Meeting documents

Venue: Mezzanine Room 1, County Hall, Aylesbury. View directions

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Items
Note No. Item

10am

1.

Apologies for Absence/Changes in Membership

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Minutes:

Apologies were received from Mr Bill Bendyshe-Brown.

2.

Declarations of Interest

To disclose any Personal or Disclosable Pecuniary Interests

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Minutes:

There were none.

3.

Minutes pdf icon PDF 153 KB

To agree the Minutes of the Meetings held on 14th March 2017 and 23rd May 2017 as a correct record.

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Minutes:

The minutes of the meetings held on 14th March and 23rd May 2017 were confirmed as a correct record.

4.

Chairman's Welcome

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Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed new Members to the meeting and reminded them of the wide and interesting remit of the Finance, Performance and Resources Select Committee.

10.05am

5.

Cabinet Member for Resources - Question Time

An opportunity for the Committee to ask the Cabinet Member for Resources questions on his portfolio area.

 

Contributors:

Mr John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources

All Members of the Committee

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Minutes:

The Chairman welcomed Mr John Chilver, Cabinet Member for Resources to the meeting.  Mr Chilver gave a brief outline of the priorities and challenges facing the Resources Business Unit, before answering Member’s questions.  The following main points were noted:

·         Resources would continue to build on its previous success of delivering significant budget savings and would champion income generation and commercial mindedness across the Council. Resources had delivered cumulative savings of £20m over the past four years and 25% of their budget was generated through income. Targets had been set to increase this to 33% by 2021.

·         A shared services agreement with Harrow for Legal, HR and Organisational Development services had been delivered on time and below projected costs. Cumulatively this project would save the Council £1million per year.

·         Digital transformation was a continued priority – the school admissions process was online and Maintain my Street, a road maintenance app had been successfully launched.

·         Workforce Development Programme – This aimed to reduce reliance on agency staff and improve the recruitment and onboarding process for new starters.

·         The Resources budget was underspent by £1.2million last year, largely due to additional income generated by investment properties which were acquired during the financial year.

·         The main risks identified by the portfolio included staff capacity, robustness of the ICT infrastructure, property maintenance costs and possible voids in the investment properties.  These risks were regularly monitored at the BU Board meeting each month.

·         In response to a question regarding monitoring of targets and actual outcomes at the end of the year, the Cabinet Member explained that the commercial business plan facilitated this. It was agreed that this would be circulated to all Members for information.

Action: Committee & Governance Adviser

·         Support services at the County Council accounted for 7 pence in every pound spent, comparing favourably with other local authorities which typically spent 12-14pence.  A detailed breakdown of the calculation would be provided to the Committee.

Action: Cabinet Member for Resources

·         The number of agency workers had been reduced across the Council.  Children’s Services had joined with other local authorities in the South East in a Memorandum of Understanding to assist with the recruitment of children’s social workers. Recruitment incentive packages were offered to new joiners in some posts.

·         The capital budget included money to address the property maintenance backlog and a clear programme of works had been agreed recently at Asset Strategy Board.

·         The Capital Budget was £80million per annum. Capital receipts and developer contributions for roads and schools help to maintain this level.

 

The Chairman thanked Mr Chilver for attending.

 

10.30am

6.

Is the County Council ready for Growth? pdf icon PDF 251 KB

Buckinghamshire will experience significant housing growth in the forthcoming decades, which will be set out in the District Council Local Plans.  This will have significant impact on the future demand for County Council services.

 

Each of the County Council’s four Select Committees will be holding themed meetings during July 2017 to investigate whether the County Council is ready for Growth.  The outline scope for this piece of work was agreed by the Transport, Environment and Communities Select Committee on 21st March 2017 and the final scoping document is attached for information.

 

The Finance, Performance and Resources Committee will be considering the following three key areas:

 

Data - What baseline data do we have and what projections are being used in order to plan for Growth?

 

Governance - What Governance arrangements are in place at the County Council to manage planning for Growth?

 

Finance – How can we effectively plan for the financial implications of Growth across the County?

 

The Committee will receive a PowerPoint briefing and will then have the opportunity to ask questions.

 

Contributors:

Mr Marcus Grupp, Business Intelligence Business Partner

Mr David Cook, Business Intelligence Business Partner

Miss Rachel Wileman, Head of Strategic Plan and Infrastructure

Mr Richard Ambrose, Director of Finance and Assets

Mr Matthew Strevens, Corporate Finance Business Partner

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Minutes:

The Chairman explained that Buckinghamshire would be facing significant housing growth over the next 15 to 20 years, which would have implications for demand for County Council services.  Each of the four Select Committees at Bucks County Council would consider what work was being undertaken to plan for Growth at their July meetings. A joint report would then be produced which would be presented to Cabinet. 

 

The Committee would be considering three overarching issues during the meeting – Data, Governance and Finance. 

 

DATA

The Chairman welcomed Mr Marcus Grupp and Mr David Cook, Business Intelligence Business Partners to the meeting.  Members received a presentation ‘Understanding demographic change and the impact of housing growth on Council services’ and then had an opportunity to ask questions.  The following main points were noted:

·         Office of National Statistics (ONS) projections were based on fertility, mortality and migration rates, but did not take into account changes to housing stock. Housing and Economic Data Needs Assessment (HEDNA) projections had been commissioned jointly with the District Councils to assess objective housing need.  These projections began with the ONS data and then incorporated other wider data sets showing trends over a ten year period, such as availability of labour, house prices and household projections from Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG).  Accuracy of projections could diminish after the first five year period.

·         It was important to know that baseline data was correct before modelling for the future.

·         The Business Intelligence (BI) team worked with the Business Units to inform them of key challenges that could arise in future due to the demographic changes and had undertaken focussed pieces of work on key pressure areas.

·         The Cabinet Member for Resources reported that he had seen pupil projections used as evidence at Asset Strategy Board for capital funding for Schools and the BI team’s demographic projections were used to inform the Business Planning and Medium Term Financial Planning (MTFP) cycles.

·         In response to a question regarding consistent use of data across the Council, Members were advised that there was a drive to establish a corporate data platform. The BI team also presented at Leadership Forums to ensure that Senior Managers were aware of the data projections and Jo Sage, Head of Insight and Business Improvement, managed all the BI team, including those assigned to Business Units and had forged good links with commissioners, to promote evidence based decisions.

 

GOVERNANCE

 

The Chairman welcomed Miss Rachel Wileman, Head of Strategic Plan and Infrastructure and Mr Richard Ambrose, Director of Finance and Assets to the meeting.  Miss Wileman took Members through a slide which explained the current Governance arrangements for planning for Growth at the County Council, before inviting Member’s questions.  During the presentation and in response to subsequent Member questions the following main points were noted:

·         The Corporate Management Team (CMT) led the business supported by the Corporate Working Group, which was an officer group, attended by Heads of Service, looking specifically at Growth.  The Corporate Working Group met monthly and  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

12.30pm

7.

Date and Time of Next Meeting

Tuesday 26th September 2017 at 10am in Mezzanine Room 1, County Hall, Aylesbury.

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Minutes:

Tuesday 26th September 2017 at 10am in Mezzanine Room 1, County Hall, Aylesbury.

 

8.

Exclusion of the Press and Public

To resolve that the Press and Public be excluded 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)

 

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9.

Confidential Minutes

Of the meeting held on 14th March 2017 to be agreed as a correct record.

Minutes:

The confidential minutes of the meeting held on 14th March 2017 were agreed as a correct record.