Agenda and minutes

(Director of Governance)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

It was noted that Councillor L Hughes was substituting for Councillor A Mitchell and Councillor G Shiell was substituting for Councillor R Bassett .

Minutes

To agree the notes of the meetings of the Select Committee held on 28 March 2017 and 10 April 2017.

Matters Arising

To consider any maters arising from the minutes of the last meeting.

Minutes

The notes of the meetings held on 28 March 2017 and 10 April 2017 were agreed.

Matters Arising

(a)          Councillor Kane wondered if any progress had been made on having members trained on the new MFDs. He was told that this would have to be chased up.

(b)          Councillor Kane asked about an update on the new IR35 legislation and how it affected our contractors. The Assistant Director, Human Resources replied that an assessment of staff off the payroll had been carried out, a questionnaire completed and legal advice sought on this very matter. As a result new processes were put in place, along with a new statement of working. They were now looking to have managers state if the IR35 applied and were also looking at each contract to make them fit for purpose.

(Director of Governance). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a pecuniary or a non-pecuniary interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 9 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a non-pecuniary interest in any matter before an OS Committee which relates to a decision of or action by another Committee or Sub Committee of the Council, a Joint Committee or Joint Sub Committee in which the Council is involved and of which the Councillor is also a member.

Paragraph 9 does not refer to Cabinet decisions or attendance at an OS meeting purely for the purpose of answering questions or providing information on such a matter.

There were no declarations of interest made pursuant to the Member Code of Conduct.

Members will recall that O & S had requested that Portfolio Holders present their Business Plans at the first meeting of the new O & S Cycle on the 6 June.  As the Business Plans are developed on a Directorate basis, such a presentation would have required some careful choreography.  However, agreement has been reached, that it makes more sense for the Business Plans to be presented to the relevant Select Committee, where there would be better alignment.  This way the Select Committees would have time to undertake a more in-depth scrutiny role regarding the numerous services which make up their Select Committees. 

On this basis, the relevant Portfolio Holders are requested to attend this meeting and take the Select Committee through their plans for the coming year.

The background to this item was that the Overview and Scrutiny Committee had requested that the relevant Portfolio Holders attend the first meeting of each Select Committee to present their Business Plans, which were developed on a Directorate basis. This would enable each Committee to undertake a more in-depth scrutiny role regarding the numerous services which made up each Select Committee.

In the absence of Councillor Lion, Councillor Mohindra updated the Committee on the technology and support services side of the business plan that directly affected the Resources Directorate. He noted that facilities management were focusing on customer services and office accommodation and linked transformation projects. Human Resources were now working on their third cohort of corporate apprentices and were recruiting another 9 for the coming year. The MFD installation was now nearly complete and the majority of staff were now using these machines.

As for the financial side of the Resources Directorate Business Plan, he noted that the Council was still financially very strong. The plan indicated that the Statutory Statement of 2016/17 would be ready for publication by 30 September and officers were preparing the 2018/19 budget for adoption by full Council in February.

Councillor Bedford asked about item 7 on the plan, ‘to maximise the collection of Council Tax and Business Rates’ and the 2% not collected. How much was this in monetary terms. Councillor Mohindra noted that the collection was close to 100% once on-going collection of those debts in future years was taken into consideration. Mr Pavey, the Assistant Director Revenues added that the collected revenue for one year would be 99%. 1% would be equal to about £350k for Business Rates and £850k for Council Tax and most of this would be recovered over the following year.  Councillor Kane pointed out that any write offs were always published. Councillor Bedford said that it would be good to let the public know that we did collect almost all of the income owed to us.

Councillor Bedford asking about item 10 of the plan, ‘business case for internal enforcement agents’ asked how this project was going. Mr Pavey said a report was due to go to the Cabinet looking if it was worth doing the work and collecting the fees.

Councillor Bedford went on to item 13, the purchasing of a new generator for the Civic Offices; would this be deferred, considering that we were moving to the use of one building. Councillor Mohindra said he thought this would happen anyway. Councillor Bedford clarified asking if we would need a smaller generator for just this building. Would it be useful to defer this decision to a little later? Councillor Kane said that this was part of a five year maintenance programme. Councillor Mohindra said that Councillor Lion had looked at this and had found that we did need this new generator.

Councillor Bedford then asked about item 20, ‘recruit of new cohort of apprentices’ and wondered if any specific disciplines were being recruited for. He was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 4.

(Chief Executive) To consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director, Revenues, Mr Pavey, introduced the report on the proposed new Corporate Plan for 2018-2023. The current Corporate Plan was the authority’s current key strategic planning document. The new plan for 2018-2023 sought to lay out the journey the Council would take to transform the organisation to be ‘ready for the future’. This plan sought to link the key external drivers influencing the council’s services with a set of corporate aims and objectives, grouped under three corporate ambitions. This was the first draft going to all the Select Committees and the main O&S Committee for feedback. Members were asked to consider and comment on the document.

Councillor Kane was very enthusiastic about the new plan, saying it was quite a feat to reduce the Corporate Plan to just three documents.

Councillor Jon Whitehouse noted that the overall objectives outlined on page 33 (appendix 1) of the agenda looked a little vague and needed to be improved for clarity; such as saying we needed more homes of the right type etc. as this did not really mean anything to the lay person. He also noted that the main benefit of the new St Johns Road development was reduced down to increased business rates. It was more than this and not just there as income for the Council. Councillor Mohindra agreed that business rates were the wrong measure, it was looking at regeneration in Epping, but it was the easiest thing to measure.

Councillor Bedford asked how the staff were taking this. Ms Maginnis replied that they had not really seen it as yet as it was new and initially for the Select Committees to consider.

Councillor Bedford said that the sheet on ‘Stronger Council’ looked very messy in the middle section. It may be that two sheets were needed for this or the boxes could be reduced down.

Councillor Whitehouse said it was good to have something in there that mentioned ‘healthy lifestyles’ as well as tackling parking issues. Councillor Kane said that parking could be one of the drivers to go into the 2018-23 time frame. Although, Councillor Mohindra noted that on street parking was still with the County and beyond our control.  Councillor Kane said it would be worthy to have this as a corporate objective.

RESOLVED:

That the Committee noted, considered and commented on the Corporate Plan for 2018-2023.

(Director of Resources) to consider the attached report.

John Bell, Senior Accountant, introduced the report on the Council’s Provisional Capital Outturn for 2016/17. The report set out the Council’s capital programme for 2016/17, in terms of expenditure and financing, and compared the provisional outturn figures with the revised estimates. The revised estimates, which were based on the Capital Programme, represent those adopted by the Council on 21 February 2017.

The Council’s total investment on capital schemes and capital funded schemes in 2016/17 was £36,957,000 compared to a revised estimate of £43,077,000, representing an underspend of 14%.  With regard to the General Fund projects, there was an overall underspend of £1,675,000 or 9%.

It was noted that the construction of the new depot at Oakwood Hill was completed last summer and has been operational since September 2016. However, there had been a number of snagging disputes, as well as an ongoing issue in relation to the off-site monitoring of the alarm system. In addition, a further fire alarm system had to be installed to comply with DDA safety requirements and there was some outstanding highways works. This had resulted in an overspend of £206,000 as at 31 March 2017 for which retrospective approval had been requested. A report will be submitted to Cabinet once the final account has been agreed and all costs have been finalised. Councillor Mohindra added that he had called in the security problems to be looked at by the Cabinet.

A large underspend related to the surrender of a lease to Glyn Hopkin Limited in respect of a motor car dealership located on the corner of Brooker Road and Cartersfield Road in Waltham Abbey. Approval was given for the Council to make a payment of £990,000 in consideration of this and immediately following completion,a new 25-year lease was entered into, delivering significant annual revenue benefit. Councillor Mohindra noted that they had doubled the rental income of the back of this deal.

Within the Resources Directorate, the largest underspend was on the planned maintenance programme as many of the schemes planned at the civic offices had been delayed awaiting the outcome of the Accommodation Review. Work had been restricted to essential improvements; this included new control panels which control the heating system, lead valley guttering, fire alarm system upgrade works and the installation of the LED lighting. Planned maintenance works on other buildings had been progressed; included the resurfacing of the rear access yard at the Limes Avenue shops in Chigwell andthe installation of an electrical bypass panel at the Hillhouse shops in Waltham Abbey. However, the works planned at Town Mead Depot had not progressed to date. It was recommended that the full underspend of £318,000 was carried forward pending an assessment of requirements in the light of the Accommodation Review. Councillor Mohindra noted that officers always had to justify any carry forwards, they were not just agreed and had to have valid reasons.

Under the Housing Revenue Account there was an underspend on the Council’s house-building programme which had requested a carry  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

(Director of Resources) to consider the attached report.

John Bell, Senior Accountant, introduced the report on the Council’s overall summary of the revenue outturn for the financial year 2016/17. The Committee noted that the General Fund saw £288,000 more than estimated being used from the opening balance. Total net expenditure on the General Fund was £14.039 million, some £787,000 higher than the original estimate and £71,000 higher than the revised estimate. Expenditure from the District Development Fund and Invest to Save Reserve was £1.643 million less than estimated.

The position on the Housing Revenue Account was £157,000 better than anticipated.

Net DDF expenditure was expected to be £698,000 in the original estimate and £1,096,000 in the revised estimate. In the event the DDF showed net income of £446,000. This was £1,144,000 below the original and £1,542,000 below the revised. There were requests for carry forwards totalling £1,301,000. These one-off projects were akin to capital, in that there was regular slippage and carry forward of budgetary provision. Therefore the only reasonable variance analysis that could be done was against the revised estimate.

The DDF increased between the Original and Revised position by £398,000, overall this was not significant but there were some large swings on both income and expenditure. On the Income side additions relating to Development and Building Control (£150,000), Various commercial and industrial rents (£122,000), various other grants and income (£86,000). There was also some reprofiling of expenditure into future years particularly in relation to the staffing costs relating to the technical agreement. Offsetting this were amounts brought forward from 2015/16 and additional resources provided for the Local Plan (£626,000),Waste and Recycling (£144,000) and an amount of £116,000 in relation to the income from the major preceptors that has been taken into the CSB.

The difference between the revised position and the outturn position was a reduction of £1,542,000. During February and March around £928,000 in grants and contributions were received which had been applied for but not confirmed in time for the budget setting process. These monies have been added to the DDF and were intended for spending in 2017/18. The largest of these is for the Garden Town funding of which £665,000 was carried forward into 2017/18. All of these grants and contributions related to the Neighbourhoods Directorate. Other income variations are: additional income from the agreement with major preceptors £158,000, unspent new burdens grant required in 2017/18 £127,000, additional commercial and industrial rents £63,000. There were also two larger underspends relating to building maintenance £92,000 and the local plan £66,000.

Spending from the Invest to Save Reserve was £219,000 which was £101,000 below the revised estimate of £320,000. There are carry forward requests of £107,000 the largest relating to the ICT infrastructure for the new car park management contract of £45,000. There was also a small overspend relating to the payment kiosks at the Civic Offices.

The Housing Revenue Account will start the new financial year in a slightly better position at £3.85 million. There was still significant uncertainty facing the HRA going  ...  view the full minutes text for item 7.

(Director of Resources) To consider the attached report.

The Risk Management and Insurance Officer, Mr E Higgins, introduced his report on the guidance provided by the Council’s insurer, Zurich Municipal. The Committee noted that on the 8^th February 2017 a Public Sector Risk Consultant from the Council’s insurer visited to carry out a Risk Management Standards Assessment in three specified areas. The areas being assessed were, Property (General), Combined Liability and Motor.

The Property review looked at non-residential properties which included the Civic Offices, Oakwood Hill Depot, North Weald Airfield and other operational buildings; and the combined Liability element reviewed areas that could result in Employers’ or Public Liability insurance claims, such as inspections of estates, car parks, open spaces and staff training.

The Motor element looks at how the Council operates the fleet and also the grey fleet, which is an employee driving their own vehicle for Council business.

Since the review the council has instigated a Fire Risk Assessment at the Civic Offices. The report had just been received, so at the time of writing officers had not been able to review the report. The insurers would like to see rubbish not kept next to our building. It was reasonable for us to do this here in the Civic Offices but we may struggle with our other sites.

The retail park had also been inspected and now all bin stores have been moved away from the buildings.

Although not part of the ZM assessment, Alan Hall, Director of Communities, has detailed the Approach to Fire Safety for the Council’s Housing Stock within the general information section of the Council Bulletin published on 23 June 2017.

The Council had now requested the insurer to carry out a review of current inspection regimes, which will be followed by inspection training for managers. The result of which should see a measured approach to inspections, maintenance and record keeping.

The Council has started updating the Drivers Handbook and is looking into methods to implement driving licences checks.

At the meeting of this Committee on 7th February 2017 an overview of claims statistics was presented and discussed. The discussion touched upon insurance premiums and the possibility of the insurer providing funding for dash mounted cameras for the Council’s fleet vehicles. Following this the insurer advised that they were unable to provide any funding for dash mounted cameras. They did acknowledge the benefit that cameras can bring in 50:50 claims. However, they did advise the use of caution if the Council did decide to implement the cameras, as there was growing concern around the misuse of footage.

Councillor Bedford asked if the Council would be looking at officer’s Driving Licences. He was told that the council would be looking at them as well as the insurance for the drivers. Ms Maginnis added that it would be checked by an outside company for us, looking at what levels their insurance was based.

Councillor Mohindra asked we would be introducing dash cams. Mr Higgins replied that we had no intentions to do  ...  view the full minutes text for item 8.

(Director of Resources) to consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director Human Resources, Ms P Maginnis, introduced her report on the Council’s absence figures for Quarter 3 and 4 for 2016/17. It included absence figures by Directorate, the number of employees who have met the trigger level, those who have more than 4 weeks absence and the reasons for absence.  The Committee noted that the figures had improved for this last year and were on target for this year as well.

The Council’s target for sickness absence under RES001 for 2016/2017 was an average of 7.5 days per employee.  The current outturn figure for the two quarters was an average of 3.73 days, which was below the target of 3.86 days. The overall outturn figure for the year was an average of 6.71 days, which was 0.79 days lower than the target.

During Q3, 2.6% of employees met the trigger levels or above, 33.4% had sickness absence but did not meet the triggers and 64% had no absence.  During Q4, 5% of employees met the trigger levels or above, 30% had sickness absence but did not meet the trigger levels and 65% had no absence.

Currently, under the Council’s Managing Absence Policy there are trigger levels for initiating management action in cases of excessive sickness absence. These are:

(i)   during any ‘rolling’ twelve-month period an employee has had 5 or more separate occasions of absence; or

(ii)  during any ‘rolling’ twelve-month period an employee has had at least 8 working days of any combination of un/self certificated, or medically certificated absences.

The previous report to this committee flagged up mental health absences, officers had now put in processes to help and it was reducing. The Council was now part of a trust the “Mindful Employer” helping us to put in strategies to help staff.

There continued to be a significant decrease in the number of long term absence cases since 2014/2015.  During Q3 and Q4 of 2016/17 the numbers of staff taking long term sickness were less than those of the same quarter last year.

Roughly two thirds of staff did not have any time off sick.

At the December meeting of this Committee, members asked for comparison figures from our partner organisations. Unfortunately they had not been provided. However figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development reported the following national figures:

·         Leisure – Average number of days – 5.1

·         Waste (Transport, distribution & storage) - Average number of days – 7

·         Housing repairs (construction) - Average number of days – 4.9

It should be noted that the waste figures came from three organisations; this was not a priority for the private sector.

An article will be published in District Lines to show members of staff sickness absence figures and the improvements made.

Councillor Mohindra praised Ms Maginnis and her team for their work in bringing down the absence figures over the last few years. He was also happy to see us tackling Mental Health problems and also stress outside of work.

Councillor C Roberts wondered if  ...  view the full minutes text for item 9.

(Chief Executive) to consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director, Revenues, Mr Pavey, introduced the report the quarter 4 outturn performance figures for the Key Performance Indicators for 2016/17.

It was noted that a range of 37 Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for 2016/17 was adopted by the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee in March 2016. The KPIs were important to the improvement of the Council’s services, and comprise a combination of some former statutory indicators and locally determined performance measures. The aim of the KPIs was to direct improvement effort towards services and the national priorities and local challenges arising from the social, economic and environmental context of the district.

Progress in respect of each of the KPIs was reviewed by the relevant Portfolio Holder, Management Board, and Overview and Scrutiny at the conclusion of each quarter. This report provided an overview of all KPIs and includes in detail those indicators which fell within the areas of responsibility of the Resources Select Committee.

The overall position for all 37 KPIs at the end of the year was as follows:

(a)    28 (75%) indicators achieved target;

(b)    9 (25%) indicators did not achieve target; although

(c)    3 (8 %) of these KPIs performed within its tolerated amber margin.

Resources Select Committee indicators – 9 of the Key Performance Indicators fell within the Resources Select Committee’s areas of responsibility. The overall position with regard to the achievement of target performance at the end of the year for these indicators was as follows:

(a)     8 (89%) indicators achieved target;

(b)     1 (11% indicators did not achieve target; and

(c)     0 (0%) indicators performed within its tolerated amber margin. 

This was a good news story for Resources as the only red indicator (RES002 – what % of invoices we received were paid within 30 days) was only missed by 1%.

Councillor Mohindra commenting on the missed indicator said that Communities always seemed to be the one that dragged us back. Mr Pavey said that this would be one to watch in the future, and that officers were looking at a new suite of indicators to go with the transformation project.

RESOLVED:

That the Select Committee noted and reviewed the performance against the Key Performance Indicators within its areas of responsibility for 2016/17.

(Chief Executive) to consider the attached report.

Mr Pavey introduced the report on the Corporate Plan Key Action Plan for 2016/17 and the outturn position for quarter 4.

The Corporate Plan 2015-2020 was the Council’s highest level strategic document. It sets the strategic direction for the authority for the five year lifetime of the Plan. It focuses on a number of key areas that the Council needed to focus on during that time and helps to prioritise resources to provide quality services and value for money. These key areas are known as the Corporate Aims and are supported by a set of Key Objectives which represent the Council’s high-level initiatives and over-arching goals to achieve the Corporate Aims. The Key Objectives are in turn, delivered via an annual Key Action Plan.

There are 49 actions in the Key Action Plan 2016/17. At the end of the year:

(a)        33 (68%) of the individual deliverables or actions supporting the key objectives had been achieved;

(b)        9 (18%) of the deliverables were expected to achieve target in the next 6 months.

(c)    7 (14%) of the deliverables or actions were not completed by year-end albeit significant progress has been made. Details of the progress made are set out in the comments against the individual deliverables or actions in the attached schedule.

13 actions fell within the areas of responsibility of the Resources Select Committee. At the end of the year:

·         10 (77%) of these actions had been achieved; and

·         3   (23%) of these actions had not been achieved.

It was noted that officers were looking at sundry debt service and looking to bring individual debts together and treat it as a whole, putting them into one view. They were looking at putting the IT in place and would bring it to members for their comments on this system. Councillor Bedford  asked about protected incomes. Mr Pavey said this was set out in legislation and officers could always come to an agreement.

Councillor Whitehouse asked if there were than many people who had multiple debts with the Council? Mr Pavey said not that many, they were mostly in connection with commercial or housing rents; it would be helpful for them to deal with the council in one place.

Councillor Kane said it was noted that action 11 (provide HR/Payroll services to at least one other authority) should have a target date of 31 March 2018 and not  31 March 2017. Also there needed to be some indication on when these projects came back on track. Councillor Mohindra asked if the wording of the action  should be rephrased as it seems to stipulate that there had to be at least one other authority who was willing join our scheme. Ms Maginnis said that officers were presently looking into this. We were still getting to grips with the new payroll system. They will put in something like “marketing the service” rather than “at least one other authority”.

RESOLVED:

That the outturn position of the Corporate Plan Key Action Plan for 2016/17 in  ...  view the full minutes text for item 11.

(Chairman/Lead Officer) the Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed the Terms of Reference of the Committee. This is attached along with an ongoing work programme. Members are invited at each meeting to review both documents.

Terms of Reference

The Committee noted their Terms of Reference.

Work Programme

The Committee noted their Work Programme.

Councillor Kane noted that item 15, ‘Shared Services Working’ was still to be arranged; was it still valid? Ms Maginnis replied that the Transformation Programme was looking at this and that work was also being done on this at present. Councillor Whitehouse asked if they could have an update by May 2018.

Councillor Kane also remarked that item 18, the Transformation Scrutiny, was to be left on hold until the Task and Finish Panel had reported.

To consider which reports are ready to be submitted to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at its next meeting.

The Committee noted that a general update would be going to the next O&S Committee.

To note the future meetings of this Committee. They are:

17^th October 2017;

19^th December;

13^th February 2018; and

3^rd April

The Committee noted their future meeting dates.

Councillor Mohindra noted that the Finance and Performance Management Cabinet Committee will be having its usual meeting on 18^th January 2018 reviewing the Budget for the following year and that there was a standing invite for the Resources Select Committee to attend and give their views.