Cabinet prior to approval by Council in February 2014.

Members were invited to ask questions and the following points were raised:

·       The aim is to complete the improvements set out in the ‘next steps’ of the report by December 2013 and it was noted that there have been improvements previously.  Richard Schmidt replied that the late announcement of the Government funding did not enable the budget profile to be completely properly.

·       A member asked how CIPFA code was applied and if there was sufficient finance for long term projects. 

·       Richard Schmidt replied that EfW was looking for a business return and extensive calculations had taken place beforehand to establish the revenue benefits and check that the finance was sound.  This takes place before any business is undertaken. 

·       The Member asked if the approach to borrowing had changed for the project.

·       A full Treasury Management Strategy had not been developed but interest rate swaps had taken place to fix the currency rates.  It was noted that BCC was quite cash rich and may not need to borrow although the return was disappointing because of low interest rates.

·       A Member suggested that if BCC was cash rich and the money did not need to be spent until the EfW plant opens could the money not be spent on repairing the roads and borrowed for EfW.

·       The Cabinet Member replied  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Rose Younger will update the Committee on the work of Commercial Services, including the implementation of the Contract Management Framework.

The Chairman introduced Rose Younger to the meeting to provide a commercial update.  Rose Younger joined BCC in October 2012 and replaced Graham Collins.

Members were advised of the importance of managing contracts well, of performance management and of holding officers commercially to account.  Contracts have been assessed and some need reassessing.  Rose Younger explained that contracts were Gold for matters relating to children and adults which were considered to be high risk.  Gold contracts include the National Autistic Society and Silver contracts include Npower and Hazlemere Windows. 

It was acknowledged that there was a pressure to have sufficient resources available to manage contracts effectively. 

A two day training course has been arranged for contract managers on soft skills including negotiating.  There will be further 2 day training courses for high risk contract managers.  Members were invited to submit comments on their role in the training process.  Members were invited to ask questions and the following points were raised:

·       Is there a central store for contracts?

·       A central register is going live on 16 September.

·       A Member commended the update which he considered to be very effective and asked what was expected to happen

·       Richard Schmidt replied that there would be a detailed market analysis and the focus was on identifying and delivering savings opportunities.

·       A Member asked what was the continuity training

·       This will be around the risks, financial evaluations and a detailed report will be prepared.

·       A Member requested a reassurance about the security risk of employing a third party.

·       Rose Younger replied that the data was split on different cloud servers.  It was not possible to reply about the risk of hacking into the system but Rose would come back with a detailed resposne.

·       A Member asked about the opportunities to generate income from other local authorities.

·       Rose Younger replied that key sales personnel had already met with Oxfordshire County Council.

·       A question was asked if lessons had been learnt from the complaints.

·       Complaints were not currently logged by the commercial team.   Contracts were owned by the service area and as a result previous complaints went direct to the service.  In future monitoring will apply to public complaints and contract management and performance. 

·       A question was asked about when we will reach a point when there are no more savings to be achieved.  Rose Younger replied that over time if you take all the meat off the bone it will get  to a point where decisions will be taken on whether or not to decommission services or do less.   There will also be a review and see if savings can be achieved and things done differently.

·       Members were advised that a capability analysis will take place and it will be necessary to ensure that there is the right skill set in place.                    

·       Caution was expressed regarding the need to check the financial stability of the providers. 

·       Members were advised that in other local authorities procurement was centralised and that the direction of travel was towards a  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

The purpose of the item is to assess the request submitted in relation to the Cabinet Member Decision relating to the Transfer of 5 County Council managed Children’s Centres to the management of Barnardo’s and the use of the urgency rule.

Clare Gray explained that the Committee was being asked to assess the use of the Urgent Rule for a Cabinet Member decision.  The management of five Children’s Centres was transferred from BCC to Barnardo’s.  

A consultation took place between 23 November 2012 and 22 January 2013.  The Cabinet Member decided that, in order to properly consider the views of parents and to make the consultation meaningful, epetitions should run their course before making a decision.  Following receipt of all the information a draft report was drafted.  As a result of consultation with Legal and Democratic Services, it was apparent that if the decision were called in with the elections taking place on 2 May it would not be possible for the scrutiny process to be completed before the election took place. 

Following the elections and the appointment of committees it was unlikely that an Overview and Scrutiny Committee would take place until June at the earliest.  In view of this the Deputy Leader and Chairman of the Overview and Scrutiny Commissioning Committee agreed that the decision should be taken under the urgency rule on 16 April 2013.  Members were advised that there was a risk of going to market with a bad Ofsted report and as a result many providers may not wish to tender in April 2014 when the Children’s Centres were due to be re-commissioned. 

Members were invited to comment and the following points were made:

·       A Member challenged whether or not the Decision was urgent.  He suggested that if the consultation was between November and January why was the decision being taken within the six week period before the election.  He expressed concern about the transparency during a period when it could not be challenged or reversed and he suggested that the decision was stacked

·       The Deputy Monitoring Officer explained that the decision was stacked because epetitions had been received.     

·       It was suggested that it was not normal for Decisions to be stacked.

·       The Deputy Monitoring Officer was unable to speak on behalf of the Cabinet Member or the officers involved.  Members were advised that paragraph C in the Constitution may be revised to state that decisions may be reviewed but cannot be delayed. 

·       A Member suggested that the issue should be reviewed by Regulatory and Audit Committee and he asked what the rationale was for referring it to this Committee.

·       The Deputy Monitoring Officer explained that if the Committee considered that the Constitution should be clearer on urgency it was within their remit for the Committee to refer this to the Regulatory and Audit Committee. 

·       A Member asked if the petitions extended the process.

·       This was considered to be correct.

·       In response to a question it was confirmed that had the epetitions not been received this situation would not have occurred.

·       A Member proposed that the matter be referred to Regulatory and Audit Committee and that a cut-off date be agreed because the process had highlighted a weakness in the system.

·       The Committee agreed that  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

To consider and agree the Finance, Performance and Resources Select Committee Work Programme 2013/14.

Andrew Brown, Policy Officer explained that the Committee Work Programme was a live document which was updated regularly.

A member requested that the issue with emergency loans from job centres be added to the agenda for the meeting on 5 December. This related to helping people out with rent and that the fund was no longer available.  

To note the budget scrutiny timeline.

The papers for information were noted.

31 October 2013 – 10am

31 October 2013 at 10am.