Meeting documents

There were no apologies for absence or changes in membership.

To disclose any Personal or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

There were no Declarations of Interest.

To agree the Minutes of the Meeting held on 28 June 2016

The Chairman confirmed that a letter had been sent to the previous Chairman and that MTP actions would be implemented when appropriate to do so.

The Minutes of the meeting held on 28 June 2016 were confirmed as a correct record subject to the replacement of the word ‘successful’ with the word ‘completed’ on the fourth bullet point on page 9.

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 the 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/

There were no pubic questions.

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

The Chairman updated Members on the work of the Income Generation Inquiry, highlighting a special meeting of the Committee on 11^th October at 2pm to discuss recommendations and agree the report.

To welcome the new Chief Executive, Rachael Shimmin, and to discuss her initial priorities and plans, particularly in relation to the financial challenges facing the Council.

Ms R Shimmin was welcomed to the meeting.

Ms Shimmin outlined her initial approach to the role of Chief Executive, highlighting in particular the importance of building relationships with Members, staff, local partners and at the regional and national level. Ms Shimmin explained that she would be focussing on gaining an understanding of the organisation’s priorities and budget; the economic priorities for the County; and the key issues for services, the Council, partners and the County as a whole.

In discussion, Ms Shimmin made the following points:

·         The importance of building relationships, providing a summary of meetings held/planned to date

·         That the organisation recognised and was comfortable with the Member-led nature of the Council

·         That given the work to date on Children’s Services and the robust nature of the Oftsted regime, she would anticipate a minimum rating of Requires Improvement as an outcome of a future inspection

·         That as the underpinning principles of Future Shape were sound, there was no intention for any programme of structural change although there would be further work around some aspects including Delivery Vehicles and income generation  

·         The Council faced significant financial challenges and that a new Budget Board was being established to provide a focussed forum on finances, including income generation

·         The need to understand the prominence of Buckinghamshire for the Infrastructure Commission and the opportunities for local partners to work together to address holistically the County’s long-term challenges

·         The benefits of peer challenge in improving the organisation

·         The need to accelerate the entrepreneurial approaches being developed in response to the Council’s shrinking resource

Members commented on their confidence in the Council’s senior management team; the potential opportunities arising from Aylesbury as a Garden Town; and raised a concern about the strength of the relationships between the hierarchy of officers particularly around the potential contribution of ideas from frontline staff to organisational improvement.

Ms Shimmin was thanked for her contribution.

For the Committee to consider the 6-month update on implementation of agreed recommendations arising from the 2016 Budget Scrutiny Inquiry.  For the Committee to discuss status of each recommendation and to delegate authority to the Chairman to complete the report accordingly after the meeting.  The completed report will be attached to the Minutes of the meeting.

Attendees:

Richard Ambrose, Director of Assurance

Mr R Ambrose, Director of Assurance, was welcomed to the meeting.

Mr Ambrose presented the Six-month Update Report, highlighting:

·         Rec 1: ongoing monitoring had been improved.  A new section included a RAG (red, amber, green) rating around the delivery of savings/additional income across all four years of the budget.  This would give early visibility of any issues and ensure that portfolios produced action plans to mitigate any areas of non-achievement/ forecast overspends.

·         Rec 2: Equality Impact Assessments (EIAs) would be undertaken through an initial screening, with full EIAs completed for items over £100k, for those indicated through the screening and for some areas with cumulative effects

·         Rec 4: Governance of Delivery Vehicles had been improved

·         Rec 6: Agency costs were regularly monitored by the senior management team

·         Rec 8: There had been a strong focus on developing staff, particularly middle managers

·         Rec 10: The service was taking a risk-based approach which improved asset planning

In discussion, the following points were raised:

·         There was no intention to instigate a budget freeze in 2016/17

·         A checklist had been developed to improve the set-up of Delivery Vehicles and there was better collaboration with stakeholders

·         There was now a better awareness of issues in relation to contract management and commercial approach

·         Concerns around the service’s overall approach to gulley work in light of the Council’s commercial approach; the lack of a plan for Aylesbury; and gullies flowing into water courses would be raised with the Cabinet Member and referred to the Transport, Environment & Communities (TEC) Select Committee

ACTION:  Chairman to write to the TEC Select Committee and Cabinet Member for Planning & Environment

·         Whether outsourcing the adoption service would deliver greater benefit to children

·         Concerns regarding progress in relation the Educational Psychology Service and Youth Counselling recommendations would be referred to the Children’s Social Care & Learning (CSC&L) Select Committee

ACTION: Mr D Dhillon to raise as potential agenda items for a future CSC&L Select Committee

·         The issue of non-statutory provision of school transport for some children was being looked at

ACTION:  Chairman to apply RAG rating to the table after the meeting and circulate to all Members for comment

For the Committee to consider the Quarter 1 Performance Report for the financial year 2016/17 which was presented to Cabinet on 11 July 2016 along with the Budget Action plans which are due to be presented to Cabinet on 12 September 2016.

Attendees:

John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources

Attachments:

Quarter 1 report with relevant appendices

Budget Action plans

Mr J Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources, was welcomed to the meeting and introduced the report.  Mr Ambrose informed Members that the Council was currently forecasting a slight underspend overall but with overspends in Children’s Services, Education & Skills, and Health & Wellbeing portfolios.

In discussion, the following issues were noted:

·         The number of Special Educational Needs statements had increased beyond forecasts

·         Children’s Social care costs related primarily to external placements costs

·         The Head of Strategic Finance was working with the Children’s Social Care & Learning business unit to improve understanding and culture and signs of improvement were being seen

·         Financial Directors were responsible for Income Generation within Business Units

·         Good practices established during the budget freeze in 2015/16 were prevailing

·         The Orchard House project was on track to deliver by 2018 as planned and it was acknowledged that more narrative assurance would be helpful

·         Although sufficient contingency had been made for 2016/17 in relation to the implementation of the National Living Wage (NLW), there would be ongoing pressures with the year-on-year increases in NLW

·         There was a challenge in balancing spend on repairs and maintenance of existing estate, with funding prevention works and prioritisation of the programme involved consideration of non-financial benefits such as effect on staff

·         The current overspend in relation to repairs and maintenance related primarily to unforeseen repairs and the improved service desk process and increased income from property aimed to maximise resource.

To consider and agree the Committee’s work programme for the remainder of 2016.

The Committee was informed that the Green Park item would be considered at the November meeting in part due to enable feedback from the first ALF Shareholders Commissioning Group.

Mr Chilver assured the Committee that all requested officers would attend the meeting.

The Committee will receive an update on the progress against the commitments set out within the Business Services Plus Business Plan which was reviewed by the Committee in March 2016.

Attendees:

John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources

Gill Quinton, Managing Director, BSP

Jonathon Noble, Commercial Director, BSP

Attachments:

Progress report attached

Mrs G Quinton, Managing Director for the Council’s Business Services Plus (BSP) Business Unit, and Mr J Noble, Commercial Director, were welcomed to the meeting.

Mrs Quinton introduced the report, highlighting progress made since the previous meeting:

·         Business Services Plus (BSP) was doing business with over 250 other organisations including the London Boroughs of Hillingdon and Harrow and local schools and was receiving increasing expressions of interest

·         The Business Unit had taken on the property service in April and had reduced the inherited forecast overspend to £250k

·         Significant risks to the current budget include the need for additional funds to support ongoing asbestos and legionella survey work

·         BSP had contributed to the Ofsted Improvement Plan work in the areas of recruitment & retention of social workers and IT tools available to the workforce.  The 25% agency worker rate was high and work was taking place to reduce the proportion to bring this in line with regional comparators

For the Committee to consider the confidential report.

Attendees:

John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources

Gill Quinton, Managing Director, BSP

Jonathon Noble, Commercial Director, BSP

Attachments:

Confidential report attached

The next meeting is due to take place on Tuesday 1 November at 10am in Mezz Room 2, County Hall, Aylesbury.

Future meeting

Tuesday 13 December

A special meeting of the Committee will be held on 11 October 2016 at 2pm in Mezz 2. 

The next ordinary meeting of the Committee will be on 1 November 2016 at 10am.