Agenda item

Report to Follow.

The Head of Transformation, Mr Bailey introduced the report on the progress of projects by the Select Committees. He noted that the information, structured by Workstream, included:

a.    Workstream;

b.    Project reference number and title;

c.    Current project lifecycle stage;

d.    Risk Potential Assessment – High / Medium;

e.    Start and due dates;

f.     Select Committee for scrutiny;

g.    Level of completion (as percentage); and

h.    Project Sponsor and Project Manager.

It was also noted that the Cabinet received regular Highlight Reports on the Council’s Transformation Programme, which contained updates by exception. Broadly the report gave the following information:

a)    The number of high and medium complexity projects, alongside a summary of how such projects are managed;

b)    Overall progress indicators for ‘time’, ‘cost’, ‘delivery / outcomes / outputs’ and ‘benefits’ for the period, given as a Red / Amber / Green alongside actual numbers;

c)    Actions – the number of actions in progress during the period;

d)    Project closures – the projects closed during the period; and any

e)    Overdue actions for the period and remedial actions for the next period.

Table 2 of the report gave information for future highlight reports, the information given was for September 2017 and so was up to date and relevant, including the risk potential assessment (RPA) for each project.

An example of a highlight report that went to the Cabinet was tabled for information.

Councillor Bassett noted that there were lots of projects with finite resources; it would be useful to have some sort of prioritisation and indication of a return of investment. Could that be shown? Mr Bailey said that more information could be put in the highlight reports.

Councillor Surtees wondered if this was too simplistic way of doing things, just by checking it all the time. A more appropriate way would be to ask appropriate questions at the right time. Councillor Patel said that they needed to know what information would be relevant and what to scrutinise. Councillor Bassett added that they needed to know if something had a large business benefit in savings etc. to help prioritise. Councillor Patel said that this would happen in the initiation stage. Mr Chipp commented that this came from private sector thinking and tackling the bigger projects first. In the public sector we could not afford not to do any projects. If they are on the lists they had to be done. This was why we set up the Covalent System to help us get to this stage. Councillor Bassett said it was not only capital returns but also business benefits. Mr Chipp asked how could you rank two statutory functions; both had to be carried out, no matter what. Councillor Bassett would still like some sort of prioritisation of the various projects. Mr Chipp replied that prioritisation would be the next stage. Councillor Lion added that prioritisation was down to the Corporate Plan, but where did scrutiny come in. Mr Chipp said that they should be looking at projects that were going wrong and in the red.

Councillor Bedford asked about the new Data Protection coming in next year and how would this affect the way we undertook projects, were we planning now how to incorporate this into our projects. He was assured that data protection was being addressed.

Councillor Surtees said that they needed to know when it was not appropriate for a Select Committee to look at something; as they needed to be careful they were not putting in extra demands on people just to ‘tick boxes’. Councillor Patel replied that they were only to look at things that went wrong.

Mr Bailey took the meeting through the Transformation Programme Project Dossier, the table contained information that was current, only about a week old. All this information could be presented to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee on a regular basis.

Councillor Patel noted that there had always been a frustration that we had always been dealing with data that was 3 months old. This would enable us to look at things at only a week’s distance. He would also like to have the progress for each project.  Councillor Surtees would like a traffic light indicator on the progress of a project and Mr Bailey said that this would be easy to add.

Councillor Surtees asked if Councillors could have direct access to this data as a live feed. Mr Bailey said that this could be arranged through access to Covalent.

Councillor Bedford asked if a project was going well could we shorten the timescale. Mr Bailey said that was a good question, the progress in percentages was just a guide to where the project was at that time. The traffic light system would also be good at indicating this.

Councillor Lion asked how details get examined, was it through scrutiny. Councillor Patel replied that scrutiny would get information in real time and could look at what actions needed to be taken going forward. It maybe the function of the Overview and Scrutiny Committee was to ask the Scrutiny Committees to look into things in more detail.

Mr Chipp said that they needed to look if we had the right processes in place to rectify any problems. You needed to scrutinise the processes in place for remedial action.  Councillor Surtees commented that they knew that management would look after things at the time, it would be better to look at things from a distance and at things going wrong across the board.

Councillor Bassett asked if any of the projects were dependent on the completion of other projects. He would also like to see the resources we have and what we need. Mr Bailey said officers were currently looking at resource requirement. Mr Chipp said that was why they put in the Covalent System to monitor this type of thing.

Mr Bailey noted that 15 to 18 months ago they had no timelines for any projects except for the larger ones, and we were now in a much better place.

Councillor Baldwin asked if a cost benefit analysis was applied to each project and who decided what projects went ahead.  Mr Chipp said that there was a list; they had introduced a method to monitor projects and to sign these off via the Transformation Programme Board.

Councillor Patel thought that it would be useful for the Overview and Scrutiny Committee to look at the projects on their completion. Mr Bailey noted that an example of project closure information came to the last meeting of this panel. Projects were now routinely evaluated. He would like the closures to go to the relevant Select Committee as a matter of course. We should look back from a distance and ask questions and note what we have learned.