Agenda and minutes

(Assistant to the Chief Executive)  To report the appointment of any substitute members for the meeting.

The Panel noted that there were no substitute members.

(Assistant to the Chief Executive). To declare interests in any items on the agenda.

In considering whether to declare a personal or a prejudicial interest under the Code of Conduct, Overview & Scrutiny members are asked pay particular attention to paragraph 11 of the Code in addition to the more familiar requirements.

This requires the declaration of a personal and prejudicial 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 11 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.

Pursuant to the Council Code for Members Conduct, Councillor Richard Bassett declared a personal interest in agenda item 10, update on information and communications technology section, by virtue of working for Hewlett Packard. He declared that his interests were not prejudicial and that he would remain for the discussion and consideration of the item

To receive a presentation on the Equality Framework for Local Government.

The Panel noted that this presentation had been postponed to the February 2010 meeting.

To consider and agree the notes from the meeting of the Panel held on 17 November 2009.

The minutes form the previous meeting held on 17 November 2009 were agreed.

(Chairman/Lead Officer) The Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed the Terms of Reference of this Panel and associated Work Programme. This is attached. The Panel are asked at each meeting to review both documents.

The Panel noted that item 15 on the work programme, Customer Transformation Programme had been discussed at the last Cabinet meeting and that an updating report would be coming to this Panel at a future date.

(Deputy Chief Executive) To consider the attached report.

The meeting welcomed Ian Davidson, the Comprehensive Area Assessment Lead at the Audit Commission. He gave a short presentation on the Organisational Assessment carried out on this Council at the end of last year. It looked at how the Council worked in partnership with other organisations, how public services were delivered and how they worked together to achieve improvement and progress towards long-term goals. There was also an Area Assessment that looked at the wider picture, covering three areas - Essex, Southend and Thurrock. A copy of his presentation is attached for information.

The Audit Commission had given EFDC an Overall Organisational Assessment mark of 2. There were some good quality services such as housing, waste recycling and crime reduction; with strong local partnership working. However they thought our track record for improvement was weak, the benefits performance slow and there were some tensions between some senior officers and some members which affected relationships. They identified the following as future challenges for the council such as: improvement of trust and relationships, being clear around priorities and to allocate funding accordingly, improvement speed of service (such as benefits services), address outcome of gypsy and travellers consultation and to consider services for deprived areas. Also the council needed to identify its role in the safeguarding of children. In Essex as a whole the services for safeguarding children were weak. As for area assessments, how well did local council’s priorities express the wider communities’ needs?

Questions and comments from Councillors to Ian Davidson:

Q:        What would have to be done to improve children services?

A:         There was a need to highlight polices and clear guidance on what an officer would do if they saw a child at risk. A short guidance note could be produced, so that the officer could carry it about in their daily duties and refer to. They would need to know where to take their concerns. There was also a need to talk to the County Council as different areas would have different needs.

The Deputy Chief Executive commented that EFDC officers did make referrals and that the Council had an active children’s partnership which had recently converted into a Children’s Trust Board. However, this was seen to be too large and unwieldy. They needed convincing that this change was for the better. Mr Davidson said they were also hearing this from other sources. Councillor Mrs Collins remarked that the County Council were not that well organised on this matter.

Comment:       The assessment was giving out good news but a low score. A lot of things commented upon were outside this council’s control such as the gypsies and travellers, which was a long drawn out process. Things have moved on since this report was written. Although we should focus on the “could do better” comment, a lot of the things mentioned are being addressed.

Comment:       We are working hard on partnerships and are now working closely with the LSP. Gypsies and Travellers have been extremely difficult. There are  ...  view the full minutes text for item 37.

(Deputy Chief Executive) To consider the attached report.

The Portfolio Holder for Performance Management, Councillor Bassett, introduced the report on the key priority objectives 2009/10 and the proposed ones for 2010/11. He noted the performance improvement plans were always being reviewed. The key priorities for 2010/11 were just headlines and are to be reviewed and improved on during the year.

Questions and comments:

Q:        Why had specific objectives had been replaced with five general objectives and why were they vague.

A:         Portfolio Holders and Senior Officers would look at each objective and review them.

Q:        How would the Council as a whole know when they had achieved a key priority or even what they needed to achieve.

A:         As soon as a priority had been achieved then they would publish it. The priorities were more fully explained in the Council (now Corporate) Plan.

Q:        Appendix 1 (key priorities for 2009/10) makes sense and have objectives , but Appendix 2, key priorities for 2010/11 bear no relationship to Appendix 1.  Appendix 2 is not quantifiable or achievable.

A:         Maybe they should be classed as goals and not objectives to link up with priorities.

Comment:       There was a need for priorities, we need to sort out benefits system; there was a need for measurable results and to provide clarity of purpose. Priority 2 on Gypsies and Travellers is not our priority. We need to develop our own strategy with the LDF and work out our relationship with Gypsies and Travellers.

Comment:       Key objectives need to be in place before the start of the next municipal year so that we could look at them as a scrutiny panel.

Comment:       Where does the budget tie into our development plans? They should refer back to specific priorities in our objectives so that we have “joined up thinking”

Comment:       In Appendix 2, the first objective is to safeguard our frontline services. The second emphasises that a low Council Tax was important to us. The third was to make sure that in such services as Benefits we are making the right type of progress. The fourth was to enshrine these ambitions in the Council Plan. And the fifth and last was to remind us not to be consensus politicians, we can only drive through by being bolder.

Q:        What is regarded as statutory front line services?

A:         That is something we have to do as a District Council and something that residents expect us to do as a council. Things such as the youth council and the museum are non-statutory but important to us. We must protect our core services and the background services.

The Chairman remarked that as the priorities list for 2010/11 was only a broad summary there was a need to define several key objectives for each of the five priorities, identify funding and priorities and define what could be done.

Mr Davidson commented that as a Council you have to base your key priorities on local needs and statutory services. It’s about having that balance in delivering appropriate services. He appreciated  ...  view the full minutes text for item 38.

(Director of Finance and ICT) The draft detailed budgets for the General Fund and Housing Revenue Account (HRA) for the panel to consider.

The HRA figures to follow.

The Director of Finance and ICT, Bob Palmer, introduced the budget estimates for 2010/11. Overall, the Panel noted that the CSB target was down to £18million and that the DDF target was up. Reserves would be about £100,000 better than was forecast.

The Panel look at each Directorate in turn, starting with the Office of the Chief Executive (OCE).

OCE.

• No CSB growth and limited DDF growth was identified;
• Noted the furniture exchange scheme was suspended and that there were no district elections in May 2009;
• There was a year on year increase of £79k on corporate activities, elections and member activities;
• There was a reduction in the support services for Democratic Services;
• Looking for savings in Internal Audit as they had outsourced part of audit.

Corporate Support Services

• There was a year on year increase on income on land and property;
• There was a net income increase for MOTs;
• There was an increase in licensing appeals;
• DDF for accommodation services were increased by £20k;
• Noted that some of the licensing charges were fixed by government causing the council to make an overall loss – the council could only charge enough to cover their costs.

Deputy Chief Executive

• Noted there were no substantive CSB growth items;
• Expenditure on Limes Hall Farm for 2009/10 and 2010/11 are DDF expenditure – while members consider the options for the long term development of the hall.

Environment and Street Scene

• There was a 4% reduction in overall expenditure;
• Some saving were to be had on the Continuing Services Budget;
• A DDF saving was made due mainly to recycling credits;
• Car parking support charges had increased as well as a new support IT system coming into operation;
• Savings were made in the flood defences and land drainage;
• The Council still pays for extra cuts of the highways verges during the year;
• Extra money had not been factored for extra manning and enforcement for parking in Debden, but payment by mobile phone was to be introduced, which would increase use and revenue.

Finance and ICT

• Noted the reduction in investment income;
• That the employers contribution on pension fund increased by 1% each year;
• Resources are to be put into the benefits section to increase performance and for improvements to the reception area;
• There was a year on year increase in Housing Benefits, but the Council would get a lot of the money back from the government;
• Noted that the workload of officers had increased a lot over the last 12 months.

Housing

• Noted that the Housing Revenue Account figures were on the supplementary agenda and amended on the blue sheet;
• Anticipating a small deficit of £7k in the HRA budget this year;
• Government has set a guideline rent increase of 3.1% for next year, therefore based on this assumption the government would increase the amount of negative subsidy we should pay them next year by 3.1%;
• The HRA budget was therefore based on a 3% rent increase, which represents an average increase of £2.32 per week,  ...  view the full minutes text for item 39.

(Finance and ICT) To consider the attached report.

The Assistant Director ICT, David Newton, introduced the report updating the Panel on the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) section.

The Panel noted that:

• An ICT review had been carried out by an external contractor in 2008 and this had produced a number of recommendations;
• The ICT restructure had been completed with all post currently filled;
• The new helpdesk system (QSM) was now fully implemented and aligned with the ITIL framework;
• The telephony element of the ICT helpdesk is being redeveloped and was re-launched in December 2009, addressing the large number of cold calls being received;
• Internal ICT user group meeting now take place regularly;
• The Electronic Records and Documentation Management System (ERDMS) has been successfully implemented within ICT and will be implemented within Land Charges during early 2010;
• This system was first implemented in Planning and Benefits and will ultimately be rolled out across the whole council;
• Server virtualisation had been the major project this last year, it would result in:
  • a reduction in the number of servers from 104 to 14 – resulting on an expected energy saving of approximately £8,000 PA;
  • reduction in backup software licensing saving approximately £6,000 PA; and
  • a hardware maintenance savings of approximately £11,000 PA.
• Server virtualisation was due to be completed next year;
• EFDC was the first authority in Essex to achieve connectivity to the Government Connect system;
• The emergency SMS messaging system had now been implemented.

Asked if the Councillors VPN token system could be updated or replaced with a more up to date system Mr Newton said that the Government required that a VPN system be used and they could not circumvent this requirement.

The draft two year action plan for 2010/2012 was also considered, this would have to be revisited once the Council’s budget had been approved.

The draft action plan consisted of the following projects:

• ERDMS implementation within Housing;
• Creation of a common property database as a prerequisite to any Customer Contact Centre implementation;
• Disaster Recovery – revised procedure to be created;
• Compliance with Government Connect required;
• To investigate mobile working for some officers such as use of Blackberry mobile technology.

            RESOLVED:

(1)               That the progress on ICT projects and the 2009/2011 action plan be noted.

(2)               That the outline schemes for 2010/2012 action plan be noted.

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

To report back to the Overview and Scrutiny Committee with a general update on the reports considered at this meeting.

To consider the forward programme of meeting dates for the Panel.

Meetings are scheduled for:

23 February 2010; and

22 April 2010

The schedule for future meetings were noted.