Meeting documents

Venue: Mezzanine Room 2, County Hall, Aylesbury. View directions

Contact: Clare Gray, Committee Adviser 

Note: Please note that this meeting will be webcast - please use the "Webcasts" menu link 

Media

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Items
Note No. Item

10am

1.

Apologies for Absence/Changes in Membership

Additional documents:

Minutes:

Apologies were received from Mr T Egleton.

2.

Declarations of Interest

To disclose any Personal or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

Additional documents:

Minutes:

No declarations of interest were made.

 

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 203 KB

To agree the Minutes of the Meeting held on 24 February 2015

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday 24th February 2015 were agreed as an accurate record.

 

4.

Public Questions

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/getting-involved/

Additional documents:

Minutes:

There were no public questions.

10.05am

5.

Primary Hot School Meals - Capital Expenditure pdf icon PDF 161 KB

For a capital expenditure update to be given on Primary Hot School Meals.

 

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Education and Skills and Simon Brown Operations Manager will be attending the meeting.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Deputy Leader and Cabinet Member for Education and Skills and Mr S Brown, Operations Manager, Business Unit Children’s Social Care and Learning, attended. An update was provided as outlined in the paper the following key points were highlighted:

 

·         The targets for introducing hot school meals, which is a government requirement, have not been met. The paper provided set out that this statutory requirement was a challenge to deliver within short timescales.

·         Additional verbal information was provided by the Deputy Leader on the numbers of hot school meals that have been provided across the County and those outstanding.

 

The following issues were raised by Members:

·         The impact has been on schools in terms of positive benefits.

·         The impact of the new government policy of having to register separately for pupil premium and the impact on free school meals (previously this was an automatic trigger for free school meals).

·         The financial viability of the super-hub kitchen offer to schools.

·         The physical impact on schools of building new kitchen facilities.

·         The difficulty of catering for myriad dietary requirements of children.

·         The financial impact on the County Council in terms of any shortfall of funding.

 

The presenters made the following key points in response to questions raised by the Committee:

·         The following impacts on schools have been the delivery has been a whole new service responsibility for schools; finding the space in schools; the challenge of needing to teach some children how to use cutlery.

·         The Council is monitoring the benefits of the policy on outcomes. The evidence nationally is that hot school meals help children to learn in the afternoons as it improves their ability to concentrate. This needs to be measured long-term.

·         No complaints/issues received from local Members about the policy. Some queries had been from parents about the implementation of the policy.

·         The Council has been clear with schools about the need to ensure registration for the public premium to receive funding and to sign-up for free school meals.

·         The Council had explored the option of a superhub kitchen offer but that it had been found to be high-risk for the Council financially as its viability depended upon a higher level of take-up from schools. The alternative option of localised kitchen offers for schools in different locations across the county has therefore been developed.

·         The solutions for the remaining schools were talked through as outlined in the paper provided.

·         The schools are funded to provide the kitchen facilities, however there is a concern that there is a hidden cost on schools as a result of the staff time spent on helping children eat the meals at lunch times.

·         Part of the response of the Council has been to set up the Chartwells Project. Through this project the Council contracts with this supplier to provide a holistic service for schools who have signed-up to this offer (providing the food and serving staff).

·         School meals need to be balanced.

·         Currently the financial viability of the hot meals service is subsidised by central  ...  view the full minutes text for item 5.

10.45am

6.

Chairman's Report

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

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Chairman provided the following updates:

·         The scrutiny inquiry on crisis support had been received by Cabinet at its meeting on 12th January however a response was still outstanding. The report was therefore an item on the Cabinet’s next agenda on 13th April. The Committee had agreed to undertake a further Inquiry looking at the issue of rent in advance which will start in April. Members are Mr. Lambert (Chairman), Mr. Roberts, Mr. Chapple, Mr. Bendyshe Brown and Mr. Martin.

·         It was proposed and agreed to have an informal workshop after the 2 June formal meeting to look at this Committee’s terms of reference and future Work Programme items and also prepare for the July meeting.

 

Action: Ms Gray to schedule and prepare informal committee session.

 

10.40am

7.

Committee Work Programme pdf icon PDF 38 KB

To consider and agree the Finance, Performance and Resources Select Committee Work Programme 2014/15.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Committee’s work programme was noted.

10.50am

8.

Expenditure of BCC Leadership Training pdf icon PDF 192 KB

For the Committee to receive an update on the Leadership Training Budget.

 

Attendees:

Frances Mills – Head of People and Organisational Development

Peter Hardy – Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Finance and Resources, and Ms Mills, Head of People and Organisational Development, HQ Enterprise, attended and provided an update on leadership development.

 

The Cabinet Member Finance & Resources and Ms Mills outlined the following key points by way of introduction:

·         To deliver future shape and the challenges the Council faces requires strong leadership and all managers need development to achieve this. For example, in Children’s Services the managers need to be able to motivate their staff to perform.

·         The bulk of expenditure on leadership training is managed locally. The details of this are outlined in the papers provided. Further funding has been earmarked for 2015/16.

 

Members asked questions in relation to the following issues:

·         The criteria for staff training.

·         The feedback from the external consultancy firm engaged to provide the support for senior managers.

·         The readiness of staff to deliver the future shape requirements.

·         The value for money of training for senior managers and the visibility of training provision within the Business Units.

·         Safeguards to ensure there is investment in staff training at a time of financial austerity.

·         The overview of outcomes achieved from investment in training across the Council.

 

The Cabinet Member for Finance & Resources and Ms Mills made the following points in response to questions raised:

·         When training is commissioned the starting point is always the outcomes to be achieved, how and what is provided will depend upon this.

·         The feedback from the external consultancy firm engaged to provide the support is that senior officers need to be committed to owning and cascading corporate decisions; show vision and actively engage employees.

·         More rigorous performance management and leadership is needed in Children’s Services and work is underway to improve this. Each Business Unit varies in what the training needs are for their staff.

·         Harrow Council is going to buy organisational development services from Bucks County Council.

·         Business Units are not forced to spend a set amount of money on staff training each year. Each Business Unit will locally determine the amount of money spent on training and leadership development. This needs to be locally determined as training needs will vary.

·         The appraisal framework includes a requirement for managers to engage with their staff on development. Each staff member is entitled to five days development per year.

·         The Council is learning from the private sector and utilizing new ways of learning which provide better value for money through self-directed learning e.g. e-learning packages. This requires a cultural change to be implemented.

 

Action: Ms F Mills to provide a written update on the plans of each Business Unit for staff development.

11.20am

9.

Balanced Performance Scorecard and Joint Budget Monitoring Report Quarter 3 pdf icon PDF 150 KB

The reason for this item is for Select Committee Members to note and question the Cabinet Member for Finance & Resources on the Council’s Service Performance. Cabinet considers performance reports quarterly and the papers attached for the Select Committee are a copy of the balanced performance scorecard and joint budget monitoring report quarter 3 which was presented to Cabinet on 23 February 2015.

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The Cabinet Member for Finance & Resources and Ms Stokes, Management Accountancy Manager attended to answer questions in relation to the latest Balanced Performance Scorecard report. The following key points were outlined in opening remarks:

 

·         Additional resources have been allocated to Children’s Services in-year, as outlined in the paper and previously considered by the Committee.

·         Capital slippage still remains an issue. Plans are underway to address the issues and there is confidence that the capital position will be improved during the new financial year.

 

Member raised the following issues:

 

·         Concerns in relation to the outturn of Children’s Services budget and the implementation of the action plan.

·         Actions to address the difficulties in recruiting social workers.

·         Concerned in the time lag between the consideration of these quarterly reports and the period concerned.

·         Concerns on managing the overspend in the Adults, Wellbeing and Families Portfolio.

·         The burden of responding to Freedom of Information Requests.

·         The costs of agency and interim staff and if this is reducing.

·         The costs of avoidable contact by customers.

 

The Cabinet Member for Finance & Resources and Ms Stokes made the following key points in response to questions:

 

·         The ability to recruit social workers is difficult and there is competition from neighbouring authorities. A national solution is needed but local solutions were underway. For example, a new financial benefits package has been introduced and it is a key priority.

·         Cabinet Members receive monthly monitoring reports for the finances in relation to their portfolios.

·         There will be a balanced budget by the end of year in Adults, Families and Wellbeing Portfolio area. This has been achieved by the use of reserves.

·         There is a Cabinet Member task & finish group currently underway chaired by Mr Hardy looking at the Adults Social Care area and future delivery models which is supported by an external consultancy firm. A business case is being developed to look at future models of delivery.

·         The Cabinet Member for Finance & Resources expressed the desire of Cabinet to reduce the use of interim staff.

 

Action: Ms Quinton to provide a further written note in response to the following questions:

 

Q Is there a correlation between the current number of interim staff and the declining BCC headcount?

{The headcount of Agency, Interim & Specialist Contractors has increased or stayed the same on 8 out of 10 of the last quarters and the FTE headcount within the County Council  has decreased on each of the 8 quarters.  This would suggest that there is a correlation between the two.}

 

Q What action is being taken to reduce the number of interim staff?

 

{This will vary by Business Unit as in some cases the use of Interim staff will be a tactical cost effective solution to a business need.  The highest number of Agency, Interim & Specialist Contractors at the end of Q3 2014/15 is in the Children & Families Service and the Ofsted Improvement Plan is putting measures in place to address this - including targets for reducing the agency worker spend and reducing the  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

11.50am

10.

Combined Heat and Power Study pdf icon PDF 42 KB

Report for information following Committee discussion on the financial benefits of the Energy for Waste Plant

Additional documents:

Minutes:

This item was noted.

12pm

11.

Date and Time of Next Meeting

2 June 2015 – 10am

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The next meeting of the Select Committee is on 2 June 2015.

12.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

To resolve to exclude the press and public as the following item is exempt by virtue of Paragraph 3 of Part 1 of Schedule 12a of the Local Government Act 1972 because it contains information relating to the financial or business affairs of any particular person (including the authority holding that information):-

 

Confidential Minutes relating to the EFW Plant

Additional documents:

Minutes:

This item was discussed in the public session.

 

13.

Confidential Minutes

To agree the Confidential Minutes of the Meeting held on 24 February 2015

Additional documents:

Minutes:

The confidential minutes were agreed as a correct record.