Meeting documents

Apologies were received from Trevor Egleton, Steven Lambert and David Watson.

To disclose any Personal or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

There were no declarations of interest.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 5 December 2013 to be agreed as a correct record.

The Minutes of the Meeting held on 5 December 2013 were agreed as a correct record.

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 referred to the Budget Scrutiny Meetings which were held in January to review the draft budget proposals and the response made by Cabinet at its meeting on 3 February. Members noted that this Committee’s report on Governance and Accountability would be submitted to Cabinet on 24 March. The business case for the Future Shape of the Council will also be considered at this Cabinet meeting. Following this meeting there will be an informal session on Contract Management.

To note:

a)    Report to Cabinet – Strategic plan and Revenue and Capital Budgets for 2014/15 to 2017/18.

b)    Cabinet Response: Budget Scrutiny Report 2014/15

c)     Strategic Plan and Budget 2013: progress on recommendations – 12 month update

d)    A written response following the Consultancy item on 5 December

e)    Quarter 3 Balanced Scorecard

f)      Extracts from the Joint Monitoring Report 

Members made the following comments on the budget process:-

·         The Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources would look at improving the process for priority based resourcing.

·         There could still be more clarity around the budget papers. Members welcomed the Equality Impact Assessments being more timely this year.

·         In terms of using unspent contingencies the Cabinet Member reported that they had looked at the best use of contingencies and had used some of the funding for the overspend in Children’s Services.

·         The Cabinet Member reported that they had a meeting recently with the Local Government Association and there had been early discussions about using the Municipal Bonds Agency to raise additional funds. A Member emphasised the importance of borrowing money when the rates were cheaper. It was a great opportunity to buy back bonds on the open market.

·         A Member commented on the importance of keeping roads which were adjacent to the main arterial road to a high standard in case the main road was closed due to an accident. He referred to the recent accident at Waddesdon where the alternative route was jammed.

·         In terms of the recommendation on property management the Cabinet Member reported that they were working on a new property asset strategy and had agreed in part as this work was already being undertaken.

·         The Cabinet Member reported that his Cabinet colleagues were committed to joint working. A Member commented that he was very keen to devolve services to Town and Parish Councils as he felt that there were benefits to both parties. It was important to do training on this issue on a reasonably regular basis as Parishes change in membership and direction.

·         On the recommendation relating to property issues and sharing existing office space the Cabinet Member reported that they had introduced the Corporate Landlord approach and would ensure sufficient use of buildings. He was not aware of any current vacant spaces but their policy would be to minimise this. A Member referred to the development at Hughenden, Wycombe which was a new build and in response Members noted that this building needed to be fit for purpose.

·         In terms of recommendation 15e) Members clarified that this did not refer to Local Area Technicians but the reduction in Locality Managers who would now have to work over a wide area. With reference to LATs a Member commented that he felt that one LAT working in the office was a waste of resource. Another Member commented that LATs provided an invaluable job but expressed concern that the decision to have a LAT in the office and one out in the field had not included consultation with Members. There was a concern that staff would be cut back so far that it would outweigh the effectiveness of what happens on the ground. The Cabinet Member reported that operational management decisions tended to be taken by officers and that Members would be kept informed of any changes that affected their locality.

Members noted the information report on  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Jenny O’Neill will update Members on the Council’s temporary and permanent resourcing arrangements, including changes that have been introduced during the last 2 years. 

Chris Daltry and Jenny O’Neill were welcomed to the meeting to provide an update on Strategic Resourcing.

Chris Daltry reported that the temporary resourcing contract was awarded to Pertemps which is classified as a platinum contract. This is to ensure that the right people are in the right place with the right skills. It was important that BCC was positioned as an attractive employer. The Council forecast an annual spend of £7m when the new contract was introduced in April 2012. Agency figures show that the numbers of temporary workers have fluctuated over the last year, but the trend for temporary resource is increasing as predicted. However, the fact that costs have been controlled and kept to £5.6m per annum last year rather than the £7m predicted, illustrate that the Pertemps arrangement has delivered savings via greater scrutiny of spend and efficiency of process. The overall rebate savings will be in the region of £155k this financial year.

Improving contract management arrangements was an important lesson from the Hays resourcing arrangement. The Resourcing Team has worked closely with Procurement to seek advice and follow the established Contract Management Framework. Since April 2012 permanent and fixed term resourcing has been brought back in-house, with a dedicated Resourcing team. Based on 805 vacancies costs for last year’s activity under the Hays pricing structure would have been around £1.127m. With estimated operating costs for the in-house team at £341k, this created an estimated saving of £786k for 2012/13. During 2012/13 over 2,000 permanent posts were advertised, including around 800 for Services and the remainder for schools. 547 vacancies were advertised for BCC Services in the first 3 quarters of this financial year.

The Council hired 6 graduates to a newly designed graduate development programme in September 2013, promoting excellent training with the opportunity for graduates to be highly visible in the organisation and to work in roles that were challenging, exciting and fulfilling. There was a streamlined recruitment process using e-recruitment, telephone screening on line psychometric testing and assessment centres. This process took 9 months and external consultancy costs to deliver a project like this would have been considerable.

Three Service Managers have been sourced for Adults and Family Wellbeing and the Assessment Centre was held on 12 February 2014. Children’s Social Care Resourcing is experiencing difficulty in attracting and recruiting both permanent and agency social workers. The Resourcing Team has worked with CYP and held 11 recruitment assessment days and 2 open days which has resulted in over 100 interviews being carried out and 60 offers being made. A detailed Strategic Resourcing Plan has been developed for CYP.

Learning from resourcing arrangements over the last two years suggest that there are benefits from using both outsourced and in-house delivery models.

During discussion the following points were noted:-

What lessons do you think we should learn from the Hayes contract as we look to outsource more services to contracted providers?  The report states that the contract became commercially unviable when recruitment volumes dropped.  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

Ian Boll will update Members on the Corporate Landlord programme and the new Asset Management Strategy. 

Ian Boll, Senior Manager, Place Service was welcomed to the meeting. He then updated Members on the Corporate Landlord programme and the new Property Asset Strategy:-

·         The Property Asset Strategy was a refresh on how the Council looks after its estates and assets. The purpose of the Strategy was to ensure that all property asset management decisions including investments and disposals were in line with Council priorities and service delivery strategies, consider risks and represent value for money. The limited remaining opportunities for disposal together with a declining revenue income for the Council, has prompted a review of the Council’s Property Strategy.

·         The Strategy embraces a new proactive approach to income generation from the estate, embracing a more entrepreneurial approach to property development and investment. It focuses on the long term with long lead in times to developing property solutions and the recognition of property as a key corporate resource.

·         There have been two approaches to this area. The first to keep operational assets lean and the Council has adopted principles of New Ways of working to optimise the use of space to deliver services from and promote efficient working through the adoption of facilitating technology for flexible working. Therefore the Amersham and Wycombe Area Offices and Old County Offices can be used for other purposes as they are no longer required.

·         The Strategy fits well with the Medium Term Plan, Strategic Plan and the Capital Investment Strategy. The Corporate Landlord approach to property management commences on 1 April 2014 which centralises the management of property to provide a more holistic management approach to current and future property needs.

·         The decision making process has been strengthened through the Property Board to have corporate visibility. They would look at individual service areas to deliver their property needs e.g. there are issues with security of tenure in some properties, day centres have been rationalised from 20 properties to six in order to modernise the service. With the Future Shape Programme they would need to provide a service to business units.

·         In adopting a more commercial approach the Council will need to reach out to professional expertise to achieve its aspirations – the new Estates and Asset Management Contract has been specifically designed with this facility in mind. This area was being led by Gill Harding.

·         The Corporate Landlord approach will fully integrate asset management planning with business planning at both corporate and service levels. As the Future Shape transformation strategy develops it would also consider the commercial opportunities for shared location and income generation. There are three key areas; Strategic and Asset Management (property of the future), Delivery of Assurance Team (provide technical expertise), Facilities Management (efficient working space). There would be a single charge for space occupancy.

·         There was office space available in the basement of new County Offices.

During discussion the following questions were noted:-

A key objective in implementing Corporate Landlord is to deliver efficiency savings.  What do you think can be achieved in terms of efficiency savings and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

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

Members noted the Work Programme and at the following meeting there would be items on the Customer Contact Update, Freedom of Information and the Capital Investment Strategy. The Transformation Programme would be discussed now in May.

The Cabinet Member referred to the 3 June Meeting and welcomed the discussion on Local Emergency Support. The Government had taken away funding from this area which left the Council with the responsibility and  he welcomed Members comments on how well they had done in the first year and also how to address the future.

1 April 2014 at 10am.

1 April 2014