Agenda and minutes

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

It was noted that Councillor J Lea was substituting for Councillor A Boyce and Councillor G Shiell was substituting for Councillor A Mitchell.

(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.

At its meeting on 28 February 2017, the Overview and Scrutiny Committee considered a scrutiny request submission (PICK form) proposed by Councillor A. Patel, in relation to the development of arrangements for overview and scrutiny to:

·          support the delivery of the Council’s Transformation Programme;

·          hold the Cabinet to account for the quality and impact of projects and initiatives within the Transformation Programme and the achievement of specific outcomes; and

·          ensure that the Transformation Programme delivers value for money for the Council.

The proposal of Councillor Patel is attached, along with a covering report. In agreeing the submission, the Committee agreed that this be added to the work programme of the Resources Select Committee for the remainder of the current municipal year and for 2017/18.

To commence appropriate scrutiny activity, the Committee will receive a presentation on the Transformation Programme from the Chief Executive and the Head of Transformation. It is hoped that it will be possible to issue the presentation to members in advance of the meeting, to enable this to inform the scope of the review to be undertaken by the Committee.

The Chairman of the Select Committee noted that this meeting was called to establish the baseline for the scrutiny of the Council’s Transformation Programme as proposed by the PICK form considered by the Overview and Scrutiny Committee at their meeting held on 28 February 2017. The O&S Committee agreed that the Resources Select Committee should be tasked with this scrutiny.

The Chairman of the Resources Select Committee had agreed to start with a one item special meeting to further explore the best approach and to establish an appropriate way forward. To do this the Head of Transformation, the Chief Executive and the Leader of the Council were invited to give a brief outline of the programme. All council members were invited via the Council Bulletin, as were the staff representatives on the Joint Consultative Committee.

The meeting opened with the Chief Executive giving a short introduction to the transformation programme saying it was the council’s vision to make the council fit for the 21^st century. It would enable the council to react quickly, make changes and drive efficiencies. Transformation meant any major changes to services. These were not delivered by just one or two people but by all the staff, over a period of years. There was a need for a programme to manage a council wide progress towards this and the Transformation Programme was to manage this process and progress. Any major project would have to put together a project charter that would have to go to the Transformation Programme Board to be agreed. For example, currently there were about 4 or 5 separate projects to set up electronic forms that would be helpful to co-ordinate this council wide.

There were four drivers for change: responding to customers whose needs were changing; customers expected modern customer focused services; demanded well managed value for money services; and they wanted us to reduce our cost and protect front line services. Customer expectations were changing, they were using social media more and we had to respond to this. We also want well managed services working more efficiently and effectively. We did not want to reduce services but were looking to reduce accommodation costs and back office costs. There was a corporate need to manage projects and keep us out of Silos.

The Leader of the Council, Councillor Chris Whitbread added that this was an ongoing process over a long period of time. With current pressures from central government we still needed to maintain services to our residents and be fit for purpose in the 21^st century. We need to supply services in a new way, such as online transactions and use of mobile phones and twitter etc.

This way we would be protecting front line staff and jobs for the future. The change of the use of the building was part of this, using our assets and protecting our services.  We need to be a Council that works across the board and to add resilience to our services. An  ...  view the full minutes text for item 64.